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Title: The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV
Kumhar-Yemkala
Author: R.V. Russell
Release Date: February 25, 2007 [EBook #20668]
Language: English
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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. IV.
Macmillan and Co., Limited St. Martin's Street, London.
1916
CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV
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
Kumhar (Potter) 3
Kunbi (Cultivator) 16
Kunjra (Greengrocer) 50
Kuramwar (Shepherd) 52
Kurmi (Cultivator) 55
Lakhera (Worker in lac) 104
Lodhi (Landowner and cultivator) 112
Lohar (Blacksmith) 120
Lorha (Growers of san-hemp) 126
Mahar (Weaver and labourer) 129
Mahli (Forest tribe) 146
Majhwar (Forest tribe) 149
Mal (Forest tribe) 153
Mala (Cotton-weaver and labourer) 156
Mali (Gardener and vegetable-grower) 159
Mallah (Boatman and fisherman) 171
Mana (Forest tribe, cultivator) 172
Manbhao (Religious mendicant) 176
Mang (Labourer and village musician) 184
Mang-Garori (Criminal caste) 189
Manihar (Pedlar) 193
Mannewar (Forest tribe) 195
Maratha (Soldier, cultivator and service) 198
Mehtar (Sweeper and scavenge) 215
Meo (Tribe) 233
Mina or Deswali (Non-Aryan tribe, cultivator) 235
Mirasi (Bard and genealogist) 242
Mochi (Shoemaker) 244
Mowar (Cultivator) 250
Murha (Digger and navvy) 252
Nagasia (Forest tribe) 257
Nahal (Forest tribe) 259
Nai (Barber) 262
Naoda (Boatman and fisherman) 283
Nat (Acrobat) 286
Nunia (Salt-refiner; digger and navvy) 294
Ojha (Augur and soothsayer) 296
Oraon (Forest tribe) 299
Paik (Soldier, cultivator) 321
Panka (Labourer and village watchman) 324
Panwar Rajput (Landowner and cultivator) 330
Pardhan (Minstrel and priest) 352
Pardhi (Hunter and fowler) 359
Parja (Forest tribe) 371
Pasi (Toddy-drawer and labourer) 380
Patwa (Maker of silk braid and thread) 385
Pindari (Freebooter) 388
Prabhu (Writer and clerk) 399
Raghuvansi (Cultivator) 403
Rajjhar (Agricultural labourer) 405
Rajput (Soldier and landowner) 410
Rajput Clans
Baghel.
Bagri.
Bais.
Baksaria.
Banaphar.
Bhadauria.
Bisen.
Bundela.
Chandel.
Chauhan.
Dhakar.
Gaharwar.
Gaur.
Haihaya.
Huna.
Kachhwaha.
Nagvansi.
Nikumbh.
Paik.
Parihar.
Rathor.
Sesodia.
Solankhi.
Somvansi.
Surajvansi.
Tomara.
Yadu.
Rajwar (Forest tribe) 470
Ramosi (Village watchmen and labourers, formerly thieves) 472
Rangrez (Dyer) 477
Rautia (Forest tribe and cultivators, formerly soldiers) 479
Sanaurhia (Criminal thieving caste) 483
Sansia (Vagrant criminal tribe) 488
Sansia (Uria) (Mason and digger) 496
Savar (Forest tribe) 500
Sonjhara (Gold-washer) 509
Sudh (Cultivator) 514
Sunar (Goldsmith and silversmith) 517
Sundi (Liquor distiller) 534
Tamera (Coppersmith) 536
Taonla (Soldier and labourer) 539
Teli (Oilman) 542
Thug (Criminal community of murderers by strangulation) 558
Turi (Bamboo-worker) 588
Velama (Cultivator) 593
Vidur (Village accountant, clerk and writer) 596
Waghya (Religious mendicant) 603
Yerukala (Criminal thieving caste) 606
ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME IV
97. Potter and his wheel 4
98. Group of Kunbis 16
99. Figures of animals made for Pola festival 40
100. Hindu boys on stilts 42
101. Throwing stilts into the water at the Pola festival 46
102. Carrying out the dead 48
103. Pounding rice 60
104. Sowing 84
105. Threshing 86
106. Winnowing 88
107. Women grinding wheat and husking rice 90
108. Group of women in Hindustani dress 92
109. _Coloured Plate_: Examples of spangles worn by women on the
forehead 106
110. Weaving: sizing the warp 142
111. Winding thread 144
112. Bride and bridegroom with marriage crowns 166
113. Bullocks drawing water with _mot_ 170
114. Mang musicians with drums 186
115. Statue of Maratha leader, Bimbaji Bhonsla, in armour 200
116. Image of the god Vishnu as Vithoba 248
117. Coolie women with babies slung at the side 256
118. Hindu men showing the _choti_ or scalp-lock 272
119. Snake-charmer with cobras 292
120. Transplanting rice 340
121. Group of Pardhans 352
122. Little girls playing 400
123. Gujarati girls doing figures with strings and sticks 402
124. Ornaments 524
125. Teli's oil-press 544
126. The Goddess Kali 574
127. Waghya mendicants 604
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 II
ARTICLES ON CASTES AND TRIBES
KUMHAR--YEMKALA
VOL. IV
Kumhar
List of Paragraphs
1. _Traditions of origin_.
2. _Caste subdivisions_.
3. _Social Customs_.
4. _The Kumhar as a village menial_.
5. _Occupation_.
6. _Breeding pigs for sacrifices_.
7. _The goddess Demeter_.
8. _Estimation of the pig in India_.
9. _The buffalo as a corn-god._
10. _The Dasahra festival_.
11. _The goddess Devi_.
1. Traditions of origin
_Kumhar, Kumbhar_.--The caste of potters, the name being derived
from the Sanskrit _kumbh_, a water-pot. The Kumhars numbered
nearly 120,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911 and were
most numerous in the northern and eastern or Hindustani-speaking
Districts, where earthen vessels have a greater vogue than in the
south. The caste is of course an ancient one, vessels of earthenware
having probably been in use at a very early period, and the old
Hindu scriptures consequently give various accounts of its origin
from mixed marriages between the four classical castes. "Concerning
the traditional parentage of the caste," Sir H. Risley writes, [1]
"there seems to be a wide difference of opinion among the recognised
authorities on the subject. Thus the Brahma Vaivartta Purana says
that the Kumbhakar or maker of water-jars (_kumbka_), is born of
a Vaishya woman by a Brahman father; the Parasara Samhita makes
the father a Malakar (gardener) and the mother a Chamar; while the
Parasara Padhati holds that the ancestor of the caste was begotten
of a Tili woman by a Pattikar or weaver of silk cloth." Sir Monier
Williams again, in his Sanskrit Dictionary, describes them as the
offspring of a Kshatriya woman by a Brahman. No importance can of
course be attached to such statements as the above from the point of
view of actual fact, but they are interesting as showing the view taken
of the formation of castes by the old Brahman writers, and also the
position given to the Kumhar at the time when they wrote. This varies
from a moderately respectable to a very humble one according to the
different accounts of his lineage. The caste themselves have a legend
of the usual Brahmanical type: "In the Kritayuga, when Maheshwar (Siva)
intended to marry the daughter of Hemvanta, the Devas and Asuras [2]
assembled at Kailas (Heaven). Then a question arose as to who should
furnish the vessels required for the ceremony, and one Kulalaka,
a Brahman, was ordered to make them. Then Kulalaka stood before the
assembly with folded hands, and prayed that materials might be given
to him for making the pots. So Vishnu gave his Sudarsana (discus) to
be used as a wheel, and the mountain of Mandara was fixed as a pivot
beneath it to hold it up. The scraper was Adi Kurma the tortoise,
and a rain-cloud was used for the water-tub. So Kulalaka made the
pots and gave them to Maheshwar for his marriage, and ever since his
descendants have been known as Kumbhakar or maker of water-jars."
2. Caste sub-divisions
The Kumhars have a number of subcastes, many of which, as might
be expected, are of the territorial type and indicate the different
localities from which they migrated to the Central Provinces. Such are
the Malwi from Malwa, the Telenga from the Telugu country in Hyderabad,
the Pardeshi from northern India and the Maratha from the Maratha
Districts. Other divisions are the Lingayats who belong to the sect of
this name, the Gadhewal or Gadhere who make tiles and carry them about
on donkeys (_gadha_), the Bardia who use bullocks for transport and the
Sungaria who keep pigs (_suar_). Certain endogamous groups have arisen
simply from differences in the method of working. Thus the Hathgarhia
[3] mould vessels with their hands only without using the wheel; the
Goria [4] make white or red pots only and not black ones; the Kurere
mould their vessels on a stone slab revolving on a stick and not on
a wheel; while the Chakere are Kumhars who use the wheel (_chak_)
in localities where other Kumhars do not use it. The Chhutakia and
Rakhotia are illegitimate sections, being the offspring of kept women.
3. Social Customs
Girls are married at an early age when their parents can afford it,
the matches being usually arranged at caste feasts. In Chanda parents
who allow a daughter to become adolescent while still unwed are put
out of caste, but elsewhere the rule is by no means so strict. The
ceremony is of the normal type and a Brahman usually officiates,
but in Betul it is performed by the Sawasa or husband of the bride's
paternal aunt. After the wedding the couple are given kneaded flour
to hold in their hands and snatch from each other as an emblem of
their trade. In Mandla a bride price of Rs. 50 is paid.
The Kumhars recognise divorce and the remarriage of widows. If an
unmarried girl is detected in criminal intimacy with a member of
the caste, she has to give a feast to the caste-fellows and pay a
fine of Rs. 1-4 and five locks of her hair are also cut off by way
of purification. The caste usually burn the dead, but the Lingayat
Kumhars always bury them in accordance with the practice of their
sect. They worship the ordinary Hindu deities and make an offering to
the implements of their trade on the festival of Deothan Igaras. The
village Brahman serves as their priest. In Balaghat a Kumhar is put
out of caste if a dead cat is found in his house. At the census of
1901 the Kumhar was ranked with the impure castes, but his status is
not really so low. Sir D. Ibbetson said of him: "He is a true village
menial; his social standing is very low, far below that of the Lohar
and not much above the Chamar. His association with that impure beast,
the donkey, the animal sacred to Sitala, the smallpox goddess, pollutes
him and also his readiness to carry manure and sweepings." As already
seen there are in the Central Provinces Sungaria and Gadheria subcastes
which keep donkeys and pigs, and these are regarded as impure. But in
most Districts the Kumhar ranks not much below the Barhai and Lohar,
that is in what I have designated the grade of village menials above
the impure and below the cultivating castes. In Bengal the Kumhars
have a much higher status and Brahmans will take water from their
hands. But the gradation of caste in Bengal differs very greatly from
that of other parts of India.
4. The Kumhar as a village menial
The Kumhar is not now paid regularly by dues from the cultivators
like other village menials, as the ordinary system of sale has no
doubt been found more convenient in his case. But he sometimes takes
the soiled grass from the stalls of the cattle and gives pots free
to the cultivator in exchange. On Akti day, at the beginning of the
agricultural year, the village Kumhar of Saugor presents five pots with
covers on them to each cultivator and receives 2 1/2 lbs. of grain
in exchange. One of these the tenant fills with water and presents
to a Brahman and the rest he reserves for his own purposes. On the
occasion of a wedding also the bridegroom's party take the bride to
the Kumharin's house as part of the _sohag_ ceremony for making the
marriage propitious. The Kumhar seats the bride on his wheel and turns
it round with her seven times. The Kumharin presents her with seven new
pots, which are taken back to the house and used at the wedding. They
are filled with water and are supposed to represent the seven seas. If
any two of these pots accidentally clash together it is supposed that
the bride and bridegroom will quarrel during their married life. In
return for this the Kumharin receives a present of clothes. At a
funeral also the Kumhar must supply thirteen vessels which are known as
_ghats_, and must also replace the broken earthenware. Like the other
village menials at the harvest he takes a new vessel to the cultivator
in his field and receives a present of grain. These customs appear to
indicate his old position as one of the menials or general servants
of the village ranking below the cultivators. Grant-Duff also includes
the potter in his list of village menials in the Maratha villages. [5]
5. Occupation
The potter is not particular as to the clay he uses and does not go
far afield for the finer qualities, but digs it from the nearest place
in the neighbourhood where he can get it free of cost. Red and black
clay are employed, the former being obtained near the base of hills
or on high-lying land, probably of the laterite formation, and the
latter in the beds of tanks or streams. When the clay is thoroughly
kneaded and ready for use a lump of it is placed on the centre of the
wheel. The potter seats himself in front of the wheel and fixes his
stick or _chakrait_ into the slanting hole in its upper surface. With
this stick the wheel is made to revolve very rapidly, and sufficient
impetus is given to it to keep it in motion for several minutes. The
potter then lays aside the stick and with his hands moulds the lump
of clay into the shape required, stopping every now and then to give
the wheel a fresh spin as it loses its momentum. When satisfied with
the shape of his vessel he separates it from the lump with a piece of
string, and places it on a bed of ashes to prevent it sticking to the
ground. The wheel is either a circular disc cut out of a single piece
of stone about a yard in diameter, or an ordinary wooden wheel with
spokes forming two diameters at right angles. The rim is then thickened
with the addition of a coating of mud strengthened with fibre. [6] The
articles made by the potter are ordinary circular vessels or _gharas_
used for storing and collecting water, larger ones for keeping grain,
flour and vegetables, and _surahis_ or amphoras for drinking-water. In
the manufacture of these last salt and saltpetre are mixed with the
clay to make them more porous and so increase their cooling capacity. A
very useful thing is the small saucer which serves as a lamp, being
filled with oil on which a lighted wick is floated. These saucers
resemble those found in the excavations of Roman remains. Earthen
vessels are more commonly used, both for cooking and eating purposes
among the people of northern India, and especially by Muhammadans, than
among the Marathas, and, as already noticed, the Kumhar caste musters
strong in the north of the Province. An earthen vessel is polluted if
any one of another caste takes food or drink from it and is at once
discarded. On the occasion of a death all the vessels in the house are
thrown away and a new set obtained, and the same measure is adopted at
the Holi festival and on the occasion of an eclipse, and at various
other ceremonial purifications, such as that entailed if a member of
the household has had maggots in a wound. On this account cheapness is
an indispensable quality in pottery, and there is no opening for the
Kumhar to improve his art. Another product of the Kumhar's industry
is the _chilam_ or pipe-bowl. This has the usual opening for inhaling
the smoke but no stem, an impromptu stem being made by the hands and
the smoke inhaled through it. As the _chilam_ is not touched by the
mouth, Hindus of all except the impure castes can smoke it together,
passing it round, and Hindus can also smoke it with Muhammadans.
It is a local belief that, if an earthen pot is filled with salt and
plastered over, the rains will stop until it is opened. This device is
adopted when the fall is excessive, but, on the other hand, if there
is drought, the people sometimes think that the potter has used it
to keep off the rain, because he cannot pursue his calling when the
clay is very wet. And on occasions of a long break in the rains,
they have been known to attack his shop and break all his vessels
under the influence of this belief. The potter is sometimes known
as Prajapati or the 'The Creator,' in accordance with the favourite
comparison made by ancient writers of the moulding of his pots with
the creation of human beings, the justice of which will be recognised
by any one who watches the masses of mud on a whirling wheel growing
into shapely vessels in the potter's creating hands.
6. Breeding pigs for sacrifices
Certain Kumhars as well as the Dhimars make the breeding of pigs a
means of subsistence, and they sell these pigs for sacrifices at prices
varying from eight annas (8d.) to a rupee. The pigs are sacrificed by
the Gonds to their god Bura Deo and by Hindus to the deity Bhainsasur,
or the buffalo demon, for the protection of the crops. Bhainsasur is
represented by a stone in the fields, and when crops are beaten down
at night by the wind it is supposed that Bhainsasur has passed over
them and trampled them down. Hindus, usually of the lower castes, offer
pigs to Bhainsasur to propitiate him and preserve their crops from his
ravages, but they cannot touch the impure pig themselves. What they
have to do, therefore, is to pay the Kumhar the price of the pig and
get him to offer it to Bhainsasur on their behalf. The Kumhar goes
to the god and sacrifices the pig and then takes the body home and
eats it, so that his trade is a profitable one, while conversely to
sacrifice a pig without partaking of its flesh must necessarily be
bitter to the frugal Hindu mind, and this indicates the importance
of the deity who is to be propitiated by the offering. The first
question which arises in connection with this curious custom is
why pigs should be sacrificed for the preservation of the crops;
and the reason appears to be that the wild pig is the animal which,
at present, mainly damages the crops.
7. The goddess Demeter
In ancient Greece pigs were offered to Demeter, the corn-goddess,
for the protection of the crops, and there is good reason to suppose
that the conceptions of Demeter herself and the lovely Proserpine
grew out of the worship of the pig, and that both goddesses were
in the beginning merely the deified pig. The highly instructive
passage in which Sir J. G. Frazer advances this theory is reproduced
almost in full [7]: "Passing next to the corn-goddess Demeter, and
remembering that in European folklore the pig is a common embodiment
of the corn-spirit, we may now ask whether the pig, which was so
closely associated with Demeter, may not originally have been the
goddess herself in animal form? The pig was sacred to her; in art
she was portrayed carrying or accompanied by a pig; and the pig was
regularly sacrificed in her mysteries, the reason assigned being that
the pig injures the corn and is therefore an enemy of the goddess. But
after an animal has been conceived as a god, or a god as an animal,
it sometimes happens, as we have seen, that the god sloughs off his
animal form and becomes purely anthropomorphic; and that then the
animal which at first had been slain in the character of the god,
comes to be viewed as a victim offered to the god on the ground of its
hostility to the deity; in short, that the god is sacrificed to himself
on the ground that he is his own enemy. This happened to Dionysus and
it may have happened to Demeter also. And in fact the rites of one of
her festivals, the Thesmophoria, bear out the view that originally the
pig was an embodiment of the corn-goddess herself, either Demeter or
her daughter and double Proserpine. The Thesmophoria was an autumn
festival celebrated by women alone in October, and appears to have
represented with mourning rites the descent of Proserpine (or Demeter)
into the lower world, and with joy her return from the dead. Hence the
name Descent or Ascent variously applied to the first, and the name
_Kalligeneia_ (fair-born) applied to the third day of the festival. Now
from an old scholium on Lucian we learn some details about the mode
of celebrating the Thesmophoria, which shed important light on the
part of the festival called the Descent or the Ascent. The scholiast
tells us that it was customary at the Thesmophoria to throw pigs,
cakes of dough, and branches of pine-trees into 'the chasms of Demeter
and Proserpine,' which appear to have been sacred caverns or vaults.
"In these caverns or vaults there were said to be serpents, which
guarded the caverns and consumed most of the flesh of the pigs and
dough-cakes which were thrown in. Afterwards--apparently at the
next annual festival--the decayed remains of the pigs, the cakes,
and the pine-branches were fetched by women called 'drawers,' who,
after observing, rules of ceremonial purity for three days, descended
into the caverns, and, frightening away the serpents by clapping their
hands, brought up the remains and placed them on the altar. Whoever
got a piece of the decayed flesh and cakes, and sowed it with the
seed-corn in his field, was believed to be sure of a good crop.
"To explain this rude and ancient rite the following legend was
told. At the moment when Pluto carried off Proserpine, a swineherd
called Eubuleus chanced to be herding his swine on the spot, and
his herd was engulfed in the chasm down which Pluto vanished with
Proserpine. Accordingly, at the Thesmophoria pigs were annually
thrown into caverns to commemorate the disappearance of the swine
of Eubuleus. It follows from this that the casting of the pigs
into the vaults at the Thesmophoria formed part of the dramatic
representation of Proserpine's descent into the lower world; and
as no image of Proserpine appears to have been thrown in, we may
infer that the descent of the pigs was not so much an accompaniment
of her descent as the descent itself, in short, that the pigs were
Proserpine. Afterwards, when Proserpine or Demeter (for the two are
equivalent) became anthropomorphic, a reason had to be found for the
custom of throwing pigs into caverns at her festival; and this was
done by saying that when Pluto carried off Proserpine, there happened
to be some swine browsing near, which were swallowed up along with
her. The story is obviously a forced and awkward attempt to bridge
over the gulf between the old conception of the corn-spirit as a
pig and the new conception of her as an anthropomorphic goddess. A
trace of the older conception survived in the legend that when the
sad mother was searching for traces of the vanished Proserpine, the
footprints of the lost one were obliterated by the footprints of a
pig; originally, we may conjecture, the footprints of the pig were the
footprints of Proserpine and of Demeter herself. A consciousness of
the intimate connection of the pig with the corn lurks in the legend
that the swineherd Eubuleus was a brother of Triptolemus, to whom
Demeter first imparted the secret of the corn. Indeed, according to
one version of the story, Eubuleus himself received, jointly with his
brother Triptolemus, the gift of the corn from Demeter as a reward
for revealing to her the fate of Proserpine. Further, it is to be
noted that at the Thesmophoria the women appear to have eaten swine's
flesh. The meal, if I am right, must have been a solemn sacrament or
communion, the worshippers partaking of the body of the god."
8. Estimation of the pig in India
We thus see how the pig in ancient Greece was worshipped as a
corn-deity because it damaged the crops and subsequently became
an anthropomorphic goddess. It is suggested that pigs are offered
to Bhainsasur by the Hindus for the same reason. But there is no
Hindu deity representing the pig, this animal on the contrary being
regarded as impure. It seems doubtful, however, whether this was
always so. In Rajputana on the stone which the Regent of Kotah set up
to commemorate the abolition of forced taxes were carved the effigies
of the sun, the moon, the cow and the hog, with an imprecation on
whoever should revoke the edict. [8] Colonel Tod says that the pig
was included as being execrated by all classes, but this seems very
doubtful. It would scarcely occur to any Hindu nowadays to associate
the image of the impure pig with those of the sun, moon and cow,
the representations of three of his greatest deities. Rather it
gives some reason for supposing that the pig was once worshipped,
and the Rajputs still do not hold the wild boar impure, as they hunt
it and eat its flesh. Moreover, Vishnu in his fourth incarnation was
a boar. The Gonds regularly offer pigs to their great god Bura Deo,
and though they now offer goats as well, this seems to be a later
innovation. The principal sacrifice of the early Romans was the
Suovetaurilia or the sacrifice of a pig, a ram and a bull. The order
of the words, M. Reinach remarks, [9] is significant as showing the
importance formerly attached to the pig or boar. Since the pig was
the principal sacrificial animal of the primitive tribes, the Gonds
and Baigas, its connection with the ritual of an alien and at one
time hostile religion may have strengthened the feeling of aversion
for it among the Hindus, which would naturally be engendered by its
own dirty habits.
9. The buffalo as a corn-god
It seems possible then that the Hindus reverenced the wild boar in
the past as one of the strongest and fiercest animals of the forest
and also as a destroyer of the crops. And they still make sacrifices
of the pig to guard their fields from his ravages. These sacrifices,
however, are not offered to any deity who can represent a deified
pig but to Bhainsasur, the deified buffalo. The explanation seems
to be that in former times, when forests extended over most of
the country, the cultivator had in the wild buffalo a direr foe
than the wild pig. And one can well understand how the peasant,
winning a scanty subsistence from his poor fields near the forest,
and seeing his harvest destroyed in a night by the trampling of a herd
of these great brutes against whom his puny weapons were powerless,
looked on them as terrible and malignant deities. The sacrifice of a
buffalo would be beyond the means of a single man, and the animal is
now more or less sacred as one of the cow tribe. But the annual joint
sacrifice of one or more buffaloes is a regular feature of the Dasahra
festival and extends over a great part of India. In Betul and other
districts the procedure is that on the Dasahra day, or a day before,
the Mang and Kotwar, two of the lowest village menials, take a buffalo
bull and bring it to the village proprietor, who makes a cut on its
nose and draws blood. Then it is taken all round the village and
to the shrines of the gods, and in the evening it is killed and the
Mang and Kotwar eat the flesh. It is now believed that if the blood
of a buffalo does not fall at Dasahra some epidemic will attack the
village, but as there are no longer any wild buffaloes except in the
denser forests of one or two Districts, the original meaning of the
rite might naturally have been forgotten. [10]
10. The Dasahra festival
The Dasahra festival probably marks the autumnal equinox and also the
time when the sowing of wheat and other spring crops begins. Many
Hindus still postpone sowing the wheat until after Dasahra, even
though it might be convenient to begin before, especially as the
festival goes by the lunar month and its date varies in different
years by more than a fortnight. The name signifies the tenth day,
and prior to the festival a fast of nine days is observed, when the
pots of wheat corresponding to the gardens of Adonis are sown and
quickly sprout up. This is an imitation of the sowing and growth of
the real crop and is meant to ensure its success. During these nine
days it is said that the goddess Devi was engaged in mortal combat
with the buffalo demon Mahisasur or Bhainsasur, and on the tenth day
or the Dasahra she slew him. The fast is explained as being observed
in order to help her to victory, but it is really perhaps a fast in
connection with the growing of the crops. A similar nine daysfast
for the crops was observed by the Greeks. [11]
11. The goddess Devi
Devi signifies '_the_ goddess' _par excellence_. She is often the
tutelary goddess of the village and of the family, and is held to have
been originally Mother Earth, which may be supposed to be correct. In
tracts where the people of northern and southern India meet she is
identified with Anna Purna, the corn-goddess of the Telugu country;
and in her form of Gauri or 'the Yellow One' she is perhaps herself
the yellow corn. As Gauri she is worshipped at weddings in conjunction
with Ganesh or Ganpati, the god of Good Fortune; and it is probably
in honour of the harvest colour that Hindus of the upper castes
wear yellow at their weddings and consider it lucky. A Brahman also
prefers to wear yellow when eating his food. It has been seen [12]
that red is the lucky colour of the lower castes of Hindus, and the
reason probably is that the shrines of their gods are stained red with
the blood of the animals sacrificed. High-caste Hindus no longer make
animal sacrifices, and their offerings to Siva, Vishnu and Devi consist
of food, flowers and blades of corn. Thus yellow would be similarly
associated with the shrines of the gods. All Hindu brides have their
bodies rubbed with yellow turmeric, and the principal religious flower,
the marigold, is orange-yellow. Yellow is, however, also lucky as being
the colour of Vishnu or the Sun, and a yellow flag is waved above
his great temple at Ramtek on the occasion of the fair. Thus Devi
as the corn-goddess perhaps corresponds to Demeter, but she is not
in this form an animal goddess. The Hindus worshipping Mother Earth,
as all races do in the early stage of religion, may by a natural and
proper analogy have ascribed the gift of the corn to her from whom
it really comes, and have identified her with the corn-goddess. This
is by no means a full explanation of the goddess Devi, who has many
forms. As Parvati, the hill-maiden, and Durga, the inaccessible one,
she is the consort of Siva in his character of the mountain-god of
the Himalayas; as Kali, the devourer of human flesh, she is perhaps
the deified tiger; and she may have assimilated yet more objects of
worship into her wide divinity. But there seems no special reason
to hold that she is anywhere believed to be the deified buffalo; and
the probable explanation of the Dasahra rite would therefore seem to
be that the buffalo was at first venerated as the corn-god because,
like the pig in Greece, he was most destructive to the crops, and
a buffalo was originally slaughtered and eaten sacramentally as an
act of worship. At a later period the divinity attaching to the corn
was transferred to Devi, an anthropomorphic deity of a higher class,
and in order to explain the customary slaughter of the buffalo, which
had to be retained, the story became current that the beneficent
goddess fought and slew the buffalo-demon which injured the crops,
for the benefit of her worshippers, and the fast was observed and
the buffalo sacrificed in commemoration of this event. It is possible
that the sacrifice of the buffalo may have been a non-Aryan rite, as
the Mundas still offer a buffalo to Deswali, their forest god, in the
sacred grove; and the Korwas of Sarguja nave periodical sacrifices to
Kali in which many buffaloes are slaughtered. In the pictures of her
fight with Bhainsasur, Devi is shown as riding on a tiger, and the
uneducated might imagine the struggle to have resembled that between
a tiger and a buffalo. As the destroyer of buffaloes and deer which
graze on the crops the tiger may even be considered the cultivator's
friend. But in the rural tracts Bhainsasur himself is still venerated
in the guise of a corn-deity, and pig are perhaps offered to him as
the animals which nowadays do most harm to the crops.
Kunbi
[This article is based on the information collected for the District
Gazetteers of the Central Provinces, manuscript notes furnished by
Mr. A.K. Smith, C.S., and from papers by Pandit Pyare Lal Misra and
Munshi Kanhya Lal. The Kunbis are treated in the _Poona_ and _Khandesh_
volumes of the _Bombay Gazetteer_. The caste has been taken as typical
of the Marathi-speaking Districts, and a fairly full description
of the marriage and other ceremonies has therefore been given, some
information on houses, dress and food being also reproduced from the
_Wardha_ and _Yeotmal District Gazetteers_.]
List of Paragraphs
1. _Distribution of the caste and origin of name_.
2. _Settlement in the Central Provinces_.
3. _Sub castes_.
4. _The cultivating status_.
5. _Exogamous septs_.
6. _Restrictions on marriage of relatives_.
7. _Betrothal and marriage_.
8. _Polygamy and divorce_.
9. _Widow-marriage_.
10. _Customs at birth_.
11. _Sixth- and twelfth-day ceremonies_.
12. _Devices for procuring children_.
13. _Love charms_.
14. _Disposal of the dead_.
15. _Mourning_.
16. _Religion_.
17. _The Pola festival_.
18. _Muhammadan tendencies of Berar Kunbis_.
19. _Villages and houses_.
20. _Furniture_.
21. _Food_.
22. _Clothes and ornaments_.
23. _The Kunbi as cultivator_.
24. _Social and moral characteristics_.
1. Distribution of the caste and origin of name
_Kunbi_--The great agricultural caste of the Maratha country. In
the Central Provinces and Berar the Kunbis numbered nearly 1,400,000
persons in 1911; they belong to the Nagpur, Chanda, Bhandara, Wardha,
Nimar and Betul Districts of the Central Provinces. In Berar their
strength was 800,000, or nearly a third of the total population. Here
they form the principal cultivating class over the whole area except
in the jungles of the north and south, but muster most strongly in
the Buldana District to the west, where in some taluks nearly half the
population belongs to the Kunbi caste. In the combined Province they
are the most numerous caste except the Gonds. The name has various
forms in Bombay, being Kunbi or Kulambi in the Deccan, Kulwadi in
the south Konkan, Kanbi in Gujarat, and Kulbi in Belgaum. In Sanskrit
inscriptions it is given as Kutumbika (householder), and hence it has
been derived from _kutumba_, a family. A chronicle of the eleventh
century quoted by Forbes speaks of the Kutumbiks or cultivators of
the _grams,_ or small villages. [13] Another writer describing the
early Rajput dynasties says: [14] "The villagers were Koutombiks
(householders) or husbandmen (Karshuks); the village headmen were
Putkeels (patels)." Another suggested derivation is from a Dravidian
root _kul_ a husbandman or labourer; while that favoured by the caste
and their neighbours is from _kun_, a root, or _kan_ grain, and _bi_,
seed; but this is too ingenious to be probable.
2. Settlement in the Central Provinces
It is stated that the Kunbis entered Khandesh from Gujarat in the
eleventh century, being forced to leave Gujarat by the encroachments
of Rajput tribes, driven south before the early Muhammadan invaders
of northern India. [15] From Khandesh they probably spread into Berar
and the adjoining Nagpur and Wardha Districts. It seems probable that
their first settlement in Nagpur and Wardha took place not later than
the fourteenth century, because during the subsequent period of Gond
rule we find the offices of Deshmukh and Deshpandia in existence in
this area. The Deshmukh was the manager or headman of a circle of
villages and was responsible for apportioning and collecting the land
revenue, while the Deshpandia was a head _patwari_ or accountant. The
Deshmukhs were usually the leading Kunbis, and the titles are still
borne by many families in Wardha and Nagpur. These offices [16] belong
to the Maratha country, and it seems necessary to suppose that their
introduction into Wardha and Berar dates from a period at least as
early as the fourteenth century, when these territories were included
in the dominions of the Bahmani kings of Bijapur. A subsequent large
influx of Kunbis into Wardha and Nagpur took place in the eighteenth
century with the conquest of Raghuji Bhonsla and the establishment of
the Maratha kingdom of Nagpur. Traces of these separate immigrations
survive in the subdivisions of the caste, which will now be mentioned.
3. Subcastes
The internal structure of the Kunbi caste in the Central Provinces
shows that it is a mixed occupational body recruited from different
classes of the population. The Jhare or jungly [17] Kunbis are
the oldest immigrants and have no doubt an admixture of Gond
blood. They do not break their earthen vessels after a death in
the house. With them may be classed the Manwa Kunbis of the Nagpur
District; these appear to be a group recruited from the Manas, a
primitive tribe who were dominant in Chanda perhaps even before the
advent of the Gonds. The Manwa Kunbi women wear their cloths drawn
up so as to expose the thigh like the Gonds, and have some other
primitive practices. They do not employ Brahmans at their marriages,
but consult a Mahar Mohturia or soothsayer to fix the date of the
ceremony. Other Kunbis will not eat with the Manwas, and the latter
retaliate in the usual manner by refusing to accept food from them;
and say that they are superior to other Kunbis because they always
use brass vessels for cooking and not earthen ones. Among the other
subcastes in the Central Provinces are the Khaire, who take their name
from the _khair_ [18] or catechu tree, presumably because they formerly
prepared catechu; this is a regular occupation of the forest tribes,
with whom it may be supposed that the Khaire have some affinity. The
Dhanoje are those who took to the occupation of tending _dhan_ [19]
or small stock, and they are probably an offshoot of the Dhangar
or shepherd caste whose name is similarly derived. Like the Dhangar
women they wear cocoanut-shell bangles, and the Manwa Kunbis also do
this; these bangles are not broken when a child is born, and hence
the Dhanojes and Manwas are looked down on by the other subcastes,
who refuse to remove their leaf-plates after a feast. The name of the
Khedule subcaste may be derived from _kheda_ a village, while another
version given by Mr. Kitts [20] is that it signifies 'A beardless
youth.' The highest subcaste in the Central Provinces are the Tirole
or Tilole, who now claim to be Rajputs. They say that their ancestors
came from Therol in Rajputana, and, taking to agriculture, gradually
became merged with the Kunbis. Another more probable derivation of
the name is from the _til_ or sesamum plant. The families who held
the hereditary office of Deshmukh, which conferred a considerable
local position, were usually members of the Tirole subcaste, and they
have now developed into a sort of aristocratic branch of the caste,
and marry among themselves when matches can be arranged. They do not
allow the remarriage of widows nor permit their women to accompany
the wedding procession. The Wandhekars are another group which also
includes some Deshmukh families, and ranks next to the Tiroles in
position. Mr. Kitts records a large number of subcastes in Berar. [21]
Among them are some groups from northern India, as the Hindustani,
Pardesi, Dholewar, Jaiswar and Singrore; these are probably Kurmis who
have settled in Berar and become amalgamated with the Kunbis. Similarly
the Tailanges and Munurwars appear to be an offshoot of the great Kapu
caste of cultivators in the Telugu country. The Wanjari subcaste is
a fairly large one and almost certainly represents a branch of the
Banjara caste of carriers, who have taken to agriculture and been
promoted into the Kunbi community. The Lonhare take their name from
Lonar Mehkar, the well-known bitter lake of the Buldana District,
whose salt they may formerly have refined. The Ghatole are those who
dwelt above the _ghats_ or passes of the Saihadri range to the south
of the Berar plain. The Baone are an important subcaste both in Berar
and the Central Provinces, and take their name from the phrase Bawan
Berar, [22] a term applied to the province by the Mughals because it
paid fifty-two lakhs of revenue, as against only eight lakhs realised
from the adjoining Jhadi or hill country in the Central Provinces. In
Chhindwara is found a small local subcaste called Gadhao because they
formerly kept donkeys, though they no longer do so; they are looked
down on by the others who will not even take water from their hands. In
Nimar is a group of Gujarati Kunbis who are considered to have been
originally Gujars. [23] Their local subdivisions are Leve and Karwa and
many of them are also known as Dalia, because they made the _dal_ or
pulse of Burhanpur, which had a great reputation under native rule. It
is said that it was formerly despatched daily to Sindhia's kitchen.
4. The cultivating status
It appears then that a Kunbi has in the past been synonymous with
a cultivator, and that large groups from other castes have taken to
agriculture, have been admitted into the community and usually obtained
a rise in rank. In many villages Kunbis are the only ryots, while below
them are the village menials and artisans, several of whom perform
functions at weddings or on other occasions denoting their recognition
of the Kunbi as their master or employer; and beneath these again are
the impure Mahars or labourers. Thus at a Kunbi betrothal the services
of the barber and washerman must be requisitioned; the barber washes
the feet of the boy and girl and places vermilion on the foreheads of
the guests. The washerman spreads a sheet on the ground on which the
boy and girl sit. At the end of the ceremony the barber and washerman
take the bride and bridegroom on their shoulders and dance to music
in the marriage-shed; for this they receive small presents. After
a death has occurred at a Kunbi's house the impurity is not removed
until the barber and washerman have eaten in it. At a Kunbi's wedding
the Gurao or village priest brings the leafy branches of five trees,
the mango, _jamun_ [24] _umar_ [25] and two others and deposits them
at Maroti's temple, whence they are removed by the parents of the
bride. Before a wedding again a Kunbi bride must go to the potter's
house and be seated on his wheel while it is turned round seven times
for good luck. At seed-time and harvest all the village menials go
to the cultivator's field and present him with a specimen of their
wares or make obeisance to him, receiving in return a small present
of grain. This state of things seems to represent the primitive form
of Hindu society from which the present widely ramified system, of
castes may have expanded, and even now the outlines of the original
structure may be discernible under all subsequent accretions.
5. Exogamus septs
Each subcaste has a number of exogamous septs or clans which serve
as a table of affinities in regulating marriage. The vernacular
term for these is _kul_. Some of the septs are named after natural
objects or animals, others from titles or nicknames borne by the
reputed founder of the group, or from some other caste to which he
may have belonged, while others again are derived from the names
of villages which maybe taken to have been the original home of the
sept or clan. The following are some septs of the Tirole subcaste:
Kole, jackal; Wankhede, a village; Kadu, bitter; Jagthap, famous;
Kadam, a tree; Meghe, a cloud; Lohekari, a worker in iron; Ughde,
a child who has been exposed at birth; Shinde, a palm-tree; Hagre,
one who suffers from diarrhoea; Aglawe, an incendiary; Kalamkar,
a writer; Wani (Bania), a caste; Sutar, a carpenter, and so on,
A few of the groups of the Baone subcaste are:--Kantode, one with a
torn ear; Dokarmare, a killer of pigs; Lute, a plunderer; Titarmare,
a pigeon-killer; and of the Khedule: Patre, a leaf-plate; Ghoremare,
one who killed a horse; Bagmare, a tiger-slayer; Gadhe, a donkey;
Burade, one of the Burud or Basor caste; Naktode, one with a broken
nose, and so on. Each subcaste has a number of septs, a total of 66
being recorded for the Tiroles alone. The names of the septs confirm
the hypothesis arrived at from a scrutiny of the subcastes that
the Kunbis are largely recruited from the pre-Aryan or aboriginal
tribes. Conclusions as to the origin of the caste can better be
made in its home in Bombay, but it may be noted that in Canara,
according to the accomplished author of _A Naturalist on the Prowl_
[26] the Kunbi is quite a primitive forest-dweller, who only a few
years back lived by scattering his seed on patches of land burnt clear
of vegetation, collecting myrobalans and other fruits, and snaring
and trapping animals exactly like the Gonds and Baigas of the Central
Provinces. Similarly in Nasik it is stated that a large proportion
of the Kunbi caste are probably derived from the primitive tribes
[27]. Yet in the cultivated plains which he has so largely occupied,
he is reckoned the equal in rank of the Kurmi and other cultivating
castes of Hindustan, who in theory at any rate are of Aryan origin and
of so high a grade of social purity that Brahmans will take water from
them. The only reasonable explanation of this rise in status appears to
be that the Kunbi has taken possession of the land and has obtained the
rank which from time immemorial belongs to the hereditary cultivator
as a member and citizen of the village community. It is interesting
to note that the Wanjari Kunbis of Berar, who, being as already seen
Banjaras, are of Rajput descent at any rate, now strenuously disclaim
all connection with the Banjara caste and regard their reception into
the Kunbi community as a gain in status. At the same time the refusal
of the Maratha Brahmans to take water to drink from Kunbis may perhaps
have been due to the recognition of their non-Aryan origin. Most of
the Kunbis also eat fowls, which the cultivating castes of northern
India would not usually do.
6. Restrictions on marriage of relatives
A man is forbidden to marry within his own sept or _kul_, or in that
of his mother or either of his grandmothers. He may marry his wife's
younger sister but not her elder sister. Alliances between first and
second cousins are also prohibited except that a sister's son may be
married to a brother's daughter. Such marriages are also favoured
by the Maratha Brahmans and other castes, and the suitability of
the match is expressed in the saying _Ato ghari bhasi sun_, or 'At
a sister's house her brother's daughter is a daughter-in-law.' The
sister claims it as a right and not unfrequently there are quarrels
if the brother decides to give his daughter to somebody else, while
the general feeling is so strongly in favour of these marriages that
the caste committee sometimes imposes a fine on fathers who wish to
break through the rule. The fact that in this single case the marriage
of near relatives is not only permitted but considered almost as an
obligation, while in all other instances it is strictly prohibited,
probably points to the conclusion that the custom is a survival of the
matriarchate, when a brother's property would pass to his sister's
son. Under such a law of inheritance he would naturally desire that
his heir should be united to his own daughter, and this union might
gradually become customary and at length almost obligatory. The
custom in this case may survive when the reasons which justified it
have entirely vanished. And while formerly it was the brother who
would have had reason to desire the match for his daughter, it is now
the sister who insists on it for her son, the explanation being that
among the Kunbis as with other agricultural castes, to whom a wife's
labour is a valuable asset, girls are expensive and a considerable
price has to be paid for a bride.
7. Betrothal and marriage
Girls are usually married between the ages of five and eleven and boys
between ten and twenty. The Kunbis still think it a mark of social
distinction to have their daughters married as young as possible. The
recognised bride-price is about twenty rupees, but much larger sums are
often paid. The boy's father goes in search of a girl to be married
to his son, and when the bride-price has been settled and the match
arranged the ceremony of Mangni or betrothal takes place. In the first
place the boy's father proceeds to his future daughter-in-law's house,
where he washes her feet, smears her forehead with red powder and
gives her a present of a rupee and some sweetmeats. All the party
then eat together. This is followed by a visit of the girl's father
to the boy's house where a similar ceremony is enacted and the boy
is presented with a cocoanut, a _pagri_ and cloth, and a silver
or gold ring. Again the boy's relatives go to the girl's house
and give her more valuable presents of jewellery and clothing. A
Brahman is afterwards consulted to fix the date of the marriage,
but the poorer Kunbis dispense with his services as he charges two
or three rupees. Prior to the ceremony the bodies of the bride and
bridegroom are well massaged with vegetable oil and turmeric in their
respective houses, partly with a view to enhance their beauty and also
perhaps to protect them during the trying period of the ceremony when
maleficent spirits are particularly on the alert. The marriage-shed is
made of eleven poles festooned with leaves, and inside it are placed
two posts of the _saleh_ (_Boswellia serrata_) or _umar_ (_Ficus
glomerata_) tree, one longer than the other, to represent the bride
and bridegroom. Two jars filled with water are set near the posts,
and a small earthen platform called _baola_ is made. The bridegroom
wears a yellow or white dress, and has a triangular frame of bamboo
covered with tinsel over his forehead, which is known as _basing_
and is a substitute for the _maur_ or marriage-crown of the Hindustani
castes. Over his shoulder he carries a pickaxe as the representative
implement of husbandry with one or two wheaten cakes tied to it. This
is placed on the top of the marriage-shed and at the end of the five
days' ceremonies the members of the families eat the dried cakes
with milk, no outsider being allowed to participate. The _barat_
or wedding procession sets out for the bride's village, the women
of the bridegroom's family accompanying it except among the Tirole
Kunbis, who forbid the practice in order to demonstrate their higher
social position. It is received on the border of the girl's village
by her father and his friends and relatives, and conducted to the
_janwasa_ or temporary lodging prepared for it, with the exception
of the bridegroom, who is left alone before the shrine of Maroti or
Hanuman. The bridegroom's father goes to the marriage-shed where he
washes the bride's feet and gives her another present of clothes,
and her relatives then proceed to Maroti's temple where they worship
and make offerings, and return bringing the bridegroom with them. As
he arrives at the marriage pavilion he touches it with a stick, on
which the bride's brother who is seated above the shed pours down
some water and is given a present of money by the bridegroom. The
bridegroom's feet are then washed by his father-in-law and he is
given a yellow cloth which he wears. The couple are made to stand on
two wooden planks opposite each other with a curtain between them,
the bridegroom facing east and the bride west, holding some Akshata
or rice covered with saffron in their hands. As the sun sets the
officiating Brahman gets on to the roof of the house and repeats the
marriage texts from there. At his signal the couple throw the rice over
each other, the curtain between them is withdrawn, and they change
their seats. The assembled party applaud and the marriage proper is
over. The Brahman marks their foreheads with rice and turmeric and
presses them together. He then seats them on the earthen platform
or _baola_, and ties their clothes together, this being known as the
Brahma Ganthi or Brahman's knot. The wedding usually takes place on the
day after the arrival of the marriage procession and another two days
are consumed in feasting and worshipping the deities. When the bride
and bridegroom return home after the wedding one of the party waves a
pot of water round their heads and throws it away at a little distance
on the ground, and after this some grain in the same manner. This is
a provision of food and drink to any evil spirits who may be hovering
round the couple, so that they may stop to consume it and refrain
from entering the house. The expenses of the bride's family may vary
from Rs. 60 to Rs. 100 and those of the bridegroom's from Rs. 160 to
Rs. 600. A wedding carried out on a lavish scale by a well-to-do man
is known as Lal Biah or a red marriage, but when the parties are poor
the expenses are curtailed and it is then called Safed Biah or a white
marriage. In this case the bridegroom's mother does not accompany the
wedding procession and the proceedings last only two days. The bride
goes back with the wedding procession for a few days to her husband's
house and then returns home. When she arrives at maturity her parents
give a feast to the caste and send her to her husband's house, this
occasion being known as Bolvan (the calling). The Karwa Kunbis of
Nimar have a peculiar rule for the celebration of marriages. They
have a _guru_ or priest in Gujarat who sends them a notice once in
every ten or twelve years, and in this year only marriages can be
performed. It is called _Singhast ki sal_ and is the year in which the
planet Guru (Jupiter) comes into conjunction with the constellation
Sinh (Leo). But the Karwas themselves think that there is a large
temple in Gujarat with a locked door to which there is no key. But
once in ten or twelve years the door unlocks of itself, and in that
year their marriages are celebrated. A certain day is fixed and all
the weddings are held on it together. On this occasion children from
infants in arms to ten or twelve years are married, and if a match
cannot be arranged for them they will have to wait another ten or
twelve years. A girl child who is born on the day fixed for weddings
may, however, be married twelve days afterwards, the twelfth night
being called Mando Rat, and on this occasion any other weddings which
may have been unavoidably postponed owing to a death or illness in
the families may also be completed. The rule affords a loophole of
escape for the victims of any such _contretemps_ and also insures
that every girl shall be married before she is fully twelve years
old. Rather than not marry their daughter in the _Singhast ki sal_
before she is twelve the parents will accept any bridegroom, even
though he be very poor or younger than the bride. This is the same year
in which the celebration of marriages is forbidden among the Hindus
generally. The other Kunbis have the general Hindu rule that weddings
are forbidden during the four months from the 11th Asarh Sudi (June)
to the 11th Kartik Sudi (October). This is the period of the rains,
when the crops are growing and the gods are said to go to sleep, and
it is observed more or less as a time of abstinence and fasting. The
Hindus should properly abstain from eating sugarcane, brinjals,
onions, garlic and other vegetables for the whole four months. On
the 12th of Kartik the marriage of Tulsi or the basil plant with the
Saligram or ammonite representing Vishnu is performed and all these
vegetables are offered to her and afterwards generally consumed. Two
days afterwards, beginning from the 14th of Kartik, comes the Diwali
festival. In Betul the bridal couple are seated in the centre of a
square made of four plough yokes, while a leaf of the pipal tree and
a piece of turmeric are tied by a string round both their wrists. The
untying of the string by the local Brahman constitutes the essential
and binding portion of the marriage. Among the Lonhare subcaste a
curious ceremony is performed after the wedding. A swing is made, and
a round pestle, which is supposed to represent a child, is placed on
it and swung to and fro. It is then taken off and placed in the lap
of the bride, and the effect of performing this symbolical ceremony
is supposed to be that she will soon become a mother.
8. Polygamy and divorce
Polygamy is permitted but rarely practised, a second wife being only
taken if the first be childless or of bad character, or destitute of
attractions. Divorce is allowed, but in some localities at any rate
a divorced woman cannot marry again unless she is permitted to do so
in writing by her first husband. If a girl be seduced before marriage
a fine is imposed on both parties and they are readmitted to social
intercourse, but are not married to each other. Curiously enough,
in the Tirole and Wandhekar, the highest subcastes, the keeping of
a woman is not an offence entailing temporary exclusion from caste,
whereas among the lower subcastes it is. [28]
9. Widow-marriage
The Kunbis permit the remarriage of widows, with the exception of the
Deshmukh families of the Tirole subcaste who have forbidden it. If a
woman's husband dies she returns to her father's house and he arranges
her second marriage, which is called _choli-patal,_ or giving her new
clothes. He takes a price for her which may vary from twenty-five
to five hundred rupees according to the age and attractions of the
woman. A widow may marry any one outside the family of her deceased
husband, but she may not marry his younger brother. This union,
which among the Hindustani castes is looked upon as most suitable
if not obligatory, is strictly forbidden among the Maratha castes,
the reason assigned being that a wife stands in the position of a
mother to her husband's younger brothers. The contrast is curious. The
ceremony of widow-marriage is largely governed by the idea of escaping
or placating the wrath of the first husband's ghost, and also of its
being something to be ashamed of and contrary to orthodox Hinduism. It
always takes place in the dark fortnight of the month and always at
night. Sometimes no women are present, and if any do attend they must
be widows, as it would be the worst of omens for a married woman or
unmarried girl to witness the ceremony. This, it is thought, would
lead to her shortly becoming a widow herself. The bridegroom goes to
the widow's house with his male friends and two wooden seats are set
side by side. On one of these a betel-nut is placed which represents
the deceased husband of the widow. The new bridegroom advances with
a small wooden sword, touches the nut with its tip, and then kicks it
off the seat with his right toe. The barber picks up the nut and burns
it. This is supposed to lay the deceased husband's spirit and prevent
his interference with the new union. The bridegroom then takes the seat
from which the nut has been displaced and the woman sits on the other
side to his left. He puts a necklace of beads round her neck and the
couple leave the house in a stealthy fashion and go to the husband's
village. It is considered unlucky to see them as they go away because
the second husband is regarded in the light of a robber. Sometimes
they stop by a stream on the way home, and, taking off the woman's
clothes and bangles, bury them by the side of the stream. An exorcist
may also be called in, who will confine the late husband's spirit in
a horn by putting in some grains of wheat, and after sealing up the
horn deposit it with the clothes. When a widower or widow marries a
second time and is afterwards attacked by illness, it is ascribed to
the illwill of their former partner's spirit. The metal image of the
first husband or wife is then made and worn as an amulet on the arm or
round the neck. A bachelor who wishes to marry a widow must first go
through a mock ceremony with an _akra_ or swallow-wort plant, as the
widow-marriage is not considered a real one, and it is inauspicious for
any one to die without having been properly married once. A similar
ceremony must be gone through when a man is married for the third
time, as it is held that if he marries a woman for the third time he
will quickly die. The _akra_ or swallow-wort (_Calotropis gigantea_)
is a very common plant growing on waste land with mauve or purple
flowers. When cut or broken a copious milky juice exudes from the
stem, and in some places parents are said to poison children whom
they do not desire to keep alive by rubbing this on their lips.
10. Customs at birth
During her monthly impurity a woman stays apart and may not cook
for herself nor touch anybody nor sleep on a bed made of cotton
thread. As soon as she is in this condition she will untie the cotton
threads confining her hair and throw them away, letting her hair hang
down. This is because they have become impure. But if there is no
other woman in the house and she must continue to do the household
work herself, she does not throw them away until the last day. [29]
Similarly she must not sleep on a cotton sheet or mattress during
this time because she would defile it, but she may sleep on a woollen
blanket as wool is a holy material and is not defiled. At the end of
the period she proceeds to a stream and purifies herself by bathing
and washing her head with earth. When a woman is with child for the
first time her women friends come and give her new green clothes and
bangles in the seventh month; they then put her into a swing and sing
songs. While she is pregnant she is made to work in the house so as
not to be inactive. After the birth of a child the mother remains
impure for twelve days. A woman of the Mang or Mahar caste acts as
midwife, and always breaks her bangles and puts on new ones after she
has assisted at a birth. If delivery is prolonged the woman is given
hot water and sugar or camphor wrapped in a betel-leaf, or they put
a few grains of gram into her hand and then someone takes and feeds
them to a mare, as it is thought that the woman's pregnancy has been
prolonged by her having walked behind the tethering-ropes of a mare,
which is twelve months in foal. Or she is given water to drink in
which a Sulaimani onyx or a rupee of Akbar's time has been washed;
in the former case the idea is perhaps that a passage will be made
for the child like the hole through the bead, while the virtue of the
rupee probably consists in its being a silver coin and having the image
or device of a powerful king like Akbar. Or it may be thought that as
the coin has passed from hand to hand for so long, it will facilitate
the passage of the child from the womb. A pregnant woman must not
look on a dead body or her child may be still-born, and she must not
see an eclipse or the child may be born maimed. Some believe that if
a child is born during an eclipse it will suffer from lung-disease;
so they make a silver model of the moon while the eclipse lasts and
hang it round the child's neck as a charm. Sometimes when delivery
is delayed they take a folded flower and place it in a pot of water
and believe that as its petals unfold so the womb will be opened
and the child born; or they seat the woman on a wooden bench and
pour oil on her head, her forehead being afterwards rubbed with it
in the belief that as the oil falls so the child will be born. If a
child is a long time before learning to speak they give it leaves of
the pipal tree to eat, because the leaves of this tree make a noise
by rustling in the wind; or a root which is very light in weight,
because they think that the tongue is heavy and the quality of
lightness will thus be communicated to it. Or the mother, when she
has kneaded dough and washed her hands afterwards, will pour a drop
or two of the water down the child's throat. And the water which
made her hands clean and smooth will similarly clear the child's
throat of the obstruction which prevented it from speaking. If a
child's neck is weak and its head rolls about they make it look at a
crow perching on the house and think this will make its neck strong
like the crow's. If he cannot walk they make a little triangle on
wheels with a pole called _ghurghuri_, and make him walk holding on
to the pole. The first teeth of the child are thrown on to the roof
of the house, because the rats, who have especially good and sharp
teeth, live there, and it is hoped that the child's second teeth may
grow like theirs. A few grains of rice are also thrown so that the
teeth may be hard and pointed like the rice; the same word, _kani_,
being used for the end of a grain of rice and the tip of a tooth. Or
the teeth are placed under a water-pot in the hope that the child's
second teeth may grow as fast as the grass does under water-pots. If
a child is lean some people take it to a place where asses have lain
down and rolled in ashes; they roll the child in the ashes similarly
and believe that it will get fat like the asses are. Or they may lay
the child in a pigsty with the same idea. People who want to injure
a child get hold of its coat and lay it out in the sun to dry, in
the belief that the child's body will dry up in a similar manner. In
order to avert the evil eye they burn some turmeric and juari flour
and hold the newly-born child in the smoke. It is also branded on
the stomach with a burning piece of turmeric, perhaps to keep off
cold. For the first day or two after birth a child is given cow's
milk mixed with water or honey and a little castor oil, and after
this it is suckled by the mother. But if she is unable to nourish it
a wet-nurse is called in, who may be a woman of low caste or even a
Muhammadan. The mother is given no regular food for the first two days,
but only some sugar and spices. Until the child is six months old its
head and body are oiled every second or third day and the body is well
hand-rubbed and bathed. The rubbing is meant to make the limbs supple
and the oil to render the child less susceptible to cold. If a child
when sitting soon after birth looks down through its legs they think
it is looking for its companions whom it has left behind and that more
children will be born. It is considered a bad sign if a child bites
its upper teeth on its underlip; this is thought to prognosticate
illness and the child is prevented from doing so as far as possible.
11. Sixth and twelfth day ceremonies
On the sixth day after birth they believe that Chhathi or Satwai Devi,
the Sixth-day Goddess, comes at midnight and writes on the child's
forehead its fate in life, which writing, it is said, may be seen
on a man's skull when the flesh has come off it after death. On this
night the women of the family stay awake all night singing songs and
eating sweetmeats. A picture of the goddess is drawn with turmeric
and vermilion over the mother's bed. The door of the birth-room is
left open, and at midnight she comes. Sometimes a Sunar is employed
to make a small image of Chhathi Devi, for which he is paid Rs. 1-4,
and it is hung round the child's neck. On this day the mother is
given to eat all kinds of grain, and among flesh-eating castes the
soup of fish and meat, because it is thought that every kind of food
which the mother eats this day will be easily digested by the child
throughout its life. On this day the mother is given a second bath,
the first being on the day of the birth, and she must not bathe in
between. Sometimes after childbirth a woman buys several bottles of
liquor and has a bath in it; the stimulating effect of the spirit is
supposed to remedy the distension of the body caused by the birth. If
the child is a boy it is named on the twelfth and if a girl on the
thirteenth day. On the twelfth day the mother's bangles are thrown
away and new ones put on. The Kunbis are very kind to their children,
and never harsh or quick-tempered, but this may perhaps be partly due
to their constitutional lethargy. They seldom refuse a child anything,
but taking advantage of its innocence will by dissimulation make it
forget what it wanted. The time arrives when this course of conduct
is useless, and then the child learns to mistrust the word of its
parents. Minute quantities of opium are generally administered to
children as a narcotic.
12. Devices for procuring children
If a woman is barren and has no children one of the remedies prescribed
by the Sarodis or wandering soothsayers is that she should set fire
to somebody's house, going alone and at night to perform the deed. So
long as some small part of the house is burnt it does not matter if
the fire be extinguished, but the woman should not give the alarm
herself. It is supposed that the spirit of some insect which is burnt
will enter her womb and be born as a child. Perhaps she sets fire
to someone else's house so as to obtain the spirit of one of the
family's dead children, which may be supposed to have entered the
insects dwelling on the house. Some years ago at Bhandak in Chanda
complaints were made of houses being set on fire. The police officer
[30] sent to investigate found that other small fires continued
to occur. He searched the roofs of the houses, and on two or three
found little smouldering balls of rolled-up cloth. Knowing of the
superstition he called all the childless married women of the place
together and admonished them severely, and the fires stopped. On
another occasion the same officer's wife was ill, and his little son,
having fever, was sent daily to the dispensary for medicine in charge
of a maid. One morning he noticed on one of the soles of the boy's
feet a stain of the juice of the _bhilawa_ [31] or marking-nut tree,
which raises blisters on the skin. On looking at the other foot he
found six similar marks, and on inquiry he learned that these were
made by a childless woman in the expectation that the boy would soon
die and be born again as her child. The boy suffered no harm, but his
mother, being in bad health, nearly died of shock on learning of the
magic practised against her son.
Another device is to make a _pradakshana_ or pilgrimage round a pipal
tree, going naked at midnight after worshipping Maroti or Hanuman, and
holding a necklace of _tulsi_ beads in the hand. The pipal is of course
a sacred tree, and is the abode of Brahma, the original creator of the
world. Brahma has no consort, and it is believed that while all other
trees are both male and female the pipal is only male, and is capable
of impregnating a woman and rendering her fertile. A variation of this
belief is that pipal trees are inhabited by the spirits of unmarried
Brahman boys, and hence a woman sometimes takes a piece of new thread
and winds it round the tree, perhaps with the idea of investing the
spirit of the boy with the sacred thread. She will then walk round the
tree as a symbol of the wedding ceremony of walking round the sacred
post, and hopes that the boy, being thus brought to man's estate
and married, will cause her to bear a son. But modest women do not
go naked round the tree. The Amawas or New Moon day, if it falls on
a Monday, is specially observed by married women. On this day they
will walk 108 times round a pipal tree, and then give 108 mangoes or
other fruits to a Brahman, choosing a different fruit every time. The
number 108 means a hundred and a little more to show there is no stint,
'Full measure and flowing over,' like the customary present of Rs. 1-4
instead of a rupee. This is also no doubt a birth-charm, fruit being
given so that the woman may become fruitful. Or a childless woman will
pray to Hanuman or Mahabir. Every morning she will go to his shrine
with an offering of fruit or flowers, and every evening will set a
lamp burning there; and morning and evening, prostrating herself, she
makes her continuous prayer to the god: '_Oh, Mahabir, Maharaj! hamko
ek batcha do, sirf ek batcha do_.' [32] Then, after many days, Mahabir,
as might be anticipated, appears to her in a dream and promises her a
child. It does not seem that they believe that Mahabir himself directly
renders the woman fertile, because similar prayers are made to the
River Nerbudda, a goddess. But perhaps he, being the god of strength,
lends virile power to her husband. Another prescription is to go to
the burying-ground, and, after worshipping it, to take some of the
bone-ash of a burnt corpse and wear this wrapped up in an amulet on
the body. Occasionally, if a woman can get no children she will go
to the father of a large family and let him beget a child upon her,
with or without the connivance of her husband. But only the more
immodest women do this. Or she cuts a piece off the breast-cloth of
a woman who has children, and, after burning incense on it, wears
it as an amulet For a stronger charm she will take a piece of such
a woman's cloth and a lock of her hair and some earth which her feet
have pressed and bury these in a pot before Devi's shrine, sometimes
fashioning an image of the woman out of them. Then, as they rot away,
the child-bearing power of the fertile woman will be transferred to
her. If a woman's first children have died and she wishes to preserve a
later one, she sometimes weighs the child against sugar or copper and
distributes the amount in charity. Or she gives the child a bad name,
such as Dagharia (a stone), Kachria (sweepings), Ukandia (a dunghill).
13. Love charms
If a woman's husband is not in love with her, a prescription of a
_Mohani_ or love-charm given by the wise women is that she should kill
an owl and serve some of its flesh to her husband as a charm. "It has
not occurred," Mr. Kipling writes, "to the oriental jester to speak
of a boiled owl in connection with intoxication, but when a husband
is abjectly submissive to his wife her friends say that she has given
him boiled owl's flesh to eat." [33] If a man is in love with some
woman and wishes to kindle a similar sentiment in her the following
method is given: On a Saturday night he should go to a graveyard and
call out, 'I am giving a dinner tomorrow night, and I invite you all
to attend.' Then on the Sunday night he takes cocoanuts, sweetmeats,
liquor and flowers to the cemetery and sets them all out, and all the
spirits or Shaitans come and partake. The host chooses a particularly
big Shaitan and calls to him to come near and says to him, 'Will you
go with me and do what I ask you.' If the spirit assents he follows
the man home. Next night the man again offers cocoanuts and incense
to the Shaitan, whom he can see by night but not by day, and tells
him to go to the woman's house and call her. Then the spirit goes
and troubles her heart, so that she falls in love with the man and
has no rest till she goes to him. If the man afterwards gets tired of
her he will again secretly worship and call up the Shaitan and order
him to turn the woman's inclination away. Another method is to fetch
a skull from a graveyard and go to a banyan tree at midnight. There,
divesting himself of his clothes, the operator partially cooks some
rice in the skull, and then throws it against the tree; he gathers
all the grains that stick to the trunk in one box and those that fall
to the ground in another box, and the first rice given to the woman
to eat will turn her inclination towards him, while the second will
turn it away from him. This is a sympathetic charm, the rice which
sticks to the tree having the property of attracting the woman.
14. Disposal of the dead
The Kunbis either bury or burn the dead. In Berar sepulture is
the more common method of disposal, perhaps in imitation of the
Muhammadans. Here the village has usually a field set apart for
the disposal of corpses, which is known as Smashan. Hindus fill
up the earth practically level with the ground after burial and
erect no monument, so that after a few years another corpse can be
buried in the same place. When a Kunbi dies the body is washed in
warm water and placed on a bier made of bamboos, with a network of
_san-_hemp. [34] Ordinary rope must not be used. The mourners then take
it to the grave, scattering almonds, sandalwood, dates, betel-leaf
and small coins as they go. These are picked up by the menial Mahars
or labourers. Halfway to the grave the corpse is set down and the
bearers change their positions, those behind going in front. Here
a little wheat and pulse which have been tied in the cloth covering
the corpse are left by the way. On the journey to the grave the body
is covered with a new unwashed cloth. The grave is dug three or four
feet deep, and the corpse is buried naked, lying on its back with the
head to the south. After the burial one of the mourners is sent to
get an earthen pot from the Kurnhar; this is filled with water at a
river or stream, and a small piece is broken out of it with a stone;
one of the mourners then takes the pot and walks round the corpse
with it, dropping a stream of water all the way. Having done this,
he throws the pot behind him over his shoulder without looking round,
and then all the mourners go home without looking behind them. The
stone with which the hole has been made in the earthen pot is held to
represent the spirit of the deceased. It is placed under a tree or on
the bank of a stream, and for ten days the mourners come and offer it
_pindas_ or balls of rice, one ball being offered on the first day,
two on the second, and so on, up to ten on the tenth. On this last
day a little mound of earth is made, which is considered to represent
Mahadeo. Four miniature flags are planted round, and three cakes of
rice are laid on it; and all the mourners sit round the mound until
a crow comes and eats some of the cake. Then they say that the dead
man's spirit has been freed from troubling about his household and
mundane affairs and has departed to the other world. But if no real
crow comes to eat the cake, they make a representation of one out
of the sacred _kusha_ grass, and touch the cake with it and consider
that a crow has eaten it. After this the mourners go to a stream and
put a little cow's urine on their bodies, and dip ten times in the
water or throw it over them. The officiating Brahman sprinkles them
with holy water in which he has dipped the toe of his right foot,
and they present to the Brahman the vessels in which the funeral cakes
have been cooked and the clothes which the chief mourner has worn for
ten days. On coming home they also give him a stick, umbrella, shoes,
a bed and anything else which they think the dead man will want in
the next world. On the thirteenth day they feed the caste-fellows and
the head of the caste ties a new _pagri_ on the chief mourner's head
backside foremost; and the chief mourner breaking an areca-nut on
the threshold places it in his mouth and spits it out of the door,
signifying the final ejectment of the deceased's spirit from the
house. Finally, the chief mourner goes to worship at Maroti's shrine,
and the household resumes its ordinary life. The different relatives
of the deceased man usually invite the bereaved family to their house
for a day and give them a feast, and if they have many relations this
may go on for a considerable time. The complete procedure as detailed
above is observed only in the case of the head of the household, and
for less important members is considerably abbreviated. The position
of chief mourner is occupied by a man's eldest son, or in the absence
of sons by his younger brother, or failing him by the eldest son of
an elder brother, or failing male relations by the widow. The chief
mourner is considered to have a special claim to the property. He has
the whole of his head and face shaved, and the hair is tied up in a
corner of the grave-cloth. If the widow is chief mourner a small lock
of her hair is cut off and tied up in the cloth. When the corpse is
being carried out for burial the widow breaks her _mangalsutram_ or
marriage necklace, and wipes off the _kunku_ or vermilion from her
forehead. This necklace consists of a string of black glass beads
with a piece of gold, and is always placed on the bride's neck at
the wedding. The widow does not break her glass bangles at all,
but on the eleventh day changes them for new ones.
15. Mourning
The period of mourning for adults of the family is ten days, and
for children three, while in the case of distant relatives it is
sufficient to take a bath as a mark of respect for them. The male
mourners shave their heads, the walls of the house are whitewashed
and the floor spread with cowdung. The chief mourner avoids social
intercourse and abstains from ordinary work and from all kinds of
amusements. He debars himself from such luxuries as betel-leaf and
from visiting his wife. Oblations are offered to the dead on the
third day of the light fortnight of Baisakh (June) and on the last
day of Bhadrapad (September). The Kunbi is a firm believer in the
action of ghosts and spirits, and never omits the attentions due to
his ancestors. On the appointed day he diligently calls on the crows,
who represent the spirits of ancestors, to come and eat the food which
he places ready for them; and if no crow turns up, he is disturbed at
having incurred the displeasure of the dead. He changes the food and
goes on calling until a crow comes, and then concludes that their
previous failure to appear was due to the fact that his ancestors
were not pleased with the kind of food he first offered. In future
years, therefore, he changes it, and puts out that which was eaten,
until a similar _contretemps_ of the non-appearance of crows again
occurs. The belief that the spirits of the dead pass into crows is no
doubt connected with that of the crow's longevity. Many Hindus think
that a crow lives a thousand years, and others that it never dies of
disease, but only when killed by violence. Tennyson's 'many-wintered
crow' may indicate some similar idea in Europe. Similarly if the Gonds
find a crow's nest they give the nestlings to young children to eat,
and think that this will make them long-lived. If a crow perches in
the house when a woman's husband or other relative is away, she says,
'Fly away, crow; fly away and I will feed you'; and if the crow then
flies away she thinks that the absent one will return. Here the idea
is no doubt that if he had been killed his spirit might have come home
in the shape of the crow perching on the house. If a married woman
sees two crows breeding it is considered a very bad omen, the effect
being that her husband will soon die. It is probably supposed that
his spirit will pass into the young crow which is born as a result
of the meeting which she has seen.
Mr. A. K. Smith states that the omen applies to men also, and
relates a story of a young advocate who saw two crows thus engaged
on alighting from the train at some station. In order to avert the
consequences he ran to the telegraph office and sent messages to all
his relatives and friends announcing his own death, the idea being
that this fictitious death would fulfil the omen, and the real death
would thus become unnecessary. In this case the belief would be that
the man's own spirit would pass into the young crow.
16. Religion
The principal deities of the caste are Maroti or Hanuman, Mahadeo or
Siva, Devi, Satwai and Khandoba. Maroti is worshipped principally on
Saturdays, so that he may counteract the evil influences exercised by
the planet Saturn on that day. When a new village is founded Maroti
must first be brought and placed in the village and worshipped, and
after this houses are built. The name Maroti is derived from Marut,
the Vedic god of the wind, and he is considered to be the son of
Vayu, the wind, and Anjini. Khandoba is an incarnation of Siva as a
warrior, and is the favourite deity of the Marathas. Devi is usually
venerated in her Incarnation of Marhai Mata, the goddess of smallpox
and cholera--the most dreaded scourges of the Hindu villager. They
offer goats and fowls to Marhai Devi, cutting the throat of the
animal and letting its blood drop over the stone, which represents
the goddess; after this they cut off a leg and hang it to the tree
above her shrine, and eat the remainder. Sometimes also they offer
wooden images of human beings, which are buried before the shrine
of the goddess and are obviously substitutes for a human sacrifice;
and the lower castes offer pigs. If a man dies of snake-bite they
make a little silver image of a snake, and then kill a real snake,
and make a platform outside the village and place the image on it,
which is afterwards regularly worshipped as Nagoba Deo. They may
perhaps think that the spirit of the snake which is killed passes
into the silver image. Somebody afterwards steals the image, but
this does not matter. Similarly if a man is killed by a tiger he
is deified and worshipped as Baghoba Deo, though they cannot kill a
tiger as a preliminary. The Kunbis make images of their ancestors in
silver or brass, and keep them in a basket with their other household
deities. But when these get too numerous they take them on a pilgrimage
to some sacred river and deposit them in it. A man who has lost
both parents will invite some man and woman on Akshaya Tritiya,
[35] and call them by the names of his parents, and give them a
feast. Among the mythological stories known to the caste is one of
some interest, explaining how the dark spots came on the face of the
moon. They say that once all the gods were going to a dinner-party,
each riding on his favourite animal or _vahan_ (conveyance). But
the _vahan_ of Ganpati, the fat god with the head of an elephant,
was a rat, and the rat naturally could not go as fast as the other
animals, and as it was very far from being up to Ganpati's weight,
it tripped and fell, and Ganpati came off. The moon was looking on,
and laughed so much that Ganpati was enraged, and cursed it, saying,
'Thy face shall be black for laughing at me.' Accordingly the moon
turned quite black; but the other gods interfered, and said that the
curse was too hard, so Ganpati agreed that only a part of the moon's
face should be blackened in revenge for the insult. This happened
on the fourth day of the bright fortnight of Bhadon (September),
and on that day it is said that nobody should look at the moon, as
if he does, his reputation will probably be lowered by some false
charge or libel being promulgated against him. As already stated,
the Kunbi firmly believes in the influence exercised by spirits, and
a proverb has it, 'Brahmans die of indigestion, Sunars from bile, and
Kunbis from ghosts'; because the Brahman is always feasted as an act of
charity and given the best food, so that he over-eats himself, while
the Sunar gets bilious from sitting all day before a furnace. When
somebody falls ill his family get a Brahman's cast-off sacred thread,
and folding it to hold a little lamp, will wave this to and fro. If
it moves in a straight line they say that the patient is possessed
by a spirit, but if in a circle that his illness is due to natural
causes. In the former case they promise an offering to the spirit
to induce it to depart from the patient. The Brahmans, it is said,
try to prevent the Kunbis from getting hold of their sacred threads,
because they think that by waving the lamp in them, all the virtue
which they have obtained by their repetitions of the Gayatri or sacred
prayer is transferred to the sick Kunbi. They therefore tear up their
cast-off threads or sew them into clothes.
17. The Pola festival
The principal festival of the Kunbis is the Pola, falling at about
the middle of the rainy season, when they have a procession of
plough-bullocks. An old bullock goes first, and on his horns is
tied the _makhar_, a wooden frame with pegs to which torches are
affixed. They make a rope of mango-leaves stretched between two posts,
and the _makhar_ bullock is made to break this and stampede back to
the village, followed by all the other cattle. It is said that the
_makhar_ bullock will die within three years. Behind him come the
bullocks of the proprietors and then those of the tenants in the order,
not so much of their wealth, but of their standing in the village and
of the traditional position held by their families. A Kunbi feels it
very bitterly if he is not given what he considers to be his proper
rank in this procession. It has often been remarked that the feudal
feeling of reverence for hereditary rights and position is as strong
among the Maratha people as anywhere in the world.
18. Muhammadan tendencies of Berar Kunbis
In Wardha and Berar the customs of the Kunbis show in several
respects the influence of Islam, due no doubt to the long period
of Muhammadan dominance in the country. To this may perhaps be
attributed the prevalence of burial of the dead instead of cremation,
the more respectable method according to Hindu ideas. The Dhanoje
Kunbis commonly revere Dawal Malik, a Muhammadan saint, whose tomb
is at Uprai in Amraoti District. An _urus_ or fair is held here on
Thursdays, the day commonly sacred to Muhammadan saints, and on this
account the Kunbis will not be shaved on Thursdays. They also make
vows of mendicancy at the Muharram festival, and go round begging for
rice and pulse; they give a little of what they obtain to Muhammadan
beggars and eat the rest. At the Muharram they tie a red thread
on their necks and dance round the _alawa_, a small hole in which
fire is kindled in front of the _tasias_ or tombs of Hussain. At the
Muharram [36] they also carry horseshoes of silver or gilt tinsel on
the top of a stick decorated with peacock's feathers. The horseshoe
is a model of that of the horse of Hussain. The men who carry these
horseshoes are supposed to be possessed by the spirit of the saint,
and people make prayers to them for anything they want. If one of
the horseshoes is dropped the finder will keep it in his house,
and next year if he feels that the spirit moves him will carry it
himself. In Wardha the Kunbis worship Khwaja Sheikh Farid of Girar,
and occasionally Sheikh Farid appears to a Kunbi in a dream and
places him under a vow. Then he and all his household make little
imitation beggars' wallets of cloth and dye them with red ochre,
and little hoes on the model of those which saises use to drag out
horses' dung, this hoe being the badge of Sheikh Farid. Then they
go round begging to all the houses in the village, saying, '_Dam_,
[37] _Sahib_, _dam_.' With the alms given them they make cakes of
_malida_, wheat, sugar and butter, and give them to the priest of the
shrine. Sometimes Sheikh Farid tells the Kunbi in the dream that he
must buy a goat of a certain Dhangar (shepherd), naming the price,
while the Dhangar is similarly warned to sell it at the same price,
and the goat is then purchased and sacrificed without any haggling:
At the end of the sacrifice the priest releases the Kunbi from his vow,
and he must then shave the whole of his head and distribute liquor to
the caste-fellows in order to be received back into the community. The
water of the well at Sheikh Farid's shrine at Girar is considered
to preserve the crops against insects, and for this purpose it is
carried to considerable distances to be sprinkled on them.
19. Villages and houses
An ordinary Kunbi village [38] contains between 70 and 80 houses or
some 400 souls. The village generally lies on a slight eminence near a
_nullah_ or stream, and is often nicely planted with tamarind or pipal
trees. The houses are now generally tiled for fear of fire, and their
red roofs may be seen from a distance forming a little cluster on high
lying ground, an elevated site being selected so as to keep the roads
fairly dry, as the surface tracks in black-soil country become almost
impassable sloughs of mud as soon as the rains have broken. The better
houses stand round an old mud fort, a relic of the Pindari raids,
when, on the first alarm of the approach of these marauding bands, the
whole population hurried within its walls. The village proprietor's
house is now often built inside the fort. It is an oblong building
surrounded by a compound wall of unbaked bricks, and with a gateway
through which a cart can drive. Adjoining the entrance on each side
are rooms for the reception of guests, in which constables, chuprassies
and others are lodged when they stay at night in the village. _Kothas_
or sheds for keeping cattle and grain stand against the walls, and the
dwelling-house is at the back. Substantial tenants have a house like
the proprietor's, of well-laid mud, whitewashed and with tiled roof;
but the ordinary cultivator's house is one-roomed, with an _angan_
or small yard in front and a little space for a garden behind, in
which vegetables are grown during the rains. The walls are of bamboo
matting plastered over with mud. The married couples sleep inside,
the room being partitioned off if there are two or more in the
family, and the older persons sleep in the verandahs. In the middle
of the village by the biggest temple will be an old pipal tree, the
trunk encircled by an earthen or stone platform, which answers to
the village club. The respectable inhabitants will meet here while
the lower classes go to the liquor-shop nearly every night to smoke
and chat. The blacksmith's and carpenter's shops are also places of
common resort for the cultivators. Hither they wend in the morning
and evening, often taking with them some implement which has to be
mended, and stay to talk. The blacksmith in particular is said to
be a great gossip, and will often waste much of his customer's time,
plying him for news and retailing it, before he repairs and hands back
the tool brought to him. The village is sure to contain two or three
little temples of Maroti or Mahadeo. The stones which do duty for the
images are daily oiled with butter or _ghi_, and a miscellaneous store
of offerings will accumulate round the buildings. Outside the village
will be a temple of Devi or Mata Mai (Smallpox Goddess) with a heap of
little earthen horses and a string of hens' feet and feathers hung up
on the wall. The little platforms which are the shrines of the other
village gods will be found in the fields or near groves. In the evening
the elders often meet at Maroti's temple and pay their respects to
the deity, bowing or prostrating themselves before him. A lamp before
the temple is fed by contributions of oil from the women, and is kept
burning usually up to midnight. Once a year in the month, of Shrawan
(July) the villagers subscribe and have a feast, the Kunbis eating
first and the menial and labouring castes after them. In this month
also all the village deities are worshipped by the Joshi or priest and
the villagers. In summer the cultivators usually live in their fields,
where they erect temporary sheds of bamboo matting roofed with juari
stalks. In these most of the household furniture is stored, while at a
little distance in another funnel-shaped erection of bamboo matting is
kept the owner's grain. This system of camping out is mainly adopted
for fear of fire in the village, when the cultivator's whole stock
of grain and his household goods might be destroyed in a few minutes
without possibility of saving them. The women stay in the village,
and the men and boys go there for their midday and evening meals.
20. Furniture
Ordinary cultivators have earthen pots for cooking purposes and brass
ones for eating from, while the well-to-do have all their vessels of
brass. The furniture consists of a few stools and cots. No Kunbi will
lie on the ground, probably because a dying man is always laid on the
ground to breathe his last; and so every one has a cot consisting of
a wooden frame with a bed made of hempen string or of the root-fibres
of the _palas_ tree (_Butea frondosa_). These cots are always too
short for a man to lie on them at full length, and are in consequence
supremely uncomfortable. The reason may perhaps be found in the
belief that a man should always lie on a bed a little shorter than
himself so that his feet project over the end. Because if the bed is
longer than he is, it resembles a bier, and if he lies on a bier once
he may soon die and lie on it a second time. For bathing they make a
little enclosure in the compound with mats, and place two or three flat
stones in it. Hot water is generally used and they rub the perspiration
off their bodies with a flat stone called Jhawar. Most Kunbis bathe
daily. On days when they are shaved they plaster the head with soft
black earth, and then wash it off and rub their bodies with a little
linseed or sesamum oil, or, if they can afford it, with cocoanut oil.
21. Food
The Kunbis eat three times a day, at about eight in the morning,
at midday and after dark. The morning meal is commonly eaten in the
field and the two others at home. At midday the cultivator comes home
from work, bathes and takes his meal, having a rest for about two
hours in all. After finishing work he again comes home and has his
evening meal, and then, after a rest, at about ten o'clock he goes
again to the fields, if the crops are on the ground, and sleeps on the
_mara_ or small elevated platform erected in the field to protect the
grain from birds and wild animals; occasionally waking and emitting
long-drawn howls or pulling the strings which connect with clappers
in various parts of the field. Thus for nearly eight months of the
year the Kunbi sleeps in his fields, and only during the remaining
period at home. Juari is the staple food of the caste, and is eaten
both raw and cooked. The raw pods of juari were the provision carried
with them on their saddles by the marauding Maratha horsemen, and the
description of Sivaji getting his sustenance from gnawing at one of
these as he rode along is said to have struck fear into the heart
of the Nizam. It is a common custom among well-to-do tenants and
proprietors to invite their friends to a picnic in the fields when
the crop is ripe to eat _hurda_ or the pods of juari roasted in hot
ashes. For cooking purposes juari is ground in an ordinary handmill
and then passed through a sieve, which separates the finer from the
coarser particles. The finer flour is made into dough with hot water
and baked into thick flat _chapatis_ or cakes, weighing more than half
a pound each; while the coarse flour is boiled in water like rice. The
boiled pulse of _arhar_ (_Cajanus indicus_) is commonly eaten with
juari, and the _chapatis_ are either dipped into cold linseed oil
or consumed dry. The sameness of this diet is varied by a number of
green vegetables, generally with very little savour to a European
palate. These are usually boiled and then mixed into a salad with
linseed or sesamum oil and flavoured with salt or powdered chillies,
these last being the Kunbi's indispensable condiment. He is also
very fond of onions and garlic, which are either chopped and boiled,
or eaten raw. Butter-milk when available is mixed with the boiled
juari after it is cooked, while wheat and rice, butter and sugar are
delicacies reserved for festivals. As a rule only water is drunk,
but the caste indulge in country liquor on festive occasions. Tobacco
is commonly chewed after each meal or smoked in leaf cigarettes,
or in _chilams_ or clay pipe-bowls without a stem. Men also take
snuff, and a few women chew tobacco and take snuff, though they
do not smoke. It is noticeable that different subdivisions of the
caste will commonly take food from each other in Berar, whereas in
the Central Provinces they refuse to do so. The more liberal usage
in Berar is possibly another case of Muhammadan influence. Small
children eat with their father and brothers, but the women always
wait on the men, and take their own food afterwards. Among the Dalia
Kunbis of Nimar, however, women eat before men at caste feasts in
opposition to the usual practice. It is stated in explanation that
on one occasion when the men had finished their meal first and gone
home, the women on returning were waylaid in the dark and robbed of
their ornaments. And hence it was decided that they should always eat
first and go home before nightfall. The Kunbi is fairly liberal in
the matter of food. He will eat the flesh of goats, sheep and deer,
all kinds of fish and fowls, and will drink liquor. In Hoshangabad
and Nimar the higher subcastes abstain from flesh and wine. The caste
will take food cooked without water from Brahmans, Banias and Sunars,
and that mixed with water only from Maratha Brahmans. All castes
except Maratha Brahmans will take water from the hands of a Kunbi.
22. Clothes and ornaments
The dress of the ordinary cultivator is most common-place and consists
only of a loin-cloth, another cloth thrown over the shoulders and
upper part of the body, which except for this is often bare, and a
third rough cloth wound loosely round the head. All these, originally
white, soon assume a very dingy hue. There is thus no colour in a
man's everyday attire, but the gala dress for holidays consists of a
red _pagri_ or turban, a black, coloured or white coat, and a white
loin-cloth with red silk borders if he can afford it. The Kunbi is
seldom or never seen with his head bare; this being considered a
bad omen because every one bares his head when a death occurs. Women
wear _lugras_, or a single long cloth of red, blue or black cotton,
and under this the _choli_, or small breast-cloth. They have one
silk-bordered cloth for special occasions. A woman having a husband
alive must not wear a white cloth with no colour in it, as this is
the dress of widows. A white cloth with a coloured border may be
worn. The men generally wear shoes which are open at the back of
the heel, and clatter as they move along. Women do not, as a rule,
wear shoes unless these are necessary for field work, or if they go
out just after their confinement. But they have now begun to do so
in towns. Women have the usual collection of ornaments on all parts
of the person. The head ornaments should be of gold when this metal
can be afforded. On the finger they have a miniature mirror set in a
ring; as a rule not more than one ring is worn, so that the hands may
be free for work. For a similar reason glass bangles, being fragile,
are worn only on the left wrist and metal ones on the right. But the
Dhanoje Kunbis, as already stated, have cocoanut shell bangles on
both wrists. They smear a mark of red powder on the forehead or have
a spangle there. Girls are generally tattooed in childhood when the
skin is tender, and the operation is consequently less painful. They
usually have a small crescent and circle between the brows, small
circles or dots on each temple and on the nose, cheeks and chin, and
five small marks on the back of the hands to represent flies. Some
of the Deshmukh families have now adopted the sacred thread; they
also put caste marks on the forehead, and wear the shape of _pagri_
or turban formerly distinctive of Maratha Brahmans.
23. The Kunbi as cultivator
The Kunbi has the stolidity, conservative instincts, dulness and
patience of the typical agriculturist. Sir R. Craddock describes
him as follows [39]: "Of the purely agricultural classes the Kunbis
claim first notice. They are divided into several sections or classes,
and are of Maratha origin, the Jhari Kunbis (the Kunbis of the wild
country) being the oldest settlers, and the Deshkar (the Kunbis
from the Deccan) the most recent. The Kunbi is certainly a most
plodding, patient mortal, with a cat-like affection for his land,
and the proprietary and cultivating communities, of both of which
Kunbis are the most numerous members, are unlikely to fail so long
as he keeps these characteristics. Some of the more intelligent and
affluent of the caste, who have risen to be among the most prosperous
members of the community, are as shrewd men of business in their way
as any section of the people, though lacking in education. I remember
one of these, a member of the Local Board, who believed that the land
revenue of the country was remitted to England annually to form part
of the private purse of the Queen Empress. But of the general body of
the Kunbi caste it is true to say that in the matter of enterprise,
capacity to hold their own with the moneylender, determination to
improve their standard of comfort, or their style of agriculture,
they lag far behind such cultivating classes as the Kirar, the Raghvi
and the Lodhi. While, however, the Kunbi yields to these classes
in some of the more showy attributes which lead to success in life,
he is much their superior in endurance under adversity, he is more
law-abiding, and he commands, both by reason of his character and his
caste, greater social respect among the people at large. The wealthy
Kunbi proprietor is occasionally rather spoilt by good fortune,
or, if he continues a keen cultivator, is apt to be too fond of
land-grabbing. But these are the exceptional cases, and there is
generally no such pleasing spectacle as that afforded by a village
in which the cultivators and the proprietors are all Kunbis living in
harmony together." The feeling [40] of the Kunbi towards agricultural
improvements has hitherto probably been something the same as that of
the Sussex farmer who said, 'Our old land, it likes our old ploughs'
to the agent who was vainly trying to demonstrate to him the advantages
of the modern two-horse iron plough over the great wooden local tool;
and the emblem ascribed to old Sussex--a pig couchant with the motto
'I wun't be druv'--would suit the Kunbi equally well. But the Kunbi,
too, though he could not express it, knows something of the pleasure
of the simple outdoor life, the fresh smell of the soil after rain,
the joy of the yearly miracle when the earth is again carpeted with
green from the bursting into life of the seed which he has sown,
and the pleasure of watching the harvest of his labours come to
fruition. He, too, as has been seen, feels something corresponding to
"That inarticulate love of the English farmer for his land, his mute
enjoyment of the furrow crumbling from the ploughshare or the elastic
tread of his best pastures under his heel, his ever-fresh satisfaction
at the sight of the bullocks stretching themselves as they rise from
the soft grass."
24. Social and moral characteristics
Some characteristics of the Maratha people are noticed by Sir
R. Jenkins as follows [41]: "The most remarkable feature perhaps in the
character of the Marathas of all descriptions is the little regard they
pay to show or ceremony in the common intercourse of life. A peasant
or mechanic of the lowest order, appearing before his superiors,
will sit down of his own accord, tell his story without ceremony,
and converse more like an equal than an inferior; and if he has a
petition he talks in a loud and boisterous tone and fearlessly sets
forth his claims. Both the peasantry and the better classes are often
coarse and indelicate in their language, and many of the proverbs,
which they are fond of introducing into conversation, are extremely
gross. In general the Marathas, and particularly the cultivators,
are not possessed of much activity or energy of character, but they
have quick perception of their own interest, though their ignorance
of writing and accounts often renders them the dupes of the artful
Brahmans." "The Kunbi," Mr. Forbes remarks, [42] "though frequently all
submission and prostration when he makes his appearance in a revenue
office, is sturdy and bold enough among his own people. He is fond
of asserting his independence and the helplessness of others without
his aid, on which subject he has several proverbs, as: 'Wherever it
thunders there the Kunbi is a landholder,' and 'Tens of millions are
dependent on the Kunbi, but the Kunbi depends on no man.'" This sense
of his own importance, which has also been noticed among the Jats,
may perhaps be ascribed to the Kunbi's ancient status as a free and
full member of the village community. "The Kunbi and his bullocks are
inseparable, and in speaking of the one it is difficult to dissociate
the other. His pride in these animals is excusable, for they are most
admirably suited to the circumstances in which nature has placed them,
and possess a very wide-extended fame. But the Kunbi frequently
exhibits his fondness for them in the somewhat peculiar form of
unmeasured abuse. 'May the Kathis [43] seize you!' is his objurgation
if in the peninsula of Surat; if in the Idar district or among the
mountains it is there 'May the tiger kill you!' and all over Gujarat,
'May your master die!' However, he means by this the animal's former
owner, not himself; and when more than usually cautious he will word
his chiding thus--'May the fellow that sold you to me perish.'" But now
the Kathis raid no more and the tiger, though still taking good toll
of cattle in the Central Provinces, is not the ever-present terror
that once he was. But the bullock himself is no longer so sacrosanct
in the Kunbi's eyes, and cannot look forward with the same certainty
to an old age of idleness, threatened only by starvation in the hot
weather or death by surfeit of the new moist grass in the rains; and
when therefore the Kunbi's patience is exhausted by these aggravating
animals, his favourite threat at present is, 'I will sell you to the
Kasais' (butchers); and not so very infrequently he ends by doing
so. It may be noted that with the development of the cotton industry
the Kunbi of Wardha is becoming much sharper and more capable of
protecting his own interests, while with the assistance and teaching
which he now receives from the Agricultural Department, a rapid and
decided improvement is taking place in his skill as a cultivator.
Kunjra
_Kunjra_. [44]--A caste of greengrocers, who sell country vegetables
and fruit and are classed as Muhammadans. Mr. Crooke derives the
name from the Sanskrit _kunj_, 'a bower or arbour.' They numbered
about 1600 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, principally in
the Jubbulpore Division. The customs of the Kunjras appear to combine
Hindu and Muhammadan rites in an indiscriminate medley. It is reported
that marriage is barred only between real brothers and sisters and
foster brothers and sisters, the latter rule being known as _Dudh
bachana_, or 'Observing the tie of the milk.' At their betrothal
presents are given to the parties, and after this a powder of henna
leaves is sent to the boy, who rubs it on his fingers and returns
it to the girl that she may do the same. As among the Hindus, the
bodies of the bridal couple are anointed with oil and turmeric at
their respective houses before the wedding. A marriage-shed is made
and the bridegroom goes to the bride's house wearing a cotton quilt
and riding on a bullock. The barber holds the umbrella over his
head and must be given a present before he will fold it, but the
wedding is performed by the Kazi according to the Nikah ceremony
by the repetition of verses from the Koran. The wedding is held at
four o'clock in the morning, and as a preliminary to it the bride
is presented with some money by the boy's father, which is known as
the Meher or dowry. On its conclusion a cup of sherbet is given to
the bridegroom, of which he drinks half and hands the remainder to
the bride. The gift of the Meher is considered to seal the marriage
contract. When a widow is married the Kazi is also employed, and he
simply recites the Kalama or Muhammadan profession of belief, and the
ceremony is completed by the distribution of dates to the elders of
the caste. Divorce is permitted and is known as _talaq_. The caste
observe the Muhammadan festivals, and have some favourite saints of
their own to whom they make offerings of _gulgula_ a kind of pudding,
with sacrifices of goats and fowls. Participation in these rites is
confined to members of the family. Children are named on the day of
their birth, the Muhammadan Kazi or a Hindu Brahman being employed
indifferently to select the name. If the parents lose one or more
children, in order to preserve the lives of those subsequently born,
they will allow the _choti_ or scalp-lock to grow on their heads in the
Hindu fashion, dedicating it to one of their Muhammadan saints. Others
will put a _hasli_ or silver circlet round the neck of the child
and add a ring to this every year; a strip of leather is sometimes
also tied round the neck. When the child reaches the age of twelve
years the scalp-lock is shaved, the leather band thrown into a river
and the silver necklet sold. Offerings are made to the saints and
a feast is given to the friends of the family. The dead are buried,
camphor and attar of roses being applied to the corpse. On the _Tija_
and _Chalisa_, or third and fortieth days after a death, a feast is
given to the caste-fellows, but no mourning is observed, neither
do the mourners bathe nor perform ceremonies of purification. On
the _Tija_ the Koran is also read and fried grain is distributed to
children. For the death of a child the ordinary feasts need not be
given, but prayers are offered for their souls with those of the other
dead once a year on the night of Shab-i-Barat or the fifteenth day
of the month Shaban, [45] which is observed as a vigil with prayer,
feasts and illuminations and offerings to the ancestors. Kunjra men
are usually clean-shaven with the exception of the beard, which is
allowed to grow long below the chin. Their women are not tattooed. In
the cities, Mr. Crooke remarks, [46] their women have an equivocal
reputation, as the better-looking girls who sit in the shops are said
to use considerable freedom of manners to attract customers. They are
also very quarrelsome and abusive when bargaining for the sale of their
wares or arguing with each other. This is so much the case that men
who become very abusive are said to be behaving like Kunjras; while
in Dacca Sir H. Risley states [47] that the word Kunjra has become a
term of abuse, so that the caste are ashamed to be known by it, and
call themselves Mewa-farosh, Sabzi-farosh or Bepari. When two women
are having an altercation, their husbands and other male relatives
are forbidden to interfere on pain of social degradation. The women
never sit on the ground, but on small wooden stools or _pirhis_. The
Kunjras belong chiefly to the north of the Province, and in the
south their place is taken by the Marars and Malis who carry their
own produce for sale to the markets. The Kunjras sell sugarcane,
potatoes, onions and all kinds of vegetables, and others deal in the
dried fruits imported by Kabuli merchants.
Kuramwar
_Kuramwar_. [48]--The shepherd caste of southern India, who are
identical with the Tamil Kurumba and the Telugu Kuruba. The caste is an
important one in Madras, but in the Central Provinces is confined to
the Chanda District where it numbered some 4000 persons in 1911. The
Kuramwars are considered to be the modern representatives of the
ancient Pallava tribe whose kings were powerful in southern India in
the seventh century. [49]
The marriage rules of the Kuramwars are interesting. If a girl
reaches adolescence while still single, she is finally expelled
from the caste, her parents being also subjected to a penalty for
readmission. Formerly it is said that such a girl was sacrificed to
the river-goddess by being placed in a small hut on the river-bank
till a flood came and swept her away. Now she is taken to the river
and kept in a hut, while offerings are made to the river-goddess,
and she may then return and live in the village though she is out of
caste. In Madras, as a preliminary to the marriage, the bridegroom's
father observes certain marks or 'curls' on the head or hair of the
bride proposed. Some of these are believed to forecast prosperity
and others misery to the family into which she enters. They are
therefore very cautious in selecting only such girls as possess curls
(_suli_) of good fortune. The writer of the _North Arcot Manual_ [50]
after recording the above particulars, remarks: "This curious custom
obtaining among this primitive tribe is observed by others only in
the case of the purchase of cows, bulls and horses." In the Central
Provinces, however, at least one parallel instance can be given from
the northern Districts where any mark resembling the V on the head
of a cobra is considered to be very inauspicious. And it is told
that a girl who married into one well-known family bore it, and to
this fact the remarkable succession of misfortunes which has attended
the family is locally attributed. Among the Kuramwars marriages can
be celebrated only on four days in the year, the fifth day of both
fortnights of Phagun (February), the tenth day of the second fortnight
of the same month and the third day of Baisakh (April). At the marriage
the bride and bridegroom are seated together under the canopy, with
the shuttle which is used for weaving blankets between them, and they
throw coloured rice at each other. After this a miniature swing is put
up and a doll is placed in it in imitation of a child and swung to and
fro. The bride then takes the doll out and gives it to the bridegroom,
saying: 'Here, take care of it, I am now going to cook food'; while
after a time the boy returns the doll to the girl, saying, 'I must
now weave the blanket and go to tend the flock.' The proceeding
seems a symbolic enactment of the cares of married life and the
joint tending of the baby, this sort of symbolism being particularly
noticeable in the marriage ceremonies of the people of Madras. Divorce
is not permitted even though the wife be guilty of adultery, and if
she runs away to her father's house her husband cannot use force to
bring her back if she refuses to return to him. The Kuramwars worship
the implements of their calling at the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi,
and if any family fails to do this it is put out of caste. They also
revere annually Mallana Deva and Mallani Devi who guard their flocks
respectively from attacks of tigers and epidemics of murrain. The
shrines of these deities are generally built under a banyan tree
and open to the east. The caste are shepherds and graziers and also
make blankets. They are poor and ignorant, and the Abbé Dubois [51]
says of them: "Being confined to the society of their woolly charge,
they seem to have contracted the stupid nature of the animal, and from
the rudeness of their nature they are as much beneath the other castes
of Hindus as the sheep by their simplicity and imperfect instruction
are beneath the other quadrupeds." Hence the proverbial comparison
'As stupid as a Kuramwar.' When out of doors the Kuramwar retains the
most primitive method of eating and drinking; he takes his food in a
leaf and licks it up with his tongue, and sucks up water from a tank
or river with his mouth. They justify this custom by saying that on one
occasion their god had taken his food out of the house on a leaf-plate
and was proceeding to eat it with his hands when his sheep ran away
and he had to go and fetch them back. In the meantime a crow came and
pecked at the food and so spoilt it. It was therefore ordained that
all the caste should eat their food straight off the leaf, in order
to do which they would have to take it from the cooking-pot in small
quantities and there would be no chance of leaving any for the crows
to spoil. The story is interesting as showing how very completely
the deity of the Kuramwars is imagined on the principle that god
made man in his own image. Or, as a Frenchman has expressed the idea,
'_Dieu a fait l'homme à son image, mais l'homme le lui a bein rendu._'
The caste are dark in colour and may be distinguished by their caps
made from pieces of blankets, and by their wearing a woollen cord
round the waist over the loin-cloth. They speak a dialect of Canarese.
Kurmi
List of Paragraphs
1. _Numbers and derivation of name._
2. _Functional character of the caste._
3. _Sub castes._
4. _Exogamous groups._
5. _Marriage rules. Betrothal_.
6. _The marriage-shed or pavillion._
7. _The marriage cakes_.
8. _Customs at the wedding_.
9. _Walking round the sacred post_.
10. _Other ceremonies_.
11. _Polygamy, widow-marriage and divorce_.
12. _Impurity of women_.
13. _Pregnancy rites_.
14. _Earth-eating._
15. _Customs at birth_.
16. _Treatment of mother and child_.
17. _Ceremonies after birth_.
18. _Suckling children_.
19. _Beliefs about twins_.
20. _Disposal of the dead_.
21. _Funeral rites_.
22. _Burning the dead_.
23. _Burial_.
24. _Return of the soul_.
25. _Mourning_.
26. _Shaving, and presents to Brahmans_.
27. _End of mourning_.
28. _Anniversaries of the dead_.
29. _Beliefs in the hereafter_.
30. _Religion. Village gods_.
31. _Sowing the Jawaras or gardens of Adonis_.
32. _Rites connected with the crops. Customs of cultivation_.
33. _Agricultural superstitions_.
34. _Houses_.
35. _Superstitions about houses_.
36. _Furniture._
37. _Clothes_.
38. _Women's clothes_.
39. _Bathing_.
40. _Food_.
41. _Caste feasts_.
42. _Hospitality_.
43. _Social customs. Tattooing_.
44. _Caste penalties_.
45. _The cultivating status_.
46. _Occupation_.
_Appendix. List of exogamous clans._
1. Numbers and derivation of name
_Kurmi_. [52]--The representative cultivating caste of Hindustan or
the country comprised roughly in the United Provinces, Bihar arid the
Central Provinces north of the Nerbudda. In 1911 the Kurmis numbered
about 300,000 persons in the Central Provinces, of whom half belonged
to the Chhattisgarh Division and a third to the Jubbulpore Division;
the Districts in which they were most numerous being Saugor, Damoh,
Jubbulpore, Hoshangabad, Raipur, Bilaspur and Drug. The name is
considered to be derived from the Sanskrit _krishi_, cultivation,
or from _kurma_, the tortoise incarnation of Vishnu, whether because
it is the totem of the caste or because, as suggested by one writer,
the Kurmi supports the population of India as the tortoise supports
the earth. It is true that many Kurmis say they belong to the Kashyap
_gotra_, Kashyap being the name of a Rishi, which seems to have been
derived from _kachhap_, the tortoise; but many other castes also
say they belong to the Kashyap _gotra_ or worship the tortoise,
and if this has any connection with the name of the caste it is
probable that the caste-name suggested the _gotra_-name and not the
reverse. It is highly improbable that a large occupational caste should
be named after an animal, and the metaphorical similitude can safely
be rejected. The name seems therefore either to come from _krishi_,
cultivation, or from some other unknown source.
2. Functional character of the caste
There seems little reason to doubt that the Kurmis, like the Kunbis,
are a functional caste. In Bihar they show traces of Aryan blood,
and are a fine-looking race. But in Chota Nagpur Sir H. Risley
states: "Short, sturdy and of very dark complexion, the Kurmis
closely resemble in feature the Dravidian tribes around them. It
is difficult to distinguish a Kurmi from a Bhumij or Santal, and
the Santals will take cooked food from them." [53] In the Central
Provinces they are fairly dark in complexion and of moderate height,
and no doubt of very mixed blood. Where the Kurmis and Kunbis meet the
castes sometimes amalgamate, and there is little doubt that various
groups of Kurmis settling in the Maratha country have become Kunbis,
and Kunbis migrating to northern India have become Kurmis. Each caste
has certain subdivisions whose names belong to the other. It has
been seen in the article on Kunbi that this caste is of very diverse
origin, having assimilated large bodies of persons from several other
castes, and is probably to a considerable extent recruited from the
local non-Aryan tribes; if then the Kurmis mix so readily with the
Kunbis, the presumption is that they are of a similar mixed origin,
as otherwise they should consider themselves superior. Mr. Crooke
gives several names of subcastes showing the diverse constitution of
the Kurmis. Thus three, Gaharwar, Jadon and Chandel are the names of
Rajput clans; the Kori subcaste must be a branch of the low weaver
caste of that name; and in the Central Provinces the names of such
subcastes as the Agaria or iron-workers, the Lonhare or salt-refiners,
and the Khaira or catechu-collectors indicate that these Kurmis are
derived from low Hindu castes or the aboriginal tribes.
3. Subcastes
The caste has a large number of subdivisions. The Usrete belonged
to Bundelkhand, where this name is found in several castes; they are
also known as Havelia, because they live in the rich level tract of
the Jubbulpore Haveli, covered like a chessboard with large embanked
wheat-fields. The name Haveli seems to have signified a palace or
headquarters of a ruler, and hence was applied to the tract surrounding
it, which was usually of special fertility, and provided for the
maintenance of the chief's establishment and household troops. Thus in
Jubbulpore, Mandia and Betul we find the forts of the old Gond rulers
dominating an expanse of rich plain-country. The Usrete Kurmis abstain
from meat and liquor, and may be considered as one of the highest
subcastes. Their name may be derived from _a-sreshtha,_ or not the
best, and its significance would be that formerly they were considered
to be of mixed origin, like most castes in Bundelkhand. The group of
Sreshtha or best-born Kurmis has now, however, died out if it ever
existed, and the Usretes have succeeded in establishing themselves in
its place. The Chandnahes of Jubbulpore or Chandnahus of Chhattisgarh
are another large subdivision. The name may be derived from the village
Chandnoha in Bundelkhand, but the Chandnahus of Chhattisgarh say that
three or four centuries ago a Rajput general of the Raja of Ratanpur
had been so successful in war that the king allowed him to appear
in Durbar in his uniform with his forehead marked with sandalwood,
as a special honour. When he died his son continued to do the same,
and on the king's attention being drawn to it he forbade him. But
the son did not obey, and hence the king ordered the sandalwood to be
rubbed from his forehead in open Durbar. But when this was done the
mark miraculously reappeared through the agency of the goddess Devi,
whose favourite he was. Three times the king had the mark rubbed
out and three times it came again. So he was allowed to wear it
thereafter, and was called Chandan Singh from _chandan_, sandalwood;
and his descendants are the Chandnahu Kurmis. Another derivation is
from Chandra, the moon. In Jubbulpore these Chandnahes sometimes kill
a pig under the palanquin of a newly married bride. In Bilaspur they
are prosperous and capable cultivators, but are generally reputed to
be stingy, and therefore are not very popular. Here they are divided
into the Ekbahinyas and Dobahinyas, or those who wear glass bangles
on one or both arms respectively. The Chandraha Kurmis of Raipur
are probably a branch of the Chandnahus. They sprinkle with water
the wood with which they are about to cook their food in order to
purify it, and will eat food only in the _chauka_ or sanctified place
in the house. At harvest when they must take meals in the fields,
one of them prepares a patch of ground, cleaning and watering it,
and there cooks food for them all.
The Singrore Kurmis derive their name from Singror, a place near
Allahabad. Singror is said to have once been a very important town,
and the Lodhis and other castes have subdivisions of this name. The
Desha Kurmis are a group of the Mungeli tahsil of Bilaspur. Desh
means one's native country, but in this case the name probably
refers to Bundelkhand. Mr. Gordon states [54] that they do not rear
poultry and avoid residing in villages in which their neighbours keep
poultry. The Santore Kurmis are a group found in several Districts,
who grow _san_-hemp, [55] and are hence looked down upon by the
remainder of the caste. In Raipur the Manwa Kurmis will also do
this; Mana is a word sometimes applied to a loom, and the Manwa
Kurmis may be so called because they grow hemp and weave sacking
from the fibres. The Pataria are an inferior group in Bilaspur, who
are similarly despised because they grow hemp and will take their
food in the fields in _patris_ or leaf-plates. The Gohbaiyan are
considered to be an illegitimate group; the name is said to signify
'holding the arm.' The Bahargaiyan, or 'those who live outside the
town,' are another subcaste to which children born out of wedlock
are relegated. The Palkiha subcaste of Jubbulpore are said to be
so named because their ancestors were in the service of a certain
Raja and spread his bedding for him; hence they are somewhat looked
down on by the others. The name may really be derived from _palal_,
a kind of vegetable, and they may originally have been despised for
growing this vegetable, and thus placing themselves on a level with
the gardening castes. The Masuria take their name from the _masur_
or lentil, a common cold-weather crop in the northern Districts,
which is, however, grown by all Kurmis and other cultivators; and the
Agaria or iron-workers, the Kharia or catechu-makers, and the Lonhare
or salt-makers, have already been mentioned. There are also numerous
local or territorial subcastes, as the Chaurasia or those living
in a Chaurasi [56] estate of eighty-four villages, the Pardeshi or
foreigners, the Bundelkhandi or those who came from Bundelkhand, the
Kanaujias from Oudh, the Gaur from northern India, and the Marathe and
Telenge or Marathas and Telugus; these are probably Kunbis who have
been taken into the caste. The Gabel are a small subcaste in Sakti
State, who now prefer to drop the name Kurmi and call themselves simply
Gabel. The reason apparently is that the other Kurmis about them sow
_san_-hemp, and as they have ceased doing this they try to separate
themselves and rank above the rest. But they call the bastard group
of their community Rakhaut Kurmis, and other people speak of all of
them as Gabel Kurmis, so that there is no doubt that they belong to
the caste. It is said that formerly they were pack-carriers, but have
now abandoned this calling in favour of cultivation.
4. Exogamous groups
Each subcaste has a number of exogamous divisions and these present
a large variety of all types. Some groups have the names of Brahman
saints as Sandil, Bharadwaj, Kausil and Kashyap; others are called
after Rajput septs, as Chauhan, Rathor, Panwar and Solanki; other
names are of villages, as Khairagarhi from Khairagarh, Pandariha from
Pandaria, Bhadaria, and Harkotia from Harkoti; others are titular,
as Sondeha, gold-bodied, Sonkharchi, spender of gold, Bimba Lohir,
stick-carrier, Banhpagar, one wearing a thread on the arm, Bhandari,
a store-keeper, Kumaria, a potter, and Shikaria, a hunter; and a
large number are totemistic, named after plants, animals or natural
objects, as Sadaphal, a fruit; Kathail from _kath_ or catechu; Dhorha,
from _dhor_, cattle; Kansia, the _kans_ grass; Karaiya, a frying-pan;
Sarang, a peacock; Samundha, the ocean; Sindia, the date-palm tree;
Dudhua from _dudh_, milk, and so on. Some sections are subdivided;
thus the Tidha section, supposed to be named after a village, is
divided into three subsections named Ghurepake, a mound of cowdung,
Dwarparke, door-jamb, and Jangi, a warrior, which are themselves
exogamous. Similarly the Chaudhri section, named after the title of
the caste headman, is divided into four subsections, two, Majhgawan
Bamuria, named after villages, and two, Purwa Thok and Pascham Thok,
signifying the eastern and western groups. Presumably when sections
get so large as to bar the marriage of persons not really related to
each other at all, relief is obtained by subdividing them in this
manner. A list of the sections of certain subcastes so far as they
have been obtained is given at the end of the article.
5. Marriage rules. Betrothal
Marriage is prohibited between members of the same section and between
first and second cousins on the mother's side. But the Chandnahe
Kurmis permit the wedding of a brother's daughter to a sister's
son. Most Kurmis forbid a man to marry his wife's sister during her
lifetime. The Chhattisgarh Kurmis have the practice of exchanging
girls between two families. There is usually no objection to marriage
on account of religious differences within the pale of Hinduism,
but the difficulty of a union between a member of a Vaishnava sect
who abstains from flesh and liquor, and a partner who does not,
is felt and expressed in the following saying:
Vaishnava purush avaishnava nari
Unt beil ki jot bichari,
or 'A Vaishnava husband with a non-Vaishnava wife is like a camel
yoked with a bullock.' Muhammadans and Christians are not retained
in the caste. Girls are usually wedded between nine and eleven, but
well-to-do Kurmis like other agriculturists, sometimes marry their
daughters when only a few months old. The people say that when a
Kurmi gets rich he will do three things: marry his daughters very
young and with great display, build a fine house, and buy the best
bullocks he can afford. The second and third methods of spending his
money are very sensible, whatever may be thought of the first. No
penalty is imposed for allowing a girl to exceed the age of puberty
before marriage. Boys are married between nine and fifteen years,
but the tendency is towards the postponement of the ceremony. The
boy's father goes and asks for a bride and says to the girl's father,
'I have placed my son with you,' that is, given him in adoption;
if the match be acceptable the girl's father replies, 'Yes, I will
give my daughter to collect cowdung for you'; to which the boy's
father responds, 'I will hold her as the apple of my eye.' Then the
girl's father sends the barber and the Brahman to the boy's house,
carrying a rupee and a cocoanut. The boy's relatives return the
visit and perform the '_God bharna_,' or 'Filling the lap of the
girl.' They take some sweetmeats, a rupee and a cocoanut, and place
them in the girl's lap, this being meant to induce fertility. The
ceremony of betrothal succeeds, when the couple are seated together
on a wooden plank and touch the feet of the guests and are blessed
by them. The auspicious date of the wedding is fixed by the Brahman
and intimation is given to the boy's family through the _lagan_
or formal invitation, which is sent on a paper coloured yellow with
powdered rice and turmeric. A bride-price is paid, which in the case
of well-to-do families may amount to as much as Rs. 100 to Rs. 400.
6. The marriage-shed or pavilion
Before the wedding the women of the family go out and fetch new earth
for making the stoves on which the marriage feast will be cooked. When
about to dig they worship the earth by sprinkling water over it and
offering flowers and rice. The marriage-shed is made of the wood of
the _saleh_ tree, [57] because this wood is considered to be alive. If
a pole of _saleh_ is cut and planted in the ground it takes root and
sprouts, though otherwise the wood is quite useless. The wood of the
_kekar_ tree has similar properties and may also be used. The shed is
covered with leaves of the mango or _jamun_ [58] trees, because these
trees are evergreen and hence typify perpetual life. The marriage-post
in the centre of the shed is called Magrohan or Kham; the women go and
worship it at the carpenter's house; two pice, a piece of turmeric and
an areca-nut are buried below it in the earth and a new thread and a
_toran_ or string of mango-leaves is wound round it. Oil and turmeric
are also rubbed on the marriage-post at the same time as on the bride
and bridegroom. In Saugor the marriage-post is often a four-sided
wooden frame or a pillar with four pieces of wood suspended from
it. The larger the marriage-shed is made the greater honour accrues to
the host, even though the guests may be insufficient to fill it. In
towns it has often to be made in the street and is an obstacle to
traffic. There may be eight or ten posts besides the centre one.
7. The marriage-cakes
Another preliminary ceremony is the family sacrament of the Meher or
marriage-cakes. Small balls of wheat-flour are kneaded and fried in
an earthen pan with sesamum oil by the eldest woman of the family. No
metal vessel may be used to hold the water, flour or oil required for
these cakes, probably because earthen vessels were employed before
metal ones and are therefore considered more sacred. In measuring the
ingredients a quarter of a measure is always taken in excess, such
as a seer [59] and a quarter for a seer of wheat, to foreshadow the
perpetual increase of the family. When made the cakes are offered to
the Kul Deo or household god. The god is worshipped and the bride and
bridegroom then first partake of the cakes and after them all members
of the family and relatives. Married daughters and daughters-in-law
may eat of the cakes, but not widows, who are probably too impure
to join in a sacred sacrament Every person admitted to partake of
the marriage-cakes is held to belong to the family, so that all
other members of it have to observe impurity for ten days after a
birth or death has occurred in his house and shave their heads for
a death. When the family is so large that this becomes irksome it is
cut down by not inviting persons beyond seven degrees of relationship
to the Meher sacrament This exclusion has sometimes led to bitter
quarrels and actions for defamation. It seems likely that the Meher
may be a kind of substitute for the sacrificial meal, at which all
the members of the clan ate the body of the totem or divine animal,
and some similar significance perhaps once attached to the wedding-cake
in England, pieces of which are sent to relatives unable to be present
at the wedding.
8. Customs at the wedding
Before the wedding the women of each party go and anoint the village
gods with oil and turmeric, worshipping them, and then similarly
anoint the bride and bridegroom at their respective houses for three
days. The bridegroom's head is shaved except for his scalp-lock;
he wears a silver necklet on his neck, puts lamp-black on his eyes,
and is dressed in new yellow and white clothes. Thus attired he goes
round and worships all the village gods and visits the houses of his
relatives and friends, who mark his forehead with rice and turmeric
and give him a silver piece. A list of the money thus received is
made and similar presents are returned to the donors when they have
weddings. The bridegroom goes to the wedding either in a litter or
on a horse, and must not look behind him. After being received at
the bride's village and conducted to his lodging, he proceeds to the
bride's house and strikes a grass mat hung before the house seven
times with a reed-stick. On entering the bride's house the bridegroom
is taken to worship her family gods, the men of the party usually
remaining outside. Then, as he goes through the room, one of the
women who has tied a long thread round her toe gets behind him and
measures his height with the thread without his seeing. She breaks
off the thread at his height and doubling it once or twice sews it
round the top of the bride's skirt, and they think that as long as
the bride wears this thread she will be able to make her husband do
as she likes. If the girls wish to have a joke they take one of the
bridegroom's shoes which he has left outside the house, wrap it up
in a piece of cloth, and place it on a shelf or in a cupboard, where
the family god would be kept, with two lamps burning before it. Then
they say to the bridegroom, 'Come and worship our household god';
and if he goes and does reverence to it they unwrap the cloth and
show him his own shoe and laugh at him. But if he has been to one or
two weddings and knows the joke he just gives it a kick. The bride's
younger brother steals the bridegroom's other shoe and hides it, and
will not give it back without a present of a rupee or two. The bride
and bridegroom are seated on wooden seats, and while the Brahman
recites texts, they make the following promises. The bridegroom
covenants to live with his wife and her children, to support them
and tell her all his concerns, consult her, make her a partner of
his religious worship and almsgiving, and be with her on the night
following the termination of her monthly impurity. The bride promises
to remain faithful to her husband, to obey his wishes and orders,
to perform her household duties as well as she can, and not to go
anywhere without his permission. The last promise of the bridegroom has
reference to the general rule among Hindus that a man should always
sleep with his wife on the night following the termination of her
menses because at this time she is most likely to conceive and the
prospect of a child being born must not be lost. The Shastras lay it
down that a man should not visit his wife before going into battle,
this being no doubt an instance of the common custom of abstinence from
conjugal intercourse prior to some important business or undertaking;
but it is stated that if on such an occasion she should have just
completed a period of impurity and have bathed and should desire him
to come in to her, he should do so, even with his armour on, because
by refusing, in the event of his being killed in battle, the chance of
a child being born would be finally lost. To Hindu ideas the neglect
to produce life is a sin of the same character, though in a minor
degree, as that of destroying life; and it is to be feared that it
will be some time before this ingrained superstition gives way to
any considerations of prudential restraint Some people say that for
a man not to visit his wife at this time is as great a sin as murder.
9. Walking round the sacred post
The binding ceremony of the marriage is the walking seven times round
the marriage-post in the direction of the sun. The post probably
represents the sun and the walk of the bridal couple round it may
be an imitation of the movement of the planets round the sun. The
reverence paid to the marriage-post has already been noticed. During
the procession the bride leads and the bridegroom puts his left hand
on her left shoulder. The household pounding-slab is near the post
and on it are placed seven little heaps of rice, turmeric, areca-nut,
and a small winnowing-fan. Each time the bride passes the slab the
bridegroom catches her right foot and with it makes her brush one of
the little heaps off the slab. These seven heaps represent the seven
Rishis or saints who are the seven large stars of the constellation
of the Great Bear.
10. Other ceremonies
After the wedding the bride and bridegroom resume their seats and
the parents of the bride wash their feet in a brass tray, marking
their foreheads with rice and turmeric. They put some silver in
the tray, and other relations and friends do the same. The presents
thus collected go to the bridegroom. The Chandnahu Kurmis then have
a ceremony known as _palkachar_. The bride's father provides a bed
on which a mattress and quilt are laid and the bride and bridegroom
are seated on it, while their brother and sister sprinkle parched
rice round them. This is supposed to typify the consummation of the
marriage, but the ceremony is purely formal as the bridal couple are
children. The bridegroom is given two lamps and he has to mix their
flames, probably to symbolise the mixing of the spirits of his wife and
himself. He requires a present of a rupee or two before he consents to
do so. During the wedding the bride is bathed in the same water as the
bridegroom, the joint use of the sacred element being perhaps another
symbolic mark of their union. At the feasts the bride eats rice and
milk with her husband from one dish, once at her own house and once
after she goes to her husband's house. Subsequently she never eats
with her husband but always after him. She also sits and eats at the
wedding-feasts with her husband's relations. This is perhaps meant
to mark her admission into her husband's clan. After the wedding
the Brahmans on either side recite Sanskrit verses, praising their
respective families and displaying their own learning. The competition
often becomes bitter and would end in a quarrel, but that the elders
of the party interfere and stop it.
The expenses of an ordinary wedding on the bridegroom's side
may be Rs. 100 in addition to the bride-price, and on the bride's
Rs. 200. The bride goes home for a day or two with the bridegroom's
party in Chhattisgarh but not in the northern Districts, as women
accompany the wedding procession in the former but not in the latter
locality. If she is too small to go, her shoes and marriage-crown
are sent to represent her. When she attains maturity the _chauk_ or
_gauna_ ceremony is performed, her husband going to fetch her with
a few friends. At this time her parents give her clothes, food and
ornaments in a basket called _jhanpi_ or _tipara_ specially prepared
for the occasion.
11. Polygamy widow-marriage and divorce
A girl who becomes pregnant by a man of the caste before marriage is
wedded to him by the rite used for widows. If the man is an outsider
she is expelled from the community. Women are much valued for the
sake of their labour in the fields, and the transgressions of a
wife are viewed with a lenient eye. In Damoh it is said that a man
readily condones his wife's adultery with another Kurmi, and if it
becomes known and she is put out of caste, he will give the penalty
feasts himself for her admission. If she is detected in a _liaison_
with an outsider she is usually discarded, but the offence may be
condoned should the man be a Brahman. And one instance is mentioned
of a malguzar's wife who had gone wrong with a Gond, and was forgiven
and taken back by her husband and the caste. But the leniency was
misplaced as she subsequently eloped with an Ahir. Polygamy is usual
with those who can afford to pay for several wives, as a wife's labour
is more efficient and she is a more profitable investment than a hired
servant. An instance is on record of a blind Kurmi in Jubbulpore, who
had nine wives. A man who is faithful to one wife, and does not visit
her on fast-days, is called a Brahmachari or saint and it is thought
that he will go to heaven. The remarriage of widows is permitted and is
usual. The widow goes to a well on some night in the dark fortnight,
and leaving her old clothes there puts on new ones which are given to
her by the barber's wife. She then fills a pitcher with water and takes
it to her new husband's house. He meets her on the threshold and lifts
it from her head, and she goes into the house and puts bangles on her
wrists. The following saying shows that the second marriage of widows
is looked upon as quite natural and normal by the cultivating castes:
"If the clouds are like partridge feathers it will rain, and if a
widow puts lamp-black on her eyes she will marry again; these things
are certain." [60]
A bachelor marrying a widow must first go through the ceremony with
a ring which he thereafter wears on his finger, and if it is lost he
must perform a funeral ceremony as if a wife had died. If a widower
marries a girl she must wear round her neck an image of his first
wife. A girl who is twice married by going round the sacred post is
called Chandelia and is most unlucky. She is considered as bad or
worse than a widow, and the people sometimes make her live outside
the village and forbid her to show them her face. Divorce is open to
either party, to a wife on account of the impotency or ill-treatment
of her husband, and to a husband for the bad character, ill-health
or quarrelsome disposition of his wife. A deed of divorce is executed
and delivered before the caste committee.
12. Impurity of women
During her periodical impurity, which lasts for four or five days, a
woman should not sleep on a cot. She must not walk across the shadow
of any man not her husband, because it is thought that if she does
so her next child will be like that man. Formerly she did not see
her husband's face for all these days, but this rule was too irksome
and has been abandoned. She should eat the same kind of food for the
whole period, and therefore must take nothing special on one day which
she cannot get on other days. At this time she will let her hair hang
loose, taking out all the cotton strings by which it is tied up. [61]
These strings, being cotton, have become impure, and must be thrown
away. But if there is no other woman to do the household work and she
has to do it herself, she will keep her hair tied up for convenience,
and only throw away the strings on the last day when she bathes. All
cotton things are rendered impure by her at this time, and any cloth
or other article which she touches must be washed before it can be
touched by anybody else; but woollen cloth, being sacred, is not
rendered impure, and she can sleep on a woollen blanket without its
thereby becoming a defilement to other persons. When bathing at the
end of the period a woman should see no other face but her husband's;
but as her husband is usually not present, she wears a ring with a
tiny mirror and looks at her own face in this as a substitute.
If a woman desires to procure a miscarriage she eats a raw _papaya_
fruit, and drinks a mixture of ginger, sugar, bamboo leaves and milk
boiled together. She then has her abdomen well rubbed by a professional
_masseuse_, who comes at a time when she can escape observation. After
a prolonged course of this treatment it is said that a miscarriage is
obtained. It would seem that the rubbing is the only treatment which
is directly effective. The _papaya_, which is a very digestible fruit,
can hardly be of assistance, but may be eaten from some magical idea of
its resemblance to a foetus. The mixture drunk is perhaps designed to
be a tonic to the stomach against the painful effects of the massage.
13. Pregnancy rites
As regards pregnancy Mr. Marten writes as follows: [62] "A woman
in pregnancy is in a state of taboo and is peculiarly liable to the
influence of magic and in some respects dangerous to others. She is
exempt from the observance of fasts, is allowed any food she fancies,
and is fed with sweets and all sorts of rich food, especially in the
fifth month. She should not visit her neighbour's houses nor sleep
in any open place. Her clothes are kept separate from others. She
is subject to a large number of restrictions in her ordinary life
with a view of avoiding everything that might prejudice or retard her
delivery. She should eschew all red clothes or red things of any sort,
such as suggest blood, till the third or fourth month, when conception
is certain. She will be careful not to touch the dress of any woman
who has had a miscarriage. She will not cross running water, as it
might cause premature delivery, nor go near a she-buffalo or a mare
lest delivery be retarded, since a mare is twelve months in foal. If
she does by chance approach these animals she must propitiate them
by offerings of grain. Nor in some cases will she light a lamp,
for fear the flame in some way may hurt the child. She should not
finish any sowing, previously begun, during pregnancy, nor should her
husband thatch the house or repair his axe. An eclipse is particularly
dangerous to the unborn child and she must not leave the house during
its continuance, but must sit still with a stone pestle in her lap and
anoint her womb with cowdung. Under no circumstances must she touch any
cutting instrument as it might cause her child to be born mutilated.
"During the fifth month of pregnancy the family gods are worshipped
to avoid generally any difficulties in her labour. Towards the end of
that month and sometimes in the seventh month she rubs her body with
a preparation of gram-flour, castor-oil and turmeric, bathes herself,
and is clothed with new garments and seated on a wooden stool in a
space freshly cleaned and spread with cowdung. Her lap is then filled
with sweets called _pakwan_ made of cocoanut. A similar ceremony
called Boha Jewan is sometimes performed in the seventh or eighth
month, when a new _sari_ is given to her and grain is thrown into her
lap. Another special rite is the _Pansavan_ ceremony, performed to
remove all defects in the child, give it a male form, increase its size
and beauty, give it wisdom and avert the influence of evil spirits."
14. Earth-eating
Pregnant women sometimes have a craving for eating earth. They eat
the earth which has been mixed with wheat on the threshing-floor,
or the ashes of cowdung cakes which have been used for cooking. They
consider it as a sort of medicine which will prevent them from
vomiting. Children also sometimes get the taste for eating earth,
licking it up from the floor, or taking pieces of lime-plaster from
the walls. Possibly they may be attracted by the saltish taste, but
the result is that they get ill and their stomachs are distended. The
Panwar women of Balaghat eat red and white clay in order that their
children may be born with red and white complexions.
15. Customs at birth
During the period of labour the barber's wife watches over the case,
but as delivery approaches hands it over to a recognised midwife,
usually the Basorin or Chamarin, who remains in the lying-in room
till about the tenth day after delivery. "If delivery is retarded,"
Mr. Marten continues, [63] "pressure and massage are used, but coffee
and other herbal decoctions are given, and various means, mostly
depending on sympathetic magic, are employed to avert the adverse
spirits and hasten and ease the labour. She may be given water to
drink in which the feet of her husband [64] or her mother-in-law or a
young unmarried girl have been dipped, or she is shown the _swastik_
or some other lucky sign, or the _chakra-vyuha_, a spiral figure
showing the arrangement of the armies of the Pandavas and Kauravas
which resembles the intestines with the exit at the lower end."
The menstrual blood of the mother during child-birth is efficacious as
a charm for fertility. The Nain or Basorin will sometimes try and dip
her big toe into it and go to her house. There she will wash her toe
and give the water to a barren woman, who by drinking it will transfer
to herself the fertility of the woman whose blood it is. The women
of the family are in the lying-in room and they watch her carefully,
while some of the men stand about outside. If they see the midwife
coming out they examine her, and if they find any blood exclaim,
'You have eaten of our salt and will you play us this trick'; and
they force her back into the room where the blood is washed off. All
the stained clothes are washed in the birth-room, and the water as
well as that in which the mother and child are bathed is poured into
a hole dug inside the room, so that none of it may be used as a charm.
16. Treatment of mother and child
The great object of the treatment after birth is to prevent the mother
and child from catching cold. They appear to confuse the symptoms of
pneumonia and infantile lockjaw in a disease called _sanpat_, to the
prevention of which their efforts are directed. A _sigri_ or stove
is kept alight under the bed, and in this the seeds of _ajwain_ or
coriander are burnt. The mother eats the seeds, and the child is waved
over the stove in the smoke of the burning _ajwain_. Raw asafoetida
is put in the woman's ears wrapped in cotton-wool, and she eats a
little half-cooked. A freshly-dried piece of cowdung is also picked
up from the ground and half-burnt and put in water, and some of this
water is given to her to drink, the process being repeated every day
for a month. Other details of the treatment of the mother and child
after birth are given in the articles on Mehtar and Kunbi. For the
first five days after birth the child is given a little honey and
calf's urine mixed. If the child coughs it is given _bans-lochan_,
which is said to be some kind of silicate found in bamboos. The mother
does not suckle the child for three days, and for that period she is
not washed and nobody goes near her, at least in Mandla. On the third
day after the birth of a girl, or the fourth after that of a boy, the
mother is washed and the child is then suckled by her for the first
time, at an auspicious moment pointed out by the astrologer. Generally
speaking the whole treatment of child-birth is directed towards the
avoidance of various imaginary magical dangers, while the real sanitary
precautions and other assistance which should be given to the mother
are not only totally neglected, but the treatment employed greatly
aggravates the ordinary risks which a woman has to take, especially
in the middle and higher castes.
17. Ceremonies after birth
When a boy is born the father's younger brother or one of his friends
lets off a gun and beats a brass plate to proclaim the event The women
often announce the birth of a boy by saying that it is a one-eyed
girl. This is in case any enemy should hear the mention of the boy's
birth, and the envy felt by him should injure the child. On the sixth
day after the birth the Chhathi ceremony is performed and the mother is
given ordinary food to eat, as described in the article on Kunbi. The
twelfth day is known as Barhon or Chauk. On this day the father is
shaved for the first time after the child's birth. The mother bathes
and cuts the nails of her hands and feet; if she is living by a river
she throws them into it, otherwise on to the roof of the house. The
father and mother sit in the _chauk_ or space marked out for worship
with cowdung and flour; the woman is on the man's left side, a woman
being known as Bamangi or the left limb, either because the left limb
is weak or because woman is supposed to have been made from man's left
side, as in Genesis. The household god is brought into the _chauk_
and they worship it. The Bua or husband's sister brings presents to
the mother known as _bharti_, for filling her lap: silver or gold
bangles if she can afford them, a coat and cap for the boy; dates,
rice and a breast-cloth for the mother; for the father a rupee and a
cocoanut. These things are placed in the mother's lap as a charm to
sustain her fertility. The father gives his sister back double the
value of the presents if he can afford it. He gives her husband a
head-cloth and shoulder-cloth; he waves two or three pice round his
wife's head and gives them to the barber's wife. The latter and the
midwife take the clothes worn by the mother at child-birth, and the
father gives them each a new cloth if he can afford it. The part of
the navel-string which falls off the child's body is believed to have
the power of rendering a barren woman fertile, and is also intimately
connected with the child's destiny. It is therefore carefully preserved
and buried in some auspicious place, as by the bank of a river.
In the sixth month the Pasni ceremony is performed, when the child is
given grain for the first time, consisting of rice and milk. Brahmans
or religious mendicants are invited and fed. The child's hair and
nails are cut for the first time on the Shivratri or Akti festival
following the birth, and are wrapped up in a ball of dough and thrown
into a sacred river. If a child is born during an eclipse they think
that it will suffer from lung disease; so a silver model of the moon
is made immediately during the eclipse, and hung round the child's
neck, and this is supposed to preserve it from harm.
18. Suckling children
A Hindu woman will normally suckle her child for two to three years
after its birth, and even beyond this up to six years if it sleeps
with her. But they think that the child becomes short of breath if
suckled for so long, and advise the mother to wean it. And if she
becomes pregnant again, when she has been three or four months in this
condition, she will wean the child by putting _nim_ leaves or some
other bitter thing on her breasts. A Hindu should not visit his wife
for the last six months of her pregnancy nor until the child has been
fed with grain for the first time six months after its birth. During
the former period such action is thought to be a sin, while during
the latter it may have the effect of rendering the mother pregnant
again too quickly, and hence may not allow her a sufficiently long
period to suckle the first child.
19. Beliefs about twins
Twins, Mr. Marten states, are not usually considered to be
inauspicious. [65] "It is held that if they are of the same sex they
will survive, and if they are of a different sex one of them will
die. Boy twins are called Rama and Lachhman, a boy and a girl Mahadeo
and Parvati, and two girls Ganga and Jamuni or Sita and Konda. They
should always be kept separate so as to break the essential connection
which exists between them and may cause any misfortune which happens
to the one to extend to the other. Thus the mother always sleeps
between them in bed and never carries both of them nor suckles both
at the same time. Again, among some castes in Chhattisgarh, when the
twins are of different sex, they are considered to be _pap_ (sinful)
and are called Papi and Papin, an allusion to the horror of a brother
and sister sharing the same bed (the mother's womb)." Hindus think
that if two people comb their hair with the same comb they will lose
their affection for each other. Hence the hair of twins is combed with
the same comb to weaken the tie which exists between them, and may
cause the illness or death of either to follow on that of the other.
20. Disposal of the dead
The dead are usually burnt with the head to the north. Children whose
ears have not been bored and adults who die of smallpox or leprosy are
buried, and members of poor families who cannot afford firewood. If a
person has died by hanging or drowning or from the bite of a snake,
his body is burnt without any rites, but in order that his soul
may be saved, the _hom_ sacrifice is performed subsequently to the
cremation. Those who live near the Nerbudda and Mahanadi sometimes
throw the bodies of the dead into these rivers and think that this will
make them go to heaven. The following account of a funeral ceremony
among the middle and higher castes in Saugor is mainly furnished
by Major W. D. Sutherland, I.M.S., with some additions from Mandla,
and from material furnished by the Rev. E. M. Gordon: [66] "When a
man is near his end, gifts to Brahmans are made by him, or by his son
on his behalf. These, if he is a rich man, consist of five cows with
their calves, marked on the forehead and hoofs with turmeric, and
with garlands of flowers round their necks. Ordinary people give the
price of one calf, which is fictitiously taken at Rs. 3-4, Rs. 1-4,
ten annas or five annas according to their means. By holding on to
the tail of this calf the dead man will be able to swim across the
dreadful river Vaitarni, the Hindu Styx. This calf is called Bachra
Sankal or 'the chain-calf,' as it furnishes a chain across the river,
and it may be given three times, once before the death and twice
afterwards. When near his end the dying man is taken down from his
cot and laid on a woollen blanket spread on the ground, perhaps with
the idea that he should at death be in contact with the earth and not
suspended in mid-air as a man on a cot is held to be. In his mouth
are placed a piece of gold, some leaves of the _tulsi_ or basil plant,
or Ganges water, or rice cooked in Jagannath's temple. The dying man
keeps on repeating 'Ram, Ram, Sitaram.'"
21. Funeral rites
As soon as death occurs the corpse is bathed, clothed and smeared
with a mixture of powdered sandalwood, camphor and spices. A bier is
constructed of planks, or if this cannot be afforded the man's cot
is turned upside down and the body is carried out for burial on it
in this fashion, with the legs of the cot pointing upwards. Straw
is laid on the bier, and the corpse, covered with fine white cloth,
is tied securely on to it, the hands being crossed on the breast, with
the thumbs and great toes tied together. When a married woman dies she
is covered with a red cloth which reaches only to the neck, and her
face is left open to the view of everybody, whether she went abroad
unveiled in her life or not. It is considered a highly auspicious
thing for a woman to die in the lifetime of her husband and children,
and the corpse is sometimes dressed like a bride and ornaments put on
it. The corpse of a widow or girl is wrapped in a white cloth with
the head covered. At the head of the funeral procession walks the
son of the deceased, or other chief mourner, and in his hand he takes
smouldering cowdung cakes in an earthen pot, from which the pyre will
be kindled. This fire is brought from the hearth of the house by the
barber, and he sometimes also carries it to the pyre. On the way the
mourners change places so that each may assist in bearing the bier,
and once they set the bier on the ground and leave two pice and some
grain where it lay, before taking it up again. After the funeral each
person who has helped to carry it takes up a clod of earth and with it
touches successively the place on his shoulder where the bier rested,
his waist and his knee, afterwards dropping the clod on the ground. It
is believed that by so doing he removes from his shoulder the weight
of the corpse, which would otherwise press on it for some time.
22. Burning the dead
At the cremation-ground the corpse is taken from the bier and placed on
the pyre. The cloth which covered it and that on which it lay are given
to a sweeper, who is always present to receive this perquisite. To the
corpse's mouth, eyes, ears, nostrils and throat is applied a mixture
of barley-flour, butter, sesamum seeds and powdered sandalwood. Logs
of wood and cowdung cakes are then piled on the body and the pyre is
fired by the son, who first holds a burning stick to the mouth of the
corpse as if to inform it that he is about to apply the fire. The pyre
of a man is fired at the head and of a woman at the foot. Rich people
burn the corpse with sandalwood, and others have a little of this,
and incense and sweet-smelling gum. Nowadays if the rain comes on
and the pyre will not burn they use kerosine oil. When the body is
half-consumed the son takes up a piece of wood and with it strikes
the skull seven times, to break it and give exit to the soul. This,
however, is not always done. The son then takes up on his right
shoulder an earthen pot full of water, at the bottom of which is a
small hole. He walks round the pyre three times in the direction of
the sun's course and stands facing to the south, and dashes the pot
on the ground, crying out in his grief, 'Oh, my father.' While this
is going on _mantras_ or sacred verses are recited by the officiating
Brahman. When the corpse is partly consumed each member of the assembly
throws the _Panch lakariya_ (five pieces of wood or sprigs of basil)
on to the pyre, making obeisance to the deceased and saying, '_Swarg ko
jao_,' or 'Ascend to heaven.' Or they may say, 'Go, become incarnate
in some human being.' They stay by the corpse for 1 1/4 _pahars_
or watches or some four hours, until either the skull is broken by
the chief mourner or breaks of itself with a crack. Then they bathe
and come home and after some hours again return to the corpse, to
see that it is properly burnt. If the pyre should go out and a dog
or other animal should get hold of the corpse when it is half-burnt,
all the relatives are put out of caste, and have to give a feast to
all the caste, costing for a rich family about Rs. 50 and for a poor
one Rs. 10 to Rs. 15. Then they return home and chew _nim_ leaves,
which are bitter and purifying, and spit them out of their mouth,
thus severing their connection with the corpse. When the mourners
have left the deceased's house the women of the family bathe, the
bangles of the widow are broken, the vermilion on the parting of her
hair and the glass ornament (_tikli_) on her forehead are removed,
and she is clad in white clothing of coarse texture to show that
henceforth she is only a widow.
On the third day the mourners go again and collect the ashes and throw
them into the nearest river. The bones are placed in a silken bag or
an earthen pot or a leaf basket, and taken to the Ganges or Nerbudda
within ten days if possible, or otherwise after a longer interval,
being buried meantime. Some milk, salt and calfs urine are sprinkled
over the place where the corpse was burnt. These will cool the place,
and the soul of the dead will similarly be cooled, and a cow will
probably come and lick up the salt, and this will sanctify the place
and also the soul. When the bones are to be taken to a sacred river
they are tied up in a little piece of cloth and carried at the end of
a stick by the chief mourner, who is usually accompanied by several
caste-fellows. At night during the journey this stick is planted in
the ground, so that the bones may not touch the earth.
23. Burial
Graves are always dug from north to south. Some people say that heaven
is to the north, being situated in the Himalayas, and others that
In the Satyug or Golden Age the sun rose to the north. The digging
of the grave only commences on the arrival of the funeral party, so
there is of necessity a delay of several hours at the site, and all
who attend a funeral are supposed to help in digging. It is considered
to be meritorious to assist at a burial, and there is a saying that a
man who has himself conducted a hundred funerals will become a Raja in
his next birth. When the grave has been filled in and a mound raised
to mark the spot, each person present makes five small balls of earth
and places them in a heap at the head of the grave. This custom is also
known as _Panch lakariya_, and must therefore be an imitation of the
placing of the five sticks on the pyre; its original meaning in the
latter case may have been that the mourners should assist the family
by bringing a contribution of wood to the pyre. As adopted in burial
it seems to have no special significance, but somewhat resembles the
European custom of the mourners throwing a little dust into the grave.
24. Return of the soul
On the third day the _pindas_ or sacrificial cakes are offered and
this goes on till the tenth day. These cakes are not eaten by the
priest or Maha-Brahman, but are thrown into a river. On the evening
of the third day the son goes, accompanied by a Brahman and a barber,
and carrying a key to avert evil, to a pipal [67] tree, on whose
branches he hangs two earthen pots: one containing water, which
trickles out through a hole in the bottom, and the other a lamp. On
each succeeding night the son replenishes the contents of these pots,
which are intended to refresh the spirit of the deceased and to light
it on its way to the lower world. In some localities on the evening
of the third day the ashes of the cooking-place are sifted, and laid
out on a tray at night on the spot where the deceased died, or near
the cooking-place. In the morning the layer of ashes is inspected,
and if what appears to be a hand- or footprint is seen, it is held
that the spirit of the deceased has visited the house. Some people
look for handprints, some for footprints, and some for both, and the
Nais look for the print of a cow's hoof, which when seen is held to
prove that the deceased in consideration of his singular merits has
been reborn a cow. If a woman has died in child-birth, or after the
birth of a child and before the performance of the sixth-day ceremony
of purification, her hands are tied with a cotton thread when she is
buried, in order that her spirit may be unable to rise and trouble
the living. It is believed that the souls of such women become evil
spirits or _Churels_. Thorns are also placed over her grave for the
same purpose.
25. Mourning
During the days of mourning the chief mourner sits apart and does
no work. The others do their work but do not touch any one else,
as they are impure. They leave their hair unkempt, do not worship
the gods nor sleep on cots, and abjure betel, milk, butter, curds,
meat, the wearing of shoes, new clothes and other luxuries. In these
days the friends of the family come and comfort the mourners with
conversation on the shortness and uncertainty of human life and
kindred topics. During the period of mourning when the family go
to bathe they march one behind the other in Indian file. And on the
last day all the people of the village accompany them, the men first
and after they have returned the women, all marching one behind the
other. They also come back in this manner from the actual funeral,
and the idea is perhaps to prevent the dead man's spirit from following
them. He would probably feel impelled to adopt the same formation and
fall in behind the last of the line, and then some means is devised,
such as spreading thorns in the path, for leaving him behind.
26. Shaving, and presents to Brahmans
On the ninth, tenth or eleventh day the males of the family have the
front of the head from the crown, and the beard and moustaches, shaved
in token of mourning. The Maha-Brahman who receives the gifts for the
dead is shaved with them. This must be done for an elder relation,
but a man need not be shaved on the death of his wife, sister or
children. The day is the end of mourning and is called Gauri Ganesh,
Gauri being Parvati or the wife of Siva, and Ganesh the god of good
fortune. On the occasion the family give to the Maha-Brahman [68]
a new cot and bedding with a cloth, an umbrella to shield the spirit
from the sun's rays, a copper vessel full of water to quench its
thirst, a brass lamp to guide it on its journey, and if the family
is well-to-do a horse and a cow, All these things are meant to be for
the use of the dead man in the other world. It is also the Brahman's
business to eat a quantity of cooked food, which will form the dead
man's food. It is of great spiritual importance to the dead man's
soul that the Brahman should finish the dish set before him, and if
he does not do so the soul will fare badly. He takes advantage of
this by stopping in the middle of the meal, saying that he has eaten
all he is capable of and cannot go on, so that the relations have
to give him large presents to induce him to finish the food. These
Maha-Brahmans are utterly despised and looked down on by all other
Brahmans and by the community generally, and are sometimes made to
live outside the village. The regular priest, the Malai or Purohit,
can accept no gifts from the time of the death to the end of the period
of mourning. Afterwards he also receives presents in money according
to the means of his clients, which it is supposed will benefit the
dead man's soul in the next world; but no disgrace attaches to the
acceptance of these.
27. End of mourning
When the mourning is complete on the Gauri-Ganesh day all the relatives
take their food at the chief mourner's house, and afterwards the
_panchayat_ invest him with a new turban provided by a relative. On
the next bazar day the members of the _panchayat_ take him to the
bazar and tell him to take up his regular occupation and earn his
livelihood. Thereafter all his relatives and friends invite him to
take food at their houses, probably to mark his accession to the
position of head of the family.
28. Anniversaries of the dead
Three months, six months and twelve months after the death presents
are made to a Brahman, consisting of Sidha, or butter, wheat and rice
for a day's food. The anniversaries of the dead are celebrated during
Pitripaksh or the dark fortnight of Kunwar (September-October). If a
man died on the third day of any fortnight in the year, his anniversary
is celebrated on the third day of this fortnight and so on. On that
day it is supposed that his spirit will visit his earthly house where
his relatives reside. But the souls of women all return to their homes
on the ninth day of the fortnight, and on the thirteenth day come the
souls of all those who have met with a violent death, as by a fall,
or have been killed by wild animals or snakes. The spirits of such
persons are supposed, on account of their untimely end, to entertain
a special grudge against the living.
29. Beliefs in the hereafter
As regards the belief in the hereafter Mr. Gordon writes: [69] "That
they have the idea of hell as a place of punishment may be gathered
from the belief that when salt is spilt the one who does this will
in Patal or the infernal region have to gather up each grain of salt
with his eyelids. Salt is for this reason handed round with great
care, and it is considered unlucky to receive it in the palm of the
hand; it is therefore invariably taken in a cloth or vessel. There
is a belief that the spirit of the deceased hovers round familiar
scenes and places, and on this account, whenever possible, a house
in which any one has died is destroyed or deserted. After the spirit
has wandered round restlessly for a certain time it is said that it
will again become incarnate and take the form either of man or of
one of the lower animals." In Mandla they think that the soul after
death is arraigned and judged before Yama, and is then chained to
a flaming pillar for a longer or shorter period according to its
sins. The gifts made to Brahmans for the dead somewhat shorten the
period. After that time it is born again with a good or bad body and
human or animal according to its deserts.
30. Religion. Village gods
The caste worship the principal Hindu deities. Either Bhagwan or
Parmeshwar is usually referred to as the supreme deity, as we speak
of God. Bhagwan appears to be Vishnu or the Sun, and Parmeshwar is
Siva or Mahadeo. There are few temples to Vishnu in villages, but
none are required as the sun is daily visible. Sunday or Raviwar
is the day sacred to him, and some people fast in his honour on
Sundays, eating only one meal without salt. A man salutes the sun
after he gets up by joining his hands and looking towards it, again
when he has washed his face, and a third time when he has bathed,
by throwing a little water in the sun's direction. He must not spit
in front of the sun nor perform the lower functions of the body in
its sight. Others say that the sun and moon are the eyes of God, and
the light of the sun is the effulgence of God, because by its light
and heat all moving and immobile creatures sustain their life and
all corn and other products of the earth grow. In his incarnations
of Rama and Krishna there are temples to Vishnu in large villages
and towns. Khermata, the mother of the village, is the local form of
Devi or the earth-goddess. She has a small hut and an image of Devi,
either black or red. She is worshipped by a priest called Panda, who
may be of any caste except the impure castes. The earth is worshipped
in various ways. A man taking medicine for the first time in an
illness sprinkles a few drops on the earth in its honour. Similarly
for the first three or four times that a cow is milked after the
birth of a calf the stream is allowed to fall on the ground. A man
who is travelling offers a little food to the earth before eating
himself. Devi is sometimes considered to be one of seven sisters, but
of the others only two are known, Marhai Devi, the goddess of cholera,
and Sitala Devi, the goddess of smallpox. When an epidemic of cholera
breaks out the Panda performs the following ceremony to avert it. He
takes a kid and a small pig or chicken, and some cloth, cakes, glass
bangles, vermilion, an earthen lamp, and some country liquor, which is
sprinkled all along the way from where he starts to where he stops. He
proceeds in this manner to the boundary of the village at a place where
there are cross-roads, and leaves all the things there. Sometimes
the animals are sacrificed and eaten. While the Panda is doing this
every one collects the sweepings of his house in a winnowing-fan and
throws them outside the village boundary, at the same time ringing a
bell continuously. The Panda must perform his ceremony at night and,
if possible, on the day of the new moon. He is accompanied by a few
other low-caste persons called Gunias. A Gunia is one who can be
possessed by a spirit in the temple of Khermata. When possessed he
shakes his head up and down violently and foams at the mouth, and
sometimes strikes his head on the ground. Another favourite godling
is Hardaul, who was the brother of Jujhar Singh, Raja of Orchha,
and was suspected by Jujhar Singh of loving the latter's wife,
and poisoned in consequence by his orders. Hardaul has a platform
and sometimes a hut with an image of a man on horseback carrying a
spear in his hand. His shrine is outside the village, and two days
before a marriage the women of the family visit his shrine and cook
and eat their food there and invite him to the wedding. Clay horses
are offered to him, and he is supposed to be able to keep off rain
and storms during the ceremony. Hardaul is perhaps the deified Rajput
horseman. Hanuman or Mahabir is represented by an image of a monkey
coloured with vermilion, with a club in his hand and a slain man
beneath his feet. He is principally worshipped on Saturdays so that he
may counteract the evil influences exercised by the planet Saturn on
that day. His image is painted with oil mixed with vermilion and has
a wreath of flowers of the cotton tree; and _gugal_ or incense made of
resin, sandalwood and other ingredients is burnt before him. He is the
deified ape, and is the god of strength and swiftness, owing to the
exploits performed by him during Rama's invasion of Ceylon. Dulha Deo
is another godling whose shrine is in every village. He was a young
bridegroom who was carried off by a tiger on his way to his wedding,
or, according to another account, was turned into a stone pillar by
a flash of lightning. Before the starting of a wedding procession the
members go to Dulha Deo and offer a pair of shoes and a miniature post
and marriage-crown. On their return they offer a cocoanut. Dulha Deo
has a stone and platform to the east of the village, or occasionally
an image of a man on horseback like Hardaul. Mirohia is the god
of the field boundary. There is no sign of him, but every tenant,
when he begins sowing and cutting the crops, offers a little curds
and rice and a cocoanut and lays them on the boundary of the field,
saying the name of Mirohia Deo. It is believed among agriculturists
that if this godling is neglected he will flatten the corn by a wind,
or cause the cart to break on its way to the threshing-floor.
31. Sowing the _Jawaras_ or Gardens of Adonis
The sowing of the Jawaras, corresponding to the gardens of Adonis,
takes place during the first nine days of the months of Kunwar
and Chait (September and March). The former is a nine days' fast
preceding the Dasahra festival, and it is supposed that the goddess
Devi was during this time employed In fighting the buffalo-demon
(Bhainsasur), whom she slew on the tenth day. The latter is a nine
days' fast at the new year, preceding the triumphant entry of Rama
into Ajodhia on the tenth day on his return from Ceylon. The first
period comes before the sowing of the spring crop of wheat and other
grains, and the second is at the commencement of the harvest of the
same crop. In some localities the Jawaras are also grown a third time
in the rains, probably as a preparation for the juari sowings, [70]
as juari is planted in the baskets or 'gardens' at this time. On the
first day a small room is cleared and whitewashed, and is known as the
_diwala_ or temple. Some earth is brought from the fields and mixed
with manure in a basket, and a male member of the family sows wheat
in it, bathing before he does so. The basket is kept in the _diwala_
and the same man attends on it throughout the nine days, fasting all
day and eating only milk and fruit at night. A similar nine days' fast
was observed by the Eleusinians before the sacramental eating of corn
and the worship of the Corn Goddess, which constituted the Eleusinian
mysteries. [71] During the period of nine days, called the Naoratra,
the plants are watered, and long stalks spring up. On the eighth day
the _hom_ or fire offering is performed, and the Gunias or devotees are
possessed by Devi. On the evening of the ninth day the women, putting
on their best clothes, walk out of the houses with the pots of grain
on their heads, singing songs in praise of Devi. The men accompany
them beating drums and cymbals. The devotees pierce their cheeks with
long iron needles and walk in the procession. High-caste women, who
cannot go themselves, hire the barber's or waterman's wife to go for
them. The pots are taken to a tank and thrown in, the stalks of grain
being kept and distributed as a mark of amity. The wheat which is sown
in Kunwar gives a forecast of the spring crops. A plant is pulled out,
and the return of the crop will be the same number of times the seed as
it has roots. The woman who gets to the tank first counts the number
of plants in her pot, and this gives the price of wheat in rupees
per _mani_. [72] Sometimes marks of red rust appear on the plants,
and this shows that the crop will suffer from rust. The ceremony
performed in Chait is said to be a sort of harvest thanksgiving. On
the ninth day of the autumn ceremony another celebration called
'Jhinjhia' or 'Norta' takes place in large villages. A number of
young unmarried girls take earthen pots and, making holes in them and
placing lamps inside, carry them on their heads through the village,
singing and dancing. They receive presents from the villagers, with
which they hold a feast. At this a small platform is erected and two
earthen dolls, male and female, are placed on it; rice and flowers
are offered to them and their marriage is celebrated.
The following observances in connection with the crops are practised
by the agricultural castes in Chhattisgarh:
32. Rites connected with the crops. Customs of cultivation
The agricultural year begins on Akti or the 3rd day of Baisakh
(April-May). On that day a cup made of _palas_ [73] leaves and filled
with rice is offered to Thakur Deo. In some villages the boys sow
rice seeds before Thakur Deo's shrine with little toy ploughs. The
cultivator then goes to his field, and covering his hand with
wheat-flour and turmeric, stamps it five times on the plough. The
malguzar takes five handfuls of the seed consecrated to Thakur Deo and
sows it, and each of the cultivators also sows a little. After this
regular cultivation may begin on any day, though Monday and Friday
are considered auspicious days for the commencement of sowing. On the
Hareli, or festival of the fresh verdure, which falls on the 15th day
of Shrawan (July-August), balls of flour mixed with salt are given to
the cattle. The plough and all the implements of agriculture are taken
to a tank and washed, and are then set up in the courtyard of the house
and plastered with cowdung. The plough is set facing towards the sun,
and butter and sugar are offered to it. An earthen pot is whitewashed
and human figures are drawn on it with charcoal, one upside down. It is
then hung over the entrance to the house and is believed to avert the
evil eye. All the holes in the cattle-sheds and courtyards are filled
and levelled with gravel. While the rice is growing, holidays are
observed on five Sundays and no work is done. Before harvest Thakur
Deo must be propitiated with an offering of a white goat or a black
fowl. Any one who begins to cut his crop before this offering has
been made to Thakur Deo is fined the price of a goat by the village
community. Before threshing his corn each cultivator offers a separate
sacrifice to Thakur Deo of a goat, a fowl or a broken cocoanut. Each
evening, on the conclusion of a day's threshing, a wisp of straw is
rubbed on the forehead of each bullock, and a hair is then pulled
from its tail, and the hairs and straw made into a bundle are tied
to the pole of the threshing-floor. The cultivator prays, 'O God
of plenty! enter here full and go out empty.' Before leaving the
threshing-floor for the night some straw is burnt and three circles are
drawn with the ashes, one round the heap of grain and the others round
the pole. Outside the circles are drawn pictures of the sun, the moon,
a lion and a monkey, or of a cart and a pair of bullocks. Next morning
before sunrise the ashes are swept away by waving a winnowing-fan over
them. This ceremony is called _anjan chadhana_ or placing lamp-black
on the face of the threshing-floor to avert the evil eye, as women put
it on their eyes. Before the grain is measured it must be stacked in
the form of a trapezium with the shorter end to the south, and not in
that of a square or oblong heap. The measurer stands facing the east,
and having the shorter end of the heap on his left hand. On the larger
side of the heap are laid the _kalara_ or hook, a winnowing-fan, the
_dauri_, a rope by which the bullocks are tied to the threshing-pole,
one or three branches of the _ber_ or wild plum tree, and the twisted
bundle of straw and hair of the bullocks which had been tied to the
pole. On the top of the heap are placed five balls of cowdung, and
the _hom_ or fire sacrifice is offered to it. The first _katha_ [74]
of rice measured is also laid by the heap. The measurer never quite
empties his measure while the work is going on, as it is feared that if
he does this the god of abundance will leave the threshing-floor. While
measuring he should always wear a turban. It is considered unlucky for
any one who has ridden on an elephant to enter the threshing-floor,
but a person who has ridden on a tiger brings luck. Consequently
the Gonds and Baigas, if they capture a young tiger and tame it,
will take it round the country, and the cultivators pay them a little
to give their children a ride on it. To enter a threshing-floor with
shod feet is also unlucky. Grain is not usually measured at noon but
in the morning or evening.
33. Agricultural superstitions
The cultivators think that each grain should bear a hundredfold,
but they do not get this as Kuvera, the treasurer of the gods,
or Bhainsasur, the buffalo demon who lives in the fields, takes
it. Bhainsasur is worshipped when the rice is coming into ear, and
if they think he is likely to be mischievous they give him a pig, but
otherwise a smaller offering. When the standing corn in the fields is
beaten down at night they think that Bhainsasur has been passing over
it. He also steals the crop while it is being cut and is lying on the
ground. Once Bhainsasur was absent while the particular field in the
village from which he stole his supply of grain was cut and the crop
removed, and afterwards he was heard crying that all his provision for
the year had been lost. Sometimes the oldest man in the house cuts
the first five bundles of the crop, and they are afterwards left in
the field for the birds to eat. And at the end of harvest the last one
or two sheaves are left standing in the field, and any one who likes
can cut and carry them away. In some localities the last stalks are
left standing in the field and are known as _barhona_ or the giver
of increase. Then all the labourers rush together at this last patch
of corn and tear it up by the roots; everybody seizes as much as he
can and keeps it, the master having no share in this patch. After
the _barhona_ has been torn up all the labourers fall on their faces
to the ground and worship the field. In other places the _barhona_
is left standing for the birds to eat. This custom, arises from the
belief demonstrated by Sir J. G. Frazer in _The Golden Bough_ that the
corn-spirit takes refuge in the last patch of grain, and that when
it is cut he flies away or his life is extinguished. And the idea
is supported by the fact that the rats and other vermin, who have
been living in the field, seek shelter in the last patch of corn,
and when this is cut have to dart out in front of the reapers. In
some countries it is thought, as shown by Sir J. G. Frazer, that the
corn-spirit takes refuge in the body of one of these animals.
34. Houses
The house of a malguzar or good tenant stands in a courtyard or _angan_
45 to 60 feet square and surrounded by a brick or mud wall. The plan
of a typical house is shown below:--
The _dalan_ or hall is for the reception of visitors. One of the
living-rooms is set apart for storing grain. Those who keep their
women secluded have a door at the back of the courtyard for their
use. Cooking is done in one of the rooms, and there are no chimneys,
the smoke escaping through the tiles. They bathe either in the _chauk_
or central courtyard, or go out and bathe in a tank or river or at
a well. The family usually sleep inside the house in the winter and
outside in the hot weather. A poor malguzar or tenant has only two
rooms with a veranda in front, one of which is used by the family,
while cattle are kept in the other; while the small tenants and
labourers have only one room in which both men and cattle reside. The
walls are of bamboo matting plastered on both sides with mud, and
the roof usually consists of single small tiles roughly baked in an
improvised kiln. The house is surrounded by a mud wall or hedge, and
sometimes has a garden behind in which tobacco, maize or vegetables
are grown. The interior is dark, for light is admitted only by the
low door, and the smoke-stained ceiling contributes to the gloom. The
floor is of beaten earth well plastered with cowdung, the plastering
being repeated weekly.
35. Superstitions about houses
The following are some superstitious beliefs and customs about
houses. A house should face north or east and not south or west, as the
south is the region of Yama, the god of death, who lives in Ceylon,
and the west the quarter of the setting sun. A Muhammadan's house,
on the other hand, should face south or west because Mecca lies to
the south-west. A house may have verandas front and back, or on the
front and two sides, but not on all four sides. The front of a house
should be lower than the back, this shape being known as _gai-mukh_
or cow-mouthed, and not higher than the back, which is _singh-mukh_
or tiger-mouthed. The front and back doors should not be in a straight
line, which would enable one to look right through the house. The
_angan_ or compound of a house should be a little longer than it is
wide, no matter how little. Conversely the building itself should be a
little wider along the front than it is long from front to rear. The
kitchen should always be on the right side if there is a veranda, or
else behind. When an astrologer is about to found a house he calculates
the direction in which Shesh Nag, the snake on whom the world reposes,
is holding his head at that time, and plants the first brick or stone
to the left of that direction, because snakes and elephants do not turn
to the left but always to the right. Consequently the house will be
more secure and less likely to be shaken down by Shesh Nag's movements,
which cause the phenomenon known to us as an earthquake. Below the
foundation-stone or brick are buried a pice, an areca-nut and a
grain of rice, and it is lucky if the stone be laid by a man who
has been faithful to his wife. There should be no echo in a house,
as an echo is considered to be the voice of evil spirits. The main
beam should be placed in position on a lucky day, and the carpenter
breaks a cocoanut against it and receives a present. The width of the
rooms along the front of a house should be five cubits each, and if
there is a staircase it must have an uneven number of steps. The door
should be low so that a man must bend his head on entering and thus
show respect to the household god. The floor of the verandas should be
lower than that of the room inside; the Hindus say that the compound
should not see the veranda nor the veranda the house. But this rule
has of course also the advantage of keeping the house-floor dry. If
the main beam of a house breaks it is a very bad omen, as also for
a vulture or kite to perch on the roof; if this should happen seven
days running the house will inevitably be left empty by sickness or
other misfortune. A dog howling in front of the house is very unlucky,
and if, as may occasionally happen, a dog should get on to the roof
of the house and bark, the omen is of the worst kind. Neither the
pipal nor banyan trees should be planted in the yard of a house,
because the leavings of food might fall upon them, and this would
be an insult to the deities who inhabit the sacred trees. Neither
is it well to plant the _nim_ tree, because the _nim_ is the tree
of anchorites, and the frequent contemplation of it will take away
from a man the desire of offspring and lead to the extinction of his
family. Bananas should not be grown close to the house, because the
sound of this fruit bursting the pod is said to be audible, and to
hear it is most unlucky. It is a good thing to have a _gular_ [75]
tree in the yard, but at a little distance from the house so that
the leavings of food may not fall upon it; this is the tree of the
saint Dattatreya, and will cause wealth to increase in the house. A
plant of the sacred _tulsi_ or basil is usually kept in the yard,
and every morning the householder pours a vessel of water over it
as he bathes, and in the evening places a lamp beside it. This holy
plant sanctifies the air which passes over it to the house.
No one should ever sit on the threshold of a house; this is the seat
of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and to sit on it is disrespectful
to her. A house should never be swept at twilight, because it is then
that Lakshmi makes her rounds, and she would curse it and pass by. At
this time a lamp should be lighted, no one should be allowed to sleep,
and even if a man is sick he should sit up on his bed. At this time the
grinding-mill should not be turned nor grain be husked, but reverence
should be paid to ancestors and to the household deities. No one
must sit on the grinding-mill; it is regarded as a mother because
it gives out the flour by which the family is fed. No one must sit
on cowdung cakes because they are the seat of Saturn, the Evil One,
and their smell is called _Sanichar ke bas_. No one must step on the
_chulka_ or cooking-hearth nor jar it with his foot. At the midday
meal, when food is freshly cooked, each man will take a little fire
from the hearth and place it in front of him, and will throw a little
of everything he eats on to the fire, and some _ghi_ as an offering
to Agni, the god of fire. And he will also walk round the hearth,
taking water in his hand and then throwing it on the ground as an
offering to Agni. A man should not sleep with his feet to the south,
because a corpse is always laid in that direction. He should not
sleep with his feet to the east, nor spit out water from his mouth
in the direction of the east.
36. Furniture
Of furniture there is very little. Carefully arranged in their
places are the brass cooking-pots, water-pots and plates, well
polished with mud and water applied with plenty of elbow-grease
by the careful housewife. Poor tenants frequently only have one or
two brass plates and cups and an iron girdle, while all the rest of
their vessels are of earthenware. Each house has several _chulhas_
or small horseshoe erections of earth for cooking. Each person in
the house has a sleeping-cot if the family is comfortably off, and a
spare one is also kept. These must be put out and exposed to the sun at
least once a week to clear them of fleas and bugs. It is said that the
Jains cannot adopt this method of disinfecting their beds owing to the
sacrifice of insect life thereby involved; and that there are persons
in Calcutta who make it their profession to go round and offer to lie
on these cots for a time; they lie on them for some hours, and the
little denizens being surfeited with their blood subsequently allow
the owner of the cot to have a quiet night. A cot should always be
shorter than a man's length, so that his legs project over the end;
if it is so long as to contain his whole length it is like a bier,
and it is feared that lying on a cot of this kind will cause him
shortly to lie on a bier. Poor tenants do not usually have cots, but
sleep on the ground, spreading kodon-straw on it for warmth. They
have no bedding except a _gudri_ or mattress made of old rags and
clothes sewn together. In winter they put it over them, and sleep on
it in summer. They will have a wooden log to rest their heads on when
sleeping, and this will also serve as a seat for a guest. Malguzars
have a _razai_ or quilt, and a _doria_ or thick cloth like those used
for covering carts. Clothes and other things are kept in _jhampis_ or
round bamboo baskets. For sitting on there are _machnis_ or four-legged
stools about a foot high with seats of grass rope or _pirhis_, little
wooden stools only an inch or two from the ground. For lighting,
wicks are set afloat in little earthen saucers filled with oil.
37. Clothes
Landowners usually have a long coat known as _angarkha_ reaching to the
knees, with flaps folding over the breasts and tied with strings. The
_bandi_ is a short coat like this but coming only to the hips, and is
more popular with cultivators. In the cold weather it is frequently
stuffed with cotton and dyed dark green or dark blue so as not to
show the dirt. For visits of ceremony a pair of _paijamas_ are kept,
but otherwise the _dhoti_ or loin-cloth is commonly worn. Wearing
the _dhoti_ pulled half-way up to the thighs is called 'cultivator's
fashion.' A shirt may be worn under the coat; but cultivators usually
have only one garment, nowadays often a sleeveless coat with buttons in
front. The proper head-dress is the _pagri_, a piece of coloured cloth
perhaps 30 feet long and a foot wide, twisted tightly into folds, which
is lifted on and off the head and is only rarely undone. Twisting the
_pagri_ is an art, and a man is usually hired to do it and paid four
annas. The _pagris_ have different shapes in different parts of the
country, and a Hindu can tell by the shape of a man's _pagri_ where he
comes from. But nowadays cultivators usually wear a _dupatta_ or short
piece of cloth tied, loosely round the head. The tenant arranges his
head-cloth with a large projection on one side, and in it he carries
his _chilam_ or pipe-bowl, and also small quantities of vegetables,
salt or condiments purchased at the bazar. In case of necessity
he can transform it into a loin-cloth, or tie up a bundle of grass
with it, or tie his _lota_ to it to draw water from a well. 'What
can the washerman do in a village where the people live naked?' is
a Chhattisgarhi proverb which aptly indicates that scantiness is
the most prominent feature of the local apparel. Here a cloth round
the loins, and this usually of meagre dimensions, constituted, until
recently, the full dress of a cultivator. Those who have progressed
a stage farther throw a cloth loosely over one shoulder, covering
the chest, and assume an apology for a turban by wrapping another
small rag carelessly round the head, leaving the crown generally
bare, as if this part of the person required special sunning and
ventilation. Hindus will not be seen out-of-doors with the head bare,
though the Gonds and other tribes only begin to wear head-cloths when
they are adopting Hinduism. The Gondi fashion was formerly prevalent
in Chhattisgarh. Some sanctity attaches to the turban, probably because
it is the covering of the head. To knock off a man's turban is a great
insult, and if it drops off or he lets it fall, it is a very bad omen.
38. Women's clothes
Women, in the northern Districts wear a skirt made of coarse
cloth, usually red or blue, and a shoulder-cloth of the same
material. Hand-woven cloth is still commonly used in the interior. The
skirt is sometimes drawn up through the legs behind so as to give it
a divided appearance; this is called _kachhota_. On the upper part of
the body they wear an _angia_ or breast-cloth, that is a short, tight,
sleeveless jacket reaching only to below the breasts. The _angia_ is
tied behind, while the Maratha _choli_, which is the same thing, is
buttoned or tied in front. High-caste women draw their shoulder-cloth
right over the head so that the face cannot be seen. When a woman goes
before a person of position she covers her head, as it is considered
immodest to leave it bare. Women of respectable families wear a
sheet of fine white, yellow, or red cloth drawn over the head and
reaching to the ankles when they go on a journey, this being known
as _pichhora_. In Chhattisgarh all the requirements of fashion among
women are satisfied by one cloth from 8 to 12 yards long and about a
yard wide, which envelops the person in one fold from the waist to
below the knee, hanging somewhat loosely. It is tied at the waist,
and the remaining half is spread over the breast and drawn across the
right shoulder, the end covering the head like a sheet and falling over
the left shoulder. The simplicity of this solitary garment displays a
graceful figure to advantage, especially on festival days, when those
who can afford it are arrayed in tasar silk. When a girl is married the
bridegroom's family give her expensive clothes to wear at festivals
and her own people give her ordinary clothes, but usually not more
than will last a year. Whenever she goes back to her father's house
after her marriage, he gives her one or two cloths if he can afford
it. Women of the middle and lower classes wear ornaments of bell-metal,
a mixture of copper and zinc, which are very popular. Some women wear
brass and zinc ornaments, and well-to-do persons have them of silver
or gold.
39. Bathing
Hot water is not used for bathing in Saugor, except by invalids,
but is customary in Betul and other Districts. The bathing-place in
the courtyard is usually a large square stone on which the bather
sits; he has a big circular brass vessel by him called _gangal_,
[76] and from this he takes water either in a cup or with his hands
and throws it over himself, rubbing his body. Where there is a tank
or stream people go to bathe in it, and if there is none the poorer
classes sometimes bathe at the village well. Each man or woman has
two body-or loin-cloths, and they change the cloth whenever they
bathe--going into the water in the one which they have worn from the
previous day, and changing into the other when they come out; long
practice enables them to do this in public without any undue exposure
of the body. A good tank or a river is a great amenity to a village,
especially if it has a _ghat_ or flight of stone steps. Many people
will spend an hour or so here daily, disporting themselves in the
water or on the bank, and wedding and funeral parties are held by it,
owing to the facilities for ceremonial bathing.
40. Food
People who do not cultivate with their own hands have only two
daily meals, one at midday and the other at eight or nine in the
evening. Agriculturists require a third meal in the early morning
before going out to the fields. Wheat and the millets juari and kodon
are the staple foods of the cultivating classes in the northern
Districts, and rice is kept for festivals. The millets are made
into thick _chapatis_ or cakes, their flour not being sufficiently
adhesive for thin ones, and are eaten with the pulses, lentils, arhar,
[77] mung [78] and urad. [79] The pulses are split into half and
boiled in water, and when they get soft, chillies, salt and turmeric
are mixed with them. Pieces of _chapati_ are broken off and dipped
into this mixture. Various vegetables are also eaten. When pulse is
not available the _chapatis_ are simply dipped into buttermilk. If
_chapatis_ cannot be afforded at both meals, _ghorna_ or the flour of
kodon or juar boiled into a paste with water is substituted for them, a
smaller quantity of this being sufficient to allay hunger. Wheat-cakes
are fried in _ghi_ (clarified butter) as a luxury, and at other times
in sesamum oil. Rice or ground gram boiled in buttermilk are other
favourite foods.
In Chhattisgarh rice is the common food: it is eaten with pulses
at midday and with vegetables cooked in _ghi_ in the evening. In
the morning they drink a rice-gruel, called _basi>_ which consists
of the previous night's repast mixed with water and taken cold. On
festivals rice is boiled in milk. Milk is often drunk at night, and
there is a saying, "He who drinks water in the morning and milk at
night and takes _harra_ before he sleeps will never need a doctor." A
little powdered _harra_ or myrobalan acts as an aperient. The food of
landowners and tenants is much the same, except that the former have
more butter and vegetables, according to the saying, '_Raja praja ka
ekhi khana_' or 'The king and peasant eat the same food.' Those who
eat flesh have an occasional change of food, but most Kurmis abstain
from it. Farmservants eat the gruel of rice or kodon boiled in water
when they can afford it, and if not they eat mahua flowers. These
are sometimes boiled in water, and the juice is then strained off and
mixed with half-ground flour, and they are also pounded and made into
_chapatis_ with flour and water. The leaves of the young gram-plants
make a very favourite vegetable and are eaten raw, either moist or
dried. In times of scarcity the poorer classes eat tamarind leaves,
the pith of the banyan tree, the seeds of the bamboo, the bark of
the _semar_ tree, [80] the fruit of the _babul_, [81] and other
articles. A cultivator will eat 2 lbs. of grain a day if he can get
it, or more in the case of rice. Their stomachs get distended owing
to the large quantities of boiled rice eaten at one time. The leaves
of the _chirota_ or _chakora_ a little plant [82] which grows thickly
at the commencement of the rains near inhabited sites, are also a
favourite vegetable, and a resource in famine time. The people call it
'_Gaon ka thakur_,' or 'lord of the village,' and have a saying:
Amarbel aur kamalgata,
Gaon ka thakur, gai ka matha,
Nagar sowasan, unmen milai,
Khaj, dad, sehua mit jawe.
_Amarbel_ is an endless creeper, with long yellow strings like
stalks, which infests and destroys trees; it is called _amarbel_
or the immortal, because it has no visible root. _Kamalgata_ is the
seed of the lotus; _gai ka matha_ is buttermilk; _nagar sowasan_,
'the happiness of the town,' is turmeric, because married women whose
husbands are alive put turmeric on their foreheads every day; _khaj,
dad_ and _sehua_ are itch, ringworm and some kind of rash, perhaps
measles; and the verse therefore means:
"Eat _amarbel_, lotus seeds, chirota, buttermilk and turmeric mixed
together, and you will keep off itch, ringworm and measles." Chirota
is good for the itch.
41. Caste-feasts
At the commencement of a marriage or other ceremonial feast the host
must wash the feet of all the guests himself. If he does not do this
they will be dissatisfied, and, though they will eat at his house,
will consider they have not been properly welcomed. He takes a large
brass plate and placing the feet of his guest on it, pours water
over them and then rubs and dries them; the water is thrown away
and fresh water poured out for the next guest unless they should be
brothers. Little flat stools about three inches high are provided for
the guests, and if there are not enough of them a carpet is spread;
or _baithkis_ or sitting-mats plaited from five or six large leaves
are set out. These serve as a mark of attention, as it would be
discourteous to make a man sit on the ground, and they also prevent
the body-cloth from getting wet. The guests sit in the _chauk_ or
yard of the house inside, or in the _angan_ or outside yard, either
in lines or in a circle; members of the same caste sit with their
crossed knees actually touching those of the man on either side of
them to emphasise their brotherhood; if a man sat even a few inches
apart from his fellows people would say he was out of caste--and
this is how a man who is put out of caste actually does sit. Before
each guest may be set two plates of leaves and eight _donas_ or
leaf-cups. On the plates are heaped rice, cakes of wheat fried in
butter, and of husked urad pulse cooked with tilli or sesamum oil,
and the pulse of gram and lentils. In the cups will be sugar, _ghi_,
_dahi_ or curded milk, various vegetables, pumpkins, and _besin_ or
ground gram cooked with buttermilk. All the male members of the host's
family serve the food and they take it round, heaping and pouring it
into each man's plates or cups until he says enough; and they continue
to give further helpings as required. All the food is served at once
in the different plates and cups, but owing to the number of guests
a considerable time elapses before all are fully served, and the
dinner lasts about two hours. The guests eat all the different dishes
together with their fingers, taking a little of each according to their
fancy. Each man has his _lota_ or vessel of water by him and drinks
as he eats. When the meal is finished large brass plates are brought
in, one being given to about ten guests, and they wash their hands
over these, pouring water on them from their vessels. A fresh carpet
is then spread in the yard and the guests sit on it, and betel-leaf
and tobacco are distributed. The huqqa is passed round, and _chilams_
and _chongis_ (clay pipe-bowls and leaf-pipes) are provided for those
who want them. The women do not appear at the feast but stay inside,
sitting in the _angan_ or inner court, which is behind the _purda_.
42. Hospitality
The people still show great hospitality, and it is the custom of
many malguzars, at least in Chhattisgarh, to afford food and a
night's rest to all travellers who may require it. When a Brahman
comes to the village such malguzars will give him one or two annas,
and to a Pandit or learned man as much as a rupee. Formerly it is
said that when any stranger came through the village he was at once
offered a cup of milk and told to drink it or throw it away. But
this custom has died out in Chhattisgarh, though one has met with
it once or twice in Sambalpur. When District Officers go on tour,
well-to-do landowners ask to be allowed to supply free provisions
for the whole camp at least for a day, and it is difficult to refuse
them gracefully. In Mandla, Banias and malguzars in villages near
the Nerbudda sometimes undertake to give a pound of grain to every
_parikramawasi_ or pilgrim perambulating the Nerbudda. And as the
number of these steadily increases in consequence, they often become
impoverished as a result of such indiscriminate charity.
43. Social customs. Tattooing
The Kurmis employ Brahmans for their ceremonies. They have _gurus_
or spiritual preceptors who may be Brahmans or Bairagis; the _guru_
is given from 8 annas to Rs. 5 when he initiates a neophyte, as
well as his food and a new white cloth. The _guru_ is occasionally
consulted on some religious question, but otherwise he does nothing
for his disciple except to pay him an occasional visit, when he is
hospitably entertained. The Kurmis of the northern Districts do not
as a rule eat meat and also abstain from alcohol, but in Chhattisgarh
they eat the flesh of clean animals and fish, and also of fowls,
and drink country liquor. Old men often give up flesh and wine as a
mark of piety, when they are known as Bhagat or holy. They will take
food cooked with water only from Brahmans, and that cooked without
water from Rajputs, Banias and Kayasths as well. Brahmans and Rajputs
will take water from Kurmis in the northern Districts though not in
Chhattisgarh. Here the Kurmis do not object to eating cooked food
which has been carried from the house to the fields. This is called
_rengai roti_, and castes which will eat it are considered inferior
to those who always take their food in the _chauka_ or purified
place in the house. They say 'Ram, Ram' to each other in greeting,
and the Raipur Kurmis swear by a dog or a pig. Generally they do not
plough on the new or full moon days. Their women are tattooed after
marriage with dots on the cheeks, marks of flies on the fingers,
scorpions on the arms, and other devices on the legs.
44. Caste penalties
Permanent expulsion from caste is inflicted for a change of religion,
taking food or having sexual intercourse with a member of an impure
caste, and for eating beef. For killing a man, a cow, a buffalo,
an ass, a horse, a squirrel, a cat or a monkey a man must purify
himself by bathing in the Ganges at Allahabad or Benares and giving
a feast to the caste. It will be seen that all these are domestic
animals except the monkey, who is the god Hanuman. The squirrel is
counted as a domestic animal because it is always about the house,
and the souls of children are believed to go into squirrels. One
household animal, the dog, is omitted, and he appears to be less
sacred than the others. For getting maggots in a wound the offender
must bathe in a sacred river, such as the Nerbudda or Mahanadi, and
give a feast to the caste. For eating or having intercourse with a
member of any caste other than the impure ones, or for a _liaison_
within the caste, or for divorcing a wife or marrying a widow, or in
the case of a woman for breaking her bangles in a quarrel with her
husband, a penalty feast must be given. If a man omits to feast the
caste after a death in his family a second feast is imposed, and if
he insults the _panchayat_ he is fined.
45. The cultivating status
The social status of the Kurmi appears to be that of the cultivator. He
is above the menial and artisan castes of the village and the impure
weaving and labouring castes; he is theoretically equal to the
artisan castes of towns, but one or two of these, such as the Sunar
or goldsmith and Kasar or brass-worker, have risen in the world owing
to the prosperity or importance of their members, and now rank above
the Kurmi. The Kurmi's status appears to be that of the cultivator
and member of the village community, but a large proportion of the
Kurmis are recruited from the non-Aryan tribes, who have obtained
land and been admitted into the caste, and this tends to lower the
status of the caste as a whole. In the Punjab Kurmis apparently do
not hold land and are employed in grass-cutting, weaving, and tending
horses, and are even said to keep pigs. [83] Here their status is
necessarily very low as they follow the occupations of the impure
castes. The reason why the Kurmi as cultivator ranks above the village
handicraftsmen may perhaps be that industrial pursuits were despised
in early times and left to the impure Sudras and to the castes of
mixed descent; while agriculture and trade were the occupations of
the Vaishya. Further, the village artisans and menials were supported
before the general use of current coin by contributions of grain from
the cultivators and by presents of grain at seed-time and harvest;
and among the Hindus it is considered very derogatory to accept a
gift, a man who does so being held to admit his social inferiority to
the giver. Some exception to this is made in the case of Brahmans,
though even with them the rule partly applies. Of these two reasons
for the cultivator's superiority to the menial and artisan castes
the former has to a large extent lost its force. The handicrafts are
no longer considered despicable, and, as has been seen, some of the
urban tradesmen, as the Sunar and Kasar, now rank above the Kurmi, or
are at least equal to him. Perhaps even in ancient times these urban
artificers were not despised like the village menials, as their skill
was held in high repute. But the latter ground is still in full force
and effect in the Central Provinces at least: the village artisans are
still paid by contributions from the cultivator and receive presents
from him at seed-time and harvest. The remuneration of the village
menials, the blacksmith, carpenter, washerman, tanner, barber and
waterman is paid at the rate of so much grain per plough of land
according to the estimated value of the work done by them for the
cultivators during the year. Other village tradesmen, as the potter,
oilman and liquor-vendor, are no longer paid in grain, but since the
introduction of currency sell their wares for cash; but there seems
no reason to doubt that in former times when no money circulated
in villages they were remunerated in the same manner. They still
all receive presents, consisting of a sowing-basketful of grain at
seed-time and one or two sheaves at harvest. The former are known as
_Bijphuti_, or 'the breaking of the seed,' and the latter as _Khanvar_,
or 'that which is left.' In Bilaspur the Kamias or village menials also
receive as much grain as will fill a winnowing-fan when it has been
threshed. When the peasant has harvested his grain all come and beg
from him. The Dhimar brings waternut, the Kachhi or market-gardener
some chillies, the Teli oil and tobacco, the Kalar some liquor if he
drinks it, the Bania some sugar, and all receive grain in excess of
the value of their gifts. The village menials come for their customary
dues, and the Brahman, the Nat or acrobat, the Gosain or religious
mendicant, and the Fakir or Muhammadan beggar solicit alms. On that
day the cultivator is like a little king in his fields, and it is
said that sometimes a quarter of the crop may go in this way; but
the reference must be only to the spring crop and not to the whole
holding. In former times grain must have been the principal source
of wealth, and this old custom gives us a reason for the status of
the cultivator in Hindu society. There is also a saying:
Uttam kheti, madhyam ban,
Kanisht chakri, bhik nidan,
or 'Cultivation is the best calling, trade is respectable, service
is menial, and begging is degraded.'
46. Occupation
The Kurmi is the typical cultivator. He loves his land, and to lose
it is to break the mainspring of his life. His land gives him a
freedom and independence of character which is not found among the
English farm-labourers. He is industrious and plodding, and inured to
hardship. In some Districts the excellent tilth of the Kurmi's fields
well portrays the result of his persevering labour, which he does not
grudge to the land because it is his own. His wife is in no way behind
him; the proverb says, "Good is the caste of the Kurmin; with a hoe
in her hand she goes to the fields and works with her husband." The
Chandnahu Kurmi women are said to be more enterprising than the men,
keeping them up to their work, and managing the business of the farm
as well as the household.
Appendix
List of Exogamous Clans
Sections of the Chandnahu subcaste:
Chanwar bambar Fly fan.
Sandil Name of a Rishi.
Gaind Ball.
Sadaphal A fruit.
Sondeha Gold-bodied.
Sonkharchi Spender of gold.
Kathail Kath, wood, or kaththa, catechu.
Kashi enares. The Desha Kurmis are all of
this gotra. It may also be a
corruption of Kachhap, tortoise.
Dhorha Dhor, cattle.
Sumer A mountain.
Chatur Midalia Chatur, clever.
Bharadwaj After the Rishi of that name; also
a bird.
Kousil Name of a Rishi.
Ishwar God.
Samund Karkari A particle in an ocean.
Akalchuwa Akal, famine.
Padel Fallow.
Baghmar Tiger-slayer.
Harduba Green grass.
Kansia Kans, a kind of grass.
Ghiu Sagar Ocean of ghi
Dharam Dhurandar Most charitable.
Singnaha Singh, a lion.
Chimangarhia Belonging to Chimangarh.
Khairagarhia Belonging to Khairagarh.
Gotam A Rishi.
Kaskyap A Rishi.
Pandariha From Pandaria, a village.
Paipakhar One who washes feet.
Banhpakhar One who washes arms.
Chauria Chaurai, a vegetable.
Sand Sathi Sand, bullock.
Singhi Singh, lion or horn.
Agra--Chandan Sandalwood.
Tek Sanichar Saturday.
Karaiya Frying-pan.
Pukharia Pond.
Dhubinha Dhobi, a caste.
Pawanbare Pawan, air.
Modganga Ganges.
Sections of the Gabel subcaste:
Gangajal Ganges water.
Bimba Lohir Bearer of a lathi (stick).
Sarang Peacock.
Raja Rawat Royal prince.
Singur Beauty.
Bank pagar With a thread on the arm.
Samundha Ocean.
Parasram, Rishi
Katarmal Katar, dagger.
Chaultan Sept of Rajputs.
Patan Village.
Gajmani Elephant.
Deori Sumer Village.
Lahura Samudra Small sea.
Hansbimbraon Hans, goose.
Sunwani Purifier.
Sections of the Santora subcaste:
Narvaria Narwar, a town in Gwalior State.
Mundharia Mundhra, a village.
Naigaiyan Naogaon, a town in Bundelkhand.
Pipraiya Piparia, a village.
Dindoria Dindori, a village in Mandla District.
Baheria A village.
Bandha Bandh, embankment.
Ktmusar Wooden pestle.
Sections of the Tirole subcaste:
Baghele Bagh, tiger, or a sept of Rajputs.
Rathor Clan of Rajputs.
Panwar Clan of Rajputs.
Solanki Clan of Rajputs.
Aulia Aonla, a fruit-bearing tree.
Sindia Sindi, date-palm tree.
Khusia Khusi, happiness.
Sanoria San, hemp.
Gora Fair-coloured.
Bhakrya Bhakar, a thick bread.
Sections of the Gaur subcaste:
Bhandari Storekeeper.
Dudhua Dudh, milk.
Patele A headman.
Lonia Salt-maker.
Kumaria A potter.
Sionia Seoni town.
Chhaparia Chhapara, a town.
Bijoria A tree.
Simra A village.
Ketharia Keth, a fruit.
Usarguiyan Perhaps a village.
Bhadoria Village.
Rurgaiyan Village.
Musrele Musar, a pestle.
Sections of the Usrete subcaste:
Shikare Hunter.
Nahar Tiger.
Gursaraiyan Gursarai, a town.
Bardia A village.
Sandia Sand, a bull.
Sirwaiyan Sirwai, a village.
Itguhan A village.
Sengaiyan or Singaiyan Sengai, a village.
Harkotia Harkoti, a village.
Noria Norai, a village.
Larent Lareti, a village.
Rabia Rabai, a village.
Lakhauria (Lakori village. It is said that whoever
utters the name of this section early in
the morning is sure to remain hungry the
whole day, or at least will get into some
trouble that day.)
Dhandkonya Dhandakna, to roll.
Badgaiyan Badagaon, a large village.
Kotia Kot, a fort
Bilwar Billi, cat
Thutha Stump of a tree.
Sections of the Kanaujia subcaste:
Tidha.--From Tidha, a village. This section is subdivided into
(a) Ghureparke (of the cow-dung hill); (b) Dwarparke
(of the door); and (c) Jangi (warrior).
Chamania--From Chamyani (village). This is also subdivided into:
(a) Gomarkya
(b) Mathuria (Muttra town).
Chaudhri (caste headman). This is divided as follows:
(a) Majhgawan A village.
(b) Purva thok Eastern group.
(c) Pashchim thok Western group.
(d) Bamurya A village.
Rawat Title.
Malha Perhaps sailor or wrestler.
Chilolian Chiloli, a village.
Dhanuiyan Dhanu Kheda, a village.
Lakhera
List of Paragraphs
1. _General notice_.
2. _Social customs_.
3. _The lac industry_.
4. _Lac bangles_.
5. _Red, a lucky colour_.
6. _Vermilion and spangles_.
7. _Red dye on the feet_.
8. _Red threads_.
9. _Lac toys_.
1. General notice
_Lakhera, Laheri._--The small caste whose members make bangles and
other articles of lac. About 3000 persons were shown as belonging to
the caste in the Central Provinces in 1911, being most numerous in the
Jubbulpore, Chhindwara and Betul Districts. From Berar 150 persons were
returned, chiefly from Amraoti. The name is derived from the Sanskrit
_laksha-kara_, a worker in lac. The caste are a mixed functional
group closely connected with the Kacheras and Patwas; no distinction
being recognised between the Patwas and Lakheras in some localities
of the Central Provinces. Mr. Baillie gives the following notice of
them in the _Census Report of the North-Western Provinces_ (1891):
"The accounts given by members of the caste of their origin are very
various and sometimes ingenious. One story is that like the Patwas,
with whom they are connected, they were originally Kayasths. According
to another account they were made from the dirt washed from Parvati
before her marriage with Siva, being created by the god to make bangles
for his wife, and hence called Deobansi. Again, it is stated, they
were created by Krishna to make bangles for the Gopis or milkmaids. The
most elaborate account is that they were originally Yaduvansi Rajputs,
who assisted the Kurus to make a fort of lac, in which the Pandavas
were to be treacherously burned. For this traitorous conduct they
were degraded and compelled eternally to work in lac or glass."
2. Social customs
The bulk of these artisan and manufacturing castes tell stories showing
that their ancestors were Kayasths and Rajputs, but no importance
can be attached to such legends, which are obviously manufactured
by the family priests to minister to the harmless vanity of their
clients. To support their claim the Lakheras have divided themselves
like the Rajputs into the Surajvansi and Somvansi subcastes or those
who belong to the Solar and Lunar races. Other subdivisions are the
Marwari or those coming from Marwar in Rajputana, and the Tarkhera
or makers of the large earrings which low-caste women wear. These
consist of a circular piece of wood or fibre, nearly an inch across,
which is worked through a large hole in the lobe of the ear. It
is often the stalk of the _ambari_ fibre, and on the outer end is
fixed a slab decorated with little pieces of glass. The exogamous
sections of the Lakheras are generally named after animals, plants
and natural objects, and indicate that the caste is recruited from the
lower classes of the population. Their social customs resemble those
of the middle and lower Hindustani castes. Girls are married at an
early age when the parents can afford the expense of the ceremony,
but no penalty is incurred if the wedding is postponed for want of
means. The remarriage of widows and divorce are permitted. They eat
flesh, but not fowls or pork, and some of them drink liquor, while
others abstain. Rajputs and Banias will take water from them, but not
Brahmans. In Bombay, however, they are considered to rank above Kunbis.
3. The lac industry
The traditional occupation of the Lakheras is to make and sell bangles
and other articles of lac. Lac is regarded with a certain degree
of superstitious repugnance by the Hindus because of its red colour,
resembling blood. On this account and also because of the sin committed
in killing them, no Hindu caste will propagate the lac insect, and
the calling is practised only by Gonds, Korkus and other primitive
tribes. Even Gonds will often refuse employment in growing lac if
they can make their living by cultivation. Various superstitions
attach to the propagation of the insects to a fresh tree. This is
done in Kunwar (September) and always by men, the insects being
carried in a leaf-cup and placed on a branch of an uninfected tree,
usually the _kusum_. [84] It is said that the work should be done
at night and the man should be naked when he places the insects on
the tree. The tree is fenced round and nobody is allowed to touch
it, as it is considered that the crop would thus be spoiled. If a
woman has lost her husband and has to sow lac, she takes her son
in her arms and places the cup containing the insects on his head;
on arriving at the tree she manages to apply the insects by means of
a stick, not touching the cup with her own hands. All this ritual
attaches simply to the infection of the first tree, and afterwards
in January or February the insects are propagated on to other trees
without ceremony. The juice of onions is dropped on to them to make
them healthy. The stick-lac is collected by the Gonds and Korkus
and sold to the Lakheras; they clear it of wood as far as possible
and then place the incrusted twigs and bark in long cotton bags and
heat them before a fire, squeezing out the gum, which is spread out
on flat plates so as to congeal into the shape of a pancake. This is
again heated and mixed with white clay and forms the material for the
bangles. They are coloured with _chapra_, the pure gum prepared like
sealing-wax, which is mixed with vermilion, or arsenic and turmeric
for a yellow colour. In some localities at least only the Lakheras
and Patwas and no higher caste will sell articles made of lac.
4. Lac bangles
The trade in lac bangles has now greatly declined, as they have been
supplanted by the more ornamental glass bangles. They are thick and
clumsy and five of them will cover a large part of the space between
the elbow and the wrist. They may be observed on Banjara women. Lac
bangles are also still used by the Hindus, generally on ceremonial
occasions, as at a marriage, when they are presented to and worn by the
bride, and during the month of Shrawan (July), when the Hindus observe
a fast on behalf of the growing crops and the women wear bangles of
lac. For these customs Mr. Hira Lal suggests the explanation that lac
bangles were at one time generally worn by the Hindus, while glass ones
are a comparatively recent fashion introduced by the Muhammadans. In
support of this it may be urged that glass bangles are largely made by
the Muhammadan Turkari or Sisgar, and also that lac bangles must have
been worn prior to glass ones, because if the latter had been known the
clumsy and unornamental bracelet made of lac and clay could never have
come into existence. The wearing of lac bangles on the above occasions
would therefore be explained according to the common usage of adhering
on religious and ceremonial occasions to the more ancient methods and
accessories, which are sanctified by association and custom. Similarly
the Holi pyre is often kindled with fire produced by the friction of
wood, and temples are lighted with vegetable instead of mineral oil.
5. Red, a lucky colour
It may be noted, however, that lac bangles are not always worn
by the bride at a wedding, the custom being unknown in some
localities. Moreover, it appears that glass was known to the Hindus
at a period prior to the Muhammadan invasions, though bangles may not
have been made from it. Another reason for the use of lac bangles
on the occasions noticed is that lac, as already seen, represents
blood. Though blood itself is now repugnant to the Hindus, yet red
is pre-eminently their lucky colour, being worn at weddings and
generally preferred. It is suggested in the _Bombay Gazetteer_ [85]
that blood was lucky as having been the first food of primitive man,
who learnt to suck the blood of animals before he ate their flesh. But
it does not seem necessary to go back quite so far as this. The
earliest form of sacrifice, as shown by Professor Robertson Smith,
[86] was that in which the community of kinsmen ate together the flesh
of their divine or totem animal god and drank its blood. When the god
became separated from the animal and was represented by a stone at the
place of worship and the people had ceased to eat raw flesh and drink
blood, the blood was poured out over the stone as an offering to the
god. This practice still obtains among the lower castes of Hindus and
the primitive tribes, the blood of animals offered to Devi and other
village deities being allowed to drop on to the stones representing
them. But the higher castes of Hindus have abandoned animal sacrifices,
and hence cannot make the blood-offering. In place of it they smear the
stone with vermilion, which seems obviously a substitute for blood,
since it is used to colour the stones representing the deities in
exactly the same manner. Even vermilion, however, is not offered to
the highest deities of Neo-Hinduism, Siva or Mahadeo and Vishnu, to
whom animal sacrifices would be abhorrent. It is offered to Hanuman,
whose image is covered with it, and to Devi and Bhairon and to the
many local and village deities. In past times animal sacrifices were
offered to Bhairon, as they still are to Devi, and though it is not
known that they were made to Hanuman, this is highly probable, as he
is the god of strength and a mighty warrior. The Manbhao mendicants,
who abhor all forms of bloodshed like the Jains, never pass one of
these stones painted with vermilion if they can avoid doing so, and
if they are aware that there is one on their road will make a circuit
so as not to see it. [87] There seems, therefore, every reason to
suppose that vermilion is a substitute for blood in offerings and
hence probably on other occasions. As the places of the gods were
thus always coloured red with blood, red would come to be the divine
and therefore the propitious colour among the Hindus and other races.
6. Vermilion and spangles
Among the constituents of the Sohag or lucky _trousseau_ without
which no Hindu girl of good caste can be married are _sendur_ or
vermilion, _kunku_ or red powder or a spangle (_tikli_), and _mahawar_
or red balls of cotton-wool. In Chhattisgarh and Bengal the principal
marriage rite is usually the smearing of vermilion by the bridegroom
on the parting of the bride's hair, and elsewhere this is commonly
done as a subsidiary ceremony. Here also there is little reason to
doubt that vermilion is a substitute for blood; indeed, in some castes
in Bengal, as noted by Sir H. Risley, the blood of the parties is
actually mixed. [88] This marking of the bride with blood is a result
of the sacrifice and communal feast of kinsmen already described;
only those who could join in the sacrificial meal and eat the flesh
of the sacred animal god were kin to it and to each other; but in
quite early times the custom prevailed of taking wives from outside
the clan; and consequently, to admit the wife into her husband's
kin, it was necessary that she also should drink or be marked with
the blood of the god. The mixing of blood at marriage appears to be
a relic of this, and the marking of the forehead with vermilion is
a substitute for the anointing with blood. _Kunku_ is a pink powder
made of turmeric, lime-juice and borax, which last is called by the
Hindus 'the milk of Anjini,' the mother of Hanuman. It seems to be
a more agreeable substitute for vermilion, whose constant use has
probably an injurious effect on the skin and hair. _Kunku_ is used in
the Maratha country in the same way as vermilion, and a married woman
will smear a little patch on her forehead every day and never allow her
husband to see her without it. She omits it only during the monthly
period of impurity. The _tikli_ or spangle is worn in the Hindustani
Districts and not in the south. It consists of a small piece of lac
over which is smeared vermilion, while above it a piece of mica or
thin glass is fixed for ornament. Other adornments may be added,
and women from Rajputana, such as the Marwari Banias and Banjaras,
wear large spangles set in gold with a border of jewels if they can
afford it. The spangle is made and sold by Lakheras and Patwas; it is
part of the Sohag at marriages and is affixed to the girl's forehead
on her wedding and thereafter always worn; as a rule, if a woman has a
spangle it is said that she does not smear vermilion on her forehead,
though both may occasionally be seen. The name _tikli_ is simply a
corruption of _tika_, which means a mark of anointing or initiation on
the forehead; as has been seen, the basis of the _tikli_ is vermilion
smeared on lac-clay, and it is made by Lakheras; and there is thus
good reason to suppose that the spangle is also a more ornamental
substitute for the smear of vermilion, the ancient blood-mark by which
a married woman was admitted into her husband's clan. At her marriage
a bride must always receive the glass bangles and the vermilion,
_kunku_, or spangle from her husband, the other ornaments of the
Sohag being usually given to her by her parents. Unmarried girls
now also sometimes wear small ornamental spangles, and put _kunku_
on their foreheads. But before marriage it is optional and afterwards
compulsory. A widow may not wear vermilion, _kunku_, or spangles.
7. Red dye on the feet
The Lakheras also sell balls of red cotton-wool known as _mahur
ki guleli_ or _mahawar_. The cotton-wool is dipped in the melted
lac-gum and is rubbed on to the feet of women to colour them red
or pink at marriages and festivals. This is done by the barber's
wife, who will colour the feet of the whole party, at the same
time drawing lines round the outside of the foot and inward from
the toes. The _mahawar_ is also an essential part of the Sohag of
marriage. Instead of lac the Muhammadans use _mehndi_ or henna, the
henna-leaves being pounded with catechu and the mixture rubbed on to
the feet and hands. After a little time it is washed off and a red
dye remains on the skin. It is supposed that the similar custom which
prevailed among the ancient Greeks is alluded to in the epithet of
'rosy-fingered Aurora.' The Hindus use henna dye only in the month
Shrawan (July), which is a period of fasting; the auspicious _kunku_
and _mahawar_ are therefore perhaps not considered suitable at such
a time, but as special protection is needed against evil spirits,
the necessary red colouring is obtained from henna. When a married
woman rubs henna on her hands, if the dye comes out a deep red tinge,
the other women say that her husband is not in love with her; but if
of a pale yellowish tinge, that he is very much in love.
8. Red threads
The Lakheras and Patwas also make the _kardora_ or waist-band of
red thread. This is worn by Hindu men and women, except Maratha
Brahmans. After he is married, if a man breaks this thread he must not
take food until he has put on a fresh one, and the same rule applies
to a woman all her life. Other threads are the _rakhis_ tied round the
wrists for protection against evil spirits on the day of Rakshabandhan,
and the necklets of silk or cotton thread wound round with thin silver
wire, which the Hindus put on at Anant Chaudas and frequently retain
for the whole year. The colour of all these threads is generally red in
the first place, but they soon get blackened by contact with the skin.
9. Lac toys
Toys of lac are especially made during the fast of Shrawan (July). At
this time for five years after her marriage a Hindu bride receives
annually from her husband a present called Shraoni, or that which
is given in Shrawan. It consists of a _chakri_ or reel, to which
a string is attached, and the reel is thrown up into the air and
wound and unwound on the string; a _bhora_ or wooden top spun by a
string; a _bansuli_ or wooden flute; a stick and ball, lac bangles
and a spangle, and cloth, usually of red chintz. All these toys are
made by the carpenter and coloured red with lac by the Lakhera, with
the exception of the bangles which may be yellow or green. For five
years the bride plays with the toys, and then they are sent to her no
longer as her childhood has passed. It is probable that some, if not
all of them, are in a manner connected with the crops, and supposed
to have a magical influence, because during the same period it is the
custom for boys to walk on stilts and play at swinging themselves;
and in these cases the original idea is to make the crops grow as
high as the stilts or swing. As in the other cases, the red colour
appears to have a protective influence against evil spirits, who are
more than usually active at a time of fasting.
Lodhi
List of Paragraphs
1. _Origin and traditions_.
2. _Position in the Central Provinces_.
3. _Subdivisions_.
4. _Exogamous groups_.
5. _Marriage customs_.
6. _The Gauna ceremony. Fertility rites_.
7. _Widow-marriage and puberty rite_.
8. _Mourning impurity_.
9. _Social customs_.
10. _Greetings and method of address_.
11. _Sacred thread and social status_.
1. Origin and traditions
_Lodhi, Lodha._--An important agricultural caste residing principally
in the Vindhyan Districts and Nerbudda valley, whence they have spread
to the Wainganga valley and the Khairagarh State of Chhattisgarh. Their
total strength in the Province is 300,000 persons. The Lodhis
are immigrants from the United Provinces, in whose Gazetteers it
is stated that they belonged originally to the Ludhiana District
and took their name from it. Their proper designation is Lodha,
but it has become corrupted to Lodhi in the Central Provinces. A
number of persons resident in the Harda tahsil of Hoshangabad are
called Lodha and say that they are distinct from the Lodhis. There is
nothing to support their statement, however, and it is probable that
they simply represent the separate wave of immigration which took
place from Central India into the Hoshangabad and Betul Districts
in the fifteenth century. They spoke a different dialect of the
group known as Rajasthani, and hence perhaps the caste-name did
not get corrupted. The Lodhis of the Jubbulpore Division probably
came here at a later date from northern India. The Mandla Lodhis
are said to have been brought to the District by Raja Hirde Sah of
the Gond-Rajput dynasty of Garha-Mandla in the seventeenth century,
and they were given large grants of the waste land in the interior in
order that they might clear it of forest. [89] The Lodhis are a good
instance of a caste who have obtained a great rise in social status
on migrating to a new area. In northern India Mr. Nesfield places
them lowest among the agricultural castes and states that they are
little better than a forest tribe. He derives the name from _lod_,
a clod, according to which Lodhi would mean clodhopper. [90] Another
suggestion is that the name is derived from the bark of the _lodh_
tree, [91] which is collected by the Lodhas in northern India and sold
for use as a dyeing agent. In Bulandshahr they are described as "Of
short stature and uncouth appearance, and from this as well as from
their want of a tradition of immigration from other parts they appear
to be a mixed class proceeding from aboriginal and Aryan parents. In
the Districts below Agra they are considered so low that no one drinks
water touched by them; but this is not the case in the Districts above
Agra." [92] In Hamirpur they appear to have some connection with the
Kurmis, and a story told of them in Saugor is that the first Lodhi
was created by Mahadeo from a scarecrow in a Kurmi woman's field
and given the vocation of a farmservant But the Lodhis themselves
claim Rajput ancestry and say that they are descended from Lava,
the eldest of the two sons of Raja Ramchandra of Ajodhya.
2. Position in the central Provinces
In the Central Provinces they have become landholders and are
addressed by the honorific title of Thakur, ranking with the higher
cultivating castes. Several Lodhi landholders in Damoh and Saugor
formerly held a quasi-independent position under the Muhammadans,
and subsequently acknowledged the Raja of Panna as their suzerain,
who conferred on some families the titles of Raja and Diwan. They
kept up a certain amount of state, and small contingents of soldiery,
attended by whom they went to pay their respects to the representative
of the ruling power. "It would be difficult," says Grant, [93] "to
recognise the descendants of the peaceful cultivators of northern
India in the strangely accoutred Rajas who support their style and
title by a score of ragged matchlock-men and a ruined mud fort on a
hill-side." Sir B. Fuller's _Damoh Settlement Report_ says of them:
"A considerable number of villages had been for long time past in the
possession of certain important families, who held them by prescription
or by a grant from the ruling power, on a right which approximated
as nearly to the English idea of proprietorship as native custom
permitted. The most prominent of these families were of the Lodhi
caste. They have developed tastes for sport and freebooting and have
become decidedly the most troublesome item in the population. During
the Mutiny the Lodhis as a class were openly disaffected, and one of
their proprietors, the Talukdar of Hindoria, marched on the District
headquarters and looted the treasury." Similarly the Ramgarh family
of Mandla took to arms and lost the large estates till then held
by them. On the other hand the village of Imjhira in Narsinghpur
belonging to a Lodhi malguzar was gallantly defended against a band
of marauding rebels from Saugor. Sir R. Craddock describes them as
follows: "They are men of strong character, but their constant family
feuds and love of faction militate against their prosperity. A cluster
of Lodhi villages forms a hotbed of strife and the nearest relations
are generally divided by bitter animosities. The Revenue Officer who
visits them is beset by reckless charges and counter-charges and no
communities are less amenable to conciliatory compromises. Agrarian
outrages are only too common in some of the Lodhi villages." [94]
The high status of the Lodhi caste in the Central Provinces as
compared with their position in the country of their origin may be
simply explained by the fact that they here became landholders and
ruling chiefs.
3. Sub-divisions
In the northern Districts the landholding Lodhis are divided into
a number of exogamous clans who marry with each other in imitation
of the Rajputs. These are the Mahdele, Kerbania, Dongaria, Narwaria,
Bhadoria and others. The name of the Kerbanias is derived from Kerbana,
a village in Damoh, and the Balakote family of that District are
the head of the clan. The Mahdeles are the highest clan and have
the titles of Raja and Diwan, while the others hold those of Rao and
Kunwar, the terms Diwan and Kunwar being always applied to the younger
brother of the head of the house. These titles are still occasionally
conferred by the Raja of Panna, whom the Lodhi clans looked on as
their suzerain. The name of the Mahdeles is said to be derived from the
_mehndi_ or henna plant. The above clans sometimes practise hypergamy
among themselves and also with the other Lodhis, taking daughters
from the latter on receipt of a large bridegroom-price for the honour
conferred by the marriage. This custom is now, however, tending to
die out. There are also several endogamous subcastes ranking below
the clans, of whom the principal are the Singrore, Jarha, Jangra and
Mahalodhi. The Singrore take their name from the old town of Singraur
or Shrengera in northern India, Singrore, like Kanaujia, being a common
subcaste name among several castes. It is also connected more lately
with the Singram Ghat or ferry of the Ganges in Allahabad District,
and the title of Rawat is said to have been conferred on the Singrore
Lodhis by the emperor Akbar on a visit there. The Jarha Lodhis belong
to Mandla. The name is probably a form of Jharia or jungly, but since
the leading members of the caste have become large landholders they
repudiate this derivation. The Jangra Lodhis are of Chhattisgarh, and
the Mahalodhis or 'Great Lodhis' are an inferior group to which the
offspring of irregular unions are or were relegated. The Mahalodhis
are said to condone adultery either by a man or woman on penalty of a
feast to the caste. Other groups are the Hardiha, who grow turmeric
(_haldi_), and the Gwalhare or cowherds. The Lodhas of Hoshangabad
may also be considered a separate subcaste. They disclaim connection
with the Lodhis, but the fact that the parent caste in the United
Provinces is known as Lodha appears to establish their identity. They
abstain from flesh and liquor, which most Lodhis consume.
This division of the superior branch of a caste into large exogamous
clans and the lower one into endogamous subcastes is only found, so
far as is known, among the Rajputs and one or two landholding castes
who have imitated them. Its origin is discussed in the Introduction.
4. Exogamous groups
The subcastes are as usual divided into exogamous groups of the
territorial, titular and totemistic classes. Among sections named
after places may be mentioned the Chandpuria from Chandpur, the
Kharpuria from Kharpur, and the Nagpuriha, Raipuria, Dhamonia,
Damauha and Shahgariha from Nagpur, Raipur, Dhamoni, Damoh and
Shahgarh. Two-thirds of the sections have the names of towns or
villages. Among titular names are Saulakhia, owner of 100 lakhs,
Bhainsmar, one who killed a buffalo, Kodonchor, one who stole kodon,
[95] Kumharha perhaps from Kumhar a potter, and Rajbhar and Barhai
(carpenter), names of castes. Among totemistic names are Baghela,
tiger, also the name of a Rajput sept; Kutria, a dog; Khajuria, the
date-palm tree; Mirchaunia, chillies; Andwar, from the castor-oil
plant; Bhainsaiya, a buffalo; and Nak, the nose.
5. Marriage customs
A man must not marry in his own section nor in that of his mother. He
may marry two sisters. The exchange of girls between families is
only in force among the Bilaspur Lodhis, who say, 'Eat with those
who have eaten with you and marry with those who have married with
you.' Girls are usually wedded before puberty, but in the northern
Districts the marriage is sometimes postponed from desire to marry
into a good family or from want of funds to pay a bridegroom-price,
and girls of twenty or more may be unmarried. A case is known of a
man who had two daughters unmarried at twenty-two and twenty-three
years old, because he had been waiting for good _partis_, with the
result that one of them went and lived with a man and he then married
off the other in the Singhast [96] year, which is forbidden among the
Lodhis, and was put out of caste. The marriage and other ceremonies
of the Lodhis resemble those of the Kurmis, except in Chhattisgarh
where the Maratha fashion is followed. Here, at the wedding, the bride
and bridegroom hold between them a doll made of dough with 21 cowries
inside, and as the priest repeats the marriage texts they pull it apart
like a cracker and see how many cowries each has got. It is considered
auspicious if the bridegroom has the larger number. The priest is on
the roof of the house, and before the wedding he cries out:
'Are the king and queen here?' And a man below answers, 'Yes.'
'Have they shoes on their feet?' 'Yes.'
'Have they bracelets on their hands?' 'Yes.'
'Have they rings in their ears?' 'Yes.'
'Have they crowns on their heads?' 'Yes.'
'Has she glass beads round her neck?' 'Yes.'
'Have they the doll in their hands?' 'Yes.'
And the priest then repeats the marriage texts and beats a brass
dish while the doll is pulled apart In the northern Districts after
the wedding the bridegroom must untie one of the festoons of the
marriage-shed, and if he refuses to do this, it is an indelible
disgrace on the bride's party. Before doing so he requires a valuable
present, such as a buffalo.
6. The gauna ceremoney. Fertility rites
When the girl becomes mature the Gauna or going-away ceremony is
performed. In Chhattisgarh before leaving her home the bride goes out
with her sister and worships a _palas_ tree. [97] Her sister waves
a lighted lamp seven times over it, and the bride goes seven times
round it in imitation of the marriage ceremony. At her husband's
house seven pictures of the family gods are drawn on a wall inside
the house and the bride worships these, placing a little sugar and
bread on the mouth of each and bowing before them. She is then seated
before the family god while an old woman brings a stone rolling-pin
[98] wrapped up in a piece of cloth, which is supposed to be a baby,
and the old woman imitates a baby crying. She puts the roller in
the bride's lap saying, 'Take this and give it milk.' The bride is
abashed and throws it aside. The old woman picks it up and shows
it to the assembled women saying, 'The bride has just had a baby,'
amid loud laughter. Then she gives the stone to the bridegroom who
also throws it aside. This ceremony is meant to induce fertility,
and it is supposed that by making believe that the bride has had a
baby she will quickly have one.
7. Widow-marriage and puberty rite
The higher clans of Lodhis in Damoh and Saugor prohibit the remarriage
of widows, but instances of it occur. It is said that a man who marries
a widow is relegated to the Mahalodhi subcaste or the Lahuri Sen, an
illegitimate group, and the Lodhis of his clan no longer acknowledge
his family. But if a girl's husband dies before she has lived with him
she may marry again. The other Lodhis freely permit widow-marriage
and divorce. When a girl first becomes mature she is secluded,
and though she may stay in the house cannot enter the cook-room. At
the end of the period she is dressed in red cloth, and a present of
cocoanuts stripped of their shells, sweetmeats, and a little money,
is placed in her lap, while a few women are invited to a feast. This
rite is also meant to induce fertility, the kernel of the cocoanut
being held to resemble an unborn baby.
8. Mourning impurity
The higher clans consider themselves impure for a period of 12 days
after a birth, and if the birth falls in the Mul asterism or Nakshatra,
for 27 days. After death they observe mourning for 10 days; on the
10th day they offer ten _pindas_ or funeral cakes, and on the 11th
day make one large _pinda_ or cake and divide it into eleven parts;
on the 12th day they make sixteen _pindas_ and unite the spirit of the
dead man with the ancestors; and on the 13th day they give a feast
and feed Brahmans and are clean. The lower subcastes only observe
impurity for three days after a birth and a death. Their funeral
rites are the same as those of the Kurmis.
9. Social customs
The caste employ Brahmans for weddings, but not necessarily for
birth and death ceremonies. They eat flesh and fish, and the bulk
of the caste eat fowls and drink liquor, but the landowning section
abjures these practices. They will take food cooked with water from
Brahmans, and that cooked without water also from Rajputs, Kayasths and
Sunars. In Narsinghpur they also accept cooked food from such a low
caste as Rajjahrs, [99] probably because the Rajjhars are commonly
employed by them as farmservants, and hence have been accustomed
to carry their master's food. A similar relation has been found to
exist between the Panwar Rajputs and their Gond farmservants. The
higher class Lodhis make an inordinate show of hospitality at their
weddings. The plates of the guests are piled up profusely with food,
and these latter think it a point of honour never to refuse it or say
enough. When melted butter is poured out into their cups the stream
must never be broken as it passes from one guest to the other, or it
is said that they will all get up and leave the feast. Apparently a
lot of butter must be wasted on the ground. The higher clans seclude
their women, and these when they go out must wear long clothes
covering the head and reaching to the feet. The women are not allowed
to wear ornaments of a cheaper metal than silver, except of course
their glass bangles. The Mahalodhis will eat food cooked with water
in the cook-room and carried to the fields, which the higher clans
will not do. Their women wear the _sari_ drawn through the legs and
knotted behind according to the Maratha fashion, but whenever they
meet their husband's elder brother or any other elder of the family
they must undo the knot and let the cloth hang down round their legs
as a mark of respect. They wear no breast-cloth. Girls are tattooed
before adolescence with dots on the chin and forehead, and marks on
one hand. Before she is tattooed the girl is given sweets to eat,
and during the process the operator sings songs in order that her
attention may be diverted and she may not feel the pain. After she
has finished the operator mutters a charm to prevent evil spirits
from troubling the girl and causing her pain.
10. Greetings and method of address
The caste have some strict taboos on names and on conversation
between the sexes. A man will only address his wife, sister, daughter,
paternal aunt or niece directly. If he has occasion to speak to some
other woman he will take his daughter or other female relative with
him and do his business through her. He will not speak even to his own
women before a crowd. A woman will similarly only speak to her father,
son or nephew, and father-, son- or younger brother-in-law. She will
not speak to her elder brother-in-law, and she will not address her
husband in the presence of his father, elder brother or any other
relative whom he reveres. A wife will never call her husband by his
name, but always address him as father of her son, and, if she has no
son, will sometimes speak to him through his younger brother. Neither
the father nor mother will call their eldest son by his name, but will
use some other name. Similarly a daughter-in-law is given a fresh
name on coming into the house, and on her arrival her mother-in-law
looks at her for the first time through a _guna_ or ring of baked
gram-flour. A man meeting his father or elder brother will touch his
feet in silence. One meeting his sister's husband, sister's son or
son-in-law, will touch his feet and say, '_Sahib, salaam_.'
11. Sacred thread and social status
The higher clans invest boys with the sacred thread either when they
are initiated by a Guru or spiritual preceptor, or when they are
married. The thread is made by a Brahman and has five knots. Recently
a large landholder in Mandla, a Jarha Lodhi, has assumed the sacred
thread himself for the first time and sent round a circular to his
caste-men enjoining them also to wear it. His family priest has
produced a legend of the usual type showing how the Jarha Lodhis
are Rajputs whose ancestors threw away their sacred threads in order
to escape the vengeance of Parasurama. Generally in social position
the Lodhis may be considered to rank with, but slightly above, the
ordinary cultivating castes, such as the Kurmis. This superiority
in no way arises from their origin, since, as already seen, they are
a very low caste in their home in northern India, but from the fact
that they have become large landholders in the Central Provinces and
in former times their leaders exercised quasi-sovereign powers. Many
Lodhis are fine-looking men and have still some appearance of having
been soldiers. They are passionate and quarrelsome, especially in the
Jubbulpore District. This is put forcibly in the saying that 'A Lodhi's
temper is as crooked as the stream of a bullock's urine.' They are
generally cultivators, but the bulk of them are not very prosperous
as they are inclined to extravagance and display at weddings and on
other ceremonial occasions.
Lohar
1. Legends of the caste
_Lohar_, _Khati_, _Ghantra_, _Ghisari_, _Panchal._--The occupational
caste of blacksmiths. The name is derived from the Sanskrit
_Lauha-kara>_, a worker in iron. In the Central Provinces the Loharhas
in the past frequently combined the occupations of carpenter and
blacksmith, and in such a capacity he is known as Khati. The honorific
designations applied to the caste are Karigar, which means skilful,
and Mistri, a corruption of the English 'Master' or 'Mister.' In 1911
the Lohars numbered about 180,000 persons in the Central Provinces
and Berar. The Lohar is indispensable to the village economy, and
the caste is found over the whole rural area of the Province.
"Practically all the Lohars," Mr. Crooke writes [100], "trace
their origin to Visvakarma, who is the later representative of the
Vedic Twashtri, the architect and handicraftsman of the gods, 'The
fashioner of all ornaments, the most eminent of artisans, who formed
the celestial chariots of the deities, on whose craft men subsist,
and whom, a great and immortal god, they continually worship,' One
[101] tradition tells that Visvakarma was a Brahman and married the
daughter of an Ahir, who in her previous birth had been a dancing-girl
of the gods. By her he had nine sons, who became the ancestors of
various artisan castes, such as the Lohar, Barhai, Sunar, and Kasera."
The Lohars of the Uriya country in the Central Provinces tell a similar
story, according to which Kamar, the celestial architect, had twelve
sons. The eldest son was accustomed to propitiate the family god with
wine, and one day he drank some of the wine, thinking that it could
not be sinful to do so as it was offered to the deity. But for this
act his other brothers refused to live with him and left their home,
adopting various professions; but the eldest brother became a worker
in iron and laid a curse upon the others that they should not be able
to practise their calling except with the implements which he had
made. The second brother thus became a woodcutter (Barhai), the third a
painter (Maharana), the fourth learnt the science of vaccination and
medicine and became a vaccinator (Suthiar), the fifth a goldsmith,
the sixth a brass-smith, the seventh a coppersmith, and the eighth a
carpenter, while the ninth brother was weak in the head and married
his eldest sister, on account of which fact his descendants are known
as Ghantra. [102] The Ghantras are an inferior class of blacksmiths,
probably an offshoot from some of the forest tribes, who are looked
down on by the others. It is said that even to the present day the
Ghantra Lohars have no objection to eating the leavings of food of
their wives, whom they regard as their eldest sisters.
2. Social position of the Lohar
The above story is noticeable as indicating that the social position
of the Lohar is somewhat below that of the other artisan castes, or
at least of those who work in metals. This fact has been recorded in
other localities, and has been explained by some stigma arising from
his occupation, as in the following passage: "His social position
is low even for a menial, and he is classed as an impure caste, in
so far that Jats and others of similar standing will have no social
communion with him, though not as an outcast like the scavenger. His
impurity, like that of the barber, washerman and dyer, springs solely
from the nature of his employment; perhaps because it is a dirty one,
but more probably because black is a colour of evil omen. It is not
improbable that the necessity under which he labours of using bellows
made of cowhide may have something to do with his impurity," [103]
Mr. Nesfield also says: "It is owing to the ubiquitous industry of
the Lohar that the stone knives, arrow-heads and hatchets of the
indigenous tribes of Upper India have been so entirely superseded
by iron-ores. The memory of the stone age has not survived even in
tradition. In consequence of the evil associations which Hinduism has
attached to the colour of black, the caste of Lohar has not been able
to raise itself to the same social level as the three metallurgic
castes which follow." The following saying also indicates that the
Lohar is of evil omen:
Ar, Dhar, Chuchkar
In tinon se bachawe Kartar.
Here _Ar_ means an iron goad and signifies the Lohar; _Dhar_ represents
the sound of the oil falling from the press and means a Teli or oilman;
_Chuchkar_ is an imitation of the sound of clothes being beaten against
a stone and denotes the Dhobi or washerman; and the phrase thus runs,
'My Friend, beware of the Lohar, Teli, and Dhobi, for they are of evil
omen.' It is not quite clear why this disrepute should attach to the
Lohar, because iron itself is lucky, though its colour, black, may be
of bad omen. But the low status of the Lohar may partly arise from the
fact of his being a village menial and a servant of the cultivators;
whereas the trades of the goldsmith, brass-smith and carpenter are of
later origin than the blacksmith's, and are urban rather than rural
industries; and thus these artisans do not commonly occupy the position
of village menials. Another important consideration is that the iron
industry is associated with the primitive tribes, who furnished the
whole supply of the metal prior to its importation from Europe: and it
is hence probable that the Lohar caste was originally constituted from
these and would thus naturally be looked down upon by the Hindus. In
Bengal, where few or no traces of the village community remain, the
Lohar ranks as the equal of Koiris and Kurmis, and Brahmans will take
water from his hands; [104] and this somewhat favours the argument that
his lower status elsewhere is not due to incidents of his occupation.
3. Caste subdivisions
The constitution of the Lohar caste is of a heterogeneous nature. In
some localities Gonds who work as blacksmiths are considered to
belong to the caste and are known as Gondi Lohars. But Hindus who
work in Gond villages also sometimes bear this designation. Another
subdivision returned consists of the Agarias, also an offshoot of the
Gonds, who collect and smelt iron-ore in the Vindhyan and Satpura
hills. The Panchals are a class of itinerant smiths in Berar. The
Ghantras or inferior blacksmiths of the Uriya country have already
been noticed. The Ghisaris are a similar low class of smiths in the
southern Districts who do rough work only, but sometimes claim Rajput
origin. Other subcastes are of the usual local or territorial type,
as Mahulia, from Mahul in Berar; Jhade or Jhadia, those living in
the jungles; Ojha, or those professing a Brahmanical origin; Maratha,
Kanaujia, Mathuria, and so on.
4. Marriage and other customs
Infant-marriage is the custom of the caste, and the ceremony is
that prevalent among the agricultural castes of the locality. The
remarriage of widows is permitted, and they have the privilege of
selecting their own husbands, or at least of refusing to accept any
proposed suitor. A widow is always married from her father's house,
and never from that of her deceased husband. The first husband's
property is taken by his relatives, if there be any, and they also
assume the custody of his children as soon as they are old enough to
dispense with a mother's care. The dead are both buried and burnt,
and in the eastern Districts some water and a tooth-stick are daily
placed at a cross-road for the use of the departed spirit during
the customary period of mourning, which extends to ten days. On the
eleventh day the relatives go and bathe, and the chief mourner puts
on a new loin-cloth. Some rice is taken and seven persons pass it from
hand to hand. They then pound the rice, and making from it a figure to
represent a human being, they place some grain in its mouth and say
to it, 'Go and become incarnate in some human being,' and throw the
image into the water. After this the impurity caused by the death is
removed, and they go home and feast with their friends. In the evening
they make cakes of rice, and place them seven times on the shoulder
of each person who has carried the corpse to the cemetery or pyre, to
remove the impurity contracted from touching it. It is also said that
if this be not done the shoulder will feel the weight of the coffin
for a period of six months. The caste endeavour to ascertain whether
the spirit of the dead person returns to join in the funeral feast,
and in what shape it will be born again. For this purpose rice-flour
is spread on the floor of the cooking-room and covered with a brass
plate. The women retire and sit in an adjoining room while the chief
mourner with a few companions goes outside the village, and sprinkles
some more rice-flour on the ground. They call to the deceased person
by name, saying, 'Come, come,' and then wait patiently till some
worm or insect crawls on to the floor. Some dough is then applied
to this and it is carried home and let loose in the house. The flour
under the brass plate is examined, and it is said that they usually
see the footprints of a person or animal, indicating the corporeal
entity in which the deceased soul has found a resting-place. During
the period of mourning members of the bereaved family do not follow
their ordinary business, nor eat flesh, sweets or other delicate
food. They may not make offerings to their deities nor touch any
persons outside the family, nor wear head-cloths or shoes. In the
eastern Districts the principal deities of the Lohars are Dulha Deo
and Somlai or Devi, the former being represented by a knife set in the
ground inside the house, and the latter by the painting of a woman on
the wall. Both deities are kept in the cooking-room, and here the head
of the family offers to them rice soaked in milk, with sandal-paste,
flowers, vermilion and lamp-black. He burns some melted butter in an
earthen lamp and places incense upon it. If a man has been affected by
the evil eye an exorcist will place some salt on his hand and burn it,
muttering spells, and the evil influence is removed. They believe that
a spell can be cast on a man by giving him to eat the bones of an owl,
when he will become an idiot.
5. Occupation
In the rural area of the Province the Lohar is still a village menial,
making and mending the iron implements of agriculture, such as the
ploughshare, axe, sickle, goad and other articles. For doing this he
is paid in Saugor a yearly contribution of twenty pounds of grain
per plough of land [105] held by each cultivator, together with a
handful of grain at sowing-time and a sheaf at harvest from both the
autumn and spring crops. In Wardha he gets fifty pounds of grain per
plough of four bullocks or forty acres. For making new implements the
Lohar is sometimes paid separately and is always supplied with the
iron and charcoal. The hand-smelting iron industry has practically
died out in the Province and the imported metal is used for nearly
all purposes. The village Lohars are usually very poor, their income
seldom exceeding that of an unskilled labourer. In the towns, owing
to the rapid extension of milling and factory industries, blacksmiths
readily find employment and some of them earn very high wages. In
the manufacture of cutlery, nails and other articles the capital is
often found by a Bhatia or Bohra merchant, who acts as the capitalist
and employs the Lohars as his workmen. The women help their husbands
by blowing the bellows and dragging the hot iron from the furnace,
while the men wield the hammer. The Panchals of Berar are described
as a wandering caste of smiths, living in grass mat-huts and using as
fuel the roots of thorn bushes, which they batter out of the ground
with the back of a short-handled axe peculiar to themselves. They
move from place to place with buffaloes, donkeys and ponies to carry
their kit. [106] Another class of wandering smiths, the Ghisaris, are
described by Mr. Crooke as follows: "Occasional camps of these most
interesting people are to be met with in the Districts of the Meerut
Division. They wander about with small carts and pack-animals, and,
being more expert than the ordinary village Lohar, their services
are in demand for the making of tools for carpenters, weavers and
other craftsmen. They are known in the Punjab as Gadiya or those who
have carts (_gadi, gari_). Sir D. Ibbetson [107] says that they come
up from Rajputana and the North-Western Provinces, but their real
country is the Deccan. In the Punjab they travel about with their
families and implements in carts from village to village, doing the
finer kinds of iron-work, which are beyond the capacity of the village
artisan. In the Deccan [108] this class of wandering blacksmiths are
called Saiqalgar, or knife-grinders, or Ghisara, or grinders (Hindi,
_ghisana_ 'to rub'). They wander about grinding knives and tools."
Lorha
_Lorha._ [109]--A small caste of cultivators in the Hoshangabad and
Nimar Districts, whose distinctive occupation is to grow _san_-hemp
(_Crotalaria juncea_) and to make sacking and gunny-bags from the
fibre. A very strong prejudice against this crop exists among the
Hindus, and those who grow it are usually cut off from their parent
caste and become a separate community. Thus we have the castes known
as Kumrawat, Patbina and Dangur in different parts of the Province,
who are probably offshoots from the Kurmis and Kunbis, but now rank
below them because they grow this crop; and in the Kurmi caste itself
a subcaste of Santora (hemp-picking) Kurmis has grown up. In Bilaspur
the Patharia Kurmis will grow _san_-hemp and ret it, but will not spin
or weave the fibre; while the Atharia Kurmis will not grow the crop,
but will spin the fibre and make sacking. The Saugor Kewats grow this
fibre, and here Brahmans and other high castes will not take water
from Kewats, though in the eastern Districts they will do so. The
Narsinghpur Mallahs, a branch of the Kewats, have also adopted the
cultivation of _san_-hemp as a regular profession. The basis of the
prejudice against the _san_-hemp plant is not altogether clear. The
Lorhas themselves say that they are looked down upon because they use
wheat-starch (_lapsi_) for smoothing the fibre, and that their name
is somehow derived from this fact. But the explanation does not seem
satisfactory. Many of the country people appear to think that there
is something uncanny about the plant because it grows so quickly,
and they say that on one occasion a cultivator went out to sow hemp
in the morning, and his wife was very late in bringing his dinner to
the field. He grew hungry and angry, and at last the shoots of the
hemp-seeds which he had sown in the morning began to appear above the
ground. At this he was so enraged that when his wife finally came
he said she had kept him waiting so long that the crop had come up
in the meantime, and murdered her. Since then the Hindus have been
forbidden to grow _san_-hemp lest they should lose their tempers in
the same manner. This story makes a somewhat excessive demand on the
hearer's credulity. One probable cause of the taboo seems to be that
the process of soaking and retting the stalks of the plant pollutes
the water, and if carried on in a tank or in the pools of a stream
might destroy the village supply of drinking-water. In former times
it may have been thought that the desecration of their sacred element
was an insult to the deities of rivers and streams, which would bring
down retribution on the offender. It is also the case that the proper
separation of the fibres requires a considerable degree of dexterity
which can only be acquired by practice. Owing to the recent increase in
the price of the fibre and the large profits which can now be obtained
from hemp cultivation, the prejudice against it is gradually breaking
down, and the Gonds, Korkus and lower Hindu castes have waived their
religious scruples and are glad to turn an honest penny by sowing hemp
either on their own account or for hire. Other partially tabooed crops
are turmeric and _al_ or Indian madder (_Morinda citrifolia_), while
onions and garlic are generally eschewed by Hindu cultivators. For
growing turmeric and _al_ special subcastes have been formed, as the
Alia Kunbis and the Hardia Malis and Kachhis (from _haldi_, turmeric),
just as in the case of _san_-hemp. The objection to these two crops is
believed to lie in the fact that the roots which yield the commercial
product have to be boiled, and by this process a number of insects
contained in them are destroyed. But the preparation of the hemp-fibre
does not seem to involve any such sacrifice of insect life. The Lorhas
appear to be a mixed group, with a certain amount of Rajput blood in
them, perhaps an offshoot of the Kirars, with whose social customs
their own are said to be identical. According to another account, they
are a lower or illegitimate branch of the Lodha caste of cultivators,
of whose name their own is said to be a corruption. The Nimar Gujars
have a subcaste named Lorha, and the Lorhas of Hoshangabad may be
connected with these. They live in the Seoni and Harda tahsils of
Hoshangabad, the _san_-hemp crop being a favourite one in villages
adjoining the forests, because it is not subject to the depredations
of wild animals. Cultivators are often glad to sublet their fields
for the purpose of having a crop of hemp grown upon them, because
the stalks are left for manure and fertilise the ground. String and
sacking are also made from the hemp-fibre by vagrant and criminal
castes like the Banjaras and Bhamtas, who formerly required the bags
for carrying their goods and possessions about with them.
Mahar
List of Paragraphs
1. _General Notice._
2. _Length of residence in the Central Provinces._
3. _Legend of origin._
4. _Sub castes._
5. _Exogamous groups and marriage customs._
6. _Funeral rites._
7. _Childbirth._
8. _Names._
9. _Religion._
10. _Adoption of foreign religions._
11. _Superstitions._
12. _Social rules_.
13. _Social subjection_.
14. _Their position improving_.
15. _Occupation_.
1. General Notice.
_Mahar, Mehra, Dhed._--The impure caste of menials, labourers and
village watchmen of the Maratha country, corresponding to the Chamars
and Koris of northern India. They numbered nearly 1,200,000 persons in
the combined Province in 1911, and are most numerous in the Nagpur,
Bhandara, Chanda and Wardha Districts of the Central Provinces,
while considerable colonies are also found in Balaghat, Chhindwara
and Betul. Their distribution thus follows largely that of the
Marathi language and the castes speaking it. Berar contained 400,000,
distributed over the four Districts. In the whole Province this caste
is third in point of numerical strength. In India the Mahars number
about three million persons, of whom a half belong to Bombay. I am not
aware of any accepted derivation for the word Mahar, but the balance
of opinion seems to be that the native name of Bombay, Maharashtra,
is derived from that of the caste, as suggested by Wilson. Another
derivation which holds it to be a corruption of Maha Rastrakuta, and
to be so called after the Rashtrakuta Rajput dynasty of the eighth
and ninth centuries, seems less probable because countries are very
seldom named after ruling dynasties. [110] Whereas in support of
Maharashtra as 'The country of the Mahars,' we have Gujarashtra or
Gujarat, 'the country of the Gujars,' and Saurashtra or Surat, 'the
country of the Sauras.' According to Platts' Dictionary, however,
Maharashtra means 'the great country,' and this is what the Maratha
Brahmans themselves say. Mehra appears to be a variant of the name
current in the Hindustani Districts, while Dheda, or Dhada, is said
to be a corruption of Dharadas or billmen. [111] In the Punjab it is
said to be a general term of contempt meaning 'Any low fellow.' [112]
Wilson considers the Mahars to be an aboriginal or pre-Aryan tribe,
and all that is known of the caste seems to point to the correctness
of this hypothesis. In the _Bombay Gazetteer_ the writer of the
interesting Gujarat volume suggests that the Mahars are fallen Rajputs;
but there seems little to support this opinion except their appearance
and countenance, which is of the Hindu rather than the Dravidian
type. In Gujarat they have also some Rajput surnames, as Chauhan,
Panwar, Rathor, Solanki and so on, but these may have been adopted by
imitation or may indicate a mixture of Rajput blood. Again, the Mahars
of Gujarat are the farmservants and serfs of the Kunbis. "Each family
is closely connected with the house of some landholder or _pattidar_
(sharer). For his master he brings in loads from the fields and cleans
out the stable, receiving in return daily allowances of buttermilk and
the carcases of any cattle that die. This connection seems to show
traces of a form of slavery. Rich _pattidars_ have always a certain
number of Dheda families whom they speak of as ours (_hamara_) and
when a man dies he distributes along with his lands a certain number
of Dheda families to each of his sons. An old tradition among Dhedas
points to some relation between the Kunbis and Dhedas. Two brothers,
Leva and Deva, were the ancestors, the former of the Kunbis, the latter
of the Dhedas." [113] Such a relation as this in Hindu society would
imply that many Mahar women held the position of concubines to their
Kunbi masters, and would therefore account for the resemblance of
the Mahar to Hindus rather than the forest tribes. But if this is
to be regarded as evidence of Rajput descent, a similar claim would
have to be allowed to many of the Chamars and sweepers. Others of the
lowest castes also have Rajput sept names, as the Pardhis and Bhils;
but the fact can at most be taken, I venture to think, to indicate a
connection of the 'Droit de Seigneur' type. On the other hand, the
Mahars occupy the debased and impure position which was the lot of
those non-Aryan tribes who became subject to the Hindus and lived in
their villages; they eat the flesh of dead cattle and this and other
customs appear to point decisively to a non-Aryan origin.
2. Length of residence in the Central Provinces
Several circumstances indicate that the Mahar is recognised as the
oldest resident of the plain country of Berar and Nagpur. In Berar
he is a village servant and is the referee on village boundaries and
customs, a position implying that his knowledge of them is the most
ancient. At the Holi festival the fire of the Mahars is kindled first
and that of the Kunbis is set alight from it. The Kamdar Mahar, who
acts as village watchman, also has the right of bringing the _toran_ or
rope of leaves which is placed on the marriage-shed of the Kunbis; and
for this he receives a present of three annas. In Bhandra the Telis,
Lohars, Dhimars and several other castes employ a Mahar _Mohturia_ or
wise man to fix the date of their weddings. And most curious of all,
when the Panwar Rajputs of this tract celebrate the festival of Narayan
Deo, they call a Mahar to their house and make him the first partaker
of the feast before beginning to eat themselves. Again in Berar [114]
the Mahar officiates at the killing of the buffalo on Dasahra. On the
day before the festival the chief Mahar of the village and his wife
with their garments knotted together bring some earth from the jungle
and fashioning two images set one on a clay elephant and the other on
a clay bullock. The images are placed on a small platform outside the
village site and worshipped; a young he-buffalo is bathed and brought
before the images as though for the same object. The Patel wounds
the buffalo in the nose with a sword and it is then marched through
the village. In the evening it is killed by the head Mahar, buried in
the customary spot, and any evil that might happen during the coming
year is thus deprecated and, it is hoped, averted. The claim to take
the leading part in this ceremony is the occasion of many a quarrel
and an occasional affray or riot Such customs tend to show that the
Mahars were the earliest immigrants from Bombay into the Berar and
Nagpur plain, excluding of course the Gonds and other tribes, who have
practically been ousted from this tract. And if it is supposed that
the Panwars came here in the tenth century, as seems not improbable,
[115] the Mahars, whom the Panwars recognise as older residents than
themselves, must have been earlier still, and were probably numbered
among the subjects of the old Hindu kingdoms of Bhandak and Nagardhan.
3. Legend of origin
The Mahars say they are descended from Mahamuni, who was a foundling
picked up by the goddess Parvati on the banks of the Ganges. At this
time beef had not become a forbidden food; and when the divine cow,
Tripad Gayatri, died, the gods determined to cook and eat her body
and Mahamuni was set to watch the pot boiling. He was as inattentive
as King Alfred, and a piece of flesh fell out of the pot. Not wishing
to return the dirty piece to the pot Mahamuni ate it; but the gods
discovered the delinquency, and doomed him and his descendants to
live on the flesh of dead cows. [116]
4. Sub-castes
The caste have a number of subdivisions, generally of a local or
territorial type, as Daharia, the residents of Dahar or the Jubbulpore
country, Baonia (52) of Berar, Nemadya or from Nimar, Khandeshi from
Khandesh, and so on; the Katia group are probably derived from that
caste, Katia meaning a spinner; the Barkias are another group whose
name is supposed to mean spinners of fine thread; while the Lonarias
are salt-makers. The highest division are the Somvansis or children
of the moon; these claim to have taken part with the Pandavas against
the Kauravas in the war of the Mahabharata, and subsequently to have
settled in Maharashtra. [117] But the Somvansi Mahars consent to groom
horses, which the Baone and Kosaria subcastes will not do. Baone and
Somvansi Mahars will take food together, but will not intermarry. The
Ladwan subcaste are supposed to be the offspring of kept women of
the Somvansi Mahars; and in Wardha the Dharmik group are also the
descendants of illicit unions and their name is satirical, meaning
'virtuous.' As has been seen, the caste have a subdivision named Katia,
which is the name of a separate Hindustani caste; and other subcastes
have names belonging to northern India, as the Mahobia, from Mahoba
in the United Provinces, the Kosaria or those from Chhattisgarh,
and the Kanaujia from Kanauj. This may perhaps be taken to indicate
that bodies of the Kori and Katia weaving castes of northern India
have been amalgamated with the Mahars in Districts where they have
come together along the Satpura Hills and Nerbudda Valley.
5. Exogamous groups and marriage customs
The caste have also a large number of exogamous groups, the names of
which are usually derived from plants, animals, and natural objects. A
few may be given as examples out of fifty-seven recorded in the Central
Provinces, though this is far from representing the real total; all
the common animals have septs named after them, as the tiger, cobra,
tortoise, peacock, jackal, lizard, elephant, lark, scorpion, calf, and
so on; while more curious names are--Darpan, a mirror; Khanda Phari,
sword and shield; Undrimaria, a rat-killer; Aglavi, an incendiary;
Andhare, a blind man; Kutramaria, a dog-killer; Kodu Dudh, sour milk;
Khobragade, cocoanut-kernel; Bhajikhai, a vegetable eater, and so on.
A man must not marry in his own sept, but may take a wife from his
mother's or grandmother's. A sister's son may marry a brother's
daughter, but not vice versa. A girl who is seduced before marriage
by a man of her own caste or any higher one can be married as if
she were a widow, but if she has a child she must first get some
other family to take it off her hands. The custom of _Lamjhana_ or
serving for a wife is recognised, and the expectant bridegroom will
live with his father-in-law and work for him for a period varying
from one to five years. The marriage ceremony follows the customary
Hindustani or Maratha ritual [118] as the case may be. In Wardha the
right foot of the bridegroom and the left one of the bride are placed
together in a new basket, while they stand one on each side of the
threshold. They throw five handfuls of coloured rice over each other,
and each time, as he throws, the bridegroom presses his toe on the
bride's foot; at the end he catches the girl by the finger and the
marriage is complete. In the Central Provinces the Mohturia or caste
priest officiates at weddings, but in Berar, Mr. Kitts states [119]
the caste employ the Brahman Joshi or village priest. But as he will
not come to their house they hold the wedding on the day that one
takes place among the higher castes, and when the priest gives the
signal the dividing cloth (Antarpat) between the couple is withdrawn,
and the garments of the bride and bridegroom are knotted, while the
bystanders clap their hands and pelt the couple with coloured grain. As
the priest frequently takes up his position on the roof of the house
for a wedding it is easy for the Mahars to see him. In Mandla some
of the lower class of Brahmans will officiate at the weddings of
Mahars. In Chhindwara the Mahars seat the bride and bridegroom in
the frame of a loom for the ceremony, and they worship the hide of a
cow or bullock filled with water. They drink together ceremoniously,
a pot of liquor being placed on a folded cloth and all the guests
sitting round it in a circle. An elder man then lays a new piece
of cloth on the pot and worships it. He takes a cup of the liquor
himself and hands round a cupful to every person present.
In Mandla at a wedding the barber comes and cuts the bride's nails,
and the cuttings are rolled up in dough and placed in a little
earthen pot beside the marriage-post. The bridegroom's nails and hair
are similarly cut in his own house and placed in another vessel. A
month or two after the wedding the two little pots are taken out and
thrown into the Nerbudda. A wedding costs the bridegroom's party
about Rs. 40 or Rs. 50 and the bride's about Rs. 25. They have no
going-away ceremony, but the occasion of a girl's coming to maturity
is known as Bolawan. She is kept apart for six days and given new
clothes, and the caste-people are invited to a meal. When a woman's
husband dies the barber breaks her bangles, and her anklets are taken
off and given to him as his perquisite. Her brother-in-law or other
relative gives her a new white cloth, and she wears this at first,
and afterwards white or coloured clothes at her pleasure. Her hair
is not cut, and she may wear _patelas_ or flat metal bangles on the
forearm and armlets above the elbow, but not other ornaments. A widow
is under no obligation to marry her first husband's younger brother;
when she marries a stranger he usually pays a sum of about Rs. 30 to
her parents. When the price has been paid the couple exchange a ring
and a bangle respectively in token of the agreement. When the woman is
proceeding to her second husband's house, her old clothes, necklace
and bangles are thrown into a river or stream and she is given new
ones to wear. This is done to lay the first husband's spirit, which
may be supposed to hang about the clothes she wore as his wife, and
when they are thrown away or buried the exorcist mutters spells over
them in order to lay the spirit. No music is allowed at the marriage
of a widow except the crooked trumpet called _singara_. A bachelor
who marries a widow must first go through a mock ceremony with a
cotton-plant, a sword or a ring. Divorce must be effected before the
caste _panchayat_ or committee, and if a divorced woman marries again,
her first husband performs funeral and mourning ceremonies as if
she were dead. In Gujarat the practice is much more lax and "divorce
can be obtained almost to an indefinite extent. Before they finally
settle down to wedded life most couples have more than once changed
their partners." [120] But here also, before the change takes place,
there must be a formal divorce recognised by the caste.
6. Funeral rites
The caste either burn or bury the dead and observe mourning for three
days, [121] having their houses whitewashed and their faces shaved. On
the tenth day they give a feast to the caste-fellows. On the Akshaya
Tritia [122] and the 30th day of Kunwar (September) they offer rice
and cakes to the crows in the names of their ancestors. In Berar
Mr. Kitts writes: [123] "If a Mahar's child has died, he will on the
third day place bread on the grave; if an infant, milk; if an adult,
on the tenth day, with five pice in one hand and five betel-leaves in
the other, he goes into the river, dips himself five times and throws
these things away; he then places five lighted lamps on the tomb,
and after these simple ceremonies gets himself shaved as though he
were an orthodox Hindu."
7. Childbirth
In Mandla the mother is secluded at childbirth in a separate house if
one is available, and if not they fence in a part of the veranda for
her use with bamboo screens. After the birth the mother must remain
impure until the barber comes and colours her toe-nails and draws a
line round her feet with red _mahur_ powder. This is indispensable,
and if the barber is not immediately available she must wait until his
services can be obtained. When the navel-string drops it is buried
in the place on which the mother sat while giving birth, and when
this has been done the purification may be effected. The Dhobi is
then called to wash the clothes of the household, and their earthen
pots are thrown away. The head of the newborn child is shaved clean,
as the birth-hair is considered to be impure, and the hair is wrapped
up in dough and thrown into a river.
8. Names
A child is named on the seventh or twelfth day after its birth, the
name being chosen by the Mohturia or caste headman. The ordinary Hindu
names of deities for men and sacred rivers or pious and faithful wives
for women are employed; instances of the latter being Ganga, Godavari,
Jamuna, Sita, Laxmi and Radha. Opprobrious names are sometimes given
to avert ill-luck, as Damdya (purchased for eight cowries), Kauria
(a cowrie), Bhikaria (a beggar), Ghusia (from _ghus_, a mallet for
stamping earth), Harchatt (refuse), Akali (born in famine-time),
Langra (lame), Lula (having an arm useless); or the name of another
low caste is given, as Bhangi (sweeper), Domari (Dom sweeper), Chamra
(tanner), Basori (basket-maker). Not infrequently children are named
after the month or day when they were born, as Pusau, born in Pus
(December), Chaitu, born in Chait (March), Manglu (born on Tuesday),
Buddhi (born on Wednesday), Sukka (born on Friday), Sanichra (born
on Saturday). One boy was called Mulua or 'Sold' (_mol-dena_). His
mother had no other children, so sold him for one pice (farthing)
to a Gond woman. After five or six months, as he did not get fat,
his name was changed to Jhuma or 'lean,' probably as an additional
means of averting ill-luck. Another boy was named Ghurka, from the
noise he made when being suckled. A child born in the absence of its
father is called Sonwa, or one born in an empty house.
9. Religion
The great body of the caste worship the ordinary deities Devi,
Hanuman, Dulha Deo, and others, though of course they are not allowed
to enter Hindu temples. They principally observe the Holi and Dasahra
festivals and the days of the new and full moon. On the festival of
Nag-Panchmi they make an image of a snake with flour and sugar and
eat it. At the sacred Ambala tank at Ramtek the Mahars have a special
bathing-ghat set apart for them, and they may enter the citadel and
go as far as the lowest step leading up to the temples; here they
worship the god and think that he accepts their offerings. They are
thus permitted to traverse the outer enclosures of the citadel, which
are also sacred. In Wardha the Mahars may not touch the shrines of
Mahadeo, but must stand before them with their hands joined. They may
sometimes deposit offerings with their own hands on those of Bhimsen,
originally a Gond god, and Mata Devi, the goddess of smallpox.
10. Adoption of foreign religions
In Berar and Bombay the Mahars have some curious forms of belief. "Of
the confusion which obtains in the Mahar theogony the names of six
of their gods will afford a striking example. While some Mahars
worship Vithoba, the god of Pandharpur, others revere Varuna's twin
sons, Meghoni and Deghoni, and his four messengers, Gabriel, Azrael,
Michael and Anadin, all of whom they say hail from Pandharpur." [124]
The names of archangels thus mixed up with Hindu deities may most
probably have been obtained from the Muhammadans, as they include
Azrael; but in Gujarat their religion appears to have been borrowed
from Christianity. "The Karia Dhedas have some rather remarkable
beliefs. In the Satya Yug the Dhedas say they were called Satyas;
in the Dvapar Yug they were called Meghas; in the Treta Yug, Elias;
and in the Kali Yug, Dhedas. The name Elias came, they say, from
a prophet Elia, and of him their religious men have vague stories;
some of them especially about a famine that lasted for three years
and a half, easily fitting into the accounts of Elijah in the Jewish
Scriptures. They have also prophecies of a high future in store for
their tribe. The king or leader of the new era, Kuyam Rai by name,
will marry a Dheda woman and will raise the caste to the position of
Brahmans. They hold religious meetings or _ochhavas_, and at these
with great excitement sing songs full of hope of the good things in
store for them. When a man wishes to hold an _ochhava_ he invites
the whole caste, and beginning about eight in the evening they often
spend the night in singing. Except perhaps for a few sweetmeats
there is no eating or drinking, and the excitement is altogether
religious and musical. The singers are chiefly religious Dhedas or
Bhagats, and the people join in a refrain '_Avore Kuyam Rai Raja_',
'Oh! come Kuyam Rai, our king.'" [125] It seems that the attraction
which outside faiths exercise on the Mahars is the hope held out of
ameliorating the social degradation under which they labour, itself
an outcome of the Hindu theory of caste. Hence they turn to Islam,
or to what is possibly a degraded version of the Christian story,
because these religions do not recognise caste, and hold out a promise
to the Mahar of equality with his co-religionists, and in the case of
Christianity of a recompense in the world to come for the sufferings
which he has to endure in this one. Similarly, the Mahars are the
warmest adherents of the Muhammadan saint Sheikh Farid, and flock
to the fairs held in his honour at Girar in Wardha and Partapgarh in
Bhandara, where he is supposed to have slain a couple of giants. [126]
In Berar [127] also they revere Muhammadan tombs. The remains of the
Muhammadan fort and tank on Pimpardol hill in Jalgaon taluk are now
one of the sacred places of the Mahars, though to the Muhammadans they
have no religious associations. Even at present Mahars are inclined to
adopt Islam, and a case was recently reported when a body of twenty
of them set out to do so, but turned back on being told that they
would not be admitted to the mosque. [128] A large proportion of the
Mahars are also adherents of the Kabirpanthi sect, one of the main
tenets of whose founder was the abolition of caste. And it is from
the same point of view that Christianity appeals to them, enabling
European missionaries to draw a large number of converts from this
caste. But even the Hindu attitude towards the Mahars is not one of
unmixed intolerance. Once in three or four years in the southern
Districts, the Panwars, Mahars, Pankas and other castes celebrate
the worship of Narayan Deo or Vishnu, the officiating priest being a
Mahar. Members of all castes come to the Panwar's house at night for
the ceremony, and a vessel of water is placed at the door in which they
wash their feet and hands as they enter; and when inside they are all
considered to be equal, and they sit in a line and eat the same food,
and bind wreaths of flowers round their heads. After the cock crows the
equality of status is ended, and no one who goes out of the house can
enter again. At present also many educated Brahmans recognise fully
the social evils resulting from the degraded position of the Mahars,
and are doing their best to remove the caste prejudices against them.
11. Superstitions
They have various spells to cure a man possessed of an evil spirit,
or stung by a snake or scorpion, or likely to be in danger from tigers
or wild bears; and in the Morsi taluk of Berar it is stated that they
so greatly fear the effect of an enemy writing their name on a piece of
paper and tying it to a sweeper's broom that the threat to do this can
be used with great effect by their creditors. [129] To drive out the
evil eye they make a small human image of powdered turmeric and throw
it into boiled water, mentioning as they do so the names of any persons
whom they suspect of having cast the evil eye upon them. Then the pot
of water is taken out at midnight of a Wednesday or a Sunday and placed
upside down on some cross-roads with a shoe over it, and the sufferer
should be cured. Their belief about the sun and moon is that an old
woman had two sons who were invited by the gods to dinner. Before they
left she said to them that as they were going out there would be no one
to cook, so they must remember to bring back something for her. The
elder brother forgot what his mother had said and took nothing away
with him; but the younger remembered her and brought back something
from the feast. So when they came back the old woman cursed the elder
brother and said that as he had forgotten her he should be the sun
and scorch and dry up all vegetation with his beams; but the younger
brother should be the moon and make the world cool and pleasant at
night. The story is so puerile that it is only worth reproduction
as a specimen of the level of a Mahar's intelligence. The belief in
evil spirits appears to be on the decline, as a result of education
and accumulated experience. Mr. C. Brown states that in Malkapur of
Berar the Mahars say that there are no wandering spirits in the hills
by night of such a nature that people need fear them. There are only
tiny _pari_ or fairies, small creatures in human form, but with the
power of changing their appearance, who do no harm to any one.
12. Social rules
When an outsider is to be received into the community all the hair on
his face is shaved, being wetted with the urine of a boy belonging
to the group to which he seeks admission. Mahars will eat all kinds
of food including the flesh of crocodiles and rats, but some of them
abstain from beef. There is nothing peculiar in their dress except that
the men wear a black woollen thread round their necks. [130] The women
may be recognised by their bold carriage, the absence of nose-rings and
the large irregular dabs of vermilion on the forehead. Mahar women do
not, as a rule, wear the _choli_ or breast-cloth. An unmarried girl
does not put on vermilion nor draw her cloth over her head. Women
must be tattooed with dots on the face, representations of scorpions,
flowers and snakes on the arms and legs, and some dots to represent
flies on the hands. It is the custom for a girl's father or mother
or father-in-law to have her tattooed in one place on the hand or
arm immediately on her marriage. Then when girls are sitting together
they will show this mark and say, 'My mother or father-in-law had this
done,' as the case may be. Afterwards if a woman so desires she gets
herself tattooed on her other limbs. If an unmarried girl or widow
becomes with child by a man of the Mahar caste or any higher one she
is subjected after delivery to a semblance of the purification by fire
known as Agnikasht. She is taken to the bank of a river and there five
stalks of juari are placed round her and burnt. Having fasted all day,
at night she gives a feast to the caste-men and eats with them. If she
offends with a man of lower caste she is finally expelled. Temporary
exclusion from caste is imposed for taking food or drink from the
hands of a Mang or Chamar or for being imprisoned in jail, or on a
Mahar man if he lives with a woman of any higher caste; the penalty
being the shaving of a man's face or cutting off a lock of a woman's
hair, together with a feast to the caste. In the last case it is said
that the man is not readmitted until he has put the woman away. If a
man touches a dead dog, cat, pony or donkey, he has to be shaved and
give a feast to the caste. And if a dog or cat dies in his house,
or a litter of puppies or kittens is born, the house is considered
to be defiled; all the earthen pots must be thrown away, the whole
house washed and cleaned and a caste feast given. The most solemn oath
of a Mahar is by a cat or dog and in Yeotmal by a black dog. [131]
In Berar, the same paper states, the pig is the only animal regarded
as unclean, and they must on no account touch it. This is probably
owing to Muhammadan influence. The worst social sin which a Mahar can
commit is to get vermin in a wound, which is known as Deogan or being
smitten by God. While the affliction continues he is quite ostracised,
no one going to his house or giving him food or water; and when it
is cured the Mahars of ten or twelve surrounding villages assemble
and he must give a feast to the whole community. The reason for this
calamity being looked upon with such peculiar abhorrence is obscure,
but the feeling about it is general among Hindus.
13. Social subjection
The social position of the Mahars is one of distressing
degradation. Their touch is considered to defile and they live in
a quarter by themselves outside the village. They usually have a
separate well assigned to them from which to draw water, and if
the village has only one well the Mahars and Hindus take water
from different sides of it. Mahar boys were not until recently
allowed to attend school with Hindu boys, and when they could not
be refused admission to Government schools, they were allotted a
small corner of the veranda and separately taught. When Dher boys
were first received into the Chanda High School a mutiny took place
and the school was boycotted for some time. The people say, '_Mahar
sarva jaticha bahar_' or 'The Mahar is outside all castes.' Having
a bad name, they are also given unwarrantably a bad character; and
'_Mahar jaticha_' is a phrase used for a man with no moral or kindly
feelings. But in theory at least, as conforming to Hinduism, they
were supposed to be better than Muhammadans and other unbelievers,
as shown by the following story from the Rasmala: [132] A Muhammadan
sovereign asked his Hindu minister which was the lowest caste. The
minister begged for leisure to consider his reply and, having obtained
it, went to where the Dhedas lived and said to them: "You have given
offence to the Padishah. It is his intention to deprive you of caste
and make you Muhammadans." The Dhedas, in the greatest terror, pushed
off in a body to the sovereign's palace, and standing at a respectful
distance shouted at the top of their lungs: "If we've offended your
majesty, punish us in some other way than that. Beat us, fine us, hang
us if you like, but don't make us Muhammadans." The Padishah smiled,
and turning to his minister who sat by him affecting to hear nothing,
said, 'So the lowest caste is that to which I belong.' But of course
this cannot be said to represent the general view of the position of
Muhammadans in Hindu eyes; they, like the English, are regarded as
distinguished foreigners, who, if they consented to be proselytised,
would probably in time become Brahmans or at least Rajputs. A repartee
of a Mahar to a Brahman abusing him is: The Brahman, '_Jare Maharya_'
or 'Avaunt, ye Mahar'; the Mahar, '_Kona diushi nein tumchi goburya_'
or 'Some day I shall carry cowdung cakes for you (at his funeral)';
as in the Maratha Districts the Mahar is commonly engaged for carrying
fuel to the funeral pyre. Under native rule the Mahar was subjected
to painful degradations. He might not spit on the ground lest a Hindu
should be polluted by touching it with his foot, but had to hang an
earthen pot round his neck to hold his spittle. [133] He was made to
drag a thorny branch with him to brush out his footsteps, and when a
Brahman came by had to lie at a distance on his face lest his shadow
might fall on the Brahman. In Gujarat [134] they were not allowed
to tuck up the loin-cloth but had to trail it along the ground. Even
quite recently in Bombay a Mahar was not allowed to talk loudly in the
street while a well-to-do Brahman or his wife was dining in one of the
houses. In the reign of Sidhraj, the great Solanki Raja of Gujarat,
the Dheras were for a time at any rate freed from such disabilities
by the sacrifice of one of their number. [135] The great tank at
Anhilvada Patan in Gujarat had been built by the Ods (navvies),
but Sidhraj desired Jusma Odni, one of their wives, and sought to
possess her. But the Ods fled with her and when he pursued her she
plunged a dagger into her stomach, cursing Sidhraj and saying that
his tank should never hold water. The Raja, returning to Anhilvada,
found the tank dry, and asked his minister what should be done that
water might remain in the tank. The Pardhan, after consulting the
astrologers, said that if a man's life were sacrificed the curse might
be removed. At that time the Dhers or outcastes were compelled to
live at a distance from the towns; they wore untwisted cotton round
their heads and a stag's horn as a mark hanging from their waists so
that people might be able to avoid touching them. The Raja commanded
that a Dher named Mayo should be beheaded in the tank that water might
remain. Mayo died, singing the praises of Vishnu, and the water after
that began to remain in the tank. At the time of his death Mayo had
begged as a reward for his sacrifice that the Dhers should not in
future be compelled to live at a distance from the towns nor wear
a distinctive dress. The Raja assented and these privileges were
afterwards permitted to the Dhers for the sake of Mayo.
14. Their position improving
From the painful state of degradation described above the Mahars are
gradually being rescued by the levelling and liberalising tendency
of British rule, which must be to these depressed classes an untold
blessing. With the right of acquiring property they have begun to
assert themselves, and the extension of railways more especially
has a great effect in abolishing caste distinctions. The Brahman who
cannot afford a second-class fare must either not travel or take the
risk of rubbing shoulders with a Mahar in a third-class carriage,
and if he chooses to consider himself defiled will have to go hungry
and thirsty until he gets the opportunity of bathing at his journey's
end. The observance of the rules of impurity thus becomes so irksome
that they are gradually falling into abeyance.
15. Occupation
The principal occupations of the Mahars are the weaving of coarse
country cloth and general labour. They formerly spun their own
yarn, and their fabrics were preferred by the cultivators for their
durability. But practically all thread is now bought from the mills;
and the weaving industry is also in a depressed condition. Many
Mahars have now taken to working in the mills, and earn better wages
than they could at home. In Bombay a number of them are employed
as police-constables. [136] They are usually the village watchmen
of the Maratha Districts, and in this capacity were remunerated
by contributions of grain from the tenants, the hides and flesh of
animals dying in the village, and plots of rent-free land. For these
have now been substituted in the Central Provinces a cash payment
fixed by Government. In Berar the corresponding official is known as
the Kamdar Mahar. Mr. Kitts writes of him: [137] As fourth _balutedar_
on the village establishment the Mahar holds a post of great importance
to himself and convenience to the village. To the patel (headman),
patwari and big men of the village, he acts often as a personal
servant and errand-runner; for a smaller cultivator he will also at
times carry a torch or act as escort. He had formerly to clean the
horses of travellers, and was also obliged, if required, to carry their
baggage. [138] For the services which he thus renders as _pandhewar_
the Mahar receives from the cultivators certain grain-dues. When
the cut juari is lying in the field the Mahars go round and beg for
a measure of the ears (_bhik payali_). But the regular payment is
made when the grain has been threshed. Another duty performed by
the Mahar is the removal of the carcases of dead animals. The flesh
is eaten and the skin retained as wage for the work. The patel and
his relatives, however, usually claim to have the skins of their own
animals returned; and in some places where half the agriculturists of
the village claim kinship with the patel, the Mahars feel and resent
the loss. A third duty is the opening of grain-pits, the noxious gas
from which sometimes produces asphyxia. For this the Mahars receive the
tainted grain. They also get the clothes from a corpse which is laid
on the pyre, and the pieces of the burnt wood which remain when the
body has been consumed. Recent observations in the Nagpur country show
that the position of the Mahars is improving. In Nagpur it is stated:
[139] "Looked down upon as outcastes by the Hindus they are hampered
by no sense of dignity or family prejudice. They are fond of drink,
but are also hard workers. They turn their hands to anything and
everything, but the great majority are agricultural labourers. At
present the rural Mahar is in the background. If there is only one
well in the village he may not use it, but has to get his water where
he can. His sons are consigned to a corner in the village school, and
the schoolmaster, if not superior to caste prejudices, discourages
their attendance. Nevertheless, Mahars will not remain for years
downtrodden in this fashion, and are already pushing themselves up
from this state of degradation. In some places they have combined to
dig wells, and in Nagpur have opened a school for members of their
own community. Occasionally a Mahar is the most prosperous man in the
village. Several of them are moneylenders in a small way, and a few
are malguzars." Similarly in Bhandara Mr. Napier writes that a new
class of small creditors has arisen from the Mahar caste. These people
have given up drinking, and lead an abstemious life, wishing to raise
themselves in social estimation. Twenty or more village kotwars were
found to be carrying on moneylending transactions on a small scale,
and in addition many of the Mahars in towns were exceedingly well off.
Mahli
1. Origin of the caste
_Mahli, Mahili_. [140]--A small caste of labourers, palanquin-bearers
and workers in bamboo belonging to Chota Nagpur. In 1911 about 300
Mahlis were returned from the Feudatory States in this tract. They
are divided into five subcastes: the Bansphor-Mahli, who make baskets
and do all kinds of bamboo-work; the Pahar-Mahli, basket-makers and
cultivators; the Sulunkhi, cultivators and labourers; the Tanti who
carry litters; and the Mahli-Munda, who belong to Lohardaga. Sir
H. Risley states that a comparison of the totemistic sections of the
Mahlis given in the Appendix to his _Tribes and Castes_ with those
of the Santals seems to warrant the conjecture that the main body of
the caste are merely a branch of the Santals. Four or five septs,
Hansda a wild goose, Hemron, Murmu the nilgai, Saren or Sarihin,
and perhaps Tudu or Turu are common to the two tribes. The Mahlis are
also closely connected with the Mundas. Seven septs of the main body
of the Mahlis, Dumriar the wild fig, Gundli a kind of grain, Kerketa
a bird, Mahukal a bird (long-tail), Tirki, Tunduar and Turu are also
Munda septs; and the three septs given of the Mahli-Munda subcaste,
Bhuktuar, Lang Chenre, and Sanga are all found among the Mundas;
while four septs, Hansda a wild goose, Induar a kind of eel, as well
as Kerketa and Tirki, already mentioned, are common to the Mahlis
and Turis who are also recognised by Sir H. Risley as an offshoot of
the Munda tribe with the same occupation as the Mahlis, of making
baskets. [141] The Santals and Mundas were no doubt originally one
tribe, and it seems that the Mahlis are derived from both of them,
and have become a separate caste owing to their having settled in
villages more or less of the open country, and worked as labourers,
palanquin-bearers and bamboo-workers much in the same manner as the
Turis. Probably they work for hire for Hindus, and hence their status
may have fallen lower than that of the parent tribe, who remained
in their own villages in the jungles. Colonel Dalton notes [142]
that the gipsy Berias use Manjhi and Mahali as titles, and it is
possible that some of the Mahlis may have joined the Beria community.
2. Social customs
Only a very few points from Sir H. Risley's account of the caste need
be recorded here, and for further details the reader may be referred
to his article in the _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_. A bride-price
of Rs. 5 is customary, but it varies according to the means of the
parties. On the wedding day, before the usual procession starts to
escort the bridegroom to the bride's house, he is formally married to
a mango tree, while the bride goes through the same ceremony with a
mahua. At the entrance to the bride's house the bridegroom, riding on
the shoulders of some male relation and bearing on his head a vessel
of water, is received by the bride's brother, equipped in similar
fashion, and the two cavaliers sprinkle one another with water. At
the wedding the bridegroom touches the bride's forehead five times
with vermilion and presents her with an iron armlet. The remarriage
of widows and divorce are permitted. When a man divorces his wife he
gives her a rupee and takes away the iron armlet which was given her
at her wedding. The Mahlis will admit members of any higher caste into
the community. The candidate for admission must pay a small sum to the
caste headman, and give a feast to the Mahlis of the neighbourhood, at
which he must eat a little of the leavings of food left by each guest
on his leaf-plate. After this humiliating rite he could not, of course,
be taken back into his own caste, and is bound to remain a Mahli.
Majhwar
List of Paragraphs
1. _Origin of the tribe_.
2. _The Mirzapur Majhwars derived from the Gonds_.
3. _Connection with the Kawars_.
4. _Exogamy and totemism_.
5. _Marriage customs_.
6. _Birth and funeral rites_.
7. _Religious dance_.
1. Origin of the tribe
_Majhwar, Manjhi, Majhia_. [143]--A small mixed tribe who have
apparently originated from the Gonds, Mundas and Kawars. About 14,000
Majhwars were returned in 1911 from the Raigarh, Sarguja and Udaipur
States. The word Manjhi means the headman of a tribal subdivision,
being derived from the Sanskrit _madhya_, or he who is in the
centre. [144] In Bengal Manjhi has the meaning of the steersman of a
boat or a ferryman, and this may have been its original application,
as the steersman might well be he who sat in the centre. [145]
When a tribal party makes an expedition by boat, the leader would
naturally occupy the position of steersman, and hence it is easy to
see how the term Manjhi came to be applied to the leader or head of
the clan and to be retained as a title for general use. Sir H. Risley
gives it as a title of the Kewats or fishermen and many other castes
and tribes in Bengal. But it is also the name for a village headman
among the Santals, and whether this meaning is derived from the
prior signification of steersman or is of independent origin is,
uncertain. In Raigarh Mr. Hira Lal states that the Manjhis or Majhias
are fishermen and are sometimes classed, with the Kewats. They appear
to be Kols who have taken to fishing and, being looked down on by
the other Kols on this account, took the name of Majhia or Manjhi,
which they now derive from Machh, a fish. "The appearance of the
Majhias whom I saw and examined was typically aboriginal and their
language was a curious mixture of Mundari, Santal and Korwa, though
they stoutly repudiated connection with any of these tribes. They
could count only up to three in their own language, using the Santal
words _mit, baria, pia_. Most of their terms for parts of the body
were derived from Mundari, but they also used some Santali and Korwa
words. In their own language they called themselves Hor, which means
a man, and is the tribal name of the Mundas."
2. The Mirzapur Majhwars derived from the Gonds
On the other hand the Majhwars of Mirzapur, of whom Mr. Crooke gives a
detailed and interesting account, clearly appear to be derived from the
Gonds. They have five subdivisions, which they say are descended from
the five sons of their first Gond ancestor. These are Poiya, Tekam,
Marai, Chika and Oiku. Four of these names are those of Gond clans,
and each of the five subtribes is further divided into a number of
exogamous septs, of which a large proportion bear typical Gond names,
as Markam, Netam, Tekam, Masham, Sindram and so on. The Majhwars
of Mirzapur also, like the Gonds, employ Patharis or Pardhans as
their priests, and there can thus be no doubt that they are mainly
derived from the Gonds. They would appear to have come to Mirzapur
from Sarguja and the Vindhyan and Satpura hills, as they say that
their ancestors ruled from the forts of Mandla, Garha in Jubbulpore,
Sarangarh, Raigarh and other places in the Central Provinces. [146]
They worship a deified Ahir, whose legs were cut off in a fight with
some Raja, since when he has become a troublesome ghost. "He now lives
on the Ahlor hill in Sarguja, where his petrified body may still be
seen, and the Manjhis go there to worship him. His wife lives on
the Jhoba hill in Sarguja. Nobody but a Baiga dares to ascend the
hill, and even the Raja of Sarguja when he visits the neighbourhood
sacrifices a black goat. Manjhis believe that if these two deities are
duly propitiated they can give anything they need." The story makes
it probable that the ancestors of these Manjhis dwelt in Sarguja. The
Manjhis of Mirzapur are not boatmen or fishermen and have no traditions
of having ever been so. They are a backward tribe and practise shifting
cultivation on burnt-out patches of forest. It is possible that they
may have abandoned their former aquatic profession on leaving the
neighbourhood of the rivers, or they may have simply adopted the name,
especially since it has the meaning of a village headman and is used
as a title by the Santals and other castes and tribes. Similarly
the term Munda, which at first meant the headman of a Kol village,
is now the common name for the Kol tribe in Chota Nagpur.
3. Connection with the Kawars
Again the Manjhis appear to be connected with the Kawar tribe. Mr. Hira
Lal states that in Raigarh they will take food with Kewats, Gonds,
Kawars and Rawats or Ahirs, but they will not eat rice and pulse,
the most important and sacred food, with any outsiders except Kawars;
and this they explain by the statement that their ancestors and those
of the Kawars were connected. In Mirzapur the Kaurai Ahirs will take
food and water from the Majhwars, and these Ahirs are not improbably
derived from the Kawars. [147] Here the Majhwars also hold an oath
taken when touching a broadsword as most binding, and the Kawars
of the Central Provinces worship a sword as one of their principal
deities. [148] Not improbably the Manjhis may include some Kewats,
as this caste also use Manjhi for a title; and Manjhi is both a
subcaste and title of the Khairwars. The general conclusion from the
above evidence appears to be that the caste is a very heterogeneous
group whose most important constituents come from the Gond, Munda,
Santal and Kawar tribes. Whether the original bond of connection
among the various people who call themselves Manjhi was the common
occupation of boating and fishing is a doubtful point.
4. Exogamy and totemism
The Manjhis of Sarguja, like those of Raigarh, appear to be of Munda
and Santal rather than of Gond origin. They have no subdivisions,
but a number of totemistic septs. Those of the Bhainsa or buffalo sept
are split into the Lotan and Singhan subsepts, _lotan_ meaning a place
where buffaloes wallow and _singh_ a horn. The Lotan Bhainsa sept say
that their ancestor was born in a place where a buffalo had wallowed,
and the Singhan Bhainsa that their ancestor was born while his mother
was holding the horn of a buffalo. These septs consider the buffalo
sacred and will not yoke it to a plough or cart, though they will drink
its milk. They think that if one of them killed a buffalo their clan
would become extinct. The Baghani Majhwars, named after the _bagh_
or tiger, think that a tiger will not attack any member of their sept
unless he has committed an offence entailing temporary excommunication
from caste. Until this offence has been expiated his relationship with
the tiger as head of his sept is in abeyance and the tiger will eat
him as he would any other stranger. If a tiger meets a member of the
sept who is free from sin, he will run away. When the Baghani sept
hear that any Majhwar has killed a tiger they purify their houses by
washing them with cowdung and water. Members of the Khoba or peg sept
will not make a peg or drive one into the ground. Those of the Dumar
[149] or fig-tree sept say that their first ancestor was born under
this tree. They consider the tree to be sacred and never eat its
fruit, and worship it once a year. Members of the sept named after
the _shiroti_ tree worship the tree every Sunday.
5. Marriage customs.
Marriage within the sept is prohibited and for three generations
between persons related through females. Marriage is adult, but matches
are arranged by the parents of the parties. At betrothal the elders of
the caste must be regaled with _cheora_ or parched rice and liquor. A
bride-price of Rs. 10 is paid, but a suitor who cannot afford this may
do service to his father-in-law for one or two years in lieu of it. At
the wedding the bridegroom puts a copper ring on the bride's finger and
marks her forehead with vermilion. The couple walk seven times round
the sacred post, and seven little heaps of rice and pieces of turmeric
are arranged so that they may touch one of them with their big toes at
each round. The bride's mother and seven other women place some rice
in the skirts of their cloths and the bridegroom throws this over his
shoulder. After this he picks up the rice and distributes it to all
the women present, and the bride goes through the same ceremony. The
rice is no doubt an emblem of fertility, and its presentation to the
women may perhaps be expected to render them fertile.
6. Birth and funeral rites
On the birth of a child the navel-string is buried in front of the
house. When a man is at the point of death they place a little
cooked rice and curds in his mouth so that he may not go hungry
to the other world, in view of the fact that he has probably eaten
very little during his illness. Some cotton and rice are also placed
near the head of the corpse in the grave so that he may have food
and clothing in the next world. Mourning is observed for five days,
and at the end of this period the mourners should have their hair cut,
but if they cannot get it done on this day, the rite may be performed
on the same day in the following year.
7. Religious dance
The tribe worship Dulha Deo, the bridegroom god, and also make
offerings to their ploughs at the time of eating the new rice and
at the Holi and Dasahra festivals. They dance the _karma_ dance in
the months of Asarh and Kunwar or at the beginning and end of the
rains. When the time has come the Gaontia headman or the Baiga priest
fetches a branch of the _karma_ tree from the forest and sets it up in
his yard as a notice and invitation to the village. After sunset all
the people, men, women and children, assemble and dance round the tree,
to the accompaniment of a drum known as Mandar. The dancing continues
all night, and in the morning the host plucks up the branch of the
_karma_ tree and consigns it to a stream, at the same time regaling
the dancers with rice, pulse and a goat. This dance is a religious
rite in honour of Karam Raja, and is believed to keep sickness from
the village and bring it prosperity. The tribe eat flesh, but abstain
from beef and pork. Girls are tattooed on arrival at puberty with
representations of the _tulsi_ or basil, four arrow-heads in the form
of a cross, and the foot-ornament known as _pairi_.
Mal
_Mal, Male, Maler, Mal Paharia._ [150]--A tribe of the Rajmahal
hills, who may be an isolated branch of the Savars. In 1911 about
1700 Mals were returned from the Chota Nagpur Feudatory States
recently transferred to the Central Provinces. The customs of the
Mals resemble those of the other hill tribes of Chota Nagpur. Sir
H. Risley states that the average stature is low, the complexion
dark and the figure short and sturdy. The following particulars are
reproduced from Colonel Dalton's account of the tribe:
"The hill lads and lasses are represented as forming very romantic
attachments, exhibiting the spectacle of real lovers 'sighing
like furnaces,' and the cockney expression of 'keeping company'
is peculiarly applicable to their courtship. If separated only for
an hour they are miserable, but there are apparently few obstacles
to the enjoyment of each other's society, as they work together, go
to market together, eat together, and sleep together! But if it be
found that they have overstepped the prescribed limits of billing and
cooing, the elders declare them to be out of the pale, and the blood
of animals must be shed at their expense to wash away the indiscretion
and obtain their readmission into society.
"On the day fixed for a marriage the bridegroom with his relations
proceeds to the bride's father's house, where they are seated on cots
and mats, and after a repast the bride's father takes his daughter's
hand and places it in that of the bridegroom, and exhorts him to be
loving and kind to the girl that he thus makes over to him. The groom
then with the little finger of his right hand marks the girl on the
forehead with vermilion, and then, linking the same finger with the
little finger of her right hand, he leads her away to his own house.
"The god of hunting is called Autga, and at the close of every
successful expedition a thank-offering is made to him. This is the
favourite pastime, and one of the chief occupations of the Malers,
and they have their game laws, which are strictly enforced. If a man,
losing an animal which he has killed or wounded, seeks for assistance
to find it, those who aid are entitled to one-half of the animal when
found. Another person accidentally coming on dead or wounded game and
appropriating it, is subjected to a severe fine. The Manjhi or headman
of the village is entitled to a share of all game killed by any of his
people. Any one who kills a hunting dog is fined twelve rupees. Certain
parts of an animal are tabooed to females as food, and if they infringe
this law Autga is offended and game becomes scarce. When the hunters
are unsuccessful it is often assumed that this is the cause, and the
augur never fails to point out the transgressing female, who must
provide a propitiatory offering. The Malers use poisoned arrows,
and when they kill game the flesh round the wound is cut off and
thrown away as unfit for food. Cats are under the protection of the
game laws, and a person found guilty of killing one is made to give
a small quantity of salt to every child in the village.
"I nowhere find any description of the dances and songs of the
Paharias. Mr. Atkinson found the Malers extremely reticent on the
subject, and with difficulty elicited that they had a dancing-place
in every village, but it is only when under the influence of God
Bacchus that they indulge in the amusement. All accounts agree in
ascribing to the Paharias an immoderate devotion to strong drink, and
Buchanan tells us that when they are dancing a person goes round with
a pitcher of the home-brew and, without disarranging the performers,
who are probably linked together by circling or entwining arms, pours
into the mouth of each, male and female, a refreshing and invigorating
draught. The beverage is the universal _pachwai_, that is, fermented
grain. The grain, either maize, rice or _janera_ (_Holcus sorghum_),
is boiled and spread out on a mat to cool. It is then mixed with a
ferment of vegetables called _takar_, and kept in a large earthen
vessel for some days; warm water may at any time be mixed with it,
and in a few hours it ferments and is ready for use."
When the attention of English officers was first drawn to them in 1770
the Males of the Rajmahal hills were a tribe of predatory freebooters,
raiding and terrorising the plain country from the foot of the hills to
the Ganges. It was Mr. Augustus Cleveland, Collector of Bhagalpur, who
reduced them to order by entering into engagements with the chiefs for
the prevention and punishment of offences among their own tribesmen,
confirming them in their estates and jurisdiction, and enrolling a
corps of Males, which became the Bhagalpur Hill Rangers, and was not
disbanded till the Mutiny. Mr. Cleveland died at the age of 29, having
successfully demonstrated the correct method of dealing with the wild
forest tribes, and the Governor-General in Council erected a tomb and
inscription to his memory, which was the original of that described
by Mr. Kipling in _The Tomb of his Ancestors_, though the character
of the first John Chinn in the story was copied from Outram. [151]
Mala
_Mala._--A low Telugu caste of labourers and cotton-weavers. They
numbered nearly 14,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911,
belonging mainly to the Chanda, Nagpur, Jubbulpore, and Yeotmal
Districts, and the Bastar State. The Marathas commonly call them Telugu
Dhers, but they themselves prefer to be known as 'Telangi Sadar Bhoi,'
which sounds a more respectable designation. They are also known as
Mannepuwar and Netkani. They are the Pariahs of the Telugu country,
and are regarded as impure and degraded. They may be distinguished
by their manner of tying the head-cloth more or less in a square
shape, and by their loin-cloths, which are worn very loose and not
knotted. Those who worship Narsinghswami, the man-lion incarnation
of Vishnu, are called Namaddar, while the followers of Mahadeo are
known as Lingadars. The former paint their foreheads with vertical
lines of sandal-paste, and the latter with horizontal ones. The Malas
were formerly zealous partisans of the right-handed sect in Madras,
and the description of this curious system of faction given by the
Abbé Dubois more than a century ago may be reproduced: [152]
"Most castes belong either to the left-hand or right-hand faction. The
former comprises the Vaishyas or trading classes, the Panchalas or
artisan classes and some of the low Sudra castes. It also contains
the lowest caste, viz. the Chaklas or leather-workers, who are looked
upon as its chief support. To the right-hand faction belong most of
the higher castes of Sudras. The Pariahs (Malas) are also its great
support, as a proof of which they glory in the title of _Valangai
Maugattar_ or Friends of the Right Hand. In the disputes and conflicts
which so often take place between the two factions it is always the
Pariahs who make the most disturbance and do the most damage. The
Brahmans, Rajas and several classes of Sudras are content to remain
neutral and take no part in these quarrels. The opposition between the
two factions arises from certain exclusive privileges to which both
lay claim. But as these alleged privileges are nowhere clearly defined
and recognised, they result in confusion and uncertainty, and are with
difficulty capable of settlement. When one faction trespasses on the
so-called right of the other, tumults arise which spread gradually
over large tracts of territory, afford opportunity for excesses of all
kinds, and generally end in bloody conflicts. The Hindu, ordinarily so
timid and gentle in all other circumstances of life, seems to change
his nature completely on occasions like these. There is no danger that
he will not brave in maintaining what he calls his rights, and rather
than sacrifice a little of them he will expose himself without fear
to the risk of losing his life. The rights and privileges for which
the Hindus are ready to fight such sanguinary battles appear highly
ridiculous, especially to a European. Perhaps the sole cause of the
contest is the right to wear slippers or to ride through the streets
in a palanquin or on horseback during marriage festivals. Sometimes
it is the privilege of being escorted on certain occasions by armed
retainers, sometimes that of having a trumpet sounded in front of
a procession, or of being accompanied by native musicians at public
ceremonies." The writer of the _Madras Census Report_ of 1871 states:
[153] "It is curious that the females of two of the inferior castes
should take different sides to their husbands in these disputes. The
wives of the agricultural labourers side with the left hand, while
their husbands help in fighting the battles of the right, and the
shoemakers' wives also take the side opposed to their husbands. During
these festival disturbances, the ladies who hold political views
opposed to those of their husbands deny to the latter all the
privileges of the connubial state." The same writer states that the
right-hand castes claimed the prerogative of riding on horseback in
processions, of appearing with standards bearing certain devices,
and of erecting twelve pillars to sustain their marriage booths;
while the left-hand castes might not have more than eleven pillars,
nor use the same standards as the right. The quarrels arising out of
these small differences of opinion were so frequent and serious in the
seventeenth century that in the town of Madras it was found necessary
to mark the respective boundaries of the right- and left-hand castes,
and to forbid the right-hand castes in their processions from occupying
the streets of the left hand and vice versa. These disturbances have
gradually tended to disappear under the influence of education and
good government, and no instance of them is known to have occurred
in the Central Provinces. The division appears to have originated
among the members of the Sakta sect or the worshippers of Sakti as
the female principle of life in nature. Dr. L. D. Barnett writes:
[154]--"The followers of the sect are of two schools. The 'Walkers
in the Right Way' (_Dakshinachari_) pay a service of devotion to
the deity in both male and female aspects, and except in their more
pronounced tendency to dwell upon the horrific aspects of the deity
(as Kali, Durga, etc.), they differ little from ordinary Saivas
and Vaishnavas. The 'Walkers in the Left Way' (_Vamachari_), on the
other hand, concentrate their thought upon the godhead in its sexually
maternal aspect, and follow rites of senseless magic and--theoretically
at least--promiscuous debauchery." As has been seen, the religious
differences subsequently gave rise to political factions.
Mali
List of Paragraphs
1. _General notice of the caste, and its social position_.
2. _Caste legend_.
3. _Flowers offered to the gods_.
4. _Custom of wearing garlands_.
5. _Subcastes_.
6. _Marriage_.
7. _Widow-marriage, divorce and polygamy_.
8. _Disposal of the dead_.
9. _Religion_.
10. _Occupation_.
11. _Traits and characters_.
12. _Other functions of the Mali_.
13. _Physical appearance_.
1. General notice of the caste, and its social position
_Mali, Marar, Maral_. [155]--The functional caste of vegetable
and flower-gardeners. The terms Mali and Marar appear to be used
indifferently for the same caste, the former being more common in the
west of the Province and the latter in the eastern Satpura Districts
and the Chhattisgarh plain. In the Nerbudda valley and on the Vindhyan
plateau the place of both Mali and Marar is taken by the Kachhi of
Upper India. [156] Marar appears to be a Marathi name, the original
term, as pointed out by Mr. Hira Lal, being Malal, or one who grows
garden-crops in a field; but the caste is often called Mali in the
Maratha country and Marar in the Hindi Districts. The word Mali is
derived from the Sanskrit _mala_, a garland. In 1911 the Malis numbered
nearly 360,000 persons in the present area of the Central Provinces,
and 200,000 in Berar. A German writer remarks of the caste [157]
that: "It cannot be considered to be a very ancient one. Generally
speaking, it may be said that flowers have scarcely a place in the
Veda. Wreaths of flowers, of course, are used as decorations, but
the separate flowers and their beauty are not yet appreciated. That
lesson was first learned later by the Hindus when surrounded by
another flora. Amongst the Homeric Greeks, too, in spite of their
extensive gardening and different flowers, not a trace of horticulture
is yet to be found." It seems probable that the first Malis were not
included among the regular cultivators of the village but were a lower
group permitted to take up the small waste plots of land adjoining the
inhabited area and fertilised by its drainage, and the sandy stretches
in the beds of rivers, on which they were able to raise the flowers
required for offerings and such vegetables as were known. They still
hold a lower rank than the ordinary cultivator. Sir D. Ibbetson writes
[158] of the gardening castes: "The group now to be discussed very
generally hold an inferior position among the agricultural community
and seldom if ever occupy the position of the dominant tribe in any
considerable tract of country. The cultivation of vegetables is looked
upon as degrading by the agricultural classes, why I know not, unless
it be that night-soil is generally used for their fertilisation; and
a Rajput would say: 'What! Do you take me for an Arain?' if anything
was proposed which he considered derogatory." But since most Malis
in the Central Provinces strenuously object to using night-soil as
a manure the explanation that this practice has caused them to rank
below the agricultural castes does not seem sufficient. And if the
use of night-soil were the real circumstance which determined their
social position, it seems certain that Brahmans would not take water
from their hands as they do. Elsewhere Sir D. Ibbetson remarks: [159]
"The Malis and Sainis, like all vegetable growers, occupy a very
inferior position among the agricultural castes; but of the two the
Sainis are probably the higher, as they more often own land or even
whole villages, and are less generally mere market-gardeners than
are the Malis." Here is given what may perhaps be the true reason
for the status of the Mali caste as a whole. Again Sir C. Elliot
wrote in the _Hoshangabad Settlement Report_: "Garden crops are
considered as a kind of fancy agriculture and the true cultivator,
the Kisan, looks on them with contempt as little peddling matters;
what stirs his ambition is a fine large wheat-field eighty or a
hundred acres in extent, as flat as a billiard-table and as black as
a Gond." Similarly Mr. Low [160] states that in Balaghat the Panwars,
the principal agricultural caste, look down on the Marars as growers
of petty crops like _sama_ and kutki. In Wardha the Dangris, a small
caste of melon and vegetable growers, are an offshoot of the Kunbis;
and they will take food from the Kunbis, though these will not accept
it from them, their social status being thus distinctly lower than that
of the parent caste. Again the Kohlis of Bhandara, who grow sugarcane
with irrigation, are probably derived from an aboriginal tribe, the
Kols, and, though they possess a number of villages, rank lower than
the regular cultivating castes. It is also worth noting that they do
not admit tenant-right in their villages among their own caste, and
allot the sugarcane plots among the cultivators at pleasure. [161] In
Nimar the Malis rank below the Kunbis and Gujars, the good agricultural
castes, and it is said that they grow the crops which the cultivators
proper do not care to grow. The Kachhis, the gardening caste of the
northern Districts, have a very low status, markedly inferior to that
of the Lodhis and Kurmis and little if any better than the menial
Dhimars. Similarly, as will be seen later, the Marars themselves
have customs pointing clearly to a non-Aryan origin. The Bhoyars of
Betul, who grow sugarcane, are probably of mixed origin from Rajput
fathers and mothers of the indigenous tribes; they eat fowls and are
much addicted to liquor and rank below the cultivating castes. The
explanation seems to be that the gardening castes are not considered
as landholders, and have not therefore the position which attaches
to the holding of land among all early agricultural peoples, and
which in India consisted in the status of a constituent member of
the village community. So far as ceremonial purity goes there is no
difference between the Malis and the cultivating castes, as Brahmans
will take water from both. It may be surmised that this privilege
has been given to the Malis because they grow the flowers required
for offerings to the gods, and sometimes officiate as village priests
and temple servants; and their occupation, though not on a level with
regular agriculture, is still respectable. But the fact that Brahmans
will take water from them does not place the Malis on an equality with
the cultivating castes, any more than it does the Nais (barbers) and
Dhimars (watermen), the condemned menial servants of the cultivators,
from whom Brahmans will also take water from motives of convenience.
2. Caste legend
The Malis have a Brahmanical legend of the usual type indicating
that their hereditary calling was conferred and ratified by divine
authority. [162] This is to the effect that the first Mali was a
garland-maker attached to the household of Raja Kansa of Mathura. One
day he met with Krishna, and, on being asked by him for a chaplet of
flowers, at once gave it. On being told to fasten it with string,
he, for want of any other, took off his sacred thread and tied it,
on which Krishna most ungenerously rebuked him for his simplicity
in parting with his _paita_, and announced that for the future his
caste would be ranked among the Sudras.
The above story, combined with the derivation of Mali from _mala_,
a garland, makes it a plausible hypothesis that the calling of the
first Malis was to grow flowers for the adornment of the gods, and
especially for making the garlands with which their images were and
still are decorated. Thus the Malis were intimately connected with the
gods and naturally became priests of the village temples, in which
capacity they are often employed. Mr. Nesfield remarks of the Mali:
[163] "To Hindus of all ranks, including even the Brahmans, he acts
as a priest of Mahadeo in places where no Gosain is to be found,
and lays the flower offerings on the _lingam_ by which the deity is
symbolised. As the Mali is believed to have some influence with the god
to whose temple he is attached, none objects to his appropriating the
fee which is nominally presented to the god himself. In the worship
of those village godlings whom the Brahmans disdain to recognise
and whom the Gosain is not permitted to honour the Mali is sometimes
employed to present the offering. He is thus the recognised hereditary
priest of the lower and more ignorant classes of the population." In
the Central Provinces Malis are commonly employed in the temples of
Devi because goats are offered to the goddess and hence the worship
cannot be conducted by Brahmans. They also work as servants in Jain
temples under the priest. They sweep the temple, clean the utensils,
and do other menial business. This service, however, does not affect
their religion and they continue to be Hindus.
His services in providing flowers for the gods would be remunerated
by contributions of grain from the cultivators, the acceptance
of which would place the Mali below them in the rank of a village
menial, though higher than most of the class owing to the purity of
his occupation. His status was probably much the same as that of the
Guraos or village priests of Mahadeo in the Maratha country. And though
he has now become a cultivator, his position has not improved to the
level of other cultivating castes for the reasons already given. It
was probably the necessity of regularly watering his plants in order
to obtain a longer and more constant supply of blooms which first
taught the Mali the uses of irrigation.
3. Flowers offered to the gods
Flowers are _par excellence_ suited for the offerings and adornment
of the gods, and many Hindus have rose or other plants in their houses
whose flowers are destined to the household god. There is little reason
to doubt that this was the purpose for which cultivated flowers were
first grown. The marigold, lotus and champak are favourite religious
flowers, while the _tulsi_ or basil is itself worshipped as the
consort of Vishnu; in this case, however, the scent is perhaps the more
valued feature. In many Hindu households all flowers brought into the
house are offered to the household god before being put to any other
use. A Brahman school-boy to whom I had given some flowers to copy
in drawing said that his mother had offered them to the god Krishna
before he used them. When faded or done with they should be consigned
to the sacred element, water, in any stream or river. The statues of
the gods are adorned with sculptured garlands or hold them in their
hands. A similar state of things prevailed in classical antiquity:
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
And,
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
Nor altar decked with flowers,
Nor virgin choir to make delicious moan
Upon the midnight hours.
M. Fustel de Coulanges describes the custom of wearing crowns
or garlands of flowers in ancient Rome and Greece as follows: "It
is clear that the communal feasts were religious ceremonies. Each
guest had a crown on the head; it was an ancient custom to crown
oneself with leaves or flowers for any solemn religious act." "The
more a man is adorned with flowers," they said, "the more pleasing
he is to the gods; but they turn away from him who wears no crown at
his sacrifice." And again, 'A crown is the auspicious herald which
announces a prayer to the gods.' [164]
Among the Persians the flowers themselves are worshipped: [165] "When
a pure Iranian sauntered through (the Victoria Gardens in Bombay)
... he would stand awhile and meditate over every flower in his path,
and always as in a vision; and when at last the vision was fulfilled,
and the ideal flower found, he would spread his mat or carpet before
it, and sit before it to the going down of the sun, when he would arise
and pray before it, and then refold his mat or carpet and go home; and
the next night, and night after night, until that bright particular
flower faded away, he would return to it, bringing his friends with
him in ever-increasing numbers, and sit and sing and play the guitar or
lute before it--and anon they all would arise together and pray before
it; and after prayers, still sit on, sipping sherbet and talking the
most hilarious and shocking scandal, late into the moonlight."
4. Custom of wearing garlands
From the custom of placing garlands on the gods as a mark of honour
has no doubt arisen that of garlanding guests. This is not confined
to India but obtained in Rome and probably in other countries. The
word 'chaplet' [166] originally meant a garland or wreath to be worn
on the head; and a garland of leaves with four flowers at equal
distances. Dryden says, 'With chaplets green upon their foreheads
placed.' The word _mala_ originally meant a garland, and subsequently
a rosary or string of beads. From this it seems a legitimate deduction
that rosaries or strings of beads of a sacred wood were substituted
for flower-garlands as ornaments for the gods in view of their more
permanent nature. Having been thus sanctified they may have come to
be worn as a mark of holiness by saints or priests in imitation of
the divine images, this being a common or universal fashion of Hindu
ascetics. Subsequently they were found to serve as a useful means
of counting the continuous repetition of prayers, whence arose the
phrase 'telling one's beads.' Like the Sanskrit _mala_, the English
word rosary at first meant a garland of roses and subsequently a
string of beads, probably made from rose-wood, on which prayers were
counted. From this it may perhaps be concluded that the images of
the deities were decorated with garlands of roses in Europe, and the
development of the rosary was the same as the Indian _mala_. If the
rose was a sacred flower we can more easily understand its importance
as a badge in the Wars of the Roses.
5. Sub-castes
The caste has numerous endogamous groups, varying in different
localities. The Phulmalis, who derive their name from their
occupation of growing and selling flowers (_phul_), usually rank as
the highest. The Ghase Malis are the only subcaste which will grow
and prepare turmeric in Wardha; but they will not sell milk or curds,
an occupation to which the Phulmalis, though the highest subcaste,
have no objection. In Chanda the Kosaria Malis, who take their name
from Kosala, the classical designation of the Chhattisgarh country,
are the sole growers of turmeric, while in Berar the Halde subcaste,
named after the plant, occupy the same position. The Kosaria or Kosre
subcaste abstain from liquor, and their women wear glass bangles only
on one hand and silver ones on the other. The objection entertained to
the cultivation of turmeric by Hindus generally is said to be based
on the fact that when the roots are boiled numbers of small insects
are necessarily destroyed; but the other Malis relate that one of the
ancestors of the caste had a calf called Hardulia, and one day he said
to his daughter, _Haldi paka_, or 'Cook turmeric.' But the daughter
thought that he said 'cook Hardulia,' so she killed and roasted the
calf, and in consequence of this her father was expelled from the
caste, and his descendants are the Ghase or Halde subcaste. Ever
since this happened the shape of a calf may be seen in the flower of
turmeric. This legend has, however, no real value and the meaning of
the superstition attaching to the plant is obscure. Though the growing
of turmeric is tabooed yet it is a sacred plant, and no Hindu girl, at
least in the Central Provinces, can be married without having turmeric
powder rubbed on her body. Mr. Gordon remarks in _Indian Folk-Tales_:
"I was once speaking to a Hindu gardener of the possibility of turmeric
and garlic being stolen from his garden. 'These two vegetables
are never stolen,' he replied, 'for we Hindus believe that he who
steals turmeric and garlic will appear with six fingers in the next
birth, and this deformity is always considered the birth-mark of a
thief.'" The Jire Malis are so named because they were formerly the
only subcaste who would grow cumin (_jira_), but this distinction
no longer exists as other Malis, except perhaps the Phulmalis, now
grow it. Other subcastes have territorial names, as Baone from Berar,
Jaipuria, Kanaujia, and so on. The caste have also exogamous septs or
_bargas_, with designations taken from villages, titles or nicknames
or inanimate objects.
6. Marriage
Marriage is forbidden between members of the same sept and between
first and second cousins. Girls are generally betrothed in childhood
and should be married before maturity. In the Uriya country if no
suitable husband can be found for a girl she is sometimes made to go
through the marriage ceremony with a peg of mahua wood driven into
the ground and covered over with a cloth. She is then tied to a tree
in the forest and any member of the caste may go and release her,
when she becomes his wife. The Marars of Balaghat and Bhandara have
the _lamjhana_ form of marriage, in which the prospective husband
serves for his wife; this is a Dravidian custom and shows their
connection with the forest tribes. The marriage ceremony follows
the standard form prevalent in the locality. In Betul the couple
go seven times round a slab on which a stone roller is placed, with
their clothes knotted together and holding in their hands a lighted
lamp. The slab and roller may be the implements used in powdering
turmeric. "Among the Marars of Balaghat [167] the maternal uncle
of the bridegroom goes to the village of the bride and brings back
with him the bridal party. The bride's party do not at once cross
the boundary of the bridegroom's village, but will stay outside it
for a few hours. Word is sent and the bridegroom's party will bring
out cooked food, which they eat with the bride's party. This done,
they go to the house of the bridegroom and the bride forthwith walks
five times round a pounding-stone. Next day turmeric is applied to
the couple, and the caste people are given a feast. The essential
portion of the ceremony consists in the rubbing of vermilion on the
foreheads of the couple under the cover of a cloth. The caste permit
the practice of _ralla-palla_ or exchanging sisters in marriage. They
are said to have a custom at weddings known as _kondia_, according
to which a young man of the bridegroom's party, called the _Sand_
or bull, is shut up in a house at night with all the women of the
bride's party; he is at liberty to seize and have intercourse with
any of them he can catch, while they are allowed to beat him as much
as they like. It is said that he seldom has much cause to congratulate
himself." But the caste have now become ashamed of this custom and it
is being abandoned. In Chhattisgarh the Marars, like other castes,
have the forms of marriage known as the _Badi Shadi_ and _Chhoti
Shadi_ or great and small weddings. The former is an elaborate form
of marriage, taking place at the house of the bride. Those who cannot
afford the expense of this have a 'Small Wedding' at the house of
the bridegroom, at which the rites are curtailed and the expenditure
considerably reduced.
7. Widow-marriage, divorce and polygamy
Widow-marriage is permitted. The widower, accompanied by his relatives
and a horn-blower, goes to the house of the widow, and here a space
is plastered with cowdung and the couple sit on two wooden boards
while their clothes are knotted together. In Balaghat [168] the
bridegroom and bride bathe in a tank and on emerging the widow throws
away her old cloth and puts on a new one. After this they walk five
times round a spear planted in the ground. Divorce is permitted and
can be effected by mutual consent of the parties. Like other castes
practising intensive cultivation the Malis marry several wives when
they can afford it, in order to obtain the benefit of their labour
in the vegetable garden; a wife being more industrious and honest
than a hired labourer. But this practice results in large families
and household dissensions, leading to excessive subdivision of
property, and wealthy members of the caste are rare. The standard
of sexual morality is low, and if an unmarried girl goes wrong her
family conceal the fact and sometimes try to procure an abortion. If
these efforts are unsuccessful a feast must be given to the caste and
a lock of the woman's hair is cut off by way of punishment. A young
hard-working wife is never divorced, however bad her character may be,
but an old woman is sometimes abandoned for very little cause.
8. Disposal of the dead
The dead may be either buried or burnt; in the former case the corpse
is laid with the feet to the north. Mourning is observed only for
three days and propitiatory offerings are made to the spirits of the
dead. If a man is killed by a tiger his family make a wooden image
of a tiger and worship it.
9. Religion
Devi is the principal deity of the Malis. Weddings are celebrated
before her temple and large numbers of goats are sacrificed to the
favourite goddess at her festival in the month of Magh (January). Many
of the Marars of Balaghat are Kabirpanthis and wear the necklace of
that sect; but they appear none the less to intermarry freely with
their Hindu caste-fellows. [169] After the birth of a child it is
stated that all the members of the sept to which the parents belong
remain impure for five days, and no one will take food or water
from them.
10. Occupation
The Mali combines the callings of a gardener and nurseryman. "In laying
out a flower-garden and in arranging beds," Mr. Shearing remarks, [170]
"the Mali is exceedingly expert. His powers in this respect are hardly
surpassed by gardeners in England. He lacks of course the excellent
botanical knowledge of many English gardeners, and also the peculiar
skill displayed by them in grafting and crossing, and in watching
the habits of plants. Yet in manipulative labour, especially when
superintended by a European, he is, though much slower in execution,
almost if not quite equal to gardeners at home." They are excellent
and very laborious cultivators, and show much skill in intensive
cultivation and the use of water. Malis are the best sugarcane growers
of Betul and their holdings usually pay a higher rental than those of
other castes. "In Balaghat," Mr. Low remarks, [171] "they are great
growers of tobacco and sugarcane, favouring the alluvial land on the
banks of rivers. They mostly irrigate by a _dhekli_ or dipping lift,
from temporary wells or from water-holes in rivers. The pole of the
lift has a weight at one end and a kerosene tin suspended from the
other. Another form of lift is a hollowed tree trunk worked on a
fulcrum, but this only raises the water a foot or two. The Marars
do general cultivation as well; but as a class are not considered
skilled agriculturists. The proverb about their cultivating status is:
Marar, Mali jote tali
Tali margayi, dhare kudali
or, 'The Marar yokes cows; if the cow dies he takes to the pickaxe';
implying that he is not usually rich enough to keep bullocks." The
saying has also a derogatory sense, as no good Hindu would yoke
a cow to the plough. Another form of lift used by the Kachhis is
the Persian wheel. In this two wheels are fixed above the well or
tank and long looped ropes pass over them and down into the well,
between which a line of earthen pots is secured. As the ropes move
on the wheels the pots descend into the well, are filled with water,
brought up, and just after they reach the apex of the wheel and turn
to descend again, the water pours out to a hollow open tree-trunk,
from which a channel conveys it to the field. The wheel which turns
the rope is worked by a man pedalling, but he cannot do more than
about three hours a day. The common lift for gardens is the _mot_ or
bag made of the hide of a bullock or buffalo. This is usually worked
by a pair of bullocks moving forwards down a slope to raise the _mot_
from the well and backwards up the slope to let it down when empty.
11. Traits and character
"It is necessary," the account continues, "for the Marar's business for
one member at least of his family to go to market with his vegetables;
and the Mararin is a noteworthy feature in all bazars, sitting with
her basket or garment spread on the ground, full of white onions and
garlic, purple brinjals and scarlet chillies, with a few handfuls of
strongly flavoured green stuff. Whether from the publicity which it
entails on their women or from whatever cause, the Mararin does not
bear the best of reputations for chastity; and is usually considered
rather a bold, coarse creature. The distinctive feature of her attire
is the way in which she ties up her body-cloth so as to leave a tail
sticking up behind; whence the proverb shouted after her by rude little
boys: 'Jump from roof to roof, Monkey. Pull the tail of the Mararin,
Monkey,' She also rejoices in a very large _tikli_ or spangle on her
forehead and in a peculiar kind of _angia_ (waistcoat). The caste are
usually considered rather clannish and morose. They live in communities
by themselves, and nearly always inhabit a separate hamlet of the
village. The Marars of a certain place are said to have boycotted a
village carpenter who lost an axe belonging to one of their number,
so that he had to leave the neighbourhood for lack of custom."
12. Other functions of the Mali
Many Malis live in the towns and keep vegetable- or flower-gardens
just outside. They sell flowers, and the Mali girls are very good
flower-sellers, Major Sutherland says, being famous for their
coquetry. A saying about them is: "The crow among birds, the jackal
among beasts, the barber among men and the Malin among women; all
these are much too clever." The Mali also prepares the _maur_ or
marriage-crown, made from the leaves of the date-palm, both for the
bride and bridegroom at marriages. In return he gets a present of a
rupee, a piece of cloth and a day's food. He also makes the garlands
which are used for presentation at entertainments, and supplies
the daily bunches of flowers which are required as offerings for
Mahadeo. The Mali keeps garlands for sale in the bazar, and when a
well-to-do person passes he goes up and puts a garland round his neck
and expects a present of a pice or two.
13. Physical appearance
"Physically," Mr. Low states, "the Marar is rather a poor-looking
creature, dark and undersized; but the women are often not bad looking,
and dressed up in their best at a wedding, rattling their castanets
and waving light-coloured silk handkerchiefs, give a very graceful
dance. The caste are not as a rule celebrated for their cleanliness. A
polite way of addressing a Marar is to call him Patel."
Mallah
_Mallah, Malha_. [172]--A small caste of boatmen and fishermen in
the Jubbulpore and Narsinghpur Districts, which numbered about 5000
persons in 1911. It is scarcely correct to designate the Mallahs as a
distinct caste, as in both these Districts it appears from inquiry that
the term is synonymous with Kewat. Apparently, however, the Mallahs
do form a separate endogamous group, and owing to many of them having
adopted the profession of growing hemp, a crop which respectable Hindu
castes usually refuse to cultivate, it is probable that they would
not be allowed to intermarry with the Kewats of other Districts. In
the United Provinces Mr. Crooke states that the Mallahs, though, as
their Arabic name indicates, of recent origin, have matured into a
definite social group, including a number of endogamous tribes. The
term Mallah has nothing to do with the Mulla or Muhammadan priest
among the frontier tribes, but comes from an Arabic word meaning
'to be salt,' or, according to another derivation, 'to move the wings
as a bird.' [173] The Mallahs of the Central Provinces are also, in
spite of their Arabic name, a purely Hindu caste. In Narsinghpur they
say that their original ancestor was one Bali or Baliram, who was a
boatman and was so strong that he could carry his boat to the river
and back under his armpit. On one occasion he ferried Rama across the
Ganges in Benares, and it is said that Rama gave him a horse to show
his gratitude; but Baliram was so ignorant that he placed the bridle on
the horse's tail instead of the head. And from this act of Baliram's
arose the custom of having the rudder of a boat at the stern instead
of at the bow. The Mallahs in the Central Provinces appear from their
family names to be immigrants from Bundelkhand. Their customs resemble
those of lower-class Hindus. Girls are usually married under the age
of twelve years, and the remarriage of widows is permitted, while
divorce may be effected in the presence of the _panchayat_ or caste
committee by the husband and wife breaking a straw between them. They
are scantily clothed and are generally poor. A proverb about them says:
Jahan bethen Malao
Tahan lage alao,
or, 'Where Mallahs sit, there is always a fire.' This refers to their
custom of kindling fires on the river-bank to protect themselves from
cold. In Narsinghpur the Mallahs have found a profitable opening
in the cultivation of hemp, a crop which other Hindu castes until
recently tabooed on account probably of the dirty nature of the process
of cleaning out the fibre and the pollution necessarily caused to
the water-supply. They sow and cut hemp on Sundays and Wednesdays,
which are regarded as auspicious days. They also grow melons, and
will not enter a melon-field with their shoes on or allow a woman
during her periodical impurity to approach it. The Mallahs are poor
and illiterate, but rank with Dhimars and Kewats, and Brahmans will
take water from their hands.
Mana
_Mana_. [174]--A Dravidian caste of cultivators and labourers
belonging to the Chanda District, from which they have spread to
Nagpur, Bhandara and Balaghat. In 1911 they numbered nearly 50,000
persons, of whom 34,000 belonged to Chanda. The origin of the caste is
obscure. In the _Chanda Settlement Report_ of 1869 Major Lucie Smith
wrote of them: "Tradition asserts that prior to the Gond conquest
the Manas reigned over the country, having their strongholds at
Surajgarh in Ahiri and at Manikgarh in the Manikgarh hills, now of
Hyderabad, and that after a troubled rule of two hundred years they
fell before the Gonds. In appearance they are of the Gond type, and
are strongly and stoutly made; while in character they are hardy,
industrious and truthful. Many warlike traditions still linger among
them, and doubtless in days gone by they did their duty as good
soldiers, but they have long since hung up sword and shield and now
rank among the best cultivators of rice in Chanda." Another local
tradition states that a line of Mana princes ruled at Wairagarh. The
names of three princes are remembered: Kurumpruhoda, the founder of
the line; Surjat Badwaik, who fortified Surjagarh; and Gahilu, who
built Manikgarh. As regards the name Manikgarh, it may be mentioned
that the tutelary deity of the Nagvansi kings of Bastar, who ruled
there before the accession of the present Raj-Gond dynasty in the
fourteenth century, was Manikya Devi, and it is possible that the
chiefs of Wairagarh were connected with the Bastar kings. Some of
the Manas say that they, as well as the Gowaris, are offshoots of
the Gond tribe; and a local saying to the effect that 'The Gond,
the Gowari and the Mana eat boiled juari or beans on leaf-plates'
shows that they are associated together in the popular mind. Hislop
states that the Ojhas, or soothsayers and minstrels of the Gonds,
have a subdivision of Mana Ojhas, who lay claim to special sanctity,
refusing to take food from any other caste. [175] The Gonds have a
subdivision called Mannewar, and as _war_ is only a Telugu suffix
for the plural, the proper name Manne closely resembles Mana. It is
shown in the article on the Parja tribe that the Parjas were a class
of Gonds or a tribe akin to them, who were dominant in Bastar prior
to the later immigration under the ancestors of the present Bastar
dynasty. And the most plausible hypothesis as to the past history of
the Manas is that they were also the rulers of some tracts of Chanda,
and were displaced like the Parjas by a Gond invasion from the south.
In Bhandara, where the Manas hold land, it is related that in former
times a gigantic kite lived on the hill of Ghurkundi, near Sakoli,
and devoured the crops of the surrounding country by whole fields at
a time. The king of Chanda proclaimed that whoever killed the kite
would be granted the adjoining lands. A Mana shot the kite with an
arrow and its remains were taken to Chanda in eight carts, and as his
reward he received the grant of a zamindari. In appearance the Manas,
or at least some of them, are rather fine men, nor do their complexion
and features show more noticeable traces of aboriginal descent than
those of the local Hindus. But their neighbours in Chanda and Bastar,
the Maria Gonds, are also taller and of a better physical type than
the average Dravidian, so that their physical appearance need not
militate against the above hypothesis. They retained their taste
for fighting until within quite recent times, and in Katol and other
towns below the Satpura hills, Manas were regularly enlisted as a town
guard for repelling the Pindari raids. Their descendants still retain
the ancestral matchlocks, and several of them make good use of these
as professional _shikaris_ or hunters. Many of them are employed as
servants by landowners and moneylenders for the collection of debts or
the protection of crops, and others are proprietors, cultivators and
labourers, while a few even lend money on their own account. Manas hold
three zamindari estates in Bhandara and a few villages in Chanda; here
they are considered to be good cultivators, but have the reputation
as a caste of being very miserly, and though possessed of plenty,
living only on the poorest and coarsest food. [176] The Mana women
are proverbial for the assistance which they render to their husbands
in the work of cultivation.
Owing to their general adoption of Maratha customs, the Manas are now
commonly regarded as a caste and not a forest tribe, and this view may
be accepted. They have two subcastes, the Badwaik Manas, or soldiers,
and the Khad Manas, who live in the plains and are considered to be of
impure descent. Badwaik or 'The Great Ones' is a titular term applied
to a person carrying arms, and assumed by certain Rajputs and also by
some of the lower castes. A third group of Manas are now amalgamated
with the Kunbis as a regular subdivision of that caste, though they
are regarded as somewhat lower than the others. They have also a
number of exogamous septs of the usual titular and totemistic types,
the few recognisable names being Marathi. It is worth noticing that
several pairs of these septs, as Jamare and Gazbe, Narnari and Chudri,
Wagh and Rawat, and others are prohibited from intermarriage. And this
may be a relic of some wider scheme of division of the type common
among the Australian aborigines. The social customs of the Manas are
the same as those of the other lower Maratha castes, as described in
the articles on Kunbi, Kohli and Mahar. A bride-price of Rs. 12-8 is
usually paid, and if the bridegroom's father has the money, he takes it
with him on going to arrange for the match. Only one married woman of
the bridegroom's family accompanies him to the wedding, and she throws
rice over him five times. Four days in the year are appointed for the
celebration of weddings, the festivals of Shivratri and of Akhatij, and
a day each in the months of Magh (January) and Phagun (February). This
rule, however, is not universal. Brahmans do not usually officiate at
their ceremonies, but they employ a Brahman to prepare the rice which
is thrown over the couples. Marriage within the sept is forbidden,
as well as the union of the children of two sisters. But the practice
of marrying a brother's daughter to a sister's son is a very favourite
one, being known as Mahunchar, and in this respect the Manas resemble
the Gonds. When a widow is to be remarried, she stops on the way by the
bank of a stream as she is proceeding to her new husband's house, and
here her clothes are taken off and buried by an exorcist with a view
to laying the first husband's spirit and preventing it from troubling
the new household. If a woman goes wrong with a man of another caste
she is not finally cast out, but if she has a child she must first
dispose of it to somebody else after it is weaned. She may then be
re-admitted into caste by having her hair shaved off and giving three
feasts; the first is prepared by the caste and eaten outside her house,
the second is prepared by her relatives and eaten within her house,
and at the third the caste reinstate her by partaking of food cooked
by herself. The dead are either buried or burnt; in the former case a
feast is given immediately after the burial and no further mourning
is observed; in the latter the period of mourning is three days. As
among the Gonds, the dead are laid with feet to the north. A woman
is impure for seven days after child-birth.
The Manas have Bhats or genealogists of their own caste, a separate
one being appointed for each sept. The Bhat of any sept can only accept
gifts from members of that sept, though he may take food from any one
of the caste. The Bhats are in the position of beggars, and the other
Manas will not take food from them. Every man must have a Bhat for
his family under penalty of being temporarily put out of caste. It
is said that the Bhats formerly had books showing the pedigrees of
the different families, but that once in a spirit of arrogance they
placed their shoes upon the books; and the other Manas, not brooking
this insolence, burnt the books. The gravity of such an act may be
realised when it is stated that if anybody even threatens to hit a
Mana with a shoe, the indignity put upon him is so great that he is
temporarily excluded from caste and penalised for readmission. Since
this incident the Bhats have to address the Manas as 'Brahma,' to show
their respect, the Mana replying 'Ram, Ram.' Their women wear short
loin-cloths, exposing part of the thigh, like the Gonds. They eat
pork and drink liquor, but will take cooked food only from Brahmans.
Manbhao
1. History and nature of the sect
_Manbhao_. [177]--A religious sect or order, which has now become a
caste, belonging to the Maratha Districts of the Central Provinces and
to Berar. Their total strength in India in 1911 was 10,000 persons,
of whom the Central Provinces and Berar contained 4000. The name
would appear to have some such meaning as 'The reverend brothers.' The
Manbhaos are stated to be a Vaishnavite order founded in Berar some
two centuries ago. [178] They themselves say that their order is a
thousand years old and that it was founded by one Arjun Bhat, who lived
at Domegaon, near Ahmadnagar. He was a great Sanskrit scholar and a
devotee of Krishna, and preached his doctrines to all except the Impure
castes. Ridhpur, in Berar, is the present headquarters of the order,
and contains a monastery and three temples, dedicated to Krishna and
Dattatreya, [179] the only deities recognised by the Manbhaos. Each
temple is named after a village, and is presided over by a Mahant
elected from the celibate Manbhaos. There are other Mahants, also
known after the names of villages or towns in which the monasteries
over which they preside are located. Among these are Sheone, from
the village near Chandur in Amraoti District; Akulne, a village near
Ahmadnagar; Lasorkar, from Lasor, near Aurangabad; Mehkarkar, from
Mehkar in Buldana; and others. The order thus belongs to Berar and
the adjoining parts of India. Colonel Mackenzie describes Ridhpur as
follows: "The name is said to be derived from _ridh_, meaning blood,
a Rakshas or demon having been killed there by Parasurama, and it
owes its sanctity to the fact that the god lived there. Black stones
innumerable scattered about the town show where the god's footsteps
became visible. At Ridhpur Krishna is represented by an ever-open,
sleeplessly watching eye, and some Manbhaos carry about a small black
stone disk with an eye painted on it as an amulet." Frequently their
shrines contain no images, but are simply _chabutras_ or platforms
built over the place where Krishna or Dattatreya left marks of their
footprints. Over the platform is a small veranda, which the Manbhaos
kiss, calling upon the name of the god. Sukli, in Bhandara, is also
a headquarters of the caste, and contains many Manbhao tombs. Here
they burn camphor in honour of Dattatreya and make offerings of
cocoanuts. They make pilgrimages to the different shrines at the full
moons of Chait (March) and Kartik (October). They pay reverence to no
deities except Krishna and Dattatreya, and observe the festivals of
Gokul Ashtami in August and Datta-Jayantri in December. They consider
the month of Aghan (November) as holy, because Krishna called it
so in the Bhagavat-Gita. This is their sacred book, and they reject
the other Hindu scriptures. Their conception of Krishna is based on
his description of himself to Arjun in the Bhagavat-Gita as follows:
"'Behold things wonderful, never seen before, behold in this my body
the whole world, animate and inanimate. But as thou art unable to
see with these thy natural eyes, I will give thee a heavenly eye,
with which behold my divine connection.'
"The son of Pandu then beheld within the body of the god of gods
standing together the whole universe divided forth into its vast
variety. He was overwhelmed with wonder and every hair was raised
on end. 'But I am not to be seen as thou hast seen me even by
the assistance of the Vedas, by mortification, by sacrifices, by
charitable gifts: but I am to be seen, to be known in truth, and to
be obtained by that worship which is offered up to me alone: and he
goeth unto me whose works are done for me: who esteemeth me supreme:
who is my servant only: who hath abandoned all consequences, and who
liveth amongst all men without hatred.'"
Again: "He my servant is dear to me who is free from enmity, the friend
of all nature, merciful, exempt from all pride and selfishness, the
same in pain and in pleasure, patient of wrong, contented, constantly
devout, of subdued passions and firm resolves, and whose mind and
understanding are fixed on me alone."
2. Divisions of the order
The Manbhaos are now divided into three classes: the Brahmachari; the
Gharbari; and the Bhope. The Brahmachari are the ascetic members of
the sect who subsist by begging and devote their lives to meditation,
prayer and spiritual instruction. The Gharbari are those who, while
leading a mendicant life, wearing the distinctive black dress of the
order and having their heads shaved, are permitted to get married with
the permission of their Mahant or _guru_. The ceremony is performed in
strict privacy inside a temple. A man sometimes signifies his choice of
a spouse by putting his _jholi_ or beggar's wallet upon hers; if she
lets it remain there, the betrothal is complete. A woman may show her
preference for a man by bringing a pair of garlands and placing one on
his head and the other on that of the image of Krishna. The marriage
is celebrated according to the custom of the Kunbis, but without
feasting or music. Widows are permitted to marry again. Married women
do not wear bangles nor toe-rings nor the customary necklace of beads;
they put on no jewellery, and have no _choli_ or bodice. The Bhope
or Bhoall, the third division of the caste, are wholly secular and
wear no distinctive dress, except sometimes a black head-cloth. They
may engage in any occupation that pleases them, and sometimes act as
servants in the temples of the caste. In Berar they are divided into
thirteen _bas_ or orders, named after the disciples of Arjun Bhat, who
founded the various shrines. The Manbhaos are recruited by initiation
of both men and women from any except the impure castes. Young children
who have been vowed by their parents to a religious life or are left
without relations, are taken into the order. Women usually join it
either as children or late in life. The celibate members, male or
female, live separately in companies like monks and nuns. They do
not travel together, and hold services in their temples at different
times. A woman admitted into the order is henceforward the disciple of
the woman who initiated her by whispering the _guru mantra_ or sacred
verse into her ear. She addresses her preceptress as mother and the
other women as sisters. The Manbhaos are intelligent and generally
literate, and they lead a simple and pure life. They are respectable
and are respected by the people, and a _guru_ or spiritual teacher is
often taken from them in place of a Brahman or Gosain. They often act
as priests or _gurus_ to the Mahars, for whom Brahmans will not perform
these services. Their honesty and humility are proverbial among the
Kunbis, and are in pleasing contrast to the character of many of the
Hindu mendicant orders. They consider it essential that all their
converts should be able to read the Bhagavat-Gita or a commentary
on it, and for this purpose teach them to read and write during the
rainy season when they are assembled at one of their monasteries.
3. Religious observances and customs
One of the leading tenets of the Manbhaos is a respect for all forms
of animal and even vegetable life, much on a par with that of the
Jains. They strain water through a cloth before drinking it, and then
delicately wipe the cloth to preserve any insects that may be upon
it. They should not drink water in, and hence cannot reside in, any
village where animal sacrifices are offered to a deity. They will not
cut down a tree nor break off a branch, or even a blade of grass, nor
pluck a fruit or an ear of corn. Some, it is said, will not even bathe
in tanks for fear of destroying insect-life. For this reason also they
readily accept cooked food as alms, so that they may avoid the risk
of the destruction of life involved in cooking. The Manbhaos dislike
the din and noise of towns, and live generally in secluded places,
coming into the towns only to beg. Except in the rains they wander
about from place to place. They beg in the morning, and then return
home and, after bathing and taking their food, read their religious
books. They must always worship Krishna before taking food, and for
this purpose when travelling they carry an image of the deity about
with them. They will take food and water from the higher castes, but
they must not do so from persons of low caste on pain of temporary
excommunication. They neither smoke nor chew tobacco. Both men and
women shave the head clean, and men also the face. This is first done
on initiation by the village barber. But the _sendhi_ or scalp-lock
and moustaches of the novice must be cut off by his _guru_, this being
the special mark of his renunciation of the world. The scalp-locks of
the various candidates are preserved until a sufficient quantity of
hair has been collected, when ropes are made of it, which they fasten
round their loins. This may be because Hindus attach a special efficacy
to the scalp-lock, perhaps as being the seat of a man's strength or
power. The nuns also shave their heads, and generally eschew every kind
of personal adornment. Both monks and nuns usually dress in black or
ashen-grey clothes as a mark of humility, though some have discarded
black in favour of the usual Hindu mendicant colour of red ochre. The
black colour is in keeping with the complexion of Krishna, their
chief god. They dye their cloths with lamp-black mixed with a little
water and oil. They usually sleep on the ground, with the exception of
those who are Mahants, and they sometimes have no metal vessels, but
use bags made of strong cloth for holding food and water. Men's names
have the suffix _Boa_, as Datto Boa, Kesho Boa, while those of boys
end in _da_, as Manoda, Raojida, and those of women in _Bai_, as Gopa
Bai, Som Bai. The dead are buried, not in the common burial-grounds,
but in some waste place. The corpse is laid on its side, facing the
east, with head to the north and feet to the south. A piece of silk
or other valuable cloth is placed on it, on which salt is sprinkled,
and the earth is then filled in and the ground levelled so as to leave
no trace of the grave. No memorial is erected over a Manbhao tomb,
and no mourning nor ceremony of purification is observed, nor are
oblations offered to the spirits of the dead. If the dead man leaves
any property, it is expended on feeding the brotherhood for ten days;
and if not, the Mahant of his order usually does this in his name.
4. Hostility between Manbhaos and Brahmans
The Manbhaos are dissenters from orthodox Hinduism, and have thus
naturally incurred the hostility of the Brahmans. Mr. Kitts remarks
of them: [180] "The Brahmans hate the Manbhaos, who have not only
thrown off the Brahmanical yoke themselves, but do much to oppose
the influence of Brahmans among the agriculturists. The Brahmans
represent them as descended from one Krishna Bhat, a Brahman who was
outcasted for keeping a beautiful Mang woman as his mistress. His
four sons were called the _Mang-bhaos_ or Mang brothers." This is an
excellent instance of the Brahman talent for pressing etymology into
their service as an argument, in which respect they resemble the
Jesuits. By asserting that the Manbhaos are descended from a Mang
woman, one of the most despised castes, they attempt to dispose of
these enemies of a Brahman hegemony without further ado.
Another story about their wearing black or ashen-coloured clothes
related by Colonel Mackenzie is that Krishna Bhat's followers,
refusing to believe the aspersions cast on their leader by the
Brahmans, but knowing that some one among them had been guilty of the
sin imputed to him, determined to decide the matter by the ordeal of
fire. Having made a fire, they cast into it their own clothes and
those of their _guru_, each man having previously written his name
on his garments. The sacred fire made short work of all the clothes
except those of Krishna Bhat, which it rejected and refused to burn,
thereby forcing the unwilling disciples to believe that the finger
of God pointed to their revered _guru_ as the sinner. In spite of the
shock of thus discovering that their idol had feet of very human clay,
they still continued to regard Krishna Bhat's precepts as good and
worthy of being followed, only stipulating that for all time Manbhaos
should wear clothes the colour of ashes, in memory of the sacred fire
which had disclosed to them their _guru's_ sin.
Captain Mackintosh also relates that "About A.D. 1780, a Brahman named
Anand Rishi, an inhabitant of Paithan on the Godavari, maltreated
a Manbhao, who came to ask for alms at his door. This Manbhao,
after being beaten, proceeded to his friends in the vicinity, and
they collected a large number of brethren and went to the Brahman
to demand satisfaction; Anand Rishi assembled a number of Gosains
and his friends, and pursued and attacked the Manbhaos, who fled and
asked Ahalya Bai, Rani of Indore, to protect them; she endeavoured to
pacify Anand Rishi by telling him that the Manbhaos were her _gurus_;
he said that they were Mangs, but declared that if they agreed to
his proposals he would forgive them; one of them was that they were
not to go to a Brahman's house to ask for alms, and another that if
any Brahman repeated Anand Rishi's name and drew a line across the
road when a Manbhao was advancing, the Manbhao, without saying a
word, must return the road he came. Notwithstanding this attempt to
prevent their approaching a Brahman's house, they continue to ask
alms of the Brahmans, and some Brahmans make a point of supplying
them with provisions."
This story endeavours to explain a superstition still observed by
the caste. This is that when a Manbhao is proceeding along a road,
if any one draws a line across the road with a stick in front of him
the Manbhao will wait without passing the line until some one else
comes up and crosses it before him. In reality this is probably a
primitive superstition similar to that which makes a man stop when
a snake has crossed the road in front of him and efface its track
before proceeding. It is said that the members of the order also
carry their sticks upside down, and a saying is repeated about them:
Manbhao hokar kale kapre darhi muchi mundhata hai,
Ulti lakri hath men pakri woh kya Sahib milta hai;
or, "The Manbhao wears black clothes, shaves his face and holds his
stick upside down, and thinks he will find God that way."
This saying is attributed to Kabir.
Mang
List of Paragraphs
1. _Origin and traditions_.
2. _Subdivisions_.
3. _Marriage_.
4. _Widow-marriage._
5. _Burial_.
6. _Occupation_.
7. _Religion and social status_.
1. Origin and traditions
_Mang._ [181]--A low impure caste of the Maratha Districts, who
act as village musicians and castrate bullocks, while their women
serve as midwives. The Mangs are also sometimes known as Vajantri
or musician. They numbered more than 90,000 persons in 1911, of whom
30,000 belonged to the Nagpur and Nerbudda Divisions of the Central
Provinces, and 60,000 to Berar. The real origin of the Mangs is
obscure, but they probably originated from the subject tribes and
became a caste through the adoption of the menial services which
constitute their profession. In a Maratha book called the Shudra
Kamlakar [182], it is stated that the Mang was the offspring of
the union of a Vaideh man and an Ambashtha woman. A Vaideh was the
illegitimate child of a Vaishya father and a Brahman mother, and an
Ambashtha of a Brahman father and a Vaishya mother. The business
of the Mang was to play on the flute and to make known the wishes
of the Raja to his subjects by beat of drum. He was to live in the
forest or outside the village, and was not to enter it except with
the Raja's permission. He was to remove the dead bodies of strangers,
to hang criminals, and to take away and appropriate the clothes and
bedding of the dead. The Mangs themselves relate the following legend
of their origin as given by Mr. Sathe: Long ago before cattle were used
for ploughing, there was so terrible a famine upon the earth that all
the grain was eaten up, and there was none left for seed. Mahadeo took
pity on the few men who were left alive, and gave them some grain for
sowing. In those days men used to drag the plough through the earth
themselves. But when a Kunbi, to whom Mahadeo had given some seed, went
to try and sow it, he and his family were so emaciated by hunger that
they were unable, in spite of their united efforts, to get the plough
through the ground. In this pitiable case the Kunbi besought Mahadeo
to give him some further assistance, and Mahadeo then appeared, and,
bringing with him the bull Nandi, upon which he rode, told the Kunbi to
yoke it to the plough. This was done, and so long as Mahadeo remained
present, Nandi dragged the plough peaceably and successfully. But as
soon as the god disappeared, the bull became restive and refused to
work any longer. The Kunbi being helpless, again complained to Mahadeo,
when the god appeared, and in his wrath at the conduct of the bull,
great drops of perspiration stood upon his brow. One of these fell to
the ground, and immediately a coal-black man sprang up and stood ready
to do Mahadeo's bidding. He was ordered to bring the bull to reason,
and he went and castrated it, after which it worked well and quietly;
and since then the Kunbis have always used bullocks for ploughing,
and the descendants of the man, who was the first Mang, are employed
in the office for which he was created. It is further related that
Nandi, the bull, cursed the Mang in his pain, saying that he and
his descendants should never derive any profit from ploughing with
cattle. And the Mangs say that to this day none of them prosper by
taking to cultivation, and quote the following proverb: '_Keli kheti,
Zhali mati_,' or, 'If a Mang sows grain he will only reap dust.'
2. Subdivisions
The caste is divided into the following subcastes: Dakhne, Khandeshe
and Berarya, or those belonging to the Deccan, Khandesh and Berar;
Ghodke, those who tend horses; Dafle, tom-tom players; Uchle,
pickpockets; Pindari, descendants of the old freebooters; Kakarkadhe,
stone-diggers; Holer, hide-curers; and Garori. The Garoris [183] are
a sept of vagrant snake-charmers and jugglers. Many are professional
criminals.
3. Marriage
The caste is divided into exogamous family groups named after animals
or other objects, or of a titular nature. One or two have the names
of other castes. Members of the same group may not intermarry. Those
who are well-to-do marry their daughters very young for the sake
of social estimation, but there is no compulsion in this matter. In
families which are particularly friendly, Mr. Sathe remarks, children
may be betrothed before birth if the two mothers are with child
together. Betel is distributed, and a definite contract is made,
on the supposition that a boy and girl will be born. Sometimes the
abdomen of each woman is marked with red vermilion. A grown-up girl
should not be allowed to see her husband's face before marriage. The
wedding is held at the bride's house, but if it is more convenient
that it should be in the bridegroom's village, a temporary house is
found for the bride's party, and the marriage-shed is built in front
of it. The bride must wear a yellow bodice and cloth, yellow and red
being generally considered among Hindus as the auspicious colours
for weddings. When she leaves for her husband's house she puts on
another or going-away dress, which should be as fine as the family
can afford, and thereafter she may wear any colour except white. The
distinguishing marks of a married woman are the _mangal-sutram_ or holy
thread, which her husband ties on her neck at marriage; the _garsoli_
or string of black beads round the neck; the silver toe-rings and glass
bangles. If any one of these is lost, it must be replaced at once, or
she is likely soon to be a widow. The food served at the wedding-feast
consists of rice and pulse, but more essential than these is an ample
provision of liquor. It is a necessary feature of a Mang wedding
that the bridegroom should go to it riding on a horse. The Mahars,
another low caste of the Maratha Districts, worship the horse, and
between them and the Mangs there exists a long-standing feud, so that
they do not, if they can help it, drink of the same well. The sight
of a Mang riding on a horse is thus gall and wormwood to the Mahars,
who consider it a terrible degradation to the noble animal, and this
fact inflaming their natural enmity, formerly led to riots between
the castes. Under native rule the Mangs were public executioners,
and it was said to be the proudest moment of Mang's life when he
could perform his office on a Mahar.
The bride proceeds to her husband's house for a short visit immediately
after the marriage, and then goes home again. Thereafter, till such
time as she finally goes to live with him, she makes brief visits for
festivals or on other social occasions, or to help her mother-in-law,
if her assistance is required. If the mother-in-law is ill and requires
somebody to wait on her, or if she is a shrew and wants some one to
bully, or if she has strict ideas of discipline and wishes personally
to conduct the bride's training for married life, she makes the girl
come more frequently and stay longer.
4. Widow marriage
The remarriage of widows is permitted, and a widow may marry any one
except persons of her own family group or her husband's elder brother,
who stands to her in the light of a father. She is permitted, but
not obliged, to marry her husband's younger brother, but if he has
performed the dead man's obsequies, she may not marry him, as this act
has placed him in the relation of a son to her deceased husband. More
usually the widow marries some one in another village, because the
remarriage is always held in some slight disrepute, and she prefers
to be at a distance from her first husband's family. Divorce is said
to be permitted only for persistent misconduct on the part of the wife.
5. Burial
The caste always bury the dead and observe mourning only for three
days. On returning from a burial they all get drunk, and then go to
the house of the deceased and chew the bitter leaves of the _nim_
tree (_Melia indica_). These they then spit out of their mouths to
indicate their complete severance from the dead man.
6. Occupation
The caste beat drums at village festivals, and castrate cattle,
and they also make brooms and mats of date-palm and keep leeches for
blood-letting. Some of them are village watchmen and their women act
as midwives. As soon as a baby is born, the midwife blows into its
mouth, ears and nose in order to clear them of any impediments. When
a man is initiated by a _guru_ or spiritual preceptor, the latter
blows into his ear, and the Mangs therefore say that on account of
this act of the midwife they are the _gurus_ of all Hindus. During
an eclipse the Mangs beg, because the demons Rahu and Ketu, who
are believed to swallow the sun and moon on such occasions, were
both Mangs, and devout Hindus give alms to their fellow-castemen in
order to appease them. Those of them who are thieves are said not to
steal from the persons of a woman, a bangle-seller, a Lingayat Mali
or another Mang. [184] In Maratha villages they sometimes take the
place of Chamars, and work in leather, and one writer says of them:
"The Mang is a village menial in the Maratha villages, making all
leather ropes, thongs and whips, which are used by the cultivators;
he frequently acts as watchman; he is by profession a thief and
executioner; he readily hires himself as an assassin, and when he
commits a robbery he also frequently murders." In his menial capacity
he receives presents at seed-time and harvest, and it is said that the
Kunbi will never send the Mang empty away, because he represents the
wrath of Mahadeo, being made from the god's sweat when he was angry.
7. Religion and social status
The caste especially venerate the goddess Devi. They apparently
identify Devi with Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom, and they have a
story to the effect that once Brahma wished to ravish his daughter
Saraswati. She fled from him and went to all the gods, but none of
them would protect her for fear of Brahma. At last in despair she
came to a Mang's house, and the Mang stood in the door and kept off
Brahma with a wooden club. In return for this Saraswati blessed him
and said that he and his descendants should never lack for food. They
also revere Mahadeo, and on every Monday they worship the cow, placing
vermilion on her forehead and washing her feet. The cat is regarded as
a sacred animal, and a Mang's most solemn oath is sworn on a cat. A
house is defiled if a cat or a dog dies or a cat has kittens in it,
and all the earthen pots must be broken. If a man accidentally kills
a cat or a dog a heavy penance is exacted, and two feasts must be
given to the caste. To kill an ass or a monkey is a sin only less
heinous. A man is also put out of caste if kicked or beaten with a
shoe by any one of another caste, even a Brahman, or if he is struck
with the _kathri_ or mattress made of rags which the villagers put
on their sleeping-cots. Mr. Gayer remarks [185] that "The Mangs show
great respect for the bamboo; and at a marriage the bridal couple
are made to stand in a bamboo basket. They also reverence the _nim_
tree, and the Mangs of Sholapur spread _hariali_ [186] grass and _nim_
leaves on the spot where one of their caste dies." The social status
of the Mangs is of the lowest. They usually live in a separate quarter
of the village and have a well for their own use. They may not enter
temples. It is recorded that under native rule the Mahars and Mangs
were not allowed within the gates of Poona between 3 P.M. and 9 A.M.,
because before nine and after three their bodies cast too long a
shadow; and whenever their shadow fell upon a Brahman it polluted him,
so that he dare not taste food or water until he had bathed and washed
the impurity away. So also no low-caste man was allowed to live in
a walled town; cattle and dogs could freely enter and remain but not
the Mahar or Mang. [187] The caste will eat the flesh of pigs, rats,
crocodiles and jackals and the leavings of others, and some of them
will eat beef. Men may be distinguished by the _senai_ flute which they
carry and by a large ring of gold or brass worn in the lobe of the
ear. A Mang's sign-manual is a representation of his _bhall-singara_
or castration-knife. Women are tattooed before marriage, with dots on
the forehead, nose, cheeks and chin, and with figures of a date-palm
on the forearm, a scorpion on the palm of the hand, and flies on the
fingers. The caste do not bear a good character, and it is said of
a cruel man, '_Mang-Nirdayi_,' or 'Hardhearted as a Mang.'
Mang-Garori
_Mang-Garori._--This is a criminal subdivision of the Mang caste,
residing principally in Berar. They were not separately recorded at
the census. The name Garori appears to be a corruption of Garudi,
and signifies a snake-charmer. [188] Garuda, the Brahminy kite, the
bird on which Vishnu rides, was the great subduer of snakes, and hence
probably snake-charmers are called Garudi. Some of the Mang-Garoris are
snake-charmers, and this may have been the original occupation of the
caste, though the bulk of them now appear to live by dealing in cattle
and thieving. The following notice of them is abstracted from Major
Gunthorpe's _Notes on Criminal Tribes_. [189] They usually travel about
with small _pals_ or tents, taking their wives, children, buffaloes
and dogs with them. The men are well set up and tall. Their costume
is something like that worn by professional gymnasts, consisting
of light and short reddish-brown drawers (_chaddi_), a waistband
with fringe at either end (_katchhe_), and a sheet thrown over the
shoulders. The Naik or headman of the camp may be recognised by his
wearing some red woollen cloth about his person or a red shawl over his
shoulders. The women have short _saris_ (body-cloths), usually of blue,
and tied in the Telugu fashion. They are generally very violent when
any attempt is made to search an encampment, especially if there is
stolen property concealed in it. Instances have been known of their
seizing their infants by the ankles and swinging them round their
heads, declaring they would continue doing so till the children died,
if the police did not leave the camp. Sometimes also the women of a
gang have been known to throw off all their clothing and appear in a
perfect state of nudity, declaring they would charge the police with
violating their modesty. Men of this tribe are expert cattle-lifters,
but confine themselves chiefly to buffaloes, which they steal while out
grazing and very dexterously disguise by trimming the horns and firing,
so as to avoid recognition by their rightful owners. To steal goats
and sheep is also one of their favourite occupations, and they will
either carry the animals off from their pens at night or kill them
while out grazing, in the following manner: having marked a sheep or
goat which is feeding farthest away from the flock, the thief awaits
his opportunity till the shepherd's back is turned, when the animal is
quickly captured. Placing his foot on the back of the neck near the
head, and seizing it under the chin with his right hand, the thief
breaks the animal's neck by a sudden jerk; he then throws the body
into a bush or in some dip in the ground to hide it, and walks away,
watching from a distance. The shepherd, ignorant of the loss of one
of his animals, goes on leisurely driving his flock before him, and
when he is well out of sight the Mang-Garori removes the captured
carcase to his encampment. Great care is taken that the skin, horns
and hoofs should be immediately burnt so as to avoid detection. Their
ostensible occupation is to trade in barren half-starved buffaloes
and buffalo calves, or in country ponies. They also purchase from
Gaoli herdsmen barren buffaloes, which they profess to be able to make
fertile; if successful they return them for double the purchase-money,
but if not, having obtained if possible some earnest-money, they
abscond and sell the animals at a distance. [190] Like the Bhamtas,
the Mang-Garoris, Major Gunthorpe states, make it a rule not to give
a girl in marriage until the intended husband has proved himself
an efficient thief. Mr. Gayer [191] writes as follows of the caste:
"I do not think Major Gunthorpe lays sufficient emphasis on the part
taken by the women in crimes, for they apparently do by far the major
part of the thieving, Sherring says the men never commit house-breaking
and very seldom rob on the highway: he calls them 'wanderers, showmen,
jugglers and conjurors,' and describes them as robbers who get their
information by performing before the houses of rich bankers and
others. Mang-Garori [192] women steal in markets and other places of
public resort. They wait to see somebody put down his clothes or bag
of rupees and watch till his attention is attracted elsewhere, when,
walking up quietly between the article and its owner, they drop their
petticoat either over or by it, and manage to transfer the stolen
property into their basket while picking up the petticoat. If an
unfavourable omen occurs on the way when the women set out to pilfer
they place a stone on the ground and dash another on to it saying,
'If the obstacle is removed, break'; if the stone struck is broken,
they consider that the obstacle portended by the unfavourable omen
is removed from their path, and proceed on their way; but if not,
they return. Stolen articles are often bartered at liquor-shops for
drink, and the Kalars act as receivers of stolen property for the
Mang-Garoris."
The following are some particulars taken from an old account of the
criminal Mangs; [193] Their leader or headman was called the _naik_
and was elected by a majority of votes, though considerable regard
was paid to heredity. The _naik's_ person and property were alike
inviolable; after a successful foray each of the gang contributed a
quarter of his share to the _naik_, and from the fund thus made up
were defrayed the expenses of preparation, religious offerings and
the triumphal feast. A pair of shoes were usually given to a Brahman
and alms to the poor. To each band was attached an informer, who was
also receiver of the stolen goods. These persons were usually bangle-
or perfume-sellers or jewellers. In this capacity they were admitted
into the women's apartments and so enabled to form a correct notion
of the topography of a house and a shrewd guess as to the wealth
of its inmates. Like all barbarous tribes and all persons addicted
to criminal practices the Mangs were extremely superstitious. They
never set out on an expedition on a Friday. After the birth of a child
the mother and another woman stood on opposite sides of the cradle,
and the former tossed her child to the other, commending it to the
mercy of Jai Gopal, and waited to receive it back in like manner in
the name of Jai Govind. Both Gopal and Govind are names of Krishna,
The Mangs usually married young in life. If a girl happened to hang
heavy on hand she was married at the age of puberty to the deity. In
other words, she was attached as a prostitute to the temple of the god
Khandoba or the goddess Yellama. Those belonging to the service of
the latter were wont in the month of February to parade the streets
in a state of utter nudity. When a bachelor wished to marry a widow
he was first united to a swallow-wort plant, and this was immediately
dug up and transplanted, and withering away left him at liberty to
marry the widow. If a lady survived the sorrow caused by the death
of two or three husbands she could not again enter the holy state
unless she consented to be married with a fowl under her armpit;
the unfortunate bird being afterwards killed to appease the manes of
her former consorts.
Manihar
_Manihar._ [194]--A small caste of pedlars and hawkers. In northern
India the Manihars are makers of glass bangles, and correspond to the
Kachera caste of the Central Provinces. Mr. Nesfield remarks [195]
that the special industry of the Manihars of the United Provinces is
the making of glass bangles or bracelets. These are an indispensable
adjunct to the domestic life of the Hindu woman; for the glass bangle
is not worn for personal ornament, but as the badge of the matrimonial
state, like the wedding-ring in Europe. But in the Central Provinces
glass bangles are made by the Kacheras and the Muhammadan Turkaris
or Sisgars, and the Manihars are petty hawkers of stationery and
articles for the toilet, such as miniature looking-glasses, boxes,
stockings, needles and thread, spangles, and imitation jewellery; and
Hindu Jogis and others who take to this occupation are accustomed to
give their caste as Manihar. In 1911 nearly 700 persons belonging to
the caste were returned from the northern Districts of the Central
Provinces. The Manihars are nominally Muhammadans, but they retain
many Hindu customs. At their weddings they erect a marriage-tent,
anoint the couple with oil and turmeric and make them wear a _kankan_
or wrist-band, to which is attached a small purse containing a little
mustard-seed and a silver ring. The mustard is intended to scare away
the evil spirits. When the marriage procession reaches the bride's
village it is met by her people, one of whom holds a bamboo in his
hands and bars the advance of the procession. The bridegroom's father
thereupon makes a present of a rupee to the village _panchayat_,
and his people are allowed to proceed. When the bridegroom reaches
the bride's house he finds her younger sister carrying a _kalas_
or pot of water on her head; he drops a rupee into it and enters the
house. The bride's sister then comes holding above her head a small
frame like a _tazia_ [196] with a cocoanut core hanging inside. She
raises the frame as high as she can to prevent the bridegroom from
plucking out the cocoanut core, which, however, he succeeds in doing
in the end. The girl applies powdered _mehndi_ or henna to the little
finger of the boy's right hand, in return for which she receives a
rupee and a piece of cloth. The Kazi then recites verses from the
Koran which the bridegroom repeats after him, and the bride does the
same in her turn. This is the Nikah or marriage proper, and before
it takes place the bridegroom's father must present a nose-ring to
the bride. The parents also fix the Meher or dowry, which, however,
is not a dowry proper, but a stipulation that if the bridegroom
should put away his wife after marriage he will pay her a certain
agreed sum. After the Nikah the bridegroom is given some spices,
which he grinds on a slab with a roller. He must do the grinding very
slowly and gently so as to make no noise, or it is believed that
the married life of the couple will be broken by quarrels. A widow
is permitted to marry the younger brother of her deceased husband,
but not his elder brother. The caste bury their dead with the head to
the north. The corpse is first bathed and wrapped in a new white sheet,
with another sheet over it, and is then laid on a cot or in a _janaza_
or coffin. While it is being carried to the cemetery the bearers are
changed every few steps, so that every man who accompanies the funeral
may carry the corpse for a short distance. When it is lowered into
the grave the sheet is taken off and given to a Fakir or beggar. When
the body is covered with earth the priest reads the funeral verses
at a distance of forty steps from the grave. Feasts are given to the
caste-fellows on the third, tenth, twentieth and fortieth days after
the death. The Manihars observe the Shabrat festival by distributing to
the caste-fellows _halua_ or a mixture of melted butter and flour. The
Shabrat is the middle night of the month Shaban, and Muhammad declared
that on this night God registers the actions which every man will
perform during the following year, and all those who are fated to die
and the children who are to be born. Like Hindu widows the Manihar
women break their bangles when their husband's corpse is removed to
the burial-ground. The Manihars eat flesh, but not beef or pork; and
they also abstain from alcoholic liquor. If a girl is seduced and made
pregnant before marriage either by a man of the caste or an outsider,
she remains in her father's house until her child has been born,
and may then be married either to her paramour or any other man of
the caste by the simple repetition of the Nikah or marriage verses,
omitting all other ceremonies. The Manihars will admit into their
community converted Hindus belonging even to the lowest castes.
Mannewar
_Mannewar._ [197]--A small tribe belonging to the south or
Telugu-speaking portion of the Chanda District, where they mustered
about 1600 persons in 1911. The home of the tribe is the Hyderabad
State, where it numbers 22,000 persons, and the Mannewars are said
to have once been dominant over a part of that territory. The name
is derived from a Telugu word _mannem_, meaning forest, while _war_
is the plural termination in Telugu, Mannewar thus signifying 'the
people of the forest.' The tribe appear to be the inferior branch
of the Koya Gonds, and they are commonly called Mannewar Koyas as
opposed to the Koya Doras or the superior branch, Dora meaning 'lord'
or master. The Koya Doras thus correspond to the Raj-Gonds of the
north of the Province and the Mannewar Koyas to the Dhur or 'dust'
Gonds. [198] The tribe is divided into three exogamous groups: the
Nalugu Velpulu worshipping four gods, the Ayidu Velpulu worshipping
five, and the Anu Velpulu six. A man must marry a woman of one of
the divisions worshipping a different number of gods from his own,
but the Mannewars do not appear to know the names of these gods, and
consequently no veneration can be paid to them at present, and they
survive solely for the purpose of regulating marriage. When a betrothal
is made a day is fixed for taking an omen. In the early morning the
boy who is to be married has his face washed and turmeric smeared
on his feet, and is seated on a wooden seat inside the house. The
elders of the village then proceed outside it towards the rising
sun and watch for any omen given by an animal or bird crossing their
path. If this is good the marriage is celebrated, and if bad the match
is broken off. In the former case five of the elders take their food on
returning from the search for the omen and immediately proceed to the
bride's village. Here they are met by the Pesamuda or village priest,
and stay for three days, when the amount of the dowry is settled and
a date fixed for the wedding. The marriage ceremony resembles that
of the low Telugu castes. The couple are seated on a plough-yoke,
and coloured rice is thrown on to their heads, and the bridegroom
ties the _mangalya_ or bead necklace, which is the sign of marriage,
round the neck of the bride. If a girl is deformed, or has some other
drawback which prevents her from being sought in marriage, she is
given away with her sister to a first cousin [199] or some other near
relative, the two sisters being married to him together. A widow may
marry any man of the tribe except her first husband's brothers. If
a man takes a widow to his house without marrying her he is fined
three rupees, while for adultery with a married woman the penalty is
twenty rupees. A divorce can always be obtained, but if the husband
demands it he is mulcted of twenty rupees by the caste committee,
while a wife who seeks a divorce must pay ten rupees. The Mannewars
make an offering of a fowl and some liquor to the ploughshare on the
festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. After the picking of the flowers of
the mahua [200] they worship that tree, offering to it some of the
liquor distilled from the new flowers, with a fowl and a goat. This
is known as the Burri festival. At the Holi feast the Mannewars make
two human figures to represent Kami and Rati, or the god of love and
his wife. The male figure is then thrown on to the Holi fire with a
live chicken or an egg. This may be a reminiscence of a former human
sacrifice, which was a common custom in many parts of the world at the
spring festival. The caste usually bury the dead, but are beginning
to adopt cremation. They do not employ Brahmans for their ceremonies
and eat all kinds of food, including the flesh of pigs, fowls and
crocodiles, but in view of their having nominally adopted Hinduism,
they abstain from beef.
Maratha
List of Paragraphs
1. _Numerical statistics_.
2. _Double meaning of the term Maratha_.
3. _Origin and position of the caste_.
4. _Exogamous clans_.
5. _Other subdivisions_.
6. _Social customs_.
7. _Religion_.
8. _Present position of the caste_.
9. _Nature of the Maratha insurrection_.
10. _Maratha women in past times_.
11. _The Maratha horseman_.
12. _Cavalry in the field_.
13. _Military administration_.
14. _Sitting Dharna_.
15. _The infantry_.
16. _Character of the Maratha armies_.
1. Numerical statistics
_Maratha, Mahratta._--The military caste of southern India which manned
the armies of Sivaji, and of the Peshwa and other princes of the
Maratha confederacy. In the Central Provinces the Marathas numbered
34,000 persons in 1911, of whom Nagpur contained 9000 and Wardha
8000, while the remainder were distributed over Raipur, Hoshangabad
and Nimar. In Berar their strength was 60,000 persons, the total for
the combined province being thus 94,000. The caste is found in large
numbers in Bombay and Hyderabad, and in 1901 the India Census tables
show a total of not less than five million persons belonging to it.
2. Double meaning of the term Maratha
It is difficult to avoid confusion in the use of the term Maratha,
which signifies both an inhabitant of the area in which the
Marathi language is spoken, and a member of the caste to which
the general name has in view of their historical importance been
specifically applied. The native name for the Marathi-speaking
country is Maharashtra, which has been variously interpreted as
'The great country' or 'The country of the Mahars.' [201] A third
explanation of the name is from the Rashtrakuta dynasty which was
dominant in this area for some centuries after A.D. 750. The name
Rashtrakuta was contracted into Rattha, and with the prefix of Maha
or Great might evolve into the term Maratha. The Rashtrakutas have
been conjecturally identified with the Rathor Rajputs. The _Nasik
Gazetteer_ [202] states that in 246 B.C. Maharatta is mentioned as
one of the places to which Asoka sent an embassy, and Maharashtraka
is recorded in a Chalukyan inscription of A.D. 580 as including three
provinces and 99,000 villages. Several other references are given
in Sir J. Campbell's erudite note, and the name is therefore without
doubt ancient. But the Marathas as a people do not seem to be mentioned
before the thirteenth or fourteenth century. [203] The antiquity of
the name would appear to militate against the derivation from the
Rashtrakuta dynasty, which did not become prominent till much later,
and the most probable meaning of Maharashtra would therefore seem to
be 'The country of the Mahars.' Maharatta and Maratha are presumably
derivatives from Maharashtra.
3. Origin and position of the caste
The Marathas are a caste formed from military service, and it seems
probable that they sprang mainly from the peasant population of Kunbis,
though at what period they were formed into a separate caste has not
yet been determined. Grant-Duff mentions several of their leading
families as holding offices under the Muhammadan rulers of Bijapur and
Ahmadnagar in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as the Nimbhalkar,
Gharpure and Bhonsla; [204] and presumably their clansmen served in the
armies of those states. But whether or no the designation of Maratha
had been previously used by them, it first became prominent during the
period of Sivaji's guerilla warfare against Aurangzeb. The Marathas
claim a Rajput origin, and several of their clans have the names of
Rajput tribes, as Chauhan, Panwar, Solanki and Suryavansi. In 1836
Mr. Enthoven states, [205] the Sesodia Rana of Udaipur, the head of
the purest Rajput house, was satisfied from inquiries conducted by an
agent that the Bhonslas and certain other families had a right to be
recognised as Rajputs. Colonel Tod states that Sivaji was descended
from a Rajput prince Sujunsi, who was expelled from Mewar to avoid
a dispute about the succession about A.D. 1300. Sivaji is shown as
13th in descent from Sujunsi. Similarly the Bhonslas of Nagpur were
said to derive their origin from one Bunbir, who was expelled from
Udaipur about 1541, having attempted to usurp the kingdom. [206]
As Rajput dynasties ruled in the Deccan for some centuries before
the Muhammadan conquest, it seems reasonable to suppose that a Rajput
aristocracy may have taken root there. This was Colonel Tod's opinion,
who wrote: "These kingdoms of the south as well as the north were
held by Rajput sovereigns, whose offspring, blending with the original
population, produced that mixed race of Marathas inheriting with the
names the warlike propensities of their ancestors, but who assume the
names of their abodes as titles, as the Nimalkars, the Phalkias, the
Patunkars, instead of their tribes of Jadon, Tüar, Püar, etc." [207]
This statement would, however, apply only to the leading houses and
not to the bulk of the Maratha caste, who appear to be mainly derived
from the Kunbis. In Sholapur the Marathas and Kunbis eat together,
and the Kunbis are said to be bastard Marathas. [208] In Satara the
Kunbis have the same division into 96 clans as the Marathas have, and
many of the same surnames. [209] The writer of the _Satara Gazetteer_
says: [210] "The census of 1851 included the Marathas with the Kunbis,
from whom they do not form a separate caste. Some Maratha families
may have a larger strain of northern or Rajput blood than the Kunbis,
but this is not always the case. The distinction between Kunbis
and Marathas is almost entirely social, the Marathas as a rule being
better off, and preferring even service as a constable or messenger to
husbandry." Exactly the same state of affairs prevails in the Central
Provinces and Berar, where the body of the caste are commonly known
as Maratha Kunbis. In Bombay the Marathas will take daughters from
the Kunbis in marriage for their sons, though they will not give
their daughters in return. But a Kunbi who has got on in the world
and become wealthy may by sufficient payment get his sons married into
Maratha families, and even be adopted as a member of the caste. [211]
In 1798 Colonel Tone, who commanded a regiment of the Peshwa's army,
wrote [212] of the Marathas: "The three great tribes which compose the
Maratha caste are the Kunbi or farmer, the Dhangar or shepherd, and the
Goala or cowherd; to this original cause may perhaps be ascribed that
great simplicity of manner which distinguishes the Maratha people."
It seems then most probable that, as already stated, the Maratha
caste was of purely military origin, constituted from the various
castes of Maharashtra who adopted military service, though some of
the leading families may have had Rajputs for their ancestors. Sir
D. Ibbetson thought that a similar relation existed in past times
between the Rajputs and Jats, the landed aristocracy of the Jat caste
being gradually admitted to Rajput rank. The Khandaits or swordsmen of
Orissa are a caste formed in the same manner from military service. In
the _Imperial Gazetteer_ Sir H. Risley suggests that the Maratha
people were of Scythian origin:
"The physical type of the people of this region accords fairly
well with this theory, while the arguments derived from language
and religion do not seem to conflict with it.... On this view the
wide-ranging forays of the Marathas, their guerilla methods of warfare,
their unscrupulous dealings with friend and foe, their genius for
intrigue and their consequent failure to build up an enduring dominion,
might well be regarded as inherited from their Scythian ancestors."
4. Exogamous clans
In the Central Provinces the Marathas are divided into 96 exogamous
clans, known as the Chhanava Kule, which marry with one another. During
the period when the Bhonsla family were rulers of Nagpur they
constituted a sort of inner circle, consisting of seven of the
leading clans, with whom alone they intermarried; these are known
as the Satghare or Seven Houses, and consist of the Bhonsla, Gujar,
Ahirrao, Mahadik, Sirke, Palke and Mohte clans. These houses at one
time formed an endogamous group, marrying only among themselves, but
recently the restriction has been relaxed, and they have arranged
marriages with other Maratha families. It may be noted that the
present representatives of the Bhonsla family are of the Gujar clan
to which the last Raja of Nagpur, Raghuji III., belonged prior to
his adoption. Several of the clans, as already noted, have Rajput
sept names; and some are considered to be derived from those of
former ruling dynasties; as Chalke, from the Chalukya Rajput kings
of the Deccan and Carnatic; More, who may represent a branch of the
great Maurya dynasty of northern India; Salunke, perhaps derived
from the Solanki kings of Gujarat; and Yadav, the name of the kings
of Deogiri or Daulatabad. [213] Others appear to be named after
animals or natural objects, as Sinde from _sindi_ the date-palm tree,
Ghorpade from _ghorpad_ the iguana; or to be of a titular nature, as
Kale black, Pandhre white, Bhagore a renegade, Jagthap renowned, and
so on. The More, Nimbhalkar, Ghatge, Mane, Ghorpade, Dafle, Jadav and
Bhonsla clans are the oldest, and held prominent positions in the old
Muhammadan kingdoms of Bijapur and Ahmadnagar. The Nimbhalkar family
were formerly Panwar Rajputs, and took the name of Nimbhalkar from
their ancestral village Nimbalik. The Ghorpade family are an offshoot
of the Bhonslas, and obtained their present name from the exploit of
one of their ancestors, who scaled a fort in the Konkan, previously
deemed impregnable, by passing a cord round the body of a _ghorpad_
or iguana. [214] A noticeable trait of these Maratha houses is the
fondness with which they clung to the small estates or villages in
the Deccan in which they had originally held the office of a patel or
village headman as a _watan_ or hereditary right, even after they had
carved out for themselves principalities and states in other parts
of India. The present Bhonsla Raja takes his title from the village
of Deor in the Poona country. In former times we read of the Raja of
Satara clinging to the _watans_ he had inherited from Sivaji after
he had lost his crown in all but the name; Sindhia was always termed
patel or village headman in the revenue accounts of the villages he
acquired in Nimar; while it is said that Holkar and the Panwar of Dhar
fought desperately after the British conquest to recover the _pateli_
rights of Deccan villages which had belonged to their ancestors. [215]
5. Other subdivisions
Besides the 96 clans there are now in the Central Provinces some local
subcastes who occupy a lower position and do not intermarry with the
Marathas proper. Among these are the Deshkar or 'Residents of the
country'; the Waindesha or those of Berar and Khandesh; the Gangthade
or those dwelling on the banks of the Godavari and Wainganga; and the
Ghatmathe or residents of the Mahadeo plateau in Berar. It is also
stated that the Marathas are divided into the _Khasi_ or 'pure' and
the _Kharchi_ or the descendants of handmaids. In Bombay the latter
are known as the Akarmashes or 11 _mashas_, meaning that as twelve
_mashas_ make a tola, a twelfth part of them is alloy.
6. Social customs
A man must not marry in his own clan or that of his mother. A
sister's son may be married to a brother's daughter, but not vice
versa. Girls are commonly married between five and twelve years of age,
and the ceremony resembles that of the Kunbis. The bridegroom goes
to the bride's house riding on horseback and covered with a black
blanket When a girl first becomes mature, usually after marriage,
the Marathas perform the Shantik ceremony. The girl is secluded for
four days, after which she is bathed and puts on new clothes and
dresses her hair and a feast is given to the caste-fellows. Sometimes
the bridegroom comes and is asked whether he has visited his wife
before she became mature, and if he confesses that he has done so a
small fine is imposed on him. Such cases are, however, believed to
be rare. The Marathas proper forbid widow-marriage, but the lower
groups allow it. If a maiden is seduced by one of the caste she may
be married to him as if she were a widow, a fine being imposed on
her family; but if she goes wrong with an outsider she is finally
expelled. Divorce is not ostensibly allowed but may be concluded by
agreement between the parties. A wife who commits adultery is cast off
and expelled from the caste. The caste burn their dead when they can
afford it and perform the _shraddh_ ceremony in the month of _Kunwar_
(September), when oblations are offered to the dead and a feast is
given to the caste-fellows. Sometimes a tomb is erected as a memorial
to the dead, but without his name, and is surmounted usually by an
image of Mahadeo. The caste eat the flesh of clean animals and of
fowls and wild pig, and drink liquor. Their rules about food are
liberal like those of the Rajputs, a too great stringency being no
doubt in both cases incompatible with the exigencies of military
service. They make no difference between food cooked with or without
water, and will accept either from a Brahman, Rajput, Tirole Kunbi,
Lingayat Bania or Phulmali.
The Marathas proper observe the _parda_ system with regard to their
women, and will go to the well and draw water themselves rather than
permit their wives to do so. The women wear ornaments only of gold
or glass and not of silver or any baser metal. They are not permitted
to spin cotton as being an occupation of the lower classes. The women
are tattooed in the centre of the forehead with a device resembling a
trident. The men commonly wear a turban made of many folds of cloth
twisted into a narrow rope and large gold rings with pearls in the
upper part of the ear. Like the Rajputs they often have their hair
long and wear beards and whiskers. They assume the sacred thread and
invest a boy with it when he is seven or eight years old or on his
marriage. Till then they let the hair grow on the front of his head,
and when the thread ceremony is performed they cut this off and let
the _choti_ or scalp-lock grow at the back. In appearance the men
are often tall and well-built and of a light wheat-coloured complexion.
7. Religion
The principal deity of the Marathas is Khandoba, a warrior incarnation
of Mahadeo. He is supposed to have been born in a field of millet
near Poona and to have led the people against the Muhammadans in
early times. He had a watch-dog who warned him of the approach of
his enemies, and he is named after the _khanda_ or sword which he
always carried. In Bombay [216] he is represented on horseback with
two women, one of the Bania caste, his wedded wife, in front of him,
and another, a Dhangarin, his kept mistress, behind. He is considered
the tutelary deity of the Maratha country, and his symbol is a bag
of turmeric powder known as _bhandar_. The caste worship Khandoba on
Sundays with rice, flowers and incense, and also on the 21st day of
Magh (January), which is called _Champa Sashthi_ and is his special
festival. On this day they will catch hold of any dog, and after
adorning him with flowers and turmeric give him a good feed and let
him go again. The Marathas are generally kind to dogs and will not
injure them. At the Dasahra festival the caste worship their horses
and swords and go out into the field to see a blue-jay in memory of
the fact that the Maratha marauding expeditions started on Dasahra. On
coming back they distribute to each other leaves of the _shami_ tree
(_Bauhinia racemosa_) as a substitute for gold. It was formerly held
to be fitting among the Hindus that the warrior should ride a horse
(geldings being unknown) and the zamindar or landowner a mare, as more
suitable to a man of peace. The warriors celebrated their Dasahra,
and worshipped their horses on the tenth day of the light fortnight
of _Kunwar_ (September), while the cultivators held their festival
and worshipped their mares on the ninth day. It is recorded that the
great Raghuji Bhonsla, the first Raja of Nagpur, held his Dasahra on
the ninth day, in order to proclaim the fact that he was by family
an agriculturist and only incidentally a man of arms. [217]
8. Present position of the caste
The Marathas present the somewhat melancholy spectacle of an
impoverished aristocratic class attempting to maintain some semblance
of their former position, though they no longer have the means
to do so. They flourished during two or three centuries of almost
continuous war, and became a wealthy and powerful caste, but they
find a difficulty in turning their hands to the arts of peace. Sir
R. Craddock writes of them in Nagpur:
"Among the Marathas a large number represent connections of the Bhonsla
family, related by marriage or by illegitimate descent to that house. A
considerable proportion of the Government political pensioners are
Marathas. Many of them own villages or hold tenant land, but as a
rule they are extravagant in their living; and several of the old
Maratha nobility have fallen very much in the world. Pensions diminish
with each generation, but the expenditure shows no corresponding
decrease. The sons are brought up to no employment and the daughters
are married with lavish pomp and show. The native army does not much
attract them, and but few are educated well enough for the dignified
posts in the civil employ of Government. It is a question whether
their pride of race will give way before the necessity of earning
their livelihood soon enough for them to maintain or regain some of
their former position. Otherwise those with the largest landed estates
may be saved by the intervention of Government, but the rest must
gradually deteriorate till the dignities of their class have become
a mere memory. The humbler members of the caste find their employment
as petty contractors or traders, private servants, Government peons,
_sowars_ and hangers-on in the retinue of the more important families.
"What [218] little display his means afford a Maratha still tries to
maintain. Though he may be clad in rags at home, he has a spare dress
which he himself washes and keeps with great care and puts on when he
goes to pay a visit. He will hire a boy to attend him with a lantern
at night, or to take care of his shoes when he goes to a friend's
house and hold them before him when he comes out. Well-to-do Marathas
have usually in their service a Brahman clerk known as _divanji_ or
minister, who often takes advantage of his master's want of education
to defraud him. A Maratha seldom rises early or goes out in the
morning. He will get up at seven or eight o'clock, a late hour for
a Hindu, and attend to business if he has any or simply idle about
chewing or smoking tobacco and talking till ten o'clock. He will
then bathe and dress in a freshly-washed cloth and bow before the
family gods which the priest has already worshipped. He will dine,
chew betel and smoke tobacco and enjoy a short midday rest. Rising at
three, he will play cards, dice or chess, and in the evening will go
out walking or riding or pay a visit to a friend. He will come back
at eight or nine and go to bed at ten or eleven. But Marathas who
have estates to manage lead regular, fairly busy lives."
9. Nature of the Maratha insurrection
Sir D. Ibbetson drew attention to the fact that the rising of the
Marathas against the Muhammadans was almost the only instance in
Indian history of what might correctly be called a really national
movement. In other cases, as that of the Sikhs, though the essential
motive was perhaps of the same nature, it was obscured by the fact
that its ostensible tendency was religious. The _gurus_ of the Sikhs
did not call on their followers to fight for their country but for a
new religion. This was only in accordance with the Hindu intellect,
to which the idea of nationality has hitherto been foreign, while its
protests against both alien and domestic tyrannies tend to take the
shape of a religious revolt. A similar tendency is observable even in
the case of the Marathas, for the rising was from its inception largely
engineered by the Maratha Brahmans, who on its success hastened to
annex for themselves a leading position in the new Poona state. And it
has been recorded that in calling his countrymen to arms, Sivaji did
not ask them to defend their hearths and homes or wives and children,
but to rally for the protection of the sacred persons of Brahmans
and cows.
10. Maratha women in past times
Although the Marathas have now in imitation of the Rajputs and
Muhammadans adopted the _parda_ system, this is not a native custom,
and women have played quite an important part in their history. The
women of the household have also exercised a considerable influence
and their opinions are treated with respect by the men. Several
instances occur in which women of high rank have successfully acted
as governors and administrators. In the Bhonsla family the Princess
Baka Bai, widow of Raghuji II., is a conspicuous instance, while the
famous or notorious Rani of Jhansi is another case of a Maratha lady
who led her troops in person, and was called the best man on the
native side in the Mutiny.
11. The Maratha horseman
This article may conclude with one or two extracts to give an idea
of the way in which the Maratha soldiery took the field. Grant Duff
describes the troopers as follows:
"The Maratha horsemen are commonly dressed in a pair of light breeches
covering the knee, a turban which many of them fasten by passing a
fold of it under the chin, a frock of quilted cotton, and a cloth
round the waist, with which they generally gird on their swords in
preference to securing them with their belts. The horseman is armed
with a sword and shield; a proportion in each body carry matchlocks,
but the great national weapon is the spear, in the use of which and
the management of their horse they evince both grace and dexterity. The
spearmen have generally a sword, and sometimes a shield; but the latter
is unwieldy and only carried in case the spear should be broken. The
trained spearmen may always be known by their riding very long, the
ball of the toe touching the stirrup; some of the matchlockmen and
most of the Brahmans ride very short and ungracefully. The bridle
consists of a single headstall of cotton-rope, with a small but very
severe flexible bit"
12. Cavalry in the field
The following account of the Maratha cavalry is given in General
Hislop's _Summary of the Maratha and Pindari Campaigns_ of 1817-1819:
"The Marathas possess extraordinary skill in horsemanship, and so
intimate an acquaintance with their horses, that they can make their
animals do anything, even in full speed, in halting, wheeling, etc.;
they likewise use the spear with remarkable dexterity, sometimes in
full gallop, grasping their spears short and quickly sticking the
point in the ground; still holding the handles, they turn their horse
suddenly round it, thus performing on the point of a spear as on a
pivot the same circle round and round again. Their horses likewise
never leave the particular class or body to which they belong; so
that if the rider should be knocked off, away gallops the animal
after its fellows, never separating itself from the main body. Every
Maratha brings his own horse and his own arms with him to the field,
and possibly in the interest they possess in this private equipment we
shall find their usual shyness to expose themselves or even to make a
bold vigorous attack. But if armies or troops could be frightened by
appearances these horses of the Marathas would dishearten the bravest,
actually darkening the plains with their numbers and clouding the
horizon with dust for miles and miles around. A little fighting,
however, goes a great way with them, as with most others of the native
powers in India."
On this account the Marathas were called _razah-bazan_ or
lance-wielders. One Muhammadan historian says: "They so use the lance
that no cavalry can cope with them. Some 20,000 or 30,000 lances are
held up against their enemy so close together as not to leave a span
between their heads. If horsemen try to ride them down the points of
the spears are levelled at the assailants and they are unhorsed. While
cavalry are charging them they strike their lances against each
other and the noise so frightens the horses of the enemy that they
turn round and bolt." [219] The battle-cries of the Marathas were,
'_Har, Har Mahadeo_,' and '_Gopal, Gopal_.' [220]
13. Military administration
An interesting description of the internal administration of
the Maratha cavalry is contained in the letter on the Marathas by
Colonel Tone already quoted. But his account must refer to a period
of declining efficiency and cannot represent the military system at
its best:
"In the great scale of rank and eminence which is one peculiar feature
of Hindu institutions the Maratha holds a very inferior situation,
being just removed one degree above those castes which are considered
absolutely unclean. He is happily free from the rigorous observances
as regards food which fetter the actions of the higher castes. He can
eat of all kinds of food with the exception of beef; can dress his meal
at all times and seasons; can partake of all victuals dressed by any
caste superior to his own; washing and praying are not indispensable
in his order and may be practised or omitted at pleasure. The three
great tribes which compose the Maratha caste are the Kunbi or farmer,
the Dhangar or shepherd and the Goala or cowherd; to this original
cause may perhaps be ascribed that great simplicity of manner which
distinguishes the Maratha people. Homer mentions princesses going in
person to the fountain to wash their household linen. I can affirm
having seen the daughters of a prince who was able to bring an army
into the field much larger than the whole Greek confederacy, making
bread with their own hands and otherwise employed in the ordinary
business of domestic housewifery. I have seen one of the most powerful
chiefs of the Empire, after a day of action, assisting in kindling a
fire to keep himself warm during the night, and sitting on the ground
on a spread saddle-cloth dictating to his secretaries.
"The chief military force of the Marathas consists in their cavalry,
which may be divided into four distinct classes: First the Khasi
Pagah or household forces of the prince; these are always a fine
well-appointed body, the horses excellent, being the property of the
Sirkar, who gives a monthly allowance to each trooper of the value
of about eight rupees. The second class are the cavalry furnished by
the Silladars, [221] who contract to supply a certain number of horse
on specified terms, generally about Rs. 35 a month, including the
trooper's pay. The third and most numerous description are volunteers,
who join the camp bringing with them their own horse and accoutrements;
their pay is generally from Rs. 40 to Rs. 50 a month in proportion to
the value of their horse. There is a fourth kind of native cavalry
called Pindaris, who are mere marauders, serve without any pay and
subsist but by plunder, a fourth part of which they give to the Sirkar;
but these are so very licentious a body that they are not employed
but in one or two of the Maratha services.
"The troops collected in this manner are under no discipline whatever
and engage for no specific period, but quit the army whenever they
please; with the exception of furnishing a picquet while in camp,
they do no duty but in the day of battle.
"The Maratha cavalry is always irregularly and badly paid; the
household troops scarcely ever receive money, but are furnished with
a daily allowance of coarse flour and some other ingredients from the
bazar which just enable them to exist. The Silladar is very nearly as
badly situated. In his arrangements with the State he has allotted
to him a certain proportion of jungle where he pastures his cattle;
here he and his family reside, and his sole occupation when not on
actual service is increasing his Pagah or troop by breeding out of his
mares, of which the Maratha cavalry almost entirely consist. There
are no people in the world who understand the method of rearing and
multiplying the breed of cattle equal to the Marathas. It is by no
means uncommon for a Silladar to enter a service with one mare and
in a few years be able to muster a very respectable Pagah. They have
many methods of rendering the animal prolific; they back their colts
much earlier than we do and they are consequently more valuable as
they come sooner on the effective strength.
"When called upon for actual service the Silladar is obliged to give
muster. Upon this occasion it is always necessary that the Brahman
who takes it should have a bribe; and indeed the Hazri, as the muster
is termed, is of such a nature that it could not pass by any fair or
honourable means. Not only any despicable _tattus_ are substituted
in the place of horses but animals are borrowed to fill up the
complement. Heel-ropes and grain-bags are produced as belonging to
cattle supposed to be at grass; in short every mode is practised to
impose on the Sirkar, which in turn reimburses itself by irregular and
bad payments; for it is always considered if the Silladars receive
six months' arrears out of the year that they are exceedingly well
paid. The Volunteers who join the camp are still worse situated, as
they have no collective force, and money is very seldom given in a
Maratha State without being extorted. In one word, the native cavalry
are the worst-paid body of troops in the world. But there is another
grand error in this mode of raising troops which is productive of the
worst effects. Every man in a Maratha camp is totally independent; he
is the proprietor of the horse he rides, which he is never inclined to
risk, since without it he can get no service. This single circumstance
destroys all enterprise and spirit in the soldier, whose sole business,
instead of being desirous of distinguishing himself, is to keep out
of the way of danger; for notwithstanding every horseman on entering
a service has a certain value put upon his horse, yet should he lose
it even in action he never receives any compensation or at least none
proportioned to his loss. If at any time a Silladar is disgusted with
the service he can go away without meeting any molestation even though
in the face of an enemy. In fact the pay is in general so shamefully
irregular that a man is justified in resorting to any measure, however
apparently unbecoming, to attain it. It is also another very curious
circumstance attending this service that many great Silladars have
troops in the pay of two or three chiefs at the same time, who are
frequently at open war with each other.
14. Sitting Dharna
"To recover an arrear of pay there is but one known mode which is
universally adopted in all native services, the Mughal as well as the
Maratha; this is called Dharna, [222] which consists in putting the
debtor, be he who he will, into a state of restraint or imprisonment,
until satisfaction be given or the money actually obtained. Any person
in the Sirkar's service has a right to demand his pay of the Prince
or his minister, and to sit in Dharna if it be not given; nor will
he meet with the least hindrance in doing so; for none would obey
an order that interfered with the Dharna, as it is a common cause;
nor does the soldier incur the slightest charge of mutiny for his
conduct, or suffer in the smallest manner in the opinion of his
Chief, so universal is the custom. The Dharna is sometimes carried
to very violent lengths and may either be executed on the Prince or
his minister indifferently, with the same effect; as the Chief always
makes it a point of honour not to eat or drink while his Diwan is in
duress; sometimes the Dharna lasts for many days, during which time
the party upon whom it is exercised is not suffered to eat or drink
or wash or pray, or in short is not permitted to move from the spot
where he sits, which is frequently bare-headed in the sun, until the
money or security be given; so general is this mode of recovery that
I suppose the Maratha Chiefs may be said to be nearly one-half of
their time in a state of Dharna.
15. The infantry
"In the various Maratha services there are very little more than a
bare majority who are Marathas by caste, and very few instances occur
of their ever entering into the infantry at all. The sepoys in the pay
of the different princes are recruited in Hindustan, and principally
of the Rajput and Purbia caste; these are perhaps the finest race of
men in the world for figure and appearance; of lofty stature, strong,
graceful and athletic; of acute feelings, high military pride, quick,
apprehensive, brave, prudent and economic; at the same time it must be
confessed they are impatient of discipline, and naturally inclined to
mutiny. They are mere soldiers of fortune and serve only for their
pay. There are also a great number of Musalmans who serve in the
different Maratha armies, some of whom have very great commands.
16. Character of the Maratha armies
"The Maratha cavalry at times make very long and rapid marches, in
which they do not suffer themselves to be interrupted by the monsoon or
any violence of weather. In very pressing exigencies it is incredible
the fatigue a Maratha horseman will endure; frequently many days pass
without his enjoying one regular meal, but he depends entirely for
subsistence on the different corn-fields through which the army passes:
a few heads of juari, which he chafes in his hands while on horseback,
will serve him for the day; his horse subsists on the same fare, and
with the addition of opium, which the Marathas frequently administer
to their cattle, is enabled to perform incredible marches."
The above analysis of the Maratha troops indicates that their real
character was that of freebooting cavalry, largely of the same type
as, though no doubt greatly superior in tone and discipline to the
Pindaris. Like them they lived by plundering the country. "The
Marathas," Elphinstone remarked, "are excellent foragers. Every
morning at daybreak long lines of men on small horses and ponies
are seen issuing from their camps in all directions, who return
before night loaded with fodder for the cattle, with firewood torn
down from houses, and grain dug up from the pits where it had been
concealed by the villagers; while other detachments go to a distance
for some days and collect proportionately larger supplies of the same
kind." [223] They could thus dispense with a commissariat, and being
nearly all mounted were able to make extraordinarily long marches,
and consequently to carry out effectively surprise attacks and when
repulsed to escape injury in the retreat. Even at Panipat where their
largest regular force took the field under Sadasheo Rao Bhao, he had
70,000 regular and irregular cavalry and only 15,000 infantry, of whom
9000 were hired sepoys under a Muhammadan leader. The Marathas were at
their best in attacking the slow-moving and effeminate Mughal armies,
while during their period of national ascendancy under the Peshwa
there was no strong military power in India which could oppose their
forays. When they were by the skill of their opponents at length
brought to a set battle, their fighting qualities usually proved
to be distinctly poor. At Panipat they lost the day by a sudden
panic and flight after Ibrahim Khan Gardi had obtained for them a
decided advantage; while at Argaon and Assaye their performances
were contemptible. After the recovery from Panipat and the rise of
the independent Maratha states, the assistance of European officers
was invoked to discipline and train the soldiery. [224]
Mehtar
[_Bibliography_: Mr. R. Greeven's _Knights of the Broom, Benares_
1894 (pamphlet); Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Bhangi; Sir
H. Risley's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Hari; Sir E. Maclagan's _Punjab
Census Report_, 1891 (Sweeper Sects); Sir D. Ibbetson's _Punjab Census
Report_, 1881 (art. Chuhra); _Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat_,
Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam.]
List of Paragraphs
1. _Introductory notice_.
2. _Caste subdivisions_.
3. _Social organisation_.
4. _Caste punishments_.
5. _Admission of outsiders_.
6. _Marriage customs_.
7. _Disposal of the dead_.
8. _Devices for procuring children_.
9. _Divination of sex_.
10. _Childbirth_.
11. _Treatment of the mother_.
12. _Protecting the lives of children_.
13. _Infantile diseases_.
14. _Religion. Valmiki_.
15. _Lalbeg_.
16. _Adoption of foreign religions_.
17. _Social status_.
18. _Occupation_.
19. _Occupation_ (_continued_).
1. Introductory notice
_Mehtar, Bhangi, Hari, [225] Dom, Lalbegi._--The caste of sweepers and
scavengers. In 1911 persons returning themselves as Mehtar, Bhangi
and Dom were separately classified, and the total of all three was
only 30,000. In this Province they generally confine themselves to
their hereditary occupation of scavenging, and are rarely met with
outside the towns and large villages. In most localities the supply
of sweepers does not meet the demand. The case is quite different in
northern India, where the sweeper castes--the Chuhra in the Punjab, the
Bhangi in the United Provinces and the Dom in Bengal--are all of them
of great numerical strength. With these castes only a small proportion
are employed on scavengers' work and the rest are labourers like
the Chamars and Mahars of the Central Provinces. The present sweeper
caste is made up of diverse elements, and the name Mehtar, generally
applied to it, is a title meaning a prince or leader. Its application
to the caste, the most abject and despised in the Hindu community,
is perhaps partly ironical; but all the low castes have honorific
titles, which are used as a method of address either from ordinary
politeness or by those requiring some service, on the principle, as
the Hindus say, that you may call an ass your uncle if you want him to
do something for you. The regular caste of sweepers in northern India
are the Bhangis, whose name is derived by Mr. Crooke from the Sanskrit
_bhanga,_ hemp, in allusion to the drunken habits of the caste. In
support of this derivation he advances the Beria custom of calling
their leaders Bhangi or hemp-drinker as a title of honour. [226] In
Mr. Greeven's account also, Lalbeg, the patron saint of the sweepers,
is described as intoxicated with the hemp drug on two occasions. [227]
Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam suggests [228] that Bhangia means broken, and
is applied to the sweepers because they split bamboos. In Kaira,
he states, the regular trade of the Bhangias is the plaiting of
baskets and other articles of split bamboo, and in that part of
Gujarat if a Koli is asked to split a bamboo he will say, 'Am I to
do Bhangia's work?' The derivation from the hemp-plant is, however,
the more probable. In the Punjab, sweepers are known as Chuhra, and
this, name has been derived from their business of collecting and
sweeping up scraps (_chura-jharna_) Similarly, in Bombay they are
known as Olganas or scrap-eaters. The Bengal name Hari is supposed
to come from _haddi_, a bone; the Hari is the bone-gatherer, and was
familiar to early settlers of Calcutta under the quaint designation
of the 'harry-wench,' [229] In the Central Provinces sections of the
Ghasia, Mahar and Dom castes will do sweepers' work, and are therefore
amalgamated with the Mehtars. The caste is thus of mixed constitution,
and also forms a refuge for persons expelled from their own societies
for social offences. But though called by different names, the
sweeper community in most provinces appears to have the same stock of
traditions and legends. The name of Mehtar is now generally employed,
and has therefore been taken as the designation of the caste.
2. Caste subdivisions
Mr. Greeven gives seven main subdivisions, of which the Lalbegis or
the followers of Lalbeg, the patron saint of sweepers, are the most
important. The Rawats appear to be an aristocratic subdivision of the
Lalbegis, their name being a corruption of the Sanskrit Rajputra,
a prince. The Shaikh Mehtars are the only real Muhammadan branch,
for though the Lalbegis worship a Musalman saint they remain
Hindus. The Haris or bone-gatherers, as already stated, are the
sweepers of Bengal. The Helas may either be those who carry baskets
of sweepings, or may derive their name from _hela_, a cry; and in
that case they are so called as performing the office of town-criers,
a function which the Bhangi usually still discharges in northern India
[230]. The other subcastes in his list are the Dhanuks or bowmen and
the Bansphors or cleavers of bamboos. In the Central Provinces the
Shaikh Mehtars belong principally to Nagpur, and another subcaste,
the Makhia, is also found in the Maratha Districts and in Berar; those
branches of the Ghasia and Dom castes who consent to do scavengers'
work now form separate subcastes of Mehtars in the same locality,
and another group are called Narnolia, being said to take their name
from a place called Narnol in the Punjab. The Lalbegis are often
considered here as Muhammadans rather than Hindus, and bury their
dead. In Saugor the sweepers are said to be divided into Lalbegis or
Muhammadans and Doms or Hindus. The Lalbegi, Dom or Dumar and the
Hela are the principal subcastes of the north of the Province, and
Chuhra Mehtars are found in Chhattisgarh. Each subcaste is divided
into a number of exogamous sections named after plants and animals.
3. Social organisation
In Benares each subdivision, Mr. Greeven states, has an elaborate
and quasi-military organisation. Thus the Lalbegi sweepers have eight
companies or _berhas_, consisting of the sweepers working in different
localities; these are the Sadar, or those employed by private residents
in cantonments; the Kali Paltan, who serve the Bengal Infantry; the
Lal Kurti, or Red-coats, who are employed by the British Infantry;
the Teshan (station), or those engaged at the three railway stations
of the town; the Shahar, or those of the city; the Ramnagar, taking
their name from the residence of the Maharaja of Benares, whom they
serve; the Kothiwal, or Bungalow men, who belong to residents in
the civil lines; and lastly the Genereli, who are the descendants
of sweepers employed at the military headquarters when Benares was
commanded by a General of Division. This special organisation is
obviously copied from that of the garrison and is not found in other
localities, but deserves mention for its own interest. All the eight
companies are commanded by a Brigadier, the local head of the caste,
whose office is now almost hereditary; his principal duty is to give
two dinners to the whole caste on election, with sweetmeats to the
value of fourteen rupees. Each company has four officers--a Jamadar
or president, a Munsif or spokesman, a Chaudhari or treasurer and
a Naib or summoner. These offices are also practically hereditary,
if the candidate entitled by birth can afford to give a dinner to the
whole subcaste and a turban to each President of a company. All the
other members of the company are designated as Sipahis or soldiers. A
caste dispute is first considered by the inferior officers of each
company, who report their view to the President; he confers with
the other Presidents, and when an agreement has been reached the
sentence is formally confirmed by the Brigadier. When any dispute
arises, the aggrieved party, depositing a process-fee of a rupee and
a quarter, addresses the officers of his company. Unless the question
is so trivial that it can be settled without caste punishments, the
President fixes a time and place, of which notice is given to the
messengers of the other companies; each of these receives a fee of
one and a quarter annas and informs all the Sipahis in his company.
4. Caste punishments
Only worthy members of the caste, Mr. Greeven continues, are allowed
to sit on the tribal matting and smoke the tribal pipe (huqqa). The
proceedings begin with the outspreading (usually symbolic) of
a carpet and the smoking of a water-pipe handed in turn to each
clansman. For this purpose the members sit on the carpet in three
lines, the officers in front and the private soldiers behind. The
parties and their witnesses are heard and examined, and a decision
is pronounced. The punishments imposed consist of fines, compulsory
dinners and expulsion from the caste; expulsion being inflicted for
failure to comply with an order of fine or entertainment. The formal
method of outcasting consists in seating the culprit on the ground
and drawing the tribal mat over his head, from which the turban is
removed; after this the messengers of the eight companies inflict a
few taps with slippers and birch brooms. It is alleged that unfaithful
women were formerly tied naked to trees and flogged with birch brooms,
but that owing to the fatal results that occasionally followed such
punishment, as in the case of the five kicks among Chamars (tanners)
and the scourging with the clothes line which used to prevail among
Dhobis (washer men), the caste has now found it expedient to abandon
these practices. When an outcaste is readmitted on submission,
whether by paying a fine or giving a dinner, he is seated apart
from the tribal mat and does penance by holding his ears with his
hands and confessing his offence. A new huqqa, which he supplies,
is carried round by the messenger, and a few whiffs are taken by
all the officers and Sipahis in turn. The messenger repeats to the
culprit the council's order, and informs him that should he again
offend his punishment will be doubled. With this warning he hands
him the water-pipe, and after smoking this the offender is admitted
to the carpet and all is forgotten in a banquet at his expense.
5. Admission of outsiders
The sweepers will freely admit outsiders into their community, and the
caste forms a refuge for persons expelled from their own societies
for sexual or moral offences. Various methods are employed for the
initiation of a neophyte; in some places he, or more frequently she,
is beaten with a broom made of wood taken from a bier, and has to give
a feast to the caste; in others a slight wound is made in his body and
the blood of another sweeper is allowed to flow on to it so that they
mix; and a glass of sherbet and sugar, known as the cup of nectar,
is prepared by the priest and all the members of the committee put
their fingers into it, after which it is given to the candidate to
drink; or he has to drink water mixed with cowdung into which the
caste-people have dipped their little fingers, and a lock of his
hair is cut off. Or he fasts all day at the shrine of Lalbeg and
in the evening drinks sherbet after burning incense at the shrine;
and gives three feasts, the first on the bank of a tank, the second
in his courtyard and the third in his house, representing his gradual
purification for membership; at this last he puts a little water into
every man's cup and receives from him a piece of bread, and so becomes
a fully qualified caste-man. Owing to this reinforcement from higher
castes, and perhaps also to their flesh diet, the sweepers are not
infrequently taller and stronger as well as lighter in colour than
the average Hindu.
6. Marriage customs
The marriage ceremony in the Central Provinces follows the ordinary
Hindu ritual. The _lagan_ or paper fixing the date of the wedding
is written by a Brahman, who seats himself at some distance from the
sweeper's house and composes the letter. This paper must not be seen
by the bride or bridegroom, nor may its contents be read to them,
as it is believed that to do so would cause them to fall ill during
the ceremony. Before the bridegroom starts for the wedding his mother
waves a wooden pestle five times over his head, passing it between his
legs and shoulders. After this the bridegroom breaks two lamp-saucers
with his right foot, steps over the rice-pounder and departs for the
bride's house without looking behind him. The _sawasas_ or relatives
of the parties usually officiate at the ceremony, but the well-to-do
sometimes engage a Brahman, who sits at a distance from the house
and calls out his instructions. When a man wishes to marry a widow
he must pay six rupees to the caste committee and give a feast to
the community. Divorce is permitted for incompatibility of temper,
or immorality on the part of the wife, or if the husband suffers
from leprosy or impotence. Among the Lalbegis, when a man wishes to
get rid of his wife he assembles the brethren and in their presence
says to her, 'You are as my sister,' and she answers, 'You are as my
father and brother.' [231]
7. Disposal of the dead
The dead are usually buried, but the well-to-do sometimes cremate
them. In Benares the face or hand of the corpse is scorched with fire
to symbolise cremation and it is then buried. In the Punjab the ghosts
of sweepers are considered to be malevolent and are much dreaded;
and their bodies are therefore always buried or burnt face downwards
to prevent the spirit escaping; and riots have taken place and the
magistrates have been appealed to to prevent a Chuhra from being
buried face upwards. [232] In Benares as the body is lowered into the
grave the sheet is withdrawn for a moment from the features of the
departed to afford him one last glimpse of the heavens, while with
Muhammadans the face is turned towards Mecca. Each clansman flings
a handful of dust over the corpse, and after the earth is filled in
crumbles a little bread and sugar-cake and sprinkles water upon the
grave. A provision of bread, sweetmeats and water is also left upon
it for the soul of the departed. [233] In the Central Provinces the
body of a man is covered with a white winding-sheet and that of a
woman with a red one. If the death occurs during the lunar conjunction
known as Panchak, four human images of flour are made and buried with
the dead man, as they think that if this is not done four more deaths
will occur in the family.
8. Devices for procuring children
If a woman greatly desires a child she will go to a shrine and lay a
stone on it which she calls the _dharna_ or deposit or pledge. Then
she thinks that she has put the god under an obligation to give her a
child. She vows that if she becomes pregnant within a certain period,
six or nine months, she will make an offering of a certain value. If
the pregnancy comes she goes to the temple, makes the offering and
removes the stone. If the desired result does not happen, however,
she considers that the god has broken his obligation and ceases to
worship him. If a barren woman desires a child she should steal on a
Sunday or a Wednesday a strip from the body-cloth of a fertile woman
when it is hung out to dry; or she may steal a piece of rope from
the bed in which a woman has been delivered of a child, or a piece of
the baby's soiled swaddling clothes or a piece of cloth stained with
the blood of a fertile woman. This last she will take and bury in a
cemetery and the others wear round her waist; then she will become
fertile and the fertile woman will become barren. Another device is
to obtain from the midwife a piece of the navel-string of a newborn
child and swallow it. For this reason the navel-string is always
carefully guarded and its disposal seen to.
9. Divination of sex
If a pregnant woman is thin and ailing they think a boy will be born;
but if fat and well that it will be a girl. In order to divine the sex
of a coming child they pour a little oil on the stomach of the woman;
if the oil flows straight down it is thought that a boy will be born
and if crooked a girl. Similarly if the hair on the front of her body
grows straight they think the child will be a boy, but if crooked a
girl; and if the swelling of pregnancy is more apparent on the right
side a boy is portended, but if on the left side a girl. If delivery
is retarded they go to a gunmaker and obtain from him a gun which
has been discharged and the soiling of the barrel left uncleaned;
some water is put into the barrel and shaken up and then poured into
a vessel and given to the woman to drink, and it is thought that the
quality of swift movement appertaining to the bullet which soiled
the barrel will be communicated to the woman and cause the swift
expulsion of the child from her womb.
10. Childbirth
When a woman is in labour she squats down with her legs apart holding
to the bed in front of her, while the midwife rubs her back. If
delivery is retarded the midwife gets a broom and sitting behind
the woman presses it on her stomach, at the same time drawing back
the upper part of her body. By this means they think the child will
be forced from the womb. Or the mother of the woman in labour will
take a grinding-stone and stand holding it on her head so long as
the child is not born. She says to her daughter, 'Take my name,'
and the daughter repeats her mother's name aloud. Here the idea is
apparently that the mother takes on herself some of the pain which
has to be endured by the daughter, and the repetition of her name
by the daughter will cause the goddess of childbirth to hasten the
period of delivery in order to terminate the unjust sufferings of
the mother for which the goddess has become responsible. The mother's
name exerts pressure or influence on the goddess who is at the time
occupied with the daughter or perhaps sojourning in her body.
11. Treatment of the mother
If a child is born in the morning they will give the mother a little
sugar and cocoanut to eat in the evening, but if it is born in the
evening they will give her nothing till next morning. Milk is given
only sparingly as it is supposed to produce coughing. The main idea of
treatment in childbirth is to prevent either the mother or child from
taking cold or chill, this being the principal danger to which they
are thought to be exposed. The door of the birth chamber is therefore
kept shut and a fire is continually burning in it night and day. The
woman is not bathed for several days, and the atmosphere and general
insanitary conditions can better be imagined than described. With
the same end of preventing cold they feed the mother on a hot liquid
produced by cooking thirty-six ingredients together. Most of these
are considered to have the quality of producing heat or warmth in the
body, and the following are a few of them: Pepper, ginger, _azgan_
(a condiment), turmeric, nutmeg, _ajwain_ (aniseed), dates, almonds,
raisins, cocoanut, wild _singara_ or water-nut, cumin, _chironji_,
[234] the gum of the _babul_ [235] or _khair_, [236] asafoetida, borax,
saffron, clarified butter and sugar. The mixture cannot be prepared for
less than two rupees and the woman is fed on it for five days beginning
from the second day after birth, if the family can afford the expense.
12. Protecting the lives of children
If the mother's milk runs dry, they use the dried bodies of the little
fish caught in the shallow water of fields and tanks, and sometimes
supposed to have fallen down with the rain. They are boiled in a little
water and the fish and water are given to the woman to consume. Here
the idea is apparently that as the fish has the quality of liquidness
because it lives in water, so by eating it this will be communicated
to the breasts and the milk will flow again. If a woman's children
die, then the next time she is in labour they bring a goat all of
one colour. When the birth of the child takes place and it falls
from the womb on to the ground no one must touch it, but the goat,
which should if possible be of the same sex as the child, is taken
and passed over the child twenty-one times. Then they take the goat
and the after-birth to a cemetery and here cut the goat's throat by
the _halal_ rite and bury it with the after-birth. The idea is thus
that the goat's life is a substitute for that of the child. By being
passed over the child it takes the child's evil destiny upon itself,
and the burial in a cemetery causes the goat to resemble a human being,
while the after-birth communicates to it some part of the life of
the child. If a mother is afraid her child will die, she sells it for
a few cowries to another woman. Of course the sale is only nominal,
but the woman who has purchased the child takes a special interest
in it, and at the naming or other ceremony she will give it a jewel
or such other present as she can afford. Thus she considers that
the fictitious sale has had some effect and that she has acquired a
certain interest in the child.
13. Infantile diseases
If a baby, especially a girl, has much hair on its body, they make
a cake of gram-flour and rub it with sesamum oil all over the body,
and this is supposed to remove the hair.
If a child's skin dries up and it pines away, they think that an owl
has taken away a cloth stained by the child when it was hung out to
dry. The remedy is to obtain the liver of an owl and hang it round
the child's neck.
For jaundice they get the flesh of a yellow snake which appears in
the rains, and of the _rohu_ fish which has yellowish scales, and
hang them to its neck; or they get a verse of the Koran written out
by a Maulvi or Muhammadan priest and use this as an amulet; or they
catch a small frog alive, tie it up in a yellow cloth and hang it to
the child's neck by a blue thread until it dies. For tetanus the jaws
are branded outside and a little musk is placed on the mother's breast
so that the child may drink it with the milk. When the child begins to
cut its teeth they put honey on the gums and think that this will make
the teeth slip out early as the honey is smooth and slippery. But as
the child licks the gums when the honey is on them they fear that this
may cause the teeth to grow broad and crooked like the tongue. Another
device is to pass a piece of gold round the child's gums. If they want
the child to have pretty teeth its maternal uncle threads a number of
grains of rice on a piece of string and hangs them round its neck,
so that the teeth may grow like the rice. If the child's navel is
swollen, the maternal uncle will go out for a walk and on his return
place his turban over the navel. For averting the evil eye the liver
of the Indian badger is worn in an amulet, this badger being supposed
to haunt cemeteries and feed on corpses; some hairs of a bear also
form a very favourite amulet, or a tiger's claws set in silver,
or the tail of a lizard enclosed in lac and made into a ring.
14. Religion. Valmiki
The religion of the sweepers has been described at length by
Mr. Greeven and Mr. Crooke. It centres round the worship of two saints,
Lalbeg or Bale Shah and Balnek or Balmik, who is really the huntsman
Valmiki, the reputed author of the Ramayana. Balmik was originally a
low-caste hunter called Ratnakar, and when he could not get game he was
accustomed to rob and kill travellers. But one day he met Brahma and
wished to kill him; but he could not raise his club against Brahma,
and the god spoke and convinced him of his sins, directing him to
repeat the name of Rama until he should be purified of them. But the
hunter's heart was so evil that he could not pronounce the divine name,
and instead he repeated '_Mara, Mara_' (_struck, struck_), but in the
end by repetition this came to the same thing. Mr. Greeven's account
continues: "As a small spark of fire burneth up a heap of cotton, so
the word Rama cleaneth a man of all his sins. So the words 'Ram, Ram,'
were taught unto Ratnakar who ever repeated them for sixty thousand
years at the self-same spot with a heart sincere. All his skin was
eaten up by the white ants. Only the skeleton remained. Mud had been
heaped over the body and grass had grown up, yet within the mound
of mud the saint was still repeating the name of Rama. After sixty
thousand years Brahma returned. No man could he see, yet he heard the
voice of Ram, Ram, rising from the mound of mud. Then Brahma bethought
him that the saint was beneath. He besought Indra to pour down rain
and to wash away the mud. Indra complied with his request and the
rain washed away the mud. The saint came forth. Nought save bones
remained. Brahma called aloud to the saint. When the saint beheld
him he prostrated himself and spake: 'Thou hast taught me the words
"Ram, Ram," which have cleansed away all my sins.' Then spake Brahma:
'Hitherto thou wast Ratnakar. From to-day thy name shall be Valmiki
(from _valmik_, an ant-hill). Now do thou compose a Ramayana in seven
parts, containing the deeds and exploits of Rama.'" Valmiki had been
or afterwards became a sweeper and was known as 'cooker of dog's food'
(Swapach), a name applied to sweepers [237], who have adopted him as
their eponymous ancestor and patron saint.
15. Lalbeg
Lalbeg, who is still more widely venerated, is considered to have been
Ghazi Miyan, the nephew of Sultan Muhammad of Ghazni, and a saint much
worshipped in the Punjab. Many legends are told of Lalbeg, and his
worship is described by Mr. Greeven as follows: [238] "The ritual
of Lalbeg is conducted in the presence of the whole brotherhood,
as a rule at the festival of the Diwali and on other occasions
when special business arises. The time for worship is after sunset
and if possible at midnight. His shrine consists of a mud platform
surrounded by steps, with four little turrets at the corners and a
spire in the centre, in which is placed a lamp filled with clarified
butter and containing a wick of twisted tow. Incense is thrown into
the flame and offerings of cakes and sweetmeats are made. A lighted
huqqa is placed before the altar and as soon as the smoke rises it
is understood that a whiff has been drawn by the hero." A cock is
offered to Lalbeg at the Dasahra festival. When a man is believed
to have been affected by the evil eye they wave a broom in front of
the sufferer muttering the name of the saint. In the Damoh District
the _guru_ or priest who is the successor of Lalbeg comes from the
Punjab every year or two. He is richly clad and is followed by a
sweeper carrying an umbrella. Other Hindus say that his teaching is
that no one who is not a Lalbegi can go to heaven, but those on whom
the dust raised by a Lalbegi sweeping settles acquire some modicum
of virtue. Similarly Mr. Greeven remarks: [239] "Sweepers by no means
endorse the humble opinion entertained with respect to them; for they
allude to castes such as Kunbis and Chamars as petty (_chhota_),
while a common anecdote is related to the effect that a Lalbegi,
when asked whether Muhammadans could obtain salvation, replied:
'I never heard of it, but perhaps they might slip in behind Lalbeg.'"
16. Adoption of foreign religions
On the whole the religion of the Lalbegis appears to be monotheistic
and of a sufficiently elevated character, resembling that of the
Kabirpanthis and other reforming sects. Its claim to the exclusive
possession of the way of salvation is a method of revolt against the
menial and debased position of the caste. Similarly many sweepers have
become Muhammadans and Sikhs with the same end in view, as stated
by Mr. Greeven: [240] "As may be readily imagined, the scavengers
are merely in name the disciples of Nanak Shah, professing in fact
to be his followers just as they are prepared at a moment's notice
to become Christians or Muhammadans. Their object is, of course,
merely to acquire a status which may elevate them above the utter
degradation of their caste. The acquaintance of most of them with the
doctrines of Nanak Shah is at zero. They know little and care less
about his rules of life, habitually disregarding, for instance, the
prohibitions against smoking and hair-cutting. In fact, a scavenger
at Benares no more becomes a Sikh by taking Nanak Shah's motto than he
becomes a Christian by wearing a round hat and a pair of trousers." It
was probably with a similar leaning towards the more liberal religion
that the Lalbegis, though themselves Hindus, adopted a Muhammadan for
their tutelary saint. In the Punjab Muhammadan sweepers who have given
up eating carrion and refuse to remove night-soil rank higher than the
others, and are known as Musalli. [241] And in Saugor the Muhammadans
allow the sweepers to come into a mosque and to stand at the back,
whereas, of course, they cannot approach a Hindu temple. Again in
Bengal it is stated, "The Dom is regarded with both disgust and fear
by all classes of Hindus, not only on account of his habits being
abhorrent and abominable, but also because he is believed to have no
humane or kindly feelings"; and further, "It is universally believed
that Doms do not bury or burn their dead, but dismember the corpse
at night like the inhabitants of Thibet, placing the fragments in a
pot and sinking them in the nearest river or reservoir. This horrid
idea probably originated from the old Hindu law, which compelled
the Doms to bury their dead at night." [242] It is not astonishing
that the sweepers prefer a religion whose followers will treat them
somewhat more kindly. Another Muhammadan saint revered by the sweepers
of Saugor is one Zahir Pir. At the fasts in Chait and Kunwar (March
and September) they tie cocoanuts wrapped in cloth to the top of a
long bamboo, and marching to the tomb of Zahir Pir make offerings of
cakes and sweetmeats. Before starting for his day's work the sweeper
does obeisance to his basket and broom.
17. Social status
The sweeper stands at the very bottom of the social ladder of
Hinduism. He is considered to be the representative of the Chandala
of Manu, [243] who was said to be descended of a Sudra father and a
Brahman woman. "It was ordained that the Chandala should live without
the town; his sole wealth should be dogs and asses; his clothes should
consist of the cerecloths of the dead; his dishes should be broken pots
and his ornaments rusty iron. No one who regarded his duties should
hold intercourse with the Chandalas and they should marry only among
themselves. By day they might roam about for the purposes of work,
but should be distinguished by the badges of the Raja, and should
carry out the corpse of any one who died without kindred. They should
always be employed to slay those who by the law were sentenced to be
put to death, and they might take the clothes of the slain, their
beds and their ornaments." Elsewhere the Chandala is said to rank
in impurity with the town boar, the dog, a woman during her monthly
illness and a eunuch, none of whom must a Brahman allow to see him
when eating. [244] Like the Chandala, the sweeper cannot be touched,
and he himself acquiesces in this and walks apart. In large towns
he sometimes carries a kite's wing in his turban to show his caste,
or goes aloof saying _pois_, which is equivalent to a warning. When
the sweeper is in company he will efface himself as far as possible
behind other people. He is known by his basket and broom, and men
of other castes will not carry these articles lest they should
be mistaken for a sweeper. The sweeper's broom is made of bamboo,
whereas the ordinary house-broom is made of date-palm leaves. The
house-broom is considered sacred as the implement of Lakshmi used
in cleaning the house. No one should tread upon or touch it with
his foot. The sweeper's broom is a powerful agent for curing the
evil eye, and mothers get him to come and wave it up and down in
front of a sick child for this purpose. Nevertheless it is lucky
to see a sweeper in the morning, especially if he has his basket
with him. In Gujarat Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam writes of him: "Though
he is held to be lower and more unclean, the Bhangia is viewed with
kindlier feelings than the Dhed (Mahar). To meet the basket-bearing
Bhangia is lucky, and the Bhangia's blessing is valued. Even now if
a Government officer goes into a Bhangia hamlet the men with hands
raised in blessing say: 'May your rule last for ever.'" A sweeper
will eat the leavings of other people, but he will not eat in their
houses; he will take the food away to his own house. It is related
that on one occasion a sweeper accompanied a marriage party of Lodhis
(cultivators), and the Lodhi who was the host was anxious that all
should share his hospitality and asked the sweeper to eat in his house;
[245] but he repeatedly refused, until finally the Lodhi gave him a
she-buffalo to induce him to eat, so that it might not be said that
any one had declined to share in his feast. No other caste, of course,
will accept food or water from a sweeper, and only a Chamar (tanner)
will take a _chilam_ or clay pipe-bowl from his hand. The sweeper will
eat carrion and the flesh of almost all animals, including snakes,
lizards, crocodiles and tigers, and also the leavings of food of almost
any caste. Mr. Greeven remarks: [246] "Only Lalbegis and Rawats eat
food left by Europeans, but all eat food left either by Hindus or
Muhammadans; the Sheikh Mehtars as Muhammadans alone are circumcised
and reject pig's flesh. Each subcaste eats uncooked food with all the
others, but cooked food alone." From Betul it is reported that the
Mehtars there will not accept food, water or tobacco from a Kayasth,
and will not allow one to enter their houses.
18. Occupation
Sweeping and scavenging in the streets and in private houses are the
traditional occupations of the caste, but they have others. In Bombay
they serve as night watchmen, town-criers, drummers, trumpeters and
hangmen. Formerly the office of hangman was confined to sweepers,
but now many low-caste prisoners are willing to undertake it for the
sake of the privilege of smoking tobacco in jail which it confers. In
Mirzapur when a Dom hangman is tying a rope round the neck of a
criminal he shouts out, '_Dohai Maharani, Dohai Sarkar, Dohai Judge
Sahib_,' or 'Hail Great Queen! Hail Government! Hail Judge Sahib!' in
order to shelter himself under their authority and escape any guilt
attaching to the death. [247] In the Central Provinces the hangman was
accompanied by four or five other sweepers of the caste _panchayat_
the idea being perhaps that his act should be condoned by their
presence and approval and he should escape guilt. In order to free the
executioner from blame the prisoner would also say: "_Dohai Sarkar ke,
Dohai Kampani ke; jaisa maine khun kiya waisa apne khun ko pahunchha_"
or "Hail to the Government and the Company; since I caused the death of
another, now I am come to my own death"; and all the _Panches_ said,
'_Ram, Ram_.' The hangman received ten rupees as his fee, and of this
five rupees were given to the caste for a feast and an offering to
Lalbeg to expiate his sin. In Bundelkhand sweepers are employed as
grooms by the Lodhis, and may put everything on to the horse except a
saddle-cloth. They are also the village musicians, and some of them
play on the rustic flute called _shahnai_ at weddings, and receive
their food all the time that the ceremony lasts. Sweepers are, as
a rule, to be found only in large villages, as in small ones there
is no work for them. The caste is none too numerous in the Central
Provinces, and in villages the sweeper is often not available when
wanted for cleaning the streets. The Chamars of Bundelkhand will not
remove the corpses of a cat or a dog or a squirrel, and a sweeper must
be obtained for the purpose. These three animals are in a manner holy,
and it is considered a sin to kill any one of them. But their corpses
are unclean. A Chamar also refuses to touch the corpse of a donkey,
but a Kumhar (potter) will sometimes do this; if he declines a sweeper
must be fetched. When a sweeper has to enter a house in order to
take out the body of an animal, it is cleaned and whitewashed after
he has been in. In Hoshangabad an objection appears to be felt to
the entry of a sweeper by the door, as it is stated that a ladder
is placed for him, so that he presumably climbs through a window. Or
where there are no windows it is possible that the ladder may protect
the sacred threshold from contact with his feet. The sweeper also
attends at funerals and assists to prepare the pyre; he receives the
winding-sheet when this is not burnt or buried with the corpse, and
the copper coins which are left on the ground as purchase-money for
the site of the grave. In Bombay in rich families the winding-sheet
is often a worked shawl costing from fifty to a hundred rupees. [248]
When a Hindu widow breaks her bangles after her husband's death, she
gives them, including one or two whole ones, to a Bhangia woman. [249]
A letter announcing a death is always carried by a sweeper. [250]
In Bengal a funeral could not be held without the presence of a Dom,
whose functions are described by Mr. Sherring [251] as follows:
"On the arrival of the dead body at the place of cremation, which
in Benares is at the basis of one of the steep stairs or _ghats_,
called the Burning-Ghat, leading down from the streets above to the
bed of the river Ganges, the Dom supplies five logs of wood, which he
lays in order upon the ground, the rest of the wood being given by the
family of the deceased. When the pile is ready for burning a handful of
lighted straw is brought by the Dom, and is taken from him and applied
by one of the chief members of the family to the wood. The Dom is the
only person who can furnish the light for the purpose; and if for any
reason no Dom is available, great delay and inconvenience are apt to
arise. The Dom exacts his fee for three things, namely, first for the
five logs, secondly for the bunch of straw, and thirdly for the light."
19. Occupation (continued)
During an eclipse the sweepers reap a good harvest; for it is believed
that Rahu, the demon who devours the sun and moon and thus causes
an eclipse, was either a sweeper or the deity of the sweepers,
and alms given to them at this time will appease him and cause
him to let the luminaries go. Or, according to another account,
the sun and moon are in Rahu's debt, and he comes and duns them,
and this is the eclipse; and the alms given to sweepers are a means
of paying the debt. In Gujarat as soon as the darkening sets in the
Bhangis go about shouting, '_Garhandan, Vastradan, Rupadan_,' or
'Gifts for the eclipse, gifts of clothes, gifts of silver.' [252]
The sweepers are no doubt derived from the primitive or Dravidian
tribes, and, as has been seen, they also practise the art of making
bamboo mats and baskets, being known as Bansphor in Bombay on
this account. In the Punjab the Chuhras are a very numerous caste,
being exceeded only by the Jats, Rajputs and Brahmans. Only a small
proportion of them naturally find employment as scavengers, and the
remainder are agricultural labourers, and together with the vagrants
and gipsies are the hereditary workers in grass and reeds. [253]
They are closely connected with the Dhanuks, a caste of hunters,
fowlers and village watchmen, being of nearly the same status. [254]
And Dhanuk, again, is in some localities a complimentary term for a
Basor or bamboo-worker. It has been seen that Valmiki, the patron saint
of the sweepers, was a low-caste hunter, and this gives some reason
for the supposition that the primary occupations of the Chuhras and
Bhangis were hunting and working in grass and bamboo. In one of the
legends of the sweeper saint Balmik or Valmiki given by Mr. Greeven,
[255] Balmik was the youngest of the five Pandava brothers, and was
persuaded by the others to remove the body of a calf which had died in
their courtyard. But after he had done so they refused to touch him,
so he went into the wilderness with the body; and when he did not know
how to feed himself the carcase started into life and gave him milk
until he was full grown, when it died again of its own accord. Balmik
burst into tears, not knowing how he was to live henceforward, but a
voice cried from heaven saying, "Of the sinews (of the calf's body)
do thou tie winnows (_sup_), and of the caul do thou plait sieves
(_chalni_)." Balmik obeyed, and by his handiwork gained the name of
Supaj or the maker of winnowing-fans. These are natural occupations
of the non-Aryan forest tribes, and are now practised by the Gonds.
Meo
_Meo, Mewati._--The Muhammadan branch of the Mina tribe belonging to
the country of Mewat in Rajputana which is comprised in the Alwar,
Bharatpur and Jaipur States and the British District of Gurgaon. A
few Meos were returned from the Hoshangabad and Nimar Districts in
1911, but it is doubtful whether any are settled here, as they may
be wandering criminals. The origin of the Meo is discussed in the
article on the Mina tribe, but some interesting remarks on them by
Mr. Channing and Major Powlett in the _Rajputana Gazetteer_ may be
reproduced here. Mr. Channing writes: [256]
"The tribe, which has been known in Hindustan according to the
Kutub Tawarikh for 850 years, was originally Hindu and became
Muhammadan. Their origin is obscure. They themselves claim descent
from the Rajput races of Jadon, Kachhwaha and Tuar, and they may
possibly have some Rajput blood in their veins; but they are probably,
like many other similar tribes, a combination from ruling and other
various stocks and sources, and there is reason to believe them very
nearly allied with the Minas, who are certainly a tribe of the same
structure and species. The Meos have twelve clans or _pals_, the first
six of which are identical in name and claim the same descent as the
first six clans of the Minas. Intermarriage between them both was the
rule until the time of Akbar, when owing to an affray at the marriage
of a Meo with a Mina the custom was discontinued. Finally, their
mode of life is or was similar, as both tribes were once notoriously
predatory. It is probable that the original Meos were supplemented by
converts to Islam from other castes. It is said that the tribe were
conquered and converted in the eleventh century by Masud, son of Amir
Salar and grandson of Sultan Mahmud Subaktagin on the mother's side,
the general of the forces of Mahmud of Ghazni. Masud is still venerated
by the Meos, and they swear by his name. They have a mixture of Hindu
and Muhammadan customs. They practise circumcision, _nikah_ [257] and
the burial of the dead. They make pilgrimages to the tomb of Masud in
Bahraich in Oudh, and consider the oath taken on his banner the most
binding. They also make pilgrimages to Muhammadan shrines in India,
but never perform the _Haj_. Of Hindu customs they observe the Holi
or Diwali; their marriages are never arranged in the same _got_ or
sept; and they permit daughters to inherit. They call their children
indiscriminately by both Muhammadan and Hindu names. They are almost
entirely uneducated, but have bards and musicians to whom they make
large presents. These sing songs known as Ratwai, which are commonly
on pastoral and agricultural subjects. The Meos are given to the use
of intoxicating drinks, and are very superstitious and have great
faith in omens. The dress of the men and women resembles that of the
Hindus. Infanticide was formerly common among them, but it is said to
have entirely died out. They were also formerly robbers by avocation;
and though they have improved they are still noted cattle-lifters."
In another description of them by Major Powlett it is stated that,
besides worshipping Hindu gods and keeping Hindu festivals, they
employ a Brahman to write the Pili Chhitthi or yellow note fixing
the date of a marriage. They call themselves by Hindu names with the
exception of Ram; and Singh is a frequent affix, though not so common
as Khan. On the Amawas or monthly conjunction of the sun and moon,
Meos, in common with Hindu Ahirs and Gujars, cease from labour; and
when they make a well the first proceeding is to erect a _chabutra_
(platform) to Bhaironji or Hanuman. However, when plunder was to be
obtained they have often shown little respect for Hindu shrines and
temples; and when the sanctity of a threatened place has been urged,
the retort has been, '_Tum to Deo, Ham Meo_' or 'You may be a Deo
(God), but I am a Meo.'
Meos do not marry in their _pal_ or clan, but they are lax about
forming connections with women of other castes, whose children they
receive into the community. As already stated, Brahmans take part
in the formalities preceding a marriage, but the ceremony itself is
performed by a Kazi. As agriculturists Meos are inferior to their Hindu
neighbours. The point in which they chiefly fail is in working their
wells, for which they lack patience. Their women, whom they do not
confine, will, it is said, do more field-work than the men; indeed,
one often finds women at work in the crops when the men are lying
down. Like the women of low Hindu castes they tattoo their bodies,
a practice disapproved by Musalmans in general. Abul Fazl writes that
the Meos were in his time famous runners, and one thousand of them
were employed by Akbar as carriers of the post.
Mina
1. The Minas locally termed Deswa
_Mina, Deswali, Maina._--A well-known caste of Rajputana which is
found in the Central Provinces in the Hoshangabad, Nimar and Saugor
Districts. About 8000 persons of the caste were returned in 1911. The
proper name for them is Mina, but here they are generally known as
Deswali, a term which they probably prefer, as that of Mina is too
notorious. A large part of the population of the northern Districts is
recruited from Bundelkhand and Marwar, and these tracts are therefore
often known among them as 'Desh' or native country. The term Deswali
is applied to groups of many castes coming from Bundelkhand, and
has apparently been specially appropriated as an _alias_ by the
Minas. The caste are sometimes known in Hoshangabad as Maina, which
Colonel Tod states to be the name of the highest division of the
Minas. The designation of Pardeshi or 'foreigner' is also given to
them in some localities. The Deswalis came to Harda about A.D. 1750,
being invited by the Maratha Amil or governor, who gave one family a
grant of three villages. They thus gained a position of some dignity,
and this reaching the ears of their brothers in Jaipur they also
came and settled all over the District. [258] In view of the history
and character of the Minas, of which some account will be given,
it should be first stated that under the _régime_ of British law
and order most of the Deswalis of Hoshangabad have settled down into
steady and honest agriculturists.
2. Historical notice of the Mina tribe
The Minas were a famous robber tribe of the country of Mewat in
Rajputana, comprised in the Alwar and Bharatpur States and the
British District of Gurgaon. [259] They are also found in large
numbers in Jaipur State, which was formerly held by them. The Meos
and Minas are now considered to be branches of one tribe, the former
being at least nominally Muhammadans by religion and the latter
Hindus. A favourite story for recitation at their feasts is that of
Darya Khan Meo and Sasibadani Mini, a pair of lovers whose marriage
led to a quarrel between the tribes to which they belonged, in the
time of Akbar. This dispute caused the cessation of the practice of
intermarriage between Meos and Minas which had formerly obtained. Both
the Meos and Minas are divided into twelve large clans called _pal_,
the word _pal_ meaning, according to Colonel Tod, 'a defile in a
valley suitable for cultivation or defence.' In a sandy desert like
Rajputana the valleys of streams might be expected to be the only
favourable tracts for settlement, and the name perhaps therefore
is a record of the process by which the colonies of Minas in these
isolated patches of culturable land developed into exogamous clans
marrying with each other. The Meos have similarly twelve _pals_, and
the names of six of these are identical with those of the Minas. [260]
The names of the _pals_ are taken from those of Rajput clans, [261]
but the recorded lists differ, and there are now many other _gots_
or septs outside the _pals_. The Minas seem originally to have been an
aboriginal or pre-Aryan tribe of Rajputana, where they are still found
in considerable numbers. The Raja of Jaipur was formerly marked on the
forehead with blood taken from the great toe of a Mina on the occasion
of his installation. Colonel Tod records that the Amber or Jaipur State
was founded by one Dholesai in A.D. 967 after he had slaughtered large
numbers of the Minas by treachery. And in his time the Minas still
possessed large immunities and privileges in the Jaipur State. When
the Rajputs settled in force in Rajputana, reducing the Minas to
subjection, illicit connections would naturally arise on a large scale
between the invaders and the women of the conquered country. For even
when the Rajputs only came as small isolated parties of adventurers,
as into the Central Provinces, we find traces of such connections in
the survival of castes or subcastes of mixed descent from them and
the indigenous tribes. It follows therefore that where they occupied
the country and settled on the soil the process would be still more
common. Accordingly it is generally recognised that the Minas are a
caste of the most mixed and impure descent, and it has sometimes been
supposed that they were themselves a branch of the Rajputs. In the
Punjab when one woman accuses another of illicit intercourse she is
said '_Mina dena_,' or to designate her as a Mina. [262] Further it
is stated [263] that "The Minas are of two classes, the Zamindari or
agricultural and the Chaukidari or watchmen. These Chaukidari Minas
are the famous marauders." The office of village watchman was commonly
held by members of the aboriginal tribes, and these too furnished the
criminal classes. Another piece of evidence of the Dravidian origin
of the tribe is the fact that there exists even now a group of Dhedia
or impure Minas who do not refuse to eat cow's flesh. The Chaukidari
Minas, dispossessed of their land, resorted to the hills, and here they
developed into a community of thieves and bandits recruited from all
the outcastes of society. Sir A. Lyall wrote [264] of the caste as
"a Cave of Adullam which has stood open for centuries. With them a
captured woman is solemnly admitted by a form of adoption into one
circle of affinity, in order that she may be lawfully married into
another." With the conquest of northern India by the Muhammadans, many
of the Minas, being bound by no ties to Hinduism, might be expected
to embrace the new and actively proselytising religion, while their
robber bands would receive fugitive Muhammadans as recruits as well
as Hindus. Thus probably arose a Musalman branch of the community,
who afterwards became separately designated as the Meos. As already
seen, the Meos and Minas intermarried for a time, but subsequently
ceased to do so. As might be expected, the form of Islam professed
by the Meos is of a very bastard order, and Major Powlett's account
of it is reproduced in a short separate notice of that tribe.
3. Their robberies
The crimes and daring of the Minas have obtained for them a
considerable place in history. A Muhammadan historian, Zia-ud-din
Bami, wrote of the tribe: [265] "At night they were accustomed to
come prowling into the city of Delhi, giving all kinds of trouble and
depriving people of their rest, and they plundered the country houses
in the neighbourhood of the city. Their daring was carried to such an
extent that the western gates of the city were shut at afternoon prayer
and no one dared to leave it after that hour, whether he travelled
as a pilgrim or with the display of a king. At afternoon prayer they
would often come to the Sarhouy, and assaulting the water-carriers
and girls who were fetching water they would strip them and carry
off their clothes. In turn they were treated by the Muhammadan rulers
with the most merciless cruelty. Some were thrown under the feet of
elephants, others were cut in halves with knives, and others again were
flayed alive from head to foot." Regular campaigns against them were
undertaken by the Muhammadans, [266] as in later times British forces
had to be despatched to subdue the Pindaris. Babar on his arrival at
Agra described the Mewati leader Raja Hasan Khan as 'the chief agitator
in all these confusions and insurrections'; and Firishta mentions two
terrible slaughters of Mewatis in A.D. 1259 and 1265. In 1857 Major
Powlett records that in Alwar they assembled and burnt the State ricks
and carried off cattle, though they did not succeed in plundering any
towns or villages there. In British territory they sacked Firozpur
and other villages, and when a British force came to restore order
many were hanged. Sir D. Ibbetson wrote of them in the Punjab: [267]
"The Minas are the boldest of our criminal classes. Their headquarters
so far as the Punjab is concerned are in the village of Shahjahanpur,
attached to the Gurgaon District but surrounded on all sides by
Rajputana territory. There they until lately defied our police and even
resisted them with armed force. Their enterprises are on a large scale,
and they are always prepared to use violence if necessary. In Marwar
they are armed with small bows which do considerable execution. They
travel great distances in gangs of from twelve to twenty men,
practising robbery and dacoity even as far as the Deccan. The gangs
usually start off immediately after the Diwali feast and often remain
absent the whole year. They have agents in all the large cities of
Rajputana and the Deccan who give them information, and they are in
league with the carrying castes of Marwar. After a successful foray
they offer one-tenth of the proceeds at the shrine of Kali Devi."
Like other criminals they were very superstitious, and Colonel Tod
records that the partridge and the _maloli_ or wagtail were their chief
birds of omen. A partridge clamouring on the left when he commenced
a foray was a certain presage of success to a Mina. Similarly,
Mr. Kennedy notes that the finding of a dried goatskin, either whole
or in pieces, among the effects of a suspected criminal is said to
be an infallible indication of his identity as a Mina, the flesh of
the goat's tongue being indispensable in connection with the taking
of omens. In Jaipur the Minas were employed as guards, as a method of
protection against their fellows, for whose misdeeds they were held
responsible. Rent-free lands were given to them, and they were always
employed to escort treasure. Here they became the most faithful and
trusted of the Raja's servants. It is related that on one occasion
a Mina sentinel at the palace had received charge of a basket of
oranges. A friend of the same tribe came to him and asked to be shown
the palace, which he had never seen. The sentinel agreed and took him
over the palace, but when his back was turned the friend stole one
orange from the basket. Subsequently the sentinel counted the oranges
and found one short; on this he ran after his friend and taxed him with
the theft, which being admitted, the Mina said that he had been made
to betray his trust and had become dishonoured, and drawing his sword
cut off his friend's head. The ancient treasure of Jaipur or Amber was,
according to tradition, kept in a secret cave in the hills under a body
of Mina guards who alone knew the hiding-place, and would only permit
any part of it to be withdrawn for a great emergency. Nor would they
accept the orders of the Raja alone, but required the consent of the
heads of the twelve principal noble families of Amber, branches of the
royal house, before they would give up any part of the treasure. The
criminal Minas are said to inhabit a tract of country about sixty-five
miles long and forty broad, stretching from Shahpur forty miles north
of Jaipur to Guraora in Gurgaon on the Rohtak border. The popular idea
of the Mina, Mr. Crooke remarks, [268] is quite in accordance with
his historical character; his niggardliness is shown in the saying,
'The Meo will not give his daughter in marriage till he gets a mortar
full of silver'; his pugnacity is expressed in, 'The Meo's son begins
to avenge his feuds when he is twelve years old'; and his toughness in,
'Never be sure that a Meo is dead till you see the third-day funeral
ceremony performed.'
4. The Deswalis of the Central Provinces
As already stated, the Deswalis of the Central Provinces have
abandoned the wild life of their ancestors and settled down as
respectable cultivators. Only a few particulars about them need be
recorded. Girls are usually married before they are twelve years old
and boys at sixteen to twenty. A sum of Rs. 24 is commonly paid for
the bride, and a higher amount up to Rs. 71 may be given, but this
is the maximum, and if the father of the girl takes more he will be
fined by the caste and made to refund the balance. A triangle with
some wooden models of birds is placed on the marriage-shed and the
bridegroom strikes at these with a stick; formerly he fired a gun
at them to indicate that he was a hunter by profession. A Brahman
is employed to celebrate the marriage. A widow is usually taken by
her late husband's younger brother, but if there be none the elder
brother may marry her, contrary to the general rule among Hindus. The
object is to keep the woman in the family, as wives are costly. If
she is unwilling to marry her brother-in-law, however, no compulsion
is exercised and she may wed another man. Divorce is allowed, and
in Rajputana is very simply effected. If tempers do not assimilate
or other causes prompt them to part, the husband tears a shred from
his turban which he gives to his wife, and with this simple bill of
divorce, placing two jars of water on her head, she takes whatever
path she pleases, and the first man who chooses to ease her of her
load becomes her future lord. '_Jehur nikala_,' 'Took the jar and went
forth,' is a common saying among the mountaineers of Merwara. [269]
The dead are cremated, the corpse of a man being wrapped in a white
and that of a woman in a coloured cloth. They have no _shraddh_
ceremony, but mourn for the dead only on the last day of Kartik
(October), when they offer water and burn incense. Deswalis employ
the Parsai or village Brahman to officiate at their ceremonies, but
owing to their mixed origin they rank below the cultivating castes,
and Brahmans will not take water from them. In Jaipur, however,
Major Powlett says, their position is higher. They are, as already
seen, the trusted guards of the palace and treasury, and Rajputs will
accept food and water from their hands. This concession is no doubt
due to the familiarity induced by living together for a long period,
and parallel instances of it can be given, as that of the Panwars
and Gonds in the Central Provinces. The Deswalis eat flesh and drink
liquor, but abstain from fowls and pork. When they are invited to a
feast they do not take their own brass vessels with them, but drink
out of earthen pots supplied by the host, having the liquor poured
on to their hands held to the mouth to avoid actual contact with the
vessel. This is a Marwari custom and the Jats also have it. Before the
commencement of the feast the guests wait until food has been given to
as many beggars as like to attend. In Saugor the food served consists
only of rice and pulse without vegetables or other dishes. It is said
that a Mina will not eat salt in the house of another man, because
he considers that to do so would establish the bond of _Nimak-khai_
or salt-eating between them, and he would be debarred for ever from
robbing that man or breaking into his house. The guests need not
sit down together as among other Hindus, but may take their food in
batches; so that the necessity of awaiting the arrival of every guest
before commencing the feast is avoided. The Deswalis will not kill
a black-buck nor eat the flesh of one, but they assign no reason
for this and do not now worship the animal. The rule is probably,
however, a totemistic survival. The men may be known by their manly
gait and harsh tone of voice, as well as by a peculiar method of tying
the turban; the women have a special ornament called _rakhdi_ on the
forehead and do not wear spangles or toe-rings. They are said also
to despise ornaments of the baser metals as brass and pewter. They
are tattooed with dots on the face to set off the fair-coloured skin
by contrast, in the same manner as patches were carried on the face
in Europe in the eighteenth century. A tattoo dot on a fair face is
likened by a Hindu poet to a bee sitting on a half-opened mango.
Mirasi
_Mirasi._--A Muhammadan caste of singers, minstrels and genealogists,
of which a few members are found in the Central Provinces. General
Cunningham says that they are the bards and singers of the Meos or
Mewatis at all their marriages and festivals. [270] Mr. Crooke is
of opinion that they are undoubtedly an offshoot of the great Dom
caste who are little better than sweepers. [271] The word Mirasi is
derived from the Arabic _miras_, inheritance, and its signification is
supposed to be that the Mirasis are the hereditary bards and singers
of the lower castes, as the Bhat is of the Rajputs. _Miras_ as a
word may, however, be used of any hereditary right, as that of the
village headman or Karnam, or even those of the village watchman or
temple dancing-girl, all of whom may have a _mirasi_ right to fees or
perquisites or plots of land held as remuneration for service. [272]
The Mirasis are also known as Pakhawaji, from the _pakhawaj_ or
timbrel which they play; as Kawwal or one who speaks fluently, that
is a professional, story-teller; and as Kalawant or one possessed
of art or skill. The Mirasis are most numerous in the Punjab, where
they number a quarter of a million. Sir D. Ibbetson says of them:
[273] "The social position of the Mirasi as of all minstrel castes is
exceedingly low, but he attends at weddings and similar occasions to
recite genealogies. Moreover there are grades even among Mirasis. The
outcaste tribes have their Mirasis, who though they do not eat with
their clients and merely render their professional services are
considered impure by the Mirasis of the higher castes. The Mirasi
is generally a hereditary servant like the Bhat, and is notorious
for his exactions, which he makes under the threat of lampooning
the ancestors of him from whom he demands fees. The Mirasi is almost
always a Muhammadan." They are said to have been converted to Islam
in response to the request of the poet Amir Khusru, who lived in the
reign of Ala-ud-din Khilji (A.D. 1295). The Mirasi has two functions,
the men being musicians, storytellers and genealogists, while the women
dance and sing, but only before the ladies of the zenana. Mr. Nesfield
[274] says that they are sometimes regularly entertained as jesters
to help these ladies to kill time and reconcile them to their domestic
prisons. As they do not dance before men they are reputed to be chaste,
as no woman who is not a prostitute will dance in the presence of men,
though singing and playing are not equally condemned. The implements
of the Mirasis are generally the small drum (_dholak_), the cymbals
(_majira_) and the gourd lute (_kingri_). [275]
Mochi [276]
List of Paragraphs
1. _General notice_.
2. _Legends of origin_.
3. _Art among the Hindus_.
4. _Antagonism of Mochis and Chamars_.
5. _Exogamous groups_.
6. _Social customs_.
7. _Shoes_.
1. General notice
_Mochi, Muchi, Jingar, Jirayat, Jildgar, Chitrakar, Chitevari,
Musabir._--The occupational caste of saddlers and cobblers. In 1911
about 4000 Mochis and 2000 Jingars were returned from the Central
Provinces and Berar, the former residing principally in the Hindustani
and the latter in the Marathi-speaking Districts. The name is derived
from the Sanskrit _mochika_ and the Hindustani _mojna_, to fold, and
the common name _mojah_ for socks and stockings is from the same root
(Platts). By origin the Mochis are no doubt an offshoot of the Chamar
caste, but they now generally disclaim the connection. Mr. Nesfield
observes [277] that, "The industry of tanning is preparatory to and
lower than that of cobblery, and hence the caste of Chamar ranks
decidedly below that of Mochi. The ordinary Hindu does not consider
the touch of a Mochi so impure as that of the Chamar, and there is a
Hindu proverb to the effect that 'Dried or prepared hide is the same
thing as cloth,' whereas the touch of the raw hide before it has been
tanned by the Chamar is considered a pollution. The Mochi does not
eat carrion like the Chamar, nor does he eat swine's flesh; nor does
his wife ever practise the much-loathed art of midwifery." In the
Central Provinces, as in northern India, the caste may be considered
to have two branches, the lower one consisting of the Mochis who
make and cobble shoes and are admittedly descended from Chamars;
while the better-class men either make saddles and harness, when they
are known as Jingar; or bind books, when they are called Jildgar; or
paint and make clay idols, when they are given the designation either
of Chitrakar, Chitevari or Murtikar. In Berar some Jingars have taken
up the finer kinds of iron-work, such as mending guns, and are known
as Jirayat. All these are at great pains to dissociate themselves
from the Chamar caste. They call themselves Thakur or Rajput and have
exogamous sections the names of which are identical with those of the
Rajput septs. The same people have assumed the name of Rishi in Bengal,
and, according to a story related by Sir H. Risley, claim to be debased
Brahmans; while in the United Provinces Mr. Crooke considers them to
be connected with the Srivastab Kayasths, with whom they intermarry
and agree in manners and customs. The fact that in the three Provinces
these workers in leather claim descent from three separate high castes
is an interesting instance of the trouble which the lower-class Hindus
will take to obtain a slight increase in social consideration; but
the very diversity of the accounts given induces the belief that all
Mochis were originally sprung from the Chamars. In Bombay, again,
Mr. Enthoven [278] writes that the caste prefers to style itself
Arya Somavansi Kshatriya or Aryan Kshatriyas of the Moon division;
while they have all the regular Brahmanical _gotras_ as Bharadwaja,
Vasishtha, Gautam and so on.
2. Legends of origin
The following interesting legends as to the origin of the caste adduced
by them in support of their Brahmanical descent are related [279] by
Sir H. Risley: "One of the Praja-pati, or mind-born sons of Brahma,
was in the habit of providing the flesh of cows and clarified butter as
a burnt-offering (_Ahuti_) to the gods. It was then the custom to eat
a portion of the sacrifice, restore the victim to life, and drive it
into the forest. On one occasion the Praja-pati failed to resuscitate
the sacrificial animal, owing to his wife, who was pregnant at the
time, having clandestinely made away with a portion. Alarmed at this
he summoned all the other Praja-patis, and they sought by divination
to discover the cause of the failure. At last they ascertained what
had occurred, and as a punishment the wife was cursed and expelled
from their society. The child which she bore was the first Mochi or
tanner, and from that time forth, mankind being deprived of the power
of reanimating cattle slaughtered for food, the pious abandoned the
practice of killing kine altogether. Another story is that Muchiram,
the ancestor of the caste, was born from the sweat of Brahma while
dancing. He chanced to offend the irritable sage Durvasa, who sent a
pretty Brahman widow to allure him into a breach of chastity. Muchiram
accosted the widow as mother, and refused to have anything to do
with her; but Durvasa used the miraculous power he had acquired by
penance to render the widow pregnant so that the innocent Muchiram
was made an outcaste on suspicion. From her two sons are descended
the two main branches of the caste in Bengal."
3. Art among the Hindus
In the Central Provinces the term Mochi is often used for the whole
caste in the northern Districts, and Jingar in the Maratha country;
while the Chitrakars or painters form a separate group. Though the
trades of cobbler and book-binder are now widely separated in civilised
countries, the connection between them is apparent since both work
in leather. It is not at first sight clear why the painter should
be of the same caste, but the reason is perhaps that his brushes are
made of the hair of animals, and this is also regarded as impure, as
being a part of the hide. If such be the case a senseless caste rule
of ceremonial impurity has prevented the art of painting from being
cultivated by the Hindus; and the comparatively poor development of
their music may perhaps be ascribed to the same cause, since the use
of the sinews of animals for stringed instruments would also prevent
the educated classes from learning to play them. Thus no stringed
instruments are permitted to be used in temples, but only the gong,
cymbal, horn and conch-shell. And this rule would greatly discourage
the cultivation of music, which art, like all the others, has usually
served in its early period as an appanage to religious services. It
has been held that instruments were originally employed at temples and
shrines in order to scare away evil spirits by their noise while the
god was being fed or worshipped, and not for the purpose of calling
the worshippers together; since noise is a recognised means of driving
away spirits, probably in consequence of its effect in frightening wild
animals. It is for the same end that music is essential at weddings,
especially during the night when the spirits are more potent; and
this is the primary object of the continuous discordant din which
the Hindus consider a necessary accompaniment to a wedding.
Except for this ceremonial strictness Hinduism should have been
favourable to the development of both painting and sculpture, as being
a polytheistic religion. In the early stages of society religion and
art are intimately connected, as is shown by the fact that images and
paintings are at first nearly always of deities or sacred persons or
animals, and it is only after a considerable period of development
that secular subjects are treated. Similarly architecture is in its
commencement found to be applied solely to sacred buildings, as temples
and churches, and is only gradually diverted to secular buildings. The
figures sculptured by the Mochis are usually images for temples,
and those who practise this art are called Murtikar, from _murti_,
an image or idol; and the pictures of the Chitrakars were until
recently all of deities or divine animals, though secular paintings
may now occasionally be met with. And the uneducated believers in a
polytheistic religion regularly take the image for the deity himself,
at first scarcely conceiving of the one apart from the other. Thus
some Bharewas or brass-workers say that they dare not make metal
images of the gods, because they are afraid that the badness of their
handiwork might arouse the wrath of the gods and move them to take
revenge. The surmise might in fact be almost justifiable that the end
to which figures of men and animals were first drawn or painted, or
modelled in clay or metal was that they might be worshipped as images
of the deities, the savage mind not distinguishing at all between an
image of the god and the god himself. For this reason monotheistic
religions would be severely antagonistic to the arts, and such is in
fact the case. Thus the Muhammadan commentary, the Hadith, has a verse:
"Woe to him who has painted a living creature! At the day of the last
judgment the persons represented by him will come out of the tomb
and join themselves to him to demand of him a soul. Then that man,
unable to give life to his work, will burn in eternal flames." And
in Judaism the familiar prohibition of the Second Commandment appears
to be directed to the same end.
Hindu sculpture has indeed been fairly prolific, but is not generally
considered to have attained to any degree of artistic merit. Since
sculpture is mainly concerned with the human form it seems clear that
an appreciation of the beauty of muscular strength and the symmetrical
development of the limbs is an essential preliminary to success in
this art; and such a feeling can only arise among a people who set
much store on feats of bodily strength and agility. This has never
been the character of the Hindus, whose religion encourages asceticism
and mortification of the body, and points to mental self-absorption
and detachment from worldly cares and exercises as the highest type
of virtue.
4. Antagonism of Mochis and Chamars
As a natural result of the pretensions to nobility made by the Mochis,
there is no love lost between them and the Chamars; and the latter
allege that the Mochis have stolen their _rampi_, the knife with
which they cut leather. On this account the Chamars will neither take
water to drink from the Mochis nor mend their shoes, and will not
even permit them to try on a new pair of shoes until they have paid
the price set on them; for they say that the Mochis are half-bred
Chamars and therefore cannot be permitted to defile the shoes of
a true Chamar by trying them on; but when they have been paid for,
the maker has severed connection with them, and the use to which they
may be put no longer affects him.
5. Exogamous groups
In the Central Provinces the Mochis are said to have forty
exogamous sections or _gotras_, of which the bulk are named after
all the well-known Rajput clans, while two agree with those of the
Chamars. And they have also an equal number of _kheras_ or groups named
after villages. The limits of the two groups seem to be identical;
thus members of the sept named after the Kachhwaha Rajputs say that
their _khera_ or village name is Mungavali in Gwalior; those of the
Ghangere sept give Chanderi as their _khera_, the Sitawat sept Dhamoni
in Saugor, the Didoria Chhatarpur, the Narele Narwar, and so on. The
names of the village groups have now been generally forgotten and
they are said to have no influence on marriage, which is regulated
by the Rajput sept names; but it seems probable that the _kheras_
were the original divisions and the Rajput _gotras_ have been more
recently adopted in support of the claims already noticed.
6. Social customs
The Mochis have adopted the customs of the higher Hindu castes. A
man may not take a wife from his own _gotra_, his mother's _gotra_ or
from a family into which a girl from his own family has married. They
usually marry their daughters in childhood and employ Brahmans in
their ceremonies, and no degradation attaches to these latter for
serving as their priests. In minor domestic ceremonies for which the
Brahman is not engaged his place is taken by a relative, who is called
_sawasa_, and is either the sister's husband, daughter's husband,
or father's sister's husband, of the head of the family. They permit
widow-remarriage and divorce, and in the southern Districts effect
a divorce by laying a pestle between the wife and husband. They burn
their dead and observe mourning for the usual period. After a death
they will not again put on a coloured head-cloth until some relative
sets it on their heads for the first time on the expiry of the period
of mourning. They revere the ordinary Hindu deities, and like the
Chamars they have a family god, known as Mair, whose representation
in the shape of a lump of clay is enshrined within the house and
worshipped at marriages and deaths. In Saugor he is said to be the
collective representative of the spirits of their ancestors. In some
localities they eat flesh and drink liquor, but in others abstain from
both. Among the Hindus the Mochis rank considerably higher than the
Chamars; their touch does not defile and they are permitted to enter
temples and take part in religious ceremonies. The name of a Saugor
Mochi is remembered who became a good drawer and painter and was
held in much esteem at the Peshwa's court. In northern India about
half the Mochis are Muhammadans, but in the Central Provinces they
are all Hindus.
7. Shoes
In view of the fact that many of the Mochis were Muhammadans and that
slippers are mainly a Muhammadan article of attire Buchanan thought
it probable that they were brought into India by the invaders, the
Hindus having previously been content with sandals and wooden shoes. He
wrote: "Many Hindus now use leather slippers, but some adhere to the
proper custom of wearing sandals, which have wooden soles, a strap
of leather to pass over the instep, and a wooden or horn peg with a
button on its top. The foot is passed through the strap and the peg
is placed between two of the toes." [280] It is certain, however,
that leather shoes and slippers were known to the Hindus from a fairly
early period: "The episode related in the Ramayana of Bharata placing
on the vacant throne of Ajodhya a pair of Rama's slippers, which he
worshipped during the latter's protracted exile, shows that shoes
were important articles of wear and worthy of attention. In Manu and
the Mahabharata slippers are also mentioned and the time and mode of
putting them on pointed out. The Vishnu Purana enjoins all who wish
to protect their persons never to be without leather shoes. Manu
in one place expresses great repugnance to stepping into another's
shoes and peremptorily forbids it, and the Puranas recommend the
use of shoes when walking out of the house, particularly in thorny
places and on hot sand." [281] Thus shoes were certainly worn by the
Hindus before Muhammadan times, though loose slippers may have been
brought into fashion by the latter. And it seems possible that the
Mochis may have adopted Islam, partly to obtain the patronage of the
followers of the new religion, and also to escape from the degraded
position to which their profession of leather-working was relegated
by Hinduism and to dissociate themselves from the Chamars.
Mowar
_Mowar._--A small caste of cultivators found in the Chhattisgarh
country, in the Raipur and Bilaspur Districts and the Raigarh
State. They numbered 2500 persons in 1901. The derivation of the name
is obscure, but they themselves say that it is derived from Mow or
Mowagarh, a town in the Jhansi District of the United Provinces, and
they also call themselves Mahuwar or the inhabitants of Mow. They
say that the Raja of Mowagarh, under whom they were serving,
desired to marry the daughter of one of their Sirdars (headmen),
because she was extremely beautiful, but her father refused, and
when the Raja persisted in his desire they left the place in a body
and came to Ratanpur in the time of Raja Bimbaji, in A.D. 1770. A
Bilaspur writer states that the Mowars are an offshoot from the
Rajwar Rajputs of Sarguja State. Colonel Dalton writes [282] of the
Rajwar Rajputs of Sarguja and other adjoining States that they are
peaceably disposed cultivators, who declare themselves to be fallen
Kshatriyas; but he remarks later that they are probably aborigines,
as they do not conform to Hindu customs, and they are skilled in a
dance called Chailo, which he considers to be of Dravidian origin. In
another place he remarks that the Rajwars of Bengal admit that they
are derived from the miscegenation of Kurmis and Kols. The fact that
the Mowars of Sarangarh make a representation of a bow and arrow on
their documents, instead of signing their names, affords some support
to the theory that they are probably a branch of one of the aboriginal
tribes. The name may be derived from _mowa_, a radish, as the Mowars
of Bilaspur are engaged principally in garden cultivation.
The Mowars have no subcastes, but are divided into a number of
exogamous groups, principally of a totemistic nature. Those of the
Surajha or sun sept throw away their earthen pots on the occasion of an
eclipse, and those of the Hataia or elephant sept will not ride on an
elephant and worship that animal at the Dasahra festival. Members of
other septs named after the cobra, the crow, the monkey and the tiger
will not kill their totem animal, and when they see the dead body of
one of its species they throw away their earthen cooking-pots as a
sign of mourning. The marriage of persons belonging to the same sept
and also that of first cousins is prohibited. If an unmarried girl is
seduced by a man of the caste she becomes his wife and is not expelled,
but the caste will not eat food cooked by her. But a girl going wrong
with an outsider is finally cast out. The marriage and other social
customs resemble those of the Kurmis. The caste employ Brahmans at
their ceremonies and have a great regard for them. Their _gurus_ or
spiritual preceptors are Bairagis and Gosains. They eat the flesh
of clean animals and a few drink liquor, but most of them abstain
from it. Their women are tattooed on the arms and hands with figures
intended to represent deer, flies and other animals and insects. The
caste say that they were formerly employed as soldiers under the
native chiefs, but they are now all cultivators. They grow all kinds
of grain and vegetables, except turmeric and onions. A few of them
are landowners, and the majority tenants. Very few are constrained
to labour for hire. In appearance the men are generally strong and
healthy, and of a dark complexion.
Murha
1. Origin of the caste
_Murha._--A Dravidian, caste of navvies and labourers found in
Jubbulpore and the adjoining Districts, to the number of about
1500 persons. The name Murha has been held to show that the caste
are connected with the Munda tribe. The Murhas, however, call
themselves also Khare Bind Kewat and Lunia or Nunia (salt-maker),
and in Jubbulpore they give these two names as subdivisions of the
caste. And these names indicate that the caste are an offshoot of
the large Bind tribe of Bengal and northern India, though in parts
of the Central Provinces they have probably been recruited from the
Kols or Mundas. Sir H. Risley [283] records a story related by the
Binds to the effect that they and the Nunias were formerly one, and
that the existing Nunias are descended from a Bind who consented to
dig a grave for a Muhammadan king and was put out of caste for doing
so. And he remarks that the Binds may be a true primitive tribe and
the Nunias a functional group differentiated from them by taking to
the manufacture of earth salt. This explanation of the relationship
of the Binds and Nunias seems almost certainly correct. In the United
Provinces the Binds are divided into the Khare and Dhusia or first and
second subcastes, and the Khare Binds also call themselves Kewat. [284]
And the Murhas of Narsinghpur call themselves Khare Bind Kewats, though
the other Kewats repudiate all connection with them. There seems thus
to be no doubt that the Murhas of these Provinces are another offshoot
of the Bind tribe like the Nunias, who have taken up the profession of
navvies and earthworkers and thus become a separate caste. Mr. Hira
Lal notes that the Narsinghpur District contains a village Nonia,
which is inhabited solely by Murhas who call themselves Khare Bind
Kewat. As the village is no doubt named Nonia or Nunia after them,
we thus have an instance of all the three designations being applied
to the same set of persons. The Murhas say that they came into
Narsinghpur from Rewah, and they still speak the Bagheli dialect,
though the current vernacular of the locality is Bundeli. The Binds
themselves derive their name from the Vindhya (Bindhya) hills. [285]
They relate that a traveller passing by the Vindhya hills heard a
strange flute-like sound coming out of a clump of bamboos. He cut
a shoot and took from it a fleshy substance, which afterwards grew
into a man, the supposed ancestor of the Binds. In Mandla the Murhas
say that the difference between themselves and the Nunias is that the
latter make field-embankments and other earthwork, while the Murhas
work in stone and build bridges. According to their own story they
were brought to Mandla from their home in Eastern Oudh more than ten
generations ago by a Gond king of the Garha-Mandla dynasty for the
purpose of building his fort or castle. He gave them two villages
for their maintenance which they have now lost. The caste has,
however, probably received some local accretions and in Mandla some
Murhas appear to be Kols; members of this tribe are generally above
the average in bodily strength and are in considerable request for
employment on earth- and stone-work.
2. Marriage customs
In Narsinghpur the Murhas appear to have no regular exogamous
divisions. Some of them remember the names of their _kheros_ or
ancestral villages and do not marry with families belonging to the
same _khero_, but this is not a regular rule of the caste. Generally
speaking, persons descended through males from a common ancestor do not
intermarry so long as they remember the relationship. In Mandla they
have five divisions, of which the highest is Purbia. The name Purbia
(Eastern) is commonly applied in the Central Provinces to persons
coming from Oudh, and in this case the Purbia Murhas are probably
the latest immigrants from home and have a superior status on this
account. Up till recently they practised hypergamy with the other
groups, taking daughters from them in marriage, but not giving their
daughters to them. This rule is now, however, breaking down on account
of the difficulty they find in getting their daughters married. The
children of brothers and sisters may marry in some places, but in
others neither they nor their children may marry with each other. Anta
Santa or the exchange of girls between two families is permitted. The
bridegroom's father has to pay from five to twenty rupees as a _chari_
or bride-price to the girl's father, which sum is regarded as the
remuneration of the latter for having brought up his daughter. In
the case of the daughter of a headman the bride-price is sometimes as
high as Rs. 150. In Damoh a curious survival of marriage by capture
remains. The bridegroom's party give a ram or he-goat to the bride's
party and these take it to their shed, cut its head off and hang it
by the side of the _kham_ or marriage-pole. The brother-in-law of the
bridegroom or of his father then sallies forth to bring back the head
of the animal, but is opposed by the women of the bride's party, who
belabour him and his friends with sticks, brooms and rolling-pins. But
in the end the head is always taken away. The binding portion of the
marriage is the _bhanwar_ or walking round the sacred post. When the
bride is leaving for her husband's house the women of her party take
seven balls of flour with burning wicks thrust into them, and place
them in a winnowing-fan. They wave this round the bride's head and
then throw the balls and after them the fan over the litter in which
the bride is seated. The bridegroom's party must catch the fan, and
if they let it fall to the ground they are much laughed at for their
clumsiness. When the pair arrive at the bridegroom's house, the fan is
again waved over their heads; and a cloth is spread before the house,
on which seven burning wicks are placed like the previous ones. The
bride walks quickly over the cloth to the house and the bridegroom
must keep pace with her, picking up the burning flour balls as he
goes. When the pair arrive at the house the bridegroom's sister shuts
the door and will not open it until she is given a present. Divorce
and the remarriage of widows are permitted.
3. Funeral rites
The caste worship the ordinary Hindu deities. Well-to-do members
burn their dead and the poorer ones bury them. The corpse is usually
placed with the head to the south as is the custom among the primitive
tribes, but in some localities the Hindu fashion of laying the head to
the north has been adopted. Two pice are thrown down by the grave or
burning-_ghat_ to buy the site, and these are taken by the sweeper. The
ashes are collected on the third day and thrown into a river. The usual
period of mourning is only three days, but it is sometimes extended to
nine days when the chief mourner is unable to feed the caste-fellows
on the third day, and the feast may in case of necessity be postponed
to any time within six months of the death. The chief mourner puts
on a new white cloth and eats nothing but rice and pulse without salt.
4. Occupation
The caste are employed on all kinds of earthwork, such as building
walls, excavating trenches, and making embankments in fields. Their
trade implements consist of a pickaxe, a basket, and a thin wooden hod
to fill the earth into the basket. The Murha invokes these as follows:
"Oh! my lord the basket, my lord the pickaxe shaped like a snake,
and my lady the hod, come and eat up those who do not pay me for my
work!" The Murhas are strict in their rules about food and will not
accept cooked food even from a Brahman, but notwithstanding this,
their social position is so low that not even a sweeper would take
food from them. The caste eat flesh and drink liquor, but abstain
from fowls, pork and beef. They engage Brahmans on the occasion of
births and marriages, but not usually for funerals. The women tattoo
their bodies after marriage, and the charge for this should always be
paid by the maternal uncle's wife, the paternal aunt, or some other
similar relation of the girl. The fact that among most Hindus a girl
must be tattooed before leaving for her husband's house, and that
the cost of the operation must always be paid for by her own family,
seems to indicate that tattooing was formerly a rite of puberty for
the female sex. A wife must not mention the name of her husband or of
any person who stands in the relation of father, mother, uncle or aunt
to him. Parents do not call their eldest son by his proper name, but
by some pet name. Women are impure for five days during menstruation
and are not allowed to cook for that period. The Murhas have a caste
_panchayat_ or committee, the head of which is known as Patel or
Mukhia, the office being hereditary. He receives a part of all fines
levied for the commission of social offences. In appearance the caste
are dark and short of stature, and have some resemblance to the Kols.
5. Women's song
In conclusion, I reproduce one of the songs which the women sing as
they are carrying the basketfuls of earth or stones at their work;
in the original each line consists of two parts, the last words of
which sometimes rhyme with each other:
Our mother Nerbudda is very kind; blow, wind, we are hot with
labour.
He said to the Maina: Go, carry my message to my love.
The red ants climb up the mango-tree; and the daughter follows
her mother's way.
I have no money to give her even lime and tobacco; I am poor,
so how can I tell her of my love.
The boat has gone down on the flood of the Nerbudda; the
fisherwoman is weeping for her husband.
She has no bangles on her arm nor necklace on her neck; she has
no beauty, but seeks her lovers throughout the village.
Bread from the girdle, curry from the _lota_; let us go, beloved,
the moon is shining.
The leaves of gram have been plucked from the plants; I think
much on Dadaria, but she does not come.
The love of a stranger is as a dream; think not of him, beloved,
he cannot be yours.
Twelve has struck and it is thirteen time (past the time of
labour); oh, overseer, let your poor labourers go.
The betel-leaf is pressed in the mouth (and gives pleasure);
attractive eyes delight the heart.
Catechu, areca and black cloves; my heart's secret troubles me
in my dreams.
The Nerbudda came and swept away the rubbish (from the works);
fly away, bees, do not perch on my cloth.
The colour does not come on the wheat; her youth is passing,
but she cannot yet drape her cloth on her body.
Like the sight of rain-drops splashing on the ground; so beautiful
is she to look upon.
It rains and the hidden streams in the woodland are filled (and
come to view); hide as long as you may, some day you must be seen.
The mahua flowers are falling from the trees on the hill; leave
me your cloth so that I may know you will return.
He went to the bazar and brought back a cocoanut; it is green
without, but insects are eating the core.
He went to the hill and cut strings of bamboo; you cannot drape
your cloth, you have wound it round your body.
The coral necklace hangs on the peg; if you become the second
wife of my husband I shall give you clothes.
She put on her clothes and went to the forest; she met her lover
and said you are welcome to me.
He went to the bazar and bought potatoes; but if he had loved me
he would have brought me liquor.
The fish in the river are on the look-out; the Brahman's daughter
is bathing with her hair down.
The arhar-stumps stand in the field; I loved one of another caste,
but must give him up.
He ate betel and coloured his teeth; his beloved came from without
and knew him.
The ploughmen are gone to the field; my clever writer is gone to
the court-house.
The Nerbudda flows like a bent bow; a beautiful youth is standing
in court. [286]
The broken areca-nuts lie in the forest; when a man comes to
misfortune no one will help him.
The broken areca-nuts cannot be mended; and two hearts which are
sundered cannot be joined.
Ask me for five rupees and I will give you twenty-five; but I
will not give my lover for the whole world.
I will put bangles on my arm; when the other wife sees me she
will die of jealousy.
Break the bangles which your husband gave you; and put others on
your wrists in my name.
O my lover, give me bangles; make me armlets, for I am content
with you.
My lover went to the bazar at Lakhanpur; but he has not brought
me even a _choli_ [287] that I liked.
I had gone to the bazar and bought fish; she is so ugly that the
flies would not settle on her.
Nagasia
_Nagasia, Naksia._--A primitive tribe found principally in the
Chota Nagpur States. They now number 16,000 persons in the Central
Provinces, being returned almost entirely from Jashpur and Sarguja. The
census returns are, however, liable to be inaccurate as the Nagasias
frequently call themselves Kisan, a term which is also applied to
the Oraons. The Nagasias say that they are the true Kisans whereas
the Oraons are only so by occupation. The Oraons, on the other hand,
call the Nagasias Kisada. The tribe derive their name from the Nag
or cobra, and they say that somebody left an infant in the forest
of Setambu and a cobra came and spread its hood over the child to
protect him from the rays of the sun. Some Mundas happened to pass
by and on seeing this curious sight they thought the child must be
destined to greatness, so they took him home and made him their king,
calling him Nagasia, and from him the tribe are descended. The episode
of the snake is, of course, a stock legend related by many tribes,
but the story appears to indicate that the Nagasias are an offshoot
of the Mundas; and this hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that
Nagbasia is often used as an alternative name for the Mundas by their
Hindu neighbours. The term Nagbasia is supposed to mean the original
settlers (_basia_) in Nag (Chota Nagpur).
The tribe are divided into the Telha, Dhuria and Senduria groups. The
Telhas are so called because at the marriage ceremony they mark the
forehead of the bride with _tel_ (oil), while the Dhurias instead of
oil use dust (_dhur_) taken from the sole of the bridegroom's foot,
and the Sendurias like most Hindu castes employ vermilion (_sendur_)
for this purpose. The Telhas and Dhurias marry with each other, but
not with the Sendurias, who consider themselves to be superior to
the others and use the term Nagbansia or 'Descendants of the Snake'
as their tribal name. The Telha and Dhuria women do not wear glass
bangles on their arms but only bracelets of brass, while the Sendurias
wear glass bangles and also armlets above the elbow. Telha women do
not wear nose-rings or tattoo their bodies, while the Sendurias do
both. The Telhas say that the tattooing needle and vermilion, which
they formerly employed in their marriages, were stolen from them by
Wagdeo or the tiger god. So they hit upon sesamum oil as a substitute,
which must be pressed for ceremonial purposes in a bamboo basket by
unmarried boys using a plough-yoke. This is probably, Mr. Hira Lal
remarks, merely the primitive method of extracting oil, prior to the
invention of the Teli's _ghani_ or oil-press; and the practice is
an instance of the common rule that articles employed in ceremonial
and religious rites should be prepared by the ancient and primitive
methods which for ordinary purposes have been superseded by more
recent labour-saving inventions.
Nahal
1. The tribe and its subdivisions
_Nahal, Nihal._ [288]--A forest tribe who are probably a mixture
of Bhils and Korkus. In 1911 they numbered 12,000 persons, of whom
8000 belonged to the Hoshangabad, Nimar and Betul Districts, and
nearly 4000 to Berar. They were classed at the census as a subtribe
of Korkus. According to one story they are descended from a Bhil
father and a Korku mother, and the writer of the _Khandesh Gazetteer_
calls them the most savage of the Bhils. But in the Central Provinces
their family or sept names are the same as those of the Korkus,
and they speak the Korku language. Mr. Kitts [289] says that the
Korkus who first went to Berar found the Nahals in possession of
the Melghat hills. Gradually the latter caste lost their power and
became the village drudges of the former. He adds that the Nahals
were fast losing their language, and the younger generation spoke only
Korku. The two tribes were very friendly, and the Nahals acknowledged
the superior position of the Korkus. This, if it accurately represents
the state of things prevailing for a long period, and was not merely an
incidental feature of their relative position at the time Mr. Kitts'
observations were made, would tend to show that the Nahals were the
older tribe and had been subjected by the Korkus, just as the Korkus
themselves and the Baigas have given way to the Gonds. Mr. Crosthwaite
also states that the Nahal is the drudge of the Korku and belongs to
a race which is supposed to have been glorious before the Korku star
arose, and which is now fast dying out. In any case there is no doubt
that the Nahals are a very mixed tribe, as they will even now admit
into the community Gonds, Korkus and nearly all the Hindu castes,
though in some localities they will not eat from the other tribes
and the lower Hindu castes and therefore refuse to admit them. There
are, moreover, two subdivisions of the caste called Korku and Marathi
Nahals respectively. The latter are more Hinduised than the former and
disclaim any connection with the Korkus. The Nahals have totemistic
exogamous septs. Those of the Kasa sept worship a tortoise and also
a bell-metal plate, which is their family god. They never eat off a
bell-metal plate except on one day in the month of Magh (January),
when they worship it. The members of the Nagbel sept worship the
betel-vine or 'snake-creeper,' and refrain from chewing betel-leaves,
and they also worship the Nag or cobra and do not kill it, thus having
a sort of double totem. The Bhawaria sept, named after the _bhaunr_
or black bee, do not eat honey, and if they see a person taking the
honey-comb from a nest they will run away. The Khadia sept worship
the spirits of their ancestors enshrined in a heap of stones (_khad_),
or according to another account they worship a snake which sits on a
heap of pebbles. The Surja sept worship Surya or the sun by offering
him a fowl in the month of Pus (December-January), and some members of
the sept keep a fast every Sunday. The Saoner sept worship the _san_
or flax plant.
2. Marriage
Marriage is prohibited between members of the same sept, but there are
no other restrictions and first cousins may marry. Both sexes usually
marry when adult, and sexual license before wedlock is tolerated. A
Brahman is employed only for fixing the date of the ceremony. The
principal part of the marriage is the knotting together of the bride's
and bridegroom's clothes on two successive days. They also gamble with
tamarind seeds, and it is considered a lucky union if the bridegroom
wins. A bride-price is usually paid consisting of Rs. 1-4 to Rs. 5
in cash, some grain and a piece of cloth for the bride's mother. The
remarriage of widows is allowed, and the couple go five times round
a bamboo stick which is held up to represent a spear, the ceremony
being called _barchhi se bhanwar phirna_ or the marriage of the spear.
3. Religion
The Nahals worship the forest god called Jharkhandi in the month
of Chait, and until this rite has been performed they do not use
the leaves or fruits of the _palas_, [290] _aonla_ [291] or mango
trees. When the god is worshipped they collect branches and leaves
of these trees and offer cooked food to them and thereafter commence
using the new leaves, and the fruit and timber. They also worship the
ordinary village godlings. The dead are buried, except in the case
of members of the Surja or sun sept, whose corpses are burnt. Cooked
food is offered at the grave for four days after the death.
4. Occupation
The Nahals were formerly a community of hill-robbers, 'Nahal, Bhil,
Koli' being the phrase generally used in old documents to designate the
marauding bands of the western Satpura hills. The Raja of Jitgarh and
Mohkot in Nimar has a long account in his genealogy of a treacherous
massacre of a whole tribe of Nahals by his ancestor in Akbar's time,
in recognition of which the Jitgarh pargana was granted to the
family. Mr. Kitts speaks of the Nahals of Berar as having once been
much addicted to cattle-lifting, and this propensity still exists in
a minor degree in the Central Provinces, accentuated probably by the
fact that a considerable number of Nahals follow the occupation of
graziers. Some of them are also village watchmen, and another special
avocation of theirs is the collection of the oil of the marking-nut
tree (_Semecarpus anacardium_). This is to some extent a dangerous
trade, as the oil causes swellings on the body, besides staining the
skin and leaving a peculiar odour. The workers wrap a fourfold layer
of cloth round their fingers with ashes between each fold, while the
rest of the body is also protected by cloth when gathering the nuts
and pounding them to extract the oil. At the end of the day's work
powdered tamarind and _ghi_ are rubbed on the whole body. The oil
is a stimulant, and is given to women after delivery and to persons
suffering from rheumatism.
5. Social status
The social status of the Nahals is very low and they eat the flesh of
almost all animals, while those who graze cattle eat beef. Cow-killing
is not regarded as an offence. They are also dirty and do not bathe
for weeks together. To get maggots in a wound is, however, regarded
as a grave offence, and the sufferer is put out of the village and
has to live alone until he recovers.
Nai
List of Paragraphs
1. _Structure of the caste_.
2. _Marriage and other customs_.
3. _Occupation_.
4. _Other services_.
5. _Duties at weddings_.
6. _The barber-surgeon._
7. _A barber at the court of Oudh_.
8. _Character and position of the barber_.
9. _Beliefs about hair_.
10. _Hair of kings and priests_.
11. _The beard_.
12. _Significance of removal of the hair and shaving the head_.
13. _Shaving the head by mourners_.
14. _Hair offerings_.
15. _Keeping hair unshorn during a vow_.
16. _Disposal of cut hair and nails_.
17. _Superstitions about shaving the hair_.
18. _Reasons why the hair was considered the source of strength._
1. Structure of the caste
_Nai, Nao, Mhali, Hajjam, Bhanari, Mangala_. [292]--The occupational
caste of barbers. The name is said to be derived from the Sanskrit
_napita_ according to some a corruption of _snapitri_, one who
bathes. In Bundelkhand he is also known as Khawas, which was a
title for the attendant on a grandee; and Birtiya, or 'He that
gets his maintenance (_vritti_) from his constituents.' [293]
Mhali is the Marathi name for the caste, Bhandari the Uriya name
and Mangala the Telugu name. The caste numbered nearly 190,000
persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, being distributed over
all Districts. Various legends of the usual type are related of
its origin, but, as Sir. H. Risley observes, it is no doubt wholly
of a functional character. The subcastes in the Central Provinces
entirely bear out this view, as they are very numerous and principally
of the territorial type: Telange of the Telugu country, Marathe,
Pardeshi or northerners, Jharia or those of the forest country of the
Wainganga Valley, Bandhaiya or those of Bandhogarh, Barade of Berar,
Bundelkhandi, Marwari, Mathuria from Mathura, Gadhwaria from Garha
near Jubbulpore, Lanjia from Lanji in Balaghat, Malwi from Malwa,
Nimari from Nimar, Deccane, Gujarati, and so on. Twenty-six divisions
in all are given. The exogamous groups are also of different types,
some of them being named after Brahman saints, as Gautam, Kashyap,
Kosil, Sandil and Bharadwaj; others after Rajput clans as Surajvansi,
Jaduvansi, Solanki and Panwar; while others are titular or totemistic,
as Naik, leader; Seth, banker; Rawat, chief; Nagesh, cobra; Bagh,
a tiger; Bhadrawa, a fish.
2. Marriage and other customs
The exogamous groups are known as _khero_ or _kul_, and marriage
between members of the same group is prohibited. Girls are usually
wedded between the ages of eight and twelve and boys between fifteen
and twenty. A girl who goes wrong before marriage is finally expelled
from the caste. The wedding ceremony follows the ritual prevalent
in the locality as described in the articles on Kurmi and Kunbi. At
an ordinary wedding the expenses on the girl's side amount to about
Rs. 150, and on the boy's to Rs. 200. The remarriage of widows is
permitted. In the northern Districts the widow may wed the younger
brother of her deceased husband, but in the Maratha country she may
not be married to any of his relatives. Divorce may be effected at
the instance of the husband before the caste committee, and a divorced
woman is at liberty to marry again. The Nais worship all the ordinary
Hindu deities. On the Dasahra and Diwali festivals they wash and revere
their implements, the razor, scissors and nail-pruners. They pay regard
to omens. It is unpropitious to sneeze or hear the report of a gun
when about to commence any business; and when a man is starting on a
journey, if a cat, a squirrel, a hare or a snake should cross the road
in front of him he will give it up and return home. The bodies of the
dead are usually burnt. In Chhattisgarh the poor throw the corpses of
their dead into the Mahanadi, and the bodies of children dying under
one year of age were until recently buried in the courtyard of the
house. The period of mourning for adults is ten days and for children
three days. The chief mourner must take only one meal a day, which
he cooks himself until the ceremony of the tenth day is performed.
3. Occupation
"The barber's trade," Mr. Crooke states, [294] "is undoubtedly of
great antiquity. In the Veda we read, 'Sharpen us like the razor in the
hands of the barber'; and again, 'Driven by the wind, Agni shaves the
hair of the earth like the barber shaving a beard.'" In early times
they must have enjoyed considerable dignity; Upali the barber was
the first propounder of the law of the Buddhist church. The village
barber's leather bag contains a small mirror (_arsi_), a pair of
iron pincers (_chimta_), a leather strap, a comb (_kanghi_), a piece
of cloth about a yard square and some oil in a phial. He shaves the
faces, heads and armpits of his customers, and cuts the nails of both
their hands and feet. He uses cold water in summer and hot in winter,
but no soap, though this has now been introduced in towns. For the
poorer cultivators he does a rapid scrape, and this process is called
'_asudhal_' or a 'tearful shave,' because the person undergoing it is
often constrained to weep. The barber acquires the knowledge of his art
by practice on the more obliging of his customers, hence the proverb,
'The barber's son learns his trade on the heads of fools.' The village
barber is usually paid by a contribution of grain from the cultivators,
calculated in some cases according to the number of ploughs of land
possessed by each, in others according to the number of adult males in
the family. In Saugor he receives 20 lbs. of grain annually for each
adult male or 22 1/2 lbs. per plough of land, besides presents of a
basket of grain at seed-time and a sheaf at harvest. Cultivators are
usually shaved about once a fortnight. In towns the barber's fee may
vary from a pice to two annas for a shave, which is, as has been seen,
a much more protracted operation with a Hindu than with a European. It
is said that Berar is now so rich that even ordinary cultivators can
afford to pay the barber two annas (2d.) for a single shave, or the
same price as in the suburbs of London.
4. Other services
After he has shaved a client the barber pinches and rubs his arms,
presses his fingers together and cracks the joints of each finger,
this last action being perhaps meant to avert evil spirits. He also
does massage, a very favourite method of treatment in India, and also
inexpensive as compared with Europe. For one rupee a month in towns
the barber will come and rub a man's legs five or ten minutes every
day. Cultivators have their legs rubbed in the sowing season, when the
labour is intensely hard owing to the necessity of sowing all the land
in a short period. If a man is well-to-do he may have his whole head
and body rubbed with scented oil. Landowners have often a barber as a
family servant, the office descending from father to son. Such a man
will light his master's _chilam_ (pipe-bowl) or huqqa (water-pipe),
clean and light lamps, prepare his bed, tell his master stories to send
him to sleep, act as escort for the women of the family when they go
on a journey and arrange matches for the children. The barber's wife
attends on women in child-birth after the days of pollution are over,
and rubs oil on the bodies of her clients, pares their nails and paints
their feet with red dye at marriages and on other festival occasions.
5. Duties at weddings
The barber has also numerous and important duties [295] in connection
with marriages and other festival occasions. He acts as the Brahman's
assistant, and to the lower castes, who cannot employ a Brahman,
he is himself the matrimonial priest. The important part which he
plays in marriage ceremonies has led to his becoming the matchmaker
among all respectable castes. He searches for a suitable bride or
bridegroom, and is often sent to inspect the other party to a match
and report his or her defects to his clients. He may arrange the
price or dowry, distribute the invitations and carry the presents
from one house to the other. He supplies the leaf-plates and cups
which are used at weddings, as the family's stock of metal vessels
is usually quite inadequate for the number of guests. The price of
these is about 4 annas (4d.) a hundred. He also provides the _torans_
or strings of leaves which are hung over the door of the house and
round the marriage-shed. At the feast the barber is present to hand
to the guests water, betel-leaf and pipes as they may desire. He also
partakes of the food, seated at a short distance from the guests,
in the intervals of his service. He lights the lamps and carries
the torches during the ceremony. Hence he was known as Masalchi or
torch-bearer, a name now applied by Europeans to a menial servant who
lights and cleans the lamps and washes the plates after meals. The
barber and his wife act as prompters to the bride and bridegroom,
and guide them through the complicated ritual of the wedding ceremony,
taking the couple on their knees if they are children, and otherwise
sitting behind them. The barber has a prescriptive right to receive
the clothes in which the bridegroom goes to the bride's house, as
on the latter's arrival he is always presented with new clothes by
the bride's father. As the bridegroom's clothes may be an ancestral
heirloom, a compact is often made to buy them back from the barber,
and he may receive as much as Rs. 50 in lieu of them. When the first
son is born in a family the barber takes a long bamboo stick, wraps
it round with cloth and puts an earthen pot over it and carries this
round to the relatives, telling them the good news. He receives a
small present from each household.
6. The barber-surgeon
The barber also cleans the ears of his clients and cuts their nails,
and is the village surgeon in a small way. He cups and bleeds his
patients, applies leeches, takes out teeth and lances boils. In this
capacity he is the counterpart of the barber-surgeon of mediaeval
Europe. The Hindu physicians are called Baid, and are, as a rule,
a class of Brahmans. They derive their knowledge from ancient
Sanskrit treatises on medicine, which are considered to have divine
authority. Consequently they think it unnecessary to acquire fresh
knowledge by experiment and observation, as they suppose the perfect
science of medicine to be contained in their sacred books. As these
books probably do not describe surgical operations, of which little or
nothing was known at the time when they were written, and as surgery
involves contact with blood and other impure substances, the Baids do
not practise it, and the villagers are left to get on as best they can
with the ministrations of the barber. It is interesting to note that a
similar state of things appears to have prevailed in Europe. The monks
were the early practitioners of medicine and were forbidden to practise
surgery, which was thus left to the barber-chirurgeon. The status of
the surgeon was thus for long much below that of the physician. [296]
The mediaeval barber of Europe kept a bottle of blood in his window,
to indicate that he undertook bleeding and the application of leeches,
and the coloured bottles in the chemist's window may have been derived
from this. It is also said that the barber's pole originally served
as a support for the patient to lean on while he was being bled,
and those barbers who did the work of bleeding patients painted their
poles in variegated red and white stripes to show it.
7. A barber at the court of Oudh
Perhaps the most successful barber known to Indian history was not
a Hindu at all, but a Peninsular and Oriental Company's cabin-boy,
who became the barber of one of the last kings of Oudh, Nasir-ud-Din,
in the early part of the nineteenth century, and rose to the position
of a favourite courtier. He was entrusted with the supply of every
European article used at court, and by degrees became a regular guest
at the royal table, and sat down to take dinner with the king as a
matter of right; nor would his majesty taste a bottle of wine opened
by any other hands than the barber's. [297] This was, however, a wise
precaution as it turned out, since after he had finally been forced to
part with the barber the king was poisoned by his own relatives. The
barber was also made keeper of the royal menagerie, for which he
supplied the animals and their food, and made enormous profits. The
following is an account of the presentation of the barber's monthly
bill of expenses: [298] "It was after tiffin, or lunch, when we usually
retired from the palace until dinner-time at nine o'clock, that the
favourite entered with a roll of paper in his hand. In India, long
documents, legal and commercial, are usually written, not in books
or on successive sheets, but on a long roll, strip being joined to
strip for that purpose, and the whole rolled up like a map.
"'Ha, Khan!' said the king, observing him; 'the monthly bill, is it?'
"'It is, your majesty,' was the smiling reply.
"'Come, out with it; let us see the extent. Unroll it, Khan.'
"The king was in a playful humour; and the barber was always in
the same mood as the king. He held the end of the roll in his hand,
and threw the rest along the floor, allowing it to unroll itself as
it retreated. It reached to the other side of the long apartment--a
goodly array of items and figures, closely written too. The king
wanted it measured. A measure was brought and the bill was found
to be four yards and a half long. I glanced at the amount; it was
upwards of Rs. 90,000, or £9000!"
The barber, however, encouraged the king in every form of dissipation
and excess, until the state of the Oudh court became such a scandal
that the king was forced by the British Government to dismiss
him. [299] He retired, it was said, with a fortune of £240,000.
8. Character and position of the barber
The barber is also, Mr. Low writes, [300] the scandal-bearer and
gossip-monger of the village. His cunning is proverbial, and he is
known as _Chhattisa_ from the saying--
Nai hai chhattisa
Khai an ka pisa,
or 'A barber has thirty-six talents by which he eats at the expense
of others.' His loquacity is shown in the proverb, 'As the crow among
birds so the barber among men.' The barber and the professional Brahman
are considered to be jealous of their perquisites and unwilling to
share with their caste-fellows, and this is exemplified in the proverb,
"The barber, the dog and the Brahman, these three snarl at meeting one
of their own kind." The joint association of the Brahman priest and
the barber with marriages and other ceremonies has led to the saying,
"As there are always reeds in a river so there is always a barber
with a Brahman." The barber's astuteness is alluded to in the saying,
'Nine barbers are equal to seventy-two tailors.' The fact that it
is the barber's duty to carry the lights in marriage processions has
led to the proverb, "At the barber's wedding all are gentlemen and it
is awkward to have to ask somebody to carry the torch." The point of
this is clear, though no English equivalent occurs to the mind. And
a similar idea is expressed by 'The barber washes the feet of others
but is ashamed to wash his own.' It would appear from these proverbs
that the Nai is considered to enjoy a social position somewhat above
his deserts. Owing to the nature of his duties, which make him a
familiar inmate of the household and bring him into contact with the
persons of his high-caste clients, the caste of the Nai is necessarily
considered to be a pure one and Brahmans will take water from his
hands. But, on the other hand, his calling is that of a village menial
and has also some elements of impurity, as in cupping which involves
contact with blood, and in cutting the nails and hair of the corpse
before cremation. He is thus looked down upon as a menial and also
considered as to some extent impure. No member of a cultivating caste
would salute a barber first or look upon him as an equal, though
Brahmans put them on the same level of ceremonial purity by taking
water from both. The barber's loquacity and assurance have been made
famous by the _Arabian Nights_, but they have perhaps been affected by
the more strenuous character of life, and his conversation does not
flow so freely as it did. Often he now confines himself to approving
and adding emphasis to any remarks of the patron and greeting any of
his little witticisms with bursts of obsequious laughter. In Madras,
Mr. Pandian states, the village barber, like the washerman, is known
as the son of the village. If a customer does not pay him his dues,
he lies low, and when he has begun to shave the defaulter, engages
him in a dispute and says something to excite his anger. The latter
will then become abusive to the barber, whom he regards as a menial,
and perhaps strike him, and this gives the barber an opportunity
to stop shaving him and rush off to lay a complaint at the village
court-house, leaving his enemy to proceed home with half his head
shaved and thus exposed to general ridicule. [301]
9. Beliefs about hair
Numerous customs appear to indicate that the hair was regarded as the
special seat of bodily strength. The Rajput warriors formerly wore
their hair long and never cut it, but trained it in locks over their
shoulders. Similarly the Maratha soldiers wore their hair long. The
Hatkars, a class of Maratha spearmen, might never cut their hair while
engaged on military service. A Sikh writer states of Guru Govind,
the founder of the militant Sikh confederacy: "He appeared as the
tenth Avatar (incarnation of Vishnu). He established the Khalsa, his
own sect, and by exhibiting singular energy, leaving the hair on his
head, and seizing the scimitar, he smote every wicked person." [302]
As is well known, no Sikh may cut his hair, and one of the five
marks of the Sikh is the _kanga_ or comb, which he must always carry
in order to keep his hair in proper order. A proverb states that
'The origin of a Sikh is in his hair.' [303] The following story,
related by Sir J. Malcolm, shows the vital importance attached
by the Sikh to his hair and beard: "Three inferior agents of Sikh
chiefs were one day in my tent. I was laughing and joking with one
of them, a Khalsa Sikh, who said he had been ordered to attend me to
Calcutta. Among other subjects of our mirth I rallied him on trusting
himself so much in my power. 'Why, what is the worst,' he said,
'that you can do to me?' I passed my hand across my chin, imitating
the act of shaving. The man's face was in an instant distorted with
rage and his sword half-drawn. 'You are ignorant,' he said to me,
'of the offence you have given; I cannot strike you who are above me,
and the friend of my master and the state; but no power,' he added,
indicating the Khalsa Sikhs, 'shall save these fellows who dared to
smile at your action.' It was with the greatest difficulty and only
by the good offices of some Sikh Chiefs that I was able to pacify
his wounded honour." [304] These instances appear to show clearly
that the Sikhs considered their hair of vital importance; and as
fighting was their object in life, it seems most probable that they
thought their strength in war was bound up in it. Similarly when
the ancient Spartans were on a military expedition purple garments
were worn and their hair was carefully decked with wreaths, a thing
which was never done at home. [305] And when Leonidas and his three
hundred were holding the pass of Thermopylae, and Xerxes sent scouts
to ascertain what the Greeks were doing in their camp, the report was
that some of them were engaged in gymnastics and warlike exercises,
while others were merely sitting and combing their long hair. If
the hypothesis already suggested is correct, the Spartan youths so
engaged were perhaps not merely adorning themselves for death, but,
as they thought, obtaining their full strength for battle. "The custom
of keeping the hair unshorn during a dangerous expedition appears to
have been observed, at least occasionally, by the Romans. Achilles
kept unshorn his yellow hair, because his father had vowed to offer
it to the river Sperchius if ever his son came home from the wars
beyond the sea." [306]
When the Bhils turned out to fight they let down their long hair
prior to beginning the conflict with their bows and arrows. [307]
The pirates of Surat, before boarding a ship, drank _bhang_ and
hemp-liquor, and when they wore their long hair loose they gave no
quarter. [308] The Mundas appear to have formerly worn their hair long
and some still do. Those who are converted to Christianity must cut
their hair, but a non-Christian Munda must always keep the _chundi_
or pigtail. If the _chundi_ is very long it is sometimes tied up in
a knot. [309] Similarly the Oraons wore their hair long like women,
gathered in a knot behind, with a wooden or iron comb in it. Those
who are Christians can be recognised by the fact that they have cut
off their pigtails. A man of the low Pardhi caste of hunters must
never have his hair touched by a razor after he has once killed
a deer. As already seen, every orthodox Hindu wore till recently
a _choti_ or scalp-lock, which should theoretically be as long
as a cow's tail. Perhaps the idea was that for those who were not
warriors it was sufficient to retain this and have the rest of the
head shaved. The _choti_ was never shaved off in mourning for any
one but a father. The lower castes of Muhammadans, if they have lost
several children, will allow the scalp-lock to grow on the heads of
those subsequently born, dedicating it to one of their Muhammadan
saints. The Kanjars relate of their heroic ancestor Mana that after
he had plunged a bow so deeply into the ground that no one could
withdraw it, he was set by the Emperor of Delhi to wrestle against
the two most famous Imperial wrestlers. These could not overcome him
fairly, so they made a stratagem, and while one provoked him in front
the other secretly took hold of his _choti_ behind. When Mana started
forward his _choti_ was thus left in the wrestler's hands, and though
he conquered the other wrestler, showing him the sky as it is said,
the loss of his _choti_ deprived him for ever after of his virtue as a
Hindu and in no small degree of his renown as an ancestor. [310] Thus
it seems clear that a special virtue attaches to the _choti_. Before
every warlike expedition the people of Minahassa in Celebes used to
take the locks of hair of a slain foe and dabble them in boiling water
to extract the courage; this infusion of bravery was then drunk by
the warriors. [311] In a modern Greek folk-tale a man's strength lies
in three golden hairs on his head. When his mother plucks them out,
he grows weak and timid and is slain by his enemies. [312] The Red
Indian custom of taking the scalp, of a slain enemy and sometimes
wearing the scalps at the waist-belt may be due to the same relief.
In Ceram the hair might not be cut because it was the seat of a man's
strength; and the Gaboon negroes for the same reason would not allow
any of their hair to pass into the possession of a stranger. [313]
10. Hair of kings and priests
If the hair was considered to be the special source of strength and
hence frequently of life, that of the kings and priests, in whose
existence the primitive tribe believed its own communal life to be
bound up, would naturally be a matter of peculiar concern. That it
was so has been shown in the _Golden Bough_. Two hundred years ago
the hair and nails of the Mikado of Japan could only be cut when he
was asleep. [314] The hair of the Flamen Dialis at Rome could be cut
only by a freeman and with a bronze knife, and his hair and nails when
cut had to be buried under a lucky tree. [315] The Frankish kings were
never allowed to crop their hair; from their childhood upwards they
had to keep it unshorn. The hair of the Aztec priests hung down to
their hams so that the weight of it became very troublesome; for they
might never crop it so long as they lived, or at least till they had
been relieved from their office on the score of old age. [316] In the
Male Paharia tribe from the time that any one devoted himself to the
profession of priest and augur his hair was allowed to grow like that
of a Nazarite; his power of divination entirely disappeared if he cut
it. [317] Among the Bawarias of India the Bhuva or priest of Devi may
not cut or shave his hair under penalty of a fine of Rs. 10. A Parsi
priest or Mobed must never be bare-headed and never shave his head or
face. [318] Professor Robertson Smith states: "As a diadem is in its
origin nothing more than a fillet to confine hair that is worn long,
I apprehend that in old times the hair of Hebrew princes like that of a
Maori chief, was taboo, and that Absalom's long locks (2 Sam. xiv. 26)
were the mark of his political pretensions and not of his vanity. When
the hair of a Maori chief was cut, it was collected and buried in a
sacred place or hung on a tree; and it is noteworthy that Absalom's
hair was cut annually at the end of the year, in the sacred season
of pilgrimage, and that it was collected and weighed." [319]
11. The beard
The importance attached by other races to the hair of the head seems
among the Muhammadans to have been concentrated specially in the
beard. The veneration displayed for the beard in this community is
well known. The Prophet ordained that the minimum length of the beard
should be the breadth of five fingers. When the beard is turning grey
they usually dye it with henna and sometimes with indigo; it may be
thought that a grey beard is a sign of weakness. The Prophet said,
'Change the whiteness of your hair, but not with anything black.' It is
not clear why black was prohibited. It is said that the first Caliph
Abu Bakar was accustomed to dye his beard red with henna, and hence
this practice has been adopted by Muhammadans. [320] The custom of
shaving the chin is now being adopted by young Muhammadans, but as they
get older they still let the beard grow. A very favourite Muhammadan
oath is, 'By the beard of the Prophet'; and in Persia if a man thinks
another is mocking him he says, 'Do you laugh at my beard?' Neither
Hindus nor Muhammadans have any objection to becoming bald, as the
head is always covered by the turban in society. But when a man wishes
to grow a beard it is a serious drawback if he is unable to do it;
and he will then sometimes pluck the young wheat-ears and rub the
juice over his cheeks and chin so that he may grow bearded like the
wheat. Among the Hindus, Rajputs and Marathas, as well as the Sikhs,
commonly wore beards, all of these being military castes. Both the
beard and hair were considered to impart an aspect of ferocity to
the countenance, and when the Rajputs and Muhammadans were going
into battle they combed the hair and trained the beard to project
sideways from the face. When a Muhammadan wears a beard he must have
hair in the centre of his chin, whereas a Hindu shaves this part. A
Muhammadan must have his moustache short so that it may not touch
and defile food entering the mouth. It is related that a certain Kazi
had a small head and a very long beard; and he had a dream that a man
with a small head and a long beard must be a fool. When he woke up he
thought this was applicable to himself. As he could not make his head
larger he decided to make his beard smaller, and looked for scissors
to cut part of it off. But he could not find any scissors, and being
in a hurry to shorten his beard he decided to burn away part of it,
and set it alight. But the fire consumed the whole of his beard before
he could put it out, and he then realised the truth of the dream.
12. Significance of removal of the hair and shaving the head
If the hair was considered to be the source of a man's strength and
vigour, the removal of it would involve the loss of this and might be
considered especially to debar him from fighting or governing. The
instances given from the _Golden Bough_ have shown the fear felt by
many people of the consequences of the removal of their hair. The
custom of shaving the head might also betoken the renunciation of the
world and of the pursuit of arms. This may be the reason why monks
shaved the head, a practice which was followed by Buddhist as well as
Christian monks. A very clear case is also given by Sir James Frazer:
"When the wicked brothers Clotaire and Childebert coveted the kingdom
of their dead brother Clodomir, they inveigled into their power their
little nephews, the two sons of Clodomir; and having done so, they
sent a messenger bearing scissors and a naked sword to the children's
grandmother, Queen Clotilde, at Paris. The envoy showed the scissors
and the sword to Clotilde, and bade her choose whether the children
should be shorn and live, or remain unshorn and die. The proud queen
replied that if her grandchildren were not to come to the throne
she would rather see them dead than shorn. And murdered they were
by their ruthless uncle Clotaire with his own hand." [321] In this
case it appears that if their hair was shorn the children could not
come to the throne but would be destined to become monks. Similarly,
in speaking of the Georgians, Marco Polo remarks that they cut their
hair short like churchmen. [322] When a member of the religious order
of the Manbhaos is initiated his head is shaved clean by the village
barber, and the scalp-lock and moustache must be cut off by his _guru_
or preceptor, this being perhaps the special mark of his renunciation
of the world. The scalp-locks are preserved and made into ropes
which some of them fasten round their loins. Members of the Hindu
orders generally shave their scalp-locks and the head on initiation,
probably for the same reason as the Manbhaos. But afterwards they
often let the whole of their hair grow long. These men imagine that
by the force of their austerities they will obtain divine power,
so their religious character appears to be of a different order from
monasticism. Perhaps, therefore, they wear their hair long in order to
increase their spiritual potency. They themselves now say that they
do it in imitation of the god Siva and the ancient ascetics who had
long matted locks. The common Hindu practice of shaving the heads
of widows may thus be interpreted as a symbol of their complete
renunciation of the world and of any idea of remarriage. It was
accompanied by numerous other rules designed to make a widow's life a
continual penance. This barbarous custom was formerly fairly general,
at least among the higher castes, but is rapidly being abandoned
except by one or two of the stricter sections of Brahmans. Shaving
the head might also be imposed as a punishment. Thus in the time of
the reign of the Emperor Chandraguptra Maurya in the fourth century
B.C. it is stated that ordinary wounding by mutilation was punished
by the corresponding mutilation of the offender, in addition to the
amputation of his hand. The crime of giving false evidence was visited
with mutilation of the extremities; and in certain unspecified cases,
serious offences were punished by the shaving of the offender's hair,
a penalty regarded as specially infamous. [323] The cutting off of some
or all of the hair is at the present time a common punishment for caste
offences. Among the Korkus a man and woman caught in adultery have
each a lock of hair cut off. If a Chamar man and woman are detected
in the same offence, the heads of both are shaved clean of hair. A
Dhimar girl who goes wrong before marriage has a lock of her hair
cut off as a penalty, the same being done in several other castes.
13. Shaving the head by mourners
The exact significance which is to be attached to the removal by
mourners of their hair after a death is perhaps doubtful. Sir James
Frazer shows that the Australian aborigines are accustomed to let their
own blood flow on to the corpse of a dead kinsman and to place their
cut hair on the corpse. He suggests that in both cases the object
is to strengthen the feeble spirit within the corpse and sustain
its life, in order that it may be born again. As a development of
such a rite the hair might have become an offering to the dead, and
later still its removal might become a sacrifice and indication of
grief. In this manner the common custom of tearing the hair in token
of grief and mourning for the dead would be accounted for. Whether
the Hindu custom of shaving the heads of mourners was also originally
a sacrifice and offering appears to be uncertain. Professor Robertson
Smith considered [324] that in this case the hair is shaved off as a
means of removing impurity, and quotes instances from the Bible where
lepers and persons defiled by contact with the dead are purified
by shaving the hair. [325] As the father of a child is also shaved
after its birth, and the shaving must here apparently be a rite of
purification, it probably has the same significance in the case
of mourners; it is not clear whether any element of sacrifice is
also involved. The degree to which the Hindu mourner parts with his
hair varies to some extent with the nearness of the relationship,
and for females or distant relatives they do not always shave. The
mourners are shaved on the last day of the impurity, when presents
are given to the Maha-Brahman, and the latter, representing the dead
man, is also shaved with them. When a Hindu is at the point of death,
before he makes the gifts for the good of his soul the head is shaved
with the exception of his _choti_ or scalp-lock, the chin and upper
lip. Often the corpse is also shaved after death.
14. Hair offerings
Another case of the hair offering is that made in fulfilment of a vow
or at a temple. In this case the hair appears to be a gift-offering
which is made to the god as representing the life and strength of the
donor; owing to the importance attached to the hair as the source of
life and strength, it was a very precious sacrifice. Sir James Frazer
also suggests that the hair so given would impart life and strength to
the god, of which he stood in need, just as he needed food to nourish
him. Among the Hindus it is a common practice to take a child to some
well-known temple to have its hair cut for the first time, and to offer
the clippings of hair to the deity. If they cannot go to the temple
to have the hair cut they have it cut at home, and either preserve the
whole hair or a lock of it, until an opportunity occurs to offer it at
the temple. In some castes a Brahman is invited at the first cutting of
a child's hair, and he repeats texts and blesses the child; the first
lock of hair is then cut by the child's maternal uncle, and its head
is shaved by the barber. A child's hair is cut in the first, third or
fifth year after birth, but not in the second or fourth year. Among
the Muhammadans when a child's hair is cut for the first time, or at
least on one occasion in its life, the hair should be weighed against
silver or gold and the amount distributed in charity. In these cases
also it would appear that the hair as a valuable part of the child
is offered to the god to obtain his protection for the life of the
child. If a woman has no child and desires one, or if she has had
children and lost them, she will vow her next child's hair to some
god or temple. A small patch known as _chench_ is then left unshorn
on the child's head until it can be taken to the temple.
15. Keeping hair unshorn during a vow
It was also the custom to keep the hair unshorn during the performance
of a vow. "While his vow lasted a Nazarite might not have his hair cut:
'All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come
upon his head.' [326] The Egyptians on a journey kept their hair
uncut till they returned home. [327] Among the Chatti tribe of the
ancient Germans the young warriors never clipped their hair or their
beard till they had slain an enemy. Six thousand Saxons once swore
that they would not clip their hair nor shave their beards until
they had taken vengeance on their enemies." [328] Similarly, Hindu
religious mendicants keep their hair long while they are journeying
on a pilgrimage, and when they arrive at the temple which is their
goal they shave it all off and offer it to the god. In this case, as
the hair is vowed as an offering, it clearly cannot be cut during the
performance of the vow, but must be preserved intact. When the task
to be accomplished for the fulfilment of a vow is a journey or the
slaying of enemies, the retention of the hair is probably also meant
to support and increase the wearer's strength for the accomplishment
of his purpose.
16. Disposal of cut hair and nails
If the hair contained a part of the wearer's life and strength its
disposal would be a matter of great importance, because, according
to primitive belief, these qualities would remain in it after it
had been severed. Hence, if an enemy obtained it, by destroying the
hair or some analogous action he might injure or destroy the life and
strength of the person to whom it belonged. The Hindus usually wrap
up a child's first hair in a ball of dough and throw it into a running
stream, with the cuttings of his nails. Well-to-do people also place a
rupee in the ball, so that it is now regarded as an offering. The same
course is sometimes followed with the hair and nails cut ceremoniously
at a wedding, and possibly on one or two other occasions, such as
the investiture with the sacred thread; but the belief is decaying,
and ordinarily no care is taken of the shorn hair. In Berar when the
Hindus cut a child's hair for the first time they sometimes bury it
under a water-pot where the ground is damp, perhaps with the idea
that the child's hair will grow thickly and plentifully like grass in
a damp place. It is a common belief that if a barren woman gets hold
of a child's first hair and wears it round her waist the fertility of
the child's mother will be transferred to her. The Sarwaria Brahmans
shave a child's hair in its third year. A small silver razor is made
specially for the occasion, costing a rupee and a quarter, and the
barber first touches the child's hair with this and then shaves it
ceremoniously with his own razor. [329] The Halbas think that the
severed clippings of hair are of no use for magic, but if a witch can
cut a lock of hair from a man's head she can use it to work magic on
him. In making an image of a person with intent to injure or destroy
him, it was customary to put a little of his hair into the image, by
which means his life and strength were conveyed to it. A few years
ago a London newspaper mentioned the case of an Essex man entering
a hairdresser's and requesting the barber to procure for him a piece
of a certain customer's hair. When asked the reason for this curious
demand, he stated that the customer had injured him and he wished
to 'work a spell' against him. [330] In the Parsi Zend-Avesta it is
stated that if the clippings of hair or nails are allowed to fall in
the ground or ditches, evil spirits spring up from them and devour
grain and clothing in the house. It was therefore ordained for the
Parsis through their prophet Zarathustra that the cuttings of hair
or nails should be buried in a deep hole ten paces from a dwelling,
twenty paces from fire, and fifty paces from the sacred bundles called
_baresman_. Texts should be said over them and the hole filled in. Many
Parsis still bury their cut hair and nails four inches under ground,
and an extracted tooth is disposed of in the same manner. [331] Some
Hindus think that the nail-parings should always be thrown into a
frequented place, where they will be destroyed by the traffic. If
they are thrown on to damp earth they will grow into a plant which
will ruin the person from whose body they came. It is said that about
twenty years ago a man in Nagpur was ruined by the growth of a piece
of finger-nail, which had accidentally dropped into a flower-pot in
his house. Apparently in this case the nail is supposed to contain a
portion of the life and strength of the person to whom it belonged, and
if the nail grows it gradually absorbs more and more of his life and
strength, and he consequently becomes weaker and weaker through being
deprived of it. The Hindu superstition against shaving the head appears
to find a parallel regarding the nails in the old English saying:
Cut no horn
On the Sabbath morn.
Among some Hindus it is said that the toe-nails should not be cut
at all until a child is married, when they are cut ceremoniously by
the barber.
17. Superstitions about shaving the hair
Since the removal of the hair is held to involve a certain loss of
strength and power, it should only be effected at certain seasons
and not on auspicious days. A man who has male children should not
have his head shaved on Monday, as this may cause his children to
die. On the other hand, a man who has no children will fast on Sunday
in the hope of getting them, and therefore he will neither shave his
head nor visit his wife on that day. A Hindu must not be shaved on
Thursday, because this is the day of the planet Jupiter, which is also
known as Guru, and his act would be disrespectful to his own _guru_
or preceptor. Tuesday is Devi's day, and a man will not get shaved
on that day; nor on Saturday, because it is Hanuman's day. [332] On
Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays he may be shaved, but not if the day
happens to be the new moon, full moon, or the Ashtami or Ekadashi,
that is the eighth or eleventh day of the fortnight. He should not
shave on the day that he is going on a journey. If all these rules
were strictly observed there would be very few days on which one
could get shaved, but many of them are necessarily more honoured in
the breach. Wednesdays and Fridays are the best days for shaving,
and by shaving on these days a man will see old age. Debtors are
shaved on Wednesdays, as they think that this will help them to pay
off their debts. Some Brahmans are not shaved during the month of
Shrawan (July), when the crops are growing, nor during the nine days
of the months of Kunwar (September) and Chait (March), when a fast
is observed and the _jawaras_ [333] are sown. After they have been
shaved high-caste Hindus consider themselves impure till they have
bathed. They touch no person or thing in the house, and sometimes
have the water thrown on them by a servant so as to avoid contact
with the vessels. They will also neither eat, drink nor smoke until
they have bathed. Sometimes they throw so much water over the head
in order to purify themselves as to catch a bad cold. In this case,
apparently, the impurity accrues from the loss of the hair, and the
man feels that virtue has gone out of him. Women never shave their
hair with a razor, as they think that to do so would make the body
so heavy after death that it could not be carried to the place of
cremation. They carefully pluck out the hair under the armpits and
the pubic hair with a pair of pincers. A girl's hair may be cut with
scissors, but not after she is ten years old or is married. Sometimes
a girl's hair is not cut at all, but her father will take a pearl and
entwine it into her hair, where it is left until she is married. It
is considered very auspicious to give away a girl in marriage with
hair which has never been cut, and a pearl in it. After marriage she
will take out the pearl and wear it in an ornament.
18. Reasons why the hair was considered the source of strength
The above evidence appears to indicate that the belief of a man's
strength and vigour being contained in his hair is by no means confined
to the legend of Samson, but is spread all over the world. This
has been pointed out by Professor Robertson Smith, [334] Professor
Wilken and others. Sir J.G. Frazer also adduces several instances in
the _Golden Bough_ to show that the life or soul was believed to be
contained in the hair. This may well have been the case, but the hair
was also specialised, so to speak, as the seat of bodily vigour and
strength. The same idea appears to have applied in a minor measure
to the nails and teeth. The rules for disposing of the cut hair
usually apply to the parings of nails, and the first teeth are also
deposited in a rat's hole or on the roof of the house. As suggested
by Professor Robertson Smith it seems likely that the strength and
vigour of the body was believed to be located in the hair, and also to
a less extent in the nails and teeth, because they grew more visibly
and quickly than the body and continued to do so after it had attained
to maturity. The hair and nails continue to grow all through life, and
though the teeth do not grow when fully formed, the second teeth appear
when the body is considerably developed and the wisdom teeth after it
is fully developed. The hair grows much more palpably and vigorously
than the nails and teeth, and hence might be considered especially the
source of strength. Other considerations which might confirm the idea
are that men have more hair on their bodies than women, and strongly
built men often have a large quantity of hair. Some of the stronger
wild animals have long hair, as the lion, bear and wild boar; and
the horse, often considered the embodiment of strength, has a long
mane. And when anger is excited the hair sometimes appears to rise,
as it were, from the skin. The nails and teeth were formerly used
on occasion as weapons of offence, and hence might be considered to
contain part of the strength and vigour of the body.
Finally, it may be suggested as a possibility that the Roundheads
cut their hair short as a protest against the superstition that
a soldier's hair must be long, which originated in the idea that
strength is located in the hair and may have still been current
in their time. We know that the Puritans strove vainly against the
veneration of the Maypole as the spirit of the new vegetation, [335]
and against the old nature-rites observed at Christmas, the veneration
of fire as the preserver of life against cold, and the veneration
of the evergreen plants, the fir tree, the holly, and the mistletoe,
which retained their foliage through the long night of the northern
winter, and were thus a pledge to man of the return of warmth and
the renewal of vegetation in the spring. And it therefore seems not
altogether improbable that the Puritans may have similarly contended
against the superstition as to the wearing of long hair.
Naoda
_Naoda._ [336]--A small caste found in the Nimar District and in
Central India. The name means a rower and is derived from _nao_,
a boat. The caste are closely connected with the Mallahs or Kewats,
but have a slightly distinctive position, as they are employed to
row pilgrims over the Nerbudda at the great fair held at Siva's
temple on the island of Mandhata. They say that their ancestors were
Rajputs, and some of their family names, as Solanki, Rawat and Mori,
are derived from those of Rajput septs. But these have probably been
adopted in imitation of their Kshatriya overlords. The caste is an
occupational one. They have a tradition that in former times a Naoda
boatman recovered the corpse of a king's daughter, who had drowned
herself in the river wearing costly jewels, and the king as a reward
granted them the right of ferrying pilgrims at Mandhata, which they
still continue to enjoy, keeping their earnings for themselves. They
have a division of impure blood called the Gate or bastard Naodas, who
marry among themselves, and any girl who reaches the age of puberty
without being married is relegated to this. In the case of a caste
whose numbers are so small, irregular connections with outsiders must
probably be not infrequent. Another report states that adult unmarried
girls are not expelled but are married to a pipal tree. But girls are
sought after, and it is customary to pay a bride-price, the average
amount of which is Rs. 25. Before the bridegroom starts for his wedding
his mother takes and passes in front of him, successively from his
head to his feet, a pestle, some stalks of _rusa_ grass, a churning
rod and a winnowing-fan. This is done with the object of keeping off
evil spirits, and it is said that by her action she threatens to pound
the spirits with the pestle, to tie them up with the grass, to churn
and mash them with the churning-rod, and to scatter them to the winds
with the winnowing-fan. When a man wishes to divorce his wife he simply
turns her out of the house in the presence of four or five respectable
men of the caste. The marriage of a widow is celebrated on a Sunday
or Tuesday, the clothes of the couple being tied together by another
widow at night. The following day they spend together in a garden,
and in the evening are escorted home by their relatives with torches
and music. Next morning the woman goes to the well and draws water,
and her husband, accompanying her, helps her to lift the water-pots
on to her shoulder.
The caste worship the ordinary Hindu deities and especially Bhairon,
the guardian of the gate of Mahadeo's temple. They have a nail driven
into the bow of their boat which is called 'Bhairon's nail,' and at the
Dasahra festival they offer to this a white pumpkin with cocoanuts,
vermilion, incense and liquor. The caste hold in special reverence
the cow, the dog and the tamarind tree. The dog is sacred as being the
animal on which Bhairava rides, and their most solemn oaths are sworn
by a dog or a cow. They will on no account cut or burn the tamarind
tree, and the women veil their faces before it. They cannot explain
this sentiment, which is probably due to some forgotten belief of
the nature of totemism. To kill a cow or a cat intentionally involves
permanent exclusion from the caste, while the slaughter of a squirrel,
dog, horse, buffalo or monkey is punished by temporary exclusion,
it being equally sinful to allow any of these animals to die with
a rope round its neck. The Naodas eat the flesh of pigs and fowls,
but they occupy a fairly good social position and Brahmans will take
water from their hands.
Nat
List of Paragraphs
1. _The Nats not a proper caste_.
2. _Muhammadan Nats_.
3. _Social customs of the Nats_. _Their low status_.
4. _Acrobatic performances_.
5. _Sliding or walking on ropes as a charm for the crops_.
6. _Snake-charmers_.
1. The Nats not a proper caste
_Nat, [337] Badi, Dang-Charha, Karnati, Bazigar, Sapera._--The term
Nat (Sanskrit Nata--a dancer) appears to be applied indefinitely
to a number of groups of vagrant acrobats and showmen, especially
those who make it their business to do feats on the tight-rope or with
poles, and those who train and exhibit snakes. Badi and Bazigar mean a
rope-walker, Dang-Charha a rope-climber, and Sapera a snake-charmer. In
the Central Provinces the Garudis or snake-charmers, and the Kolhatis,
a class of gipsy acrobats akin to the Berias, are also known as Nat,
and these are treated in separate articles. It is almost certain that
a considerable section, if not the majority, of the Nats really belong
to the Kanjar or Beria gipsy castes, who themselves maybe sprung from
the Doms. [338] Sir D. Ibbetson says: "They wander about with their
families, settling for a few days or weeks at a time in the vicinity
of large villages or towns, and constructing temporary shelters of
grass. In addition to practising acrobatic feats and conjuring of
a low class, they make articles of grass, straw and reeds for sale;
and in the centre of the Punjab are said to act as Mirasis, though
this is perhaps doubtful. They often practise surgery and physic
in a small way and are not free from suspicion of sorcery." [339]
This account would just as well apply to the Kanjar gipsies, and
the Nat women sometimes do tattooing like Kanjar or Beria women. In
Jubbulpore also the caste is known as Nat Beria, indicating that
the Nats there are probably derived from the Beria caste. Similarly
Sir H. Risley gives Bazigar and Kabutari as groups of the Berias
of Bengal, and states that these are closely akin to the Nats and
Kanjars of Hindustan. [340] An old account of the Nats or Bazigars
[341] would equally well apply to the Kanjars; and in Mr. Crooke's
detailed article on the Nats several connecting links are noticed. The
Nat women are sometimes known as Kabutari or pigeon, either because
their acrobatic feats are like the flight of the tumbler pigeon, or
on account of the flirting manner with which they attract their male
customers. [342] In the Central Provinces the women of the small Gopal
caste of acrobats are called Kabutari, and this further supports the
hypothesis that Nat is rather an occupational term than the name of
a distinct caste, though it is quite likely that there may be Nats
who have no other caste. The Badi or rope-dancer group again is an
offshoot of the Gond tribe, at least in the tracts adjoining the
Central Provinces. They have Gond septs as Marai, Netam, Wika, [343]
and they have the _damru_ or drum used by the Gaurias or snake-charmers
and jugglers of Chhattisgarh, who are also derived from the Gonds. The
Chhattisgarhi Dang-Charhas are Gonds who say they formerly belonged to
Panna State and were supported by Raja Aman Singh of Panna, a great
patron of their art. They sing a song lamenting his death in the
flower of his youth. The Karnatis or Karnataks are a class of Nats
who are supposed to have come from the Carnatic. Mr. Crooke notes
that they will eat the leavings of all high castes, and are hence
known as Khushhaliya or 'Those in prosperous circumstances.' [344]
2. Muhammadan Nats
One division of the Nats are Muhammadans and seem to be to some
extent a distinctive group. They have seven _gotras_--Chicharia,
Damaria, Dhalbalki, Purbia, Dhondabalki, Karimki and Kalasia. They
worship two Birs or spirits, Halaila Bir and Sheikh Saddu, to whom
they sacrifice fowls in the months of Bhadon (August) and Baisakh
(April). Hindus of any caste are freely admitted into their community,
and they can marry Hindu girls.
3. Social customs of the Nats. Their low status
Generally the customs of the Nats show them to be the dregs of the
population. There is no offence which entails permanent expulsion from
caste. They will eat any kind of food including snakes, crocodiles
and rats, and also take food from the hands of any caste, even it
is said from sweepers. It is not reported that they prostitute their
women, but there is little doubt that this is the case; in the Punjab
[345] when a Nat woman marries, the first child is either given to
the grandmother as compensation for the loss of the mother's gains
as a prostitute, or is redeemed by a payment of Rs. 30. Among the
Chhattisgarhi Dang-Charhas a bride-price of Rs. 40 is paid, of which
the girl's father only keeps ten, and the remaining sum of Rs. 30
is expended on a feast to the caste. Some of the Nats have taken to
cultivation and become much more respectable, eschewing the flesh
of unclean animals. Another group of the caste keep trained dogs
and hunt the wild pig with spears like the Kolhatis of Berar. The
villagers readily pay for their services in order to get the pig
destroyed, and they sell the flesh to the Gonds and lower castes of
Hindus. Others hunt jackals with dogs in the same manner. They eat
the flesh of the jackals and dispose of any surplus to the Gonds, who
also eat it. The Nats worship Devi and also Hanuman, the monkey god,
on account of the acrobatic powers of monkeys. But in Bombay they say
that their favourite and only living gods are their bread-winners and
averters of hunger, the drum, the rope and the balancing-pole. [346]
4. Acrobatic performances
The tight-rope is stretched between two pairs of bamboos, each pair
being fixed obliquely in the ground and crossing each other at the top
so as to form a socket over which the rope passes. The ends of the rope
are taken over the crossed bamboos and firmly secured to the ground by
heavy pegs. The performer takes another balancing-pole in his hands
and walks along the rope between the poles which are about 12 feet
high. Another man beats a drum, and a third stands under the rope
singing the performer's praises and giving him encouragement. After
this the performer ties two sets of cow or buffalo horns to his
feet, which are secured to the back of the skulls so that the flat
front between the horns rests on the rope, and with these he walks
over the rope, holding the balancing-rod in his hands and descends
again. Finally he takes a brass plate and a cloth and again ascends
the rope. He places the plate on the rope and folds the cloth over
it to make a pad. He then stands on his head on the pad with his feet
in the air and holds the balancing-rod in his hands; two strings are
tied to the end of this rod and the other ends of the strings are
held by the man underneath. With the assistance of the balancing-rod
the performer then jerks the plate along the rope with his head,
his feet being in the air, until he arrives at the end and finally
descends again. This usually concludes the performance, which demands
a high degree of skill. Women occasionally, though rarely, do the
same feats. Another class of Nats walk on high stilts and the women
show their confidence by dancing and singing under them. A saying
about the Nats is: _Nat ka bachcha to kalabazi hi karega_; or 'The
rope-dancer's son is always turning somersaults.' [347]
5. Sliding or walking on ropes as a charm for the crops
The feats of the Nats as tight-rope walkers used apparently to make
a considerable impression on the minds of the people, as it is not
uncommon to find a deified Nat, called Nat Baba or Father Nat, as
a village god. A Natni or Nat woman is also sometimes worshipped,
and where two sharp peaks of hills are situated close to each other,
it is related that in former times there was a Natni, very skilful
on the tight-rope, who performed before the king; and he promised
her that if she would stretch a rope from the peak of one hill to
that of the other and walk across it he would marry her and make
her wealthy. Accordingly the rope was stretched, but the queen
from jealousy went and cut it half through in the night, and when
the Natni started to walk the rope broke and she fell down and was
killed. She was therefore deified and worshipped. It is probable that
this legend recalls some rite in which the Nat was employed to walk
on a tight-rope for the benefit of the crops, and, if he failed, was
killed as a sacrifice; for the following passage taken from Traill's
account of Kumaon [348] seems clearly to refer to some such rite:
"Drought, want of fertility in the soil, murrain in cattle, and
other calamities incident to husbandry are here invariably ascribed
to the wrath of particular gods, to appease which recourse is had to
various ceremonies. In the Kumaon District offerings and singing and
dancing are resorted to on such occasions. In Garhwal the measures
pursued with the same view are of a peculiar nature, deserving of
more particular notice. In villages dedicated to the protection of
Mahadeva propitiatory festivals are held in his honour. At these
Badis or rope-dancers are engaged to perform on the tight-rope, and
slide down an inclined rope stretched from the summit of a cliff to
the valley beneath and made fast to posts driven into the ground. The
Badi sits astride on a wooden saddle, to which he is tied by thongs;
the saddle is similarly secured to the _bast_ or sliding cable,
along which it runs, by means of a deep groove; sandbags are tied to
the Badi's feet sufficient to secure his balance, and he is then,
after various ceremonies and the sacrifice of a kid, started off;
the velocity of his descent is very great, and the saddle, however
well greased, emits a volume of smoke throughout the greater part of
his progress. The length and inclination of the _bast_ necessarily
vary with the nature of the cliff, but as the Badi is remunerated at
the rate of a rupee for every hundred cubits, hence termed a tola,
a correct measurement always takes place; the longest _bast_ which
has fallen within my observation has been twenty-one tolas, or 2100
cubits in length. From the precautions taken as above mentioned the
only danger to be apprehended by the Badi is from breaking of the
rope, to provide against which the latter, commonly from one and
a half to two inches in diameter, is made wholly by his own hand;
the material used is the _bhabar_ grass. Formerly, if a Badi fell to
the ground in his course, he was immediately despatched with a sword
by the surrounding spectators, but this practice is now, of course,
prohibited. No fatal accident has occurred from the performance
of this ceremony since 1815, though it is probably celebrated at
not less than fifty villages in each year. After the completion of
the sliding, the _bast_ or rope is cut up and distributed among the
inhabitants of the village, who hang the pieces as charms on the eaves
of their houses. The hair of the Badi is also taken and preserved as
possessing similar virtues. He being thus made the organ to obtain
fertility for the lands of others, the Badi is supposed to entail
sterility on his own; and it is firmly believed that no grain sown
with his hand can ever vegetate. Each District has its hereditary
Badi, who is supported by annual contributions of grain from the
inhabitants." It is not improbable that the performance of the Nat
is a reminiscence of a period when human victims were sacrificed
for the crops, this being a common practice among primitive peoples,
as shown by Sir J.G. Frazer in _Attis, Adonis, Osiris_. Similarly the
spirits of Nats which are revered in the Central Provinces may really
be those of victims killed during the performance of some charm for the
good of the crops, akin to that still prevalent in the Himalayas. The
custom of making the Nat slide down a rope is of the same character
as that of swinging a man in the air by a hook secured in his flesh,
which was formerly common in these Provinces. But in both cases the
meaning of the rite is obscure.
6. Snake-charmers
The groups who practise snake-charming are known as Sapera or Garudi
and in the Maratha Districts as Madari. Another name for them is
Nag-Nathi, or one who seizes a cobra. They keep cobras, pythons,
scorpions, and the iguana or large lizard, which they consider to be
poisonous. Some of them when engaged with their snakes wear two pieces
of tiger-skin on their back and chest, and a cap of tiger-skin in
which they fix the eyes of various birds. They have a hollow gourd
on which they produce a kind of music and this is supposed to charm
the snakes. When catching a cobra they pin its head to the ground
with a stick and then seize it in a cleft bamboo and prick out the
poison-fangs with a large needle. They think that the teeth of the
iguana are also poisonous and they knock them out with a stick,
and if fresh teeth afterwards grow they believe them not to contain
poison. The python is called Ajgar, which is said to mean eater of
goats. In captivity the pythons will not eat of themselves, and the
snake-charmers chop up pieces of meat and fowls and placing the food
in the reptile's mouth massage it down the body. They feed the pythons
only once in four or five days. They have antidotes for snake-bite,
the root of a creeper called _kalipar_ and the bark of the _karheya_
tree. When a patient is brought to them they give him a little pepper,
and if he tastes the pungent flavour they think that he has not been
affected by snake-poison, but if it seems tasteless that he has
been bitten. Then they give him small pieces of the two antidotes
already mentioned with tobacco and 2 1/2 leaves of the _nim_ tree
[349] which is sacred to Devi. On the festival of Nag-Panchmi (Cobra's
Fifth) they worship their cobras and give them milk to drink and then
take them round the town or village and the people also worship and
feed the snakes and give a present of a few annas to the Sapera. In
towns much frequented by cobras, a special adoration is paid to
them. Thus in Hatta in the Damoh District a stone image of a snake,
known as Nag-Baba or Father Cobra is worshipped for a month before
the festival of Nag-Panchmi. During this period one man from every
house in the village must go to Nag-Baba's shrine outside and take
food there and come back. And on Nag-Panchmi the whole town goes out
in a body to pay him reverence, and it is thought that if any one is
absent the cobras will harass him for the whole year. But others say
that cobras will only bite men of low caste. The Saperas will not kill
a snake as a rule, but occasionally it is said that they kill one and
cut off the head and eat the body, this being possibly an instance
of eating the divine animal at a sacrificial meal. The following is
an old account of the performances of snake-charmers in Bengal: [350]
"Hence, on many occasions throughout the year, the dread Manasa
Devi, the queen of snakes, is propitiated by presents, vows and
religious rites. In the month of Shrabana the worship of the snake
goddess is celebrated with great éclat. An image of the goddess,
seated on a water-lily, encircled with serpents, or a branch of the
snake-tree (a species of Euphorbia), or a pot of water, with images
of serpents made of clay, forms the object of worship. Men, women and
children, all offer presents to avert from themselves the wrath of
the terrific deity. The Mals or snake-catchers signalise themselves
on this occasion. Temporary scaffolds of bamboo work are set up in
the presence of the goddess. Vessels filled with all sorts of snakes
are brought in. The Mals, often reeling with intoxication, mount
the scaffolds, take out serpents from the vessels, and allow them to
bite their arms. Bite after bite succeeds; the arms run with blood;
and the Mals go on with their pranks, amid the deafening plaudits
of the spectators. Now and then they fall off from the scaffold and
pretend to feel the effects of poison, and cure themselves by their
incantations. But all is mere pretence. The serpents displayed on
the occasion and challenged to do their worst, have passed through a
preparatory state. Their fangs have been carefully extracted from their
jaws. But most of the vulgar spectators easily persuade themselves
to believe that the Mals are the chosen servants of Siva and the
favourites of Manasa. Although their supernatural pretensions are
ridiculous, yet it must be confessed that the Mals have made snakes
the subject of their peculiar study. They are thoroughly acquainted
with their qualities, their dispositions, and their habits. They
will run down a snake into its hole, and bring it out thence by
main force. Even the terrible cobra is cowed down by the controlling
influence of a Mal. When in the act of bringing out snakes from their
subterranean holes, the Mals are in the habit of muttering charms, in
which the names of Manasa and Mahadeva frequently occur; superstition
alone can clothe these unmeaning words with supernatural potency. But
it is not inconsistent with the soundest philosophy to suppose that
there may be some plants whose roots are disagreeable to serpents,
and from which they instinctively turn away. All snake-catchers of
Bengal are provided with a bundle of the roots of some plant which
they carefully carry along with them, when they set out on their
serpent-hunting expeditions. When a serpent, disturbed in its hole,
comes out furiously hissing with rage, with its body coiled, and its
head lifted up, the Mal has only to present before it the bundle of
roots above alluded to, at the sight of which it becomes spiritless
as an eel. This we have ourselves witnessed more than once."
These Mals appear to have been members of the aboriginal Male or Male
Paharia tribe of Bengal.
Nunia
_Nunia, Lunia._ [351]--A mixed occupational caste of salt-makers and
earth-workers, made up of recruits from the different non-Aryan tribes
of northern India. The word _non_ means salt, and is a corruption of
the Sanskrit _lavana_, 'the moist,' which first occurs as a name for
sea-salt in the Atharva Veda. [352] In the oldest prose writings salt
is known as Saindhava or 'that which is brought from the Indus,' this
perhaps being Punjab rock-salt. The Nunias are a fairly large caste in
Bengal and northern India, numbering 800,000 persons, but the Central
Provinces and Berar contain only 3000, who are immigrants from Upper
India. Here they are navvies and masons, a calling which they have
generally adopted since the Government monopoly has interfered with
their proper business of salt-refining. The mixed origin of the caste
is shown by the list of their subdivisions in the United Provinces,
which includes the names Mallah, Kewat, Kuchbandhia, Bind, Musahar,
Bhuinhar and Lodha, all of which are distinct castes, besides a number
of territorial subcastes. A list of nearly thirty subcastes is given
by Mr. Crooke, and this is an instance of the tendency of migratory
castes to split up into small groups for the purpose of arranging
marriages, owing to the difficulty of ascertaining the status and
respectability of each other's families, and the unwillingness to
contract alliances with those whose social position may turn out to
be not wholly satisfactory. "The internal structure of the caste,"
Mr. Crooke remarks, "is far from clear; it would appear that they are
still in a state of transition, and the different endogamous subcastes
are not as yet fully recognised." In Bilaspur the Nunias have three
local subcastes, the Bandhaiya, the Ratanpuria and the Kharodhia. The
two last, deriving their names from the towns of Ratanpur and Kharod
in Bilaspur, are said to have been employed in former times in the
construction of the temples and other buildings which abound in
these localities, and have thus acquired a considerable degree of
professional skill in masonry work; while the Bandhaiya, who take their
name from Bandhogarh, confine themselves to the excavation of tanks
and wells. The exogamous divisions of the caste are also by no means
clearly defined; in Mirzapur they have a system of local subdivisions
called _dih_, each subdivision being named after the village which
is supposed to be its home. The word _dih_ itself means a site or
village. Those who have a common _dih_ do not intermarry. [353] This
fact is interesting as being an instance of the direct derivation of
the exogamous clan from residence in a parent village and not from
any heroic or supposititious ancestor.
The caste have a legend which shows their mixed origin. Some centuries
ago, they say, a marriage procession consisting of Brahmans, Rajputs,
Banias and Gosains went to a place near Ajodhya. After the ceremony was
over the bride, on being taken to the bridegroom's lodging, scraped up
a little earth with her fingers and put it in her mouth. She found it
had a saltish taste, and spat it out on the ground, and this enraged
the tutelary goddess of the village, who considered herself insulted,
and swore that all the bride's descendants should excavate salt in
atonement; and thus the caste arose.
In Bilaspur the caste permit a girl to be married to a boy younger
than herself. A price of five rupees has to be paid for the bride,
unless her family give a girl in exchange. The bridegroom is taken to
the wedding in a palanquin borne by Mahars. After its conclusion the
couple are carried back in the litter for some distance, after which
the bridegroom gets out and walks or rides. When he goes to fetch
his wife on her coming of age the bridegroom wears white clothes,
which is rather peculiar, as white is not a lucky colour among the
Hindus. The Nunias employ Brahmans at their ceremonies, and they have
a caste _panchayat_ or committee, whose headman is known as Kurha. The
Bilaspur section of the caste has two Kurhas. Here Brahmans take water
from them, but not in all places. They consider their traditional
occupation to have been the extraction of salt and saltpetre from
saline earth. At present they are generally employed in the excavation
of tanks and the embankment of fields, and they also sink wells,
build and erect houses, and undertake all kinds of agricultural labour.
Ojha
_Ojha._--The community of soothsayers and minstrels of the Gonds. The
Ojhas may now be considered a distinct subtribe, as they are looked
down upon by the Gonds and marry among themselves. They derive their
name from the word _ojh_ meaning 'entrail,' their original duty
having been, like that of the Roman augurs, to examine the entrails
of the victim immediately after it had been slain as an offering to
the gods. In 1911 the Ojhas numbered about 5000 persons distributed
over all Districts of the Central Provinces. At present the bulk
of the community subsist by beggary. The word Ojha is of Sanskrit
and not of Gond origin and is applied by the Hindus to the seers or
magicians of several of the primitive tribes, while there is also a
class of Ojha Brahmans who practise magic and divination. The Gond
Ojhas, who are the subject of this article, originally served the
Gonds and begged from them alone, but in some parts of the western
Satpuras they are also the minstrels of the Korkus. Those who beg
from the Korkus play on a kind of drum called _dhank_ while the Gond
Ojhas use the _kingri_ or lyre. Some of them also catch birds and
are therefore known as Moghia. Mr. Hislop [354] remarks of them:
"The Ojhas follow the two occupations of bard and fowler. They lead
a wandering life and when passing through villages they sing from
house to house the praises of their heroes, dancing with castanets in
their hands, bells at their ankles and long feathers of jungle birds
in their turbans. They sell live quails and the skins of a species
of Buceros named Dhan-chiria; these are used for making caps and for
hanging up in houses in order to secure wealth (_dhan_), while the
thigh-bones of the same bird when fastened round the waists of children
are deemed an infallible preservative against the assaults of devils
and other such calamities. Their wives tattoo the arms of Hindu and
Gond women. Among them there is a subdivision known as the Mana Ojhas,
who rank higher than the others. Laying claim to unusual sanctity,
they refuse to eat with any one, Gonds, Rajputs or even Brahmans, and
devote themselves to the manufacture of rings and bells which are in
request among their own race, and even of _lingas_ (phallic emblems)
and _nandis_ (bull images), which they sell to all ranks of the Hindu
community. Their wives are distinguished by wearing the cloth of the
upper part of the body over the right shoulder, whereas those of the
common Ojhas and of all the other Gonds wear it over the left."
Mr. Tawney wrote of the Ojhas as follows: [355] "The Ojha women do
not dance. It is only men who do so, and when thus engaged they put
on special attire and wear anklets with bells. The Ojhas like the
Gonds are divided into six or seven god _gots_ (classes or septs),
and those with the same number of gods cannot intermarry. They worship
at the same Deokhala (god's threshing-floor) as the Gonds, but being
regarded as an inferior caste they are not allowed so near the sacred
presence. Like the Gonds they incorporate the spirits of the dead with
the gods, but their manner of doing so is somewhat different, as they
make an image of brass to represent the soul of the deceased and keep
this with the household gods. As with the Gonds, if a household god
makes himself too objectionable he is quietly buried to keep him out
of mischief and a new god is introduced into the family. The latter
should properly bear the same name as his degraded predecessor, but
very often does not. The Ojhas are too poor to indulge in the luxury
of burning their deceased friends and therefore invariably bury them."
The customs of the Ojhas resemble those of the Gonds. They take the
bride to the bridegroom's house to be married, and a widow among
them is expected, though not obliged, to wed her late husband's
younger brother. They eat the flesh of fowls, pigs, and even oxen,
but abstain from that of monkeys, crocodiles and jackals. They will
not touch an ass, a cat or a dog, and consider it sinful to kill
animals which bark or bray.
They will take food from the hands of all except the most impure
castes, and will admit into the community any man who has taken an Ojha
woman to live with him, even though he be a sweeper, provided that he
will submit to the prescribed test of begging from the houses of five
Gonds and eating the leavings of food of the other Ojhas. They will
pardon the transgression of one of their women with an outsider of
any caste whatever, if she is able and willing to provide the usual
penalty feast. They have no _sutak_ or period of impurity after a
death, but merely take a mouthful of liquor and consider themselves
clean. In physical appearance the Ojhas resemble the Gonds but are
less robust. They rank below the Gonds and are considered as impure
by the Hindu castes. In 1865, an Ojha held a village in Hoshangabad
District which he had obtained as follows: [356] "He was singing
and dancing before Raja Raghuji, when the Raja said he would give a
rent-free village to any one who would pick up and chew a quid of
betel-leaf which he (the Raja) had had in his mouth and had spat
out. The Ojha did this and got the village."
The Maithil or Tirhut Brahmans who are especially learned in Tantric
magic are also sometimes known as Ojha, and a family bearing this
title were formerly in the service of the Gond kings of Mandla. They
do not now admit that they acted as augurs or soothsayers, but state
that their business was to pray continuously for the king's success
when he was engaged in any battle, and to sit outside the rooms of sick
persons repeating the sacred Gayatri verse for their recovery. This is
often repeated ten times, counting by a special method on the joints
of the fingers and is then known as _Jap_. When it is repeated a
larger number of times, as 54 or 108, a rosary is used.
Oraon
[_Authorities_: The most complete account of the Oraons is a
monograph entitled, _The Religion and Customs of the Oraons_, by
the late Rev. Father P. Dehon, published in 1906 in the _Memoirs
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol. i. No. 9. The tribe is also
described at length by Colonel Dalton in _The Ethnography of Bengal_,
and an article on it is included in Mr. (Sir H.) Risley's _Tribes
and Castes of Bengal_. References to the Oraons are contained in
Mr. Bradley-Birt's _Chota Nagpur_, and Mr. Ball's _Jungle Life in
India_. The Kurukh language is treated by Dr. Grierson in the volume
of the Linguistic Survey on _Munda and Dravidian Languages_. The
following article is principally made up of extracts from the accounts
of Father Dehon and Colonel Dalton. Papers have also been received
from Mr. Hira Lal, Mr. Balaram Nand, Deputy Inspector of Schools,
Sambalpur, Mr. Jeorakhan Lal, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Bilaspur,
and Munshi Kanhya Lal of the Gazetteer Office.]
List of Paragraphs
1. _General notice_.
2. _Settlement in Chota Nagpur_.
3. _Subdivisions_.
4. _Pre-nuptial licence_.
5. _Betrothal_.
6. _Marriage ceremony_.
7. _Special customs_.
8. _Widow-remarriage and divorce_.
9. _Customs at birth_.
10. _Naming a child_.
11. _Branding and tattooing_.
12. _Dormitory discipline_.
13. _Disposal of the dead_.
14. _Worship of ancestors_.
15. _Religion_. _The supreme deity_.
16. _Minor godlings_.
17. _Human sacrifice_.
18. _Christianity_.
19. _Festivals_. _The Karma or May-day_.
20. _The Sal flower festival_.
21. _The harvest festival_.
22. _Fast for the crops_.
23. _Physical appearance and costume of the Oraons_.
24. _Dress of women_.
25. _Dances_.
26. _Social customs_.
27. _Social rules_.
28. _Character_.
29. _Language_.
1. General notice
_Oraon, Uraon, Kurukh, Dhangar, Kuda, Kisan._--The Oraons are an
important Dravidian tribe of the Chota Nagpur plateau, numbering
altogether about 750,000 persons, of whom 85,000 now belong to the
Central Provinces, being residents of the Jashpur and Sarguja States
and the neighbouring tracts. They are commonly known in the Central
Provinces as Dhangar or Dhangar-Oraon. In Chota Nagpur the word Dhangar
means a farmservant engaged according to a special customary contract,
and it has come to be applied to the Oraons, who are commonly employed
in this capacity. Kuda means a digger or navvy in Uriya, and enquiries
made by Mr. B.C. Mazumdar and Mr. Hira Lal have demonstrated that
the 18,000 persons returned under this designation from Raigarh
and Sambalpur in 1901 were really Oraons. The same remark applies
to 33,000 persons returned from Sambalpur as Kisan or cultivator,
these also being members of the tribe. The name by which the Oraons
know themselves is Kurukh or Kurunkh, and the designation of Oraon
or Orao has been applied to them by outsiders. The meaning of both
names is obscure. Dr. Halm [357] was of opinion that the word _kurukh_
might be identified with the Kolarian _horo_, man, and explained the
term Oraon as the totem of one of the septs into which the Kurukhs
were divided. According to him Oraon was a name coined by the Hindus,
its base being _orgoran_, hawk or cunny bird, used as the name of a
totemistic sept. Sir G. Grierson, however, suggested a connection with
the Kaikari, _urupai_, man; Burgandi _urapo_, man; _urang_, men. The
Kaikaris are a Telugu caste, and as the Oraons are believed to have
come from the south of India, this derivation sounds plausible. In
a similar way Sir. G. Grierson states, Kurukh may be connected
with Tamil _kurugu_, an eagle, and be the name of a totemistic
clan. Compare also names, such as Korava, Kurru, a dialect of Tamil,
and Kudagu. In the Nerbudda valley the farmservant who pours the seed
through the tube of the sowing-plough is known as Oraya; this word
is probably derived from the verb _urna_ to pour, and means 'one who
pours.' Since the principal characteristic of the Oraons among the
Hindus is their universal employment as farmservants and labourers,
it may be suggested that the name is derived from this term. Of the
other names by which they are known to outsiders Dhangar means a
farmservant, Kuda a digger, and Kisan a cultivator. The name Oraon
and its variant Orao is very close to Oraya, which, as already seen,
means a farmservant. The nasal seems to be often added or omitted in
this part of the country, as Kurukh or Kurunkh.
2. Settlement in Chota Nagpur
According to their own traditions, Mr. Gait writes, [358] "The
Kurukh tribe originally lived in the Carnatic, whence they went up the
Nerbudda river and settled in Bihar on the banks of the Son. Driven out
by the Muhammadans, the tribe split into two divisions, one of which
followed the course of the Ganges and finally settled in the Rajmahal
hills: while the other went up the Son and occupied the north-western
portion of the Chota Nagpur plateau, where many of the villages they
occupy are still known by Mundari names. The latter were the ancestors
of the Oraons or Kurukhs, while the former were the progenitors of the
Male or Saonria as they often call themselves." Towards Lohardaga the
Oraons found themselves among the Mundas or Kols, who probably retired
by degrees and left them in possession of the country. "The Oraons,"
Father Dehon states, "are an exceedingly prolific tribe and soon become
the preponderant element, while the Mundas, being conservative and
averse to living among strangers, emigrate towards another jungle. The
Mundas hate zamindars, and whenever they can do so, prefer to live in
a retired corner in full possession of their small holding; and it
is not at all improbable that, as the zamindars took possession of
the newly-formed villages, they retired towards the east, while the
Oraons, being good beasts of burden and more accustomed to subjection,
remained." In view of the fine physique and martial character of
the Larka or Fighting Kols or Mundas, Dalton was sceptical of the
theory that they could ever have retired before the Oraons; but in
addition to the fact that many villages in which Oraons now live have
Mundari names, it may be noted that the headman of an Oraon village
is termed Munda and is considered to be descended from its founder,
while for the Pahan or priest of the village gods, the Oraons always
employ a Munda if available, and it is one of the Pahan's duties to
point out the boundary of the village in cases of dispute; this is a
function regularly assigned to the earliest residents, and seems to
be strong evidence that the Oraons found the Mundas settled in Chota
Nagpur when they arrived there. It is not necessary to suppose that
any conquest or forcible expropriation took place; and it is probable
that, as the country was opened up, the Mundas by preference retired
to the wilder forest tracts, just as in the Central Provinces the
Korkus and Baigas gave way to the Gonds, and the Gonds themselves
relinquished the open country to the Hindus. None of the writers quoted
notice the name Munda as applied to the headman of an Oraon village,
but it can hardly be doubted that it is connected with that of the
tribe; and it would be interesting also to know whether the Pahan or
village priest takes his name from the Pans or Gandas. Dalton says
that the Pans are domesticated as essential constituents of every
Ho or Kol village community, but does not allude to their presence
among the Oraons. The custom in the Central Provinces, by which in
Gond villages the village priest is always known as Baiga, because
in some localities members of the Baiga tribe are commonly employed
in the office, suggests the hypothesis of a similar usage here. In
villages first settled by Oraons, the population, Father Dehon states,
is divided into three _khunts_ or branches, named after the Munda,
Pahan and Mahto, the founders of the three branches being held to
have been sons of the first settler. Members of each branch belong
therefore to the same sept or _got_. Each _khunt_ has a share of the
village lands.
3. Subdivisions
The Oraons have no proper subcastes in the Central Provinces, but the
Kudas and Kisans, having a distinctive name and occupation, sometimes
regard themselves as separate bodies and decline intermarriage with
other Oraons. In Bengal Sir H. Risley gives five divisions, Barga,
Dhanka, Kharia, Khendro and Munda; of these Kharia and Munda are the
names of other tribes, and Dhanka may be a variant for Dhangar. The
names show that as usual with the tribes of this part of the country
the law of endogamy is by no means strict. The tribe have also a
large number of exogamous septs of the totemistic type, named after
plants and animals. Members of any sept commonly abstain from killing
or eating their sept totem. A man must not marry a member of his own
sept nor a first cousin on the mother's side.
4. Pre-nuptial licence
Marriage is adult and pre-nuptial unchastity appears to be tacitly
recognised. Oraon villages have the institution of the Dhumkuria
or Bachelors' dormitory, which Dalton describes as follows: [359]
"In all the older Oraon villages when there is any conservation of
ancient customs, there is a house called the Dhumkuria in which all
the bachelors of the village must sleep under penalty of a fine. The
huts of the Oraons have insufficient accommodation for a family,
so that separate quarters for the young men are a necessity. The
same remark applies to the young unmarried women, and it is a fact
that they do not sleep in the house with their parents. They are
generally frank enough when questioned about their habits, but on
this subject there is always a certain amount of reticence, and I have
seen girls quietly withdraw when it was mooted. I am told that in some
villages a separate building is provided for them like the Dhumkuria,
in which they consort under the guardianship of an elderly duenna,
but I believe the more common practice is to distribute them among the
houses of the widows, and this is what the girls themselves assert, if
they answer at all when the question is asked; but however billeted,
it is well known that they often find their way to the bachelors'
hall, and in some villages actually sleep there. I not long ago saw a
Dhumkuria in a Sarguja village in which the boys and girls all slept
every night." Colonel Dalton considered it uncertain that the practice
led to actual immorality, but the fact can hardly be doubted. Sexual
intercourse before marriage, Sir H. Risley says, is tacitly recognised,
and is so generally practised that in the opinion of the best observers
no Oraon girl is a virgin at the time of her marriage. "To call this
state of things immoral is to apply a modern conception to primitive
habits of life. Within the tribe, indeed, the idea of sexual morality
seems hardly to exist, and the unmarried Oraons are not far removed
from the condition of modified promiscuity which prevails among
many of the Australian tribes. Provided that the exogamous circle
defined by the totem is respected, an unmarried woman may bestow
her favours on whom she will. If, however, she becomes pregnant,
arrangements are made to get her married without delay, and she is
then expected to lead a virtuous life." [360] According to Dalton,
however, _liaisons_ between boys and girls of the same village seldom
end in marriage, as it is considered more respectable to bring home a
bride from a distance. This appears to arise from the primitive rule
of exogamy that marriage should not be allowed between those who have
been brought up together. The young men can choose for themselves,
and at dances, festivals and other social gatherings they freely woo
their sweethearts, giving them flowers for the hair and presents of
grilled field-mice, which the Oraons consider to be the most delicate
of food. Father Dehon, however, states that matches are arranged by
the parents, and the bride and bridegroom have nothing to say in the
matter. Boys are usually married at sixteen and girls at fourteen
or fifteen. The girls thus have only about two years of preliminary
flirtation or Dhumkuria life before they are settled.
5. Betrothal
The first ceremony for a marriage is known as _pan bandhi_ or the
settling of the price; for which the boy's father, accompanied by
some men of his village to represent _the panch_ or elders, goes to
the girl's house. Father Dehon states that the bride-price is five
rupees and four maunds of grain. When this has been settled the
rejoicings begin. "All the people of the village are invited; two
boys come and anoint the visitors with oil. From every house of the
village that can afford it a _handia_ or pot of rice-beer is brought,
and they drink together and make merry. All this time the girl has been
kept inside, but now she suddenly sallies forth carrying a _handia_
on her head. A murmur of admiration greets her when stepping through
the crowd she comes and stands in front of her future father-in-law,
who at once takes the _handia_ from her head, embraces her, and gives
her one rupee. From that time during the whole of the feast the girl
remains sitting at the feet of her father-in-law. The whole party
meanwhile continue drinking and talking; and voices rise so high
that they cannot hear one another. As a diversion the old women of
the village all come tumbling in, very drunk and wearing fantastic
hats made of leaves, gesticulating like devils and carrying a straw
manikin representing the bridegroom. They all look like old witches,
and in their drunken state are very mischievous."
6. Marriage ceremony
The marriage takes place after about two years, visits being exchanged
twice a year in the meantime. When the day comes the bridegroom
proceeds with a large party of his friends, male and female, to the
bride's house. Most of the males have warlike weapons, real or sham,
and as they approach the village of the bride's family the young men
from thence emerge, also armed, as if to repel the invasion, and a
mimic fight ensues, which like a dissolving view blends pleasantly
into a dance. In this the bride and bridegroom join, each riding on
the hips of one of their friends. After this they have a feast till
late in the night. Next morning bread cooked by the bride's mother
is taken to the _dari_ or village spring, where all the women partake
of it. When they have finished they bring a vessel of water with some
leaves of the mango tree in it. Meanwhile the bride and bridegroom are
in the house, being anointed with oil and turmeric by their respective
sisters. When everybody has gathered under the marriage-bower the
boy and girl are brought out of the house and a heap is made of
a plough-yoke, a bundle of thatching-grass and a curry-stone. The
bride and bridegroom are made to stand on the curry-stone, the boy
touching the heels of the bride with his toes, and a long piece of
cloth is put round them to screen them from the public. Only their
heads and feet can be seen. A goblet full of vermilion is presented
to the boy, who dips his finger in it and makes three lines on
the forehead of the girl; and the girl does the same to the boy,
but as she has to reach him over her shoulder and cannot see him,
the boy gets it anywhere, on his face, which never fails to provoke
hearty bursts of laughter. "When this is complete," Dalton states,
"a gun is fired and then by some arrangement vessels full of water,
placed over the bower, are upset, and the young couple and those
near them receive a drenching shower-bath, the women shouting,
'The marriage is done, the marriage is done.' They now retire into
an apartment prepared for them, ostensibly to change their clothes,
but they do not emerge for some time, and when they do appear they
are saluted as man and wife."
7. Special Customs
Meanwhile the guests sit round drinking _handias_ or earthen pots full
of rice-beer. The bride and bridegroom come out and retire a second
time and are called out for the following rite. A vessel of beer
is brought and the bride carries a cupful of it to the bridegroom's
brother, but instead of giving it into his hand she deposits it on
the ground in front of him. This is to seal a kind of tacit agreement
that from that time the bridegroom's brother will not touch his
sister-in-law, and was probably instituted to mark the abolition of
the former system of fraternal polyandry, customs of an analogous
nature being found among the Khonds and Korkus. "Then," Father Dehon
continues, "comes the last ceremony, which is called _khiritengna
handia_ or the _handia_ of the story, and is considered by the Oraons
to be the true form of marriage which has been handed down to them by
their forefathers. The boy and girl sit together before the people,
and one of the elder men present rises and addressing the boy says:
'If your wife goes to fetch _sag_ and falls from a tree and breaks her
leg, do not say that she is disfigured or crippled. You will have to
keep and feed her.' Then turning to the girl: 'When your husband goes
hunting, if his arm or leg is broken, do not say, "He is a cripple,
I won't live with him." Do not say that, for you have to remain with
him. If you prepare meat, give two shares to him and keep only one for
yourself. If you prepare vegetables, give him two parts and keep only
one part for yourself. If he gets sick and cannot go out, do not say
that he is dirty, but clean his mat and wash him.' A feast follows,
and at night the girl is brought to the boy by her mother, who says
to him, 'Now this my child is yours; I do not give her for a few days
but for ever; take care of her and love her well.' A companion of the
bridegroom's then seizes the girl in his arms and carries her inside
the house."
8. Widow-remarriage and divorce
It is uncommon for a man to have two wives. Divorce is permitted,
and is usually effected by the boy or girl running away to the Duars
or Assam. Widow-remarriage is a regular practice. The first time a
widow marries again, Father Dehon states, the bridegroom must pay
Rs. 3-8 for her; if successive husbands die her price goes down by
a rupee on each fresh marriage, so that a fifth husband would pay
only eight annas. Cases of adultery are comparatively rare. When
offenders are caught a heavy fine is imposed if they are well-to-do,
and if they are not, a smaller fine and a beating.
9. Customs at birth
"The Oraons," Father Dehon continues, "are a very prolific race, and
whenever they are allowed to live without being too much oppressed
they increase prodigiously. What strikes you when you come to an Oraon
village is the number of small dirty children playing everywhere,
while you can scarcely meet a woman that does not carry a baby on her
back. The women seem, to a great extent, to have been exempted from the
curse of our first mother: 'Thou shalt bring forth, etc.' They seem
to give birth to their children with the greatest ease. There is no
period of uncleanness, and the very day after giving birth to a child,
you will see the mother with her baby tied up in a cloth on her back
and a pitcher on her head going, as if nothing had happened, to the
village spring." This practice, it may be remarked in parenthesis,
may arise from the former observance of the Couvade, the peculiar
custom prevailing among several primitive races, by which, when a
child is born, the father lies in the house and pretends to be ill,
while the mother gets up immediately and goes about her work. The
custom has been reported as existing among the Oraons by one observer
from Bilaspur, [361] but so far without confirmation.
10. Naming a child
"A child is named eight or ten days after birth, and on this day
some men of the village and the members of the family assemble at
the parents' house. Two leaf-cups are brought, one full of water
and the other of rice. After a preliminary formula grains of rice
are let fall into the cup, first in the name of the child and then
successively in those of his ancestors in the following order:
paternal grandfather, paternal great-grandfather, father, paternal
uncle, maternal grandfather, other relatives. When the grain dropped
in the name of any relative meets the first one dropped to represent
the child, he is given the name of that relative and is probably
considered to be a reincarnation of him."
11. Branding and tattooing
"When a boy is six or seven years old it is time for him to become a
member of the Dhumkuria or common dormitory. The eldest boys catch hold
of his left arm and, with burning cloth, burn out five deep marks on
the lower part of his arm. This is done so that he may be recognised
as an Oraon at his death when he goes into the other world." The
ceremony was probably the initiation to manhood on arrival at puberty,
and resembled those prevalent among the Australian tribes. With this
exception men are not tattooed, but this decoration is profusely
resorted to by women. They have three parallel vertical lines on the
forehead which form a distinctive mark, and other patterns on the arms,
chest, knees and ankles. These usually consist of lines vertical and
horizontal as shown below:
The marks on the knees are considered to be steps by which the wearer
will ascend to heaven after her death. If a baby cries much it is
also tattooed on the nose and chin.
12. Dormitory discipline
The Dhumkuria fraternity, Colonel Dalton remarks, are, under the
severest penalties, bound down to secrecy in regard to all that takes
place in their dormitory; and even girls are punished if they dare
to tell tales. They are not allowed to join in the dances till the
offence is condoned. They have a regular system of fagging in this
curious institution. The small boys serve those of larger growth,
shampoo their limbs, comb their hair, and so on, and they are sometimes
subjected to severe discipline to make men of them.
13. Disposal of the dead
The Oraons either bury or burn the dead. As the corpse is carried
to the grave, beginning from the first crossroads, they sprinkle a
line of rice as far as the grave or pyre. This is done so that the
soul of the deceased may find its way back to the house. Before the
burial or cremation cooked food and some small pieces of money are
placed in the mouth of the corpse. They are subsequently, however,
removed or recovered from the ashes and taken by the musicians
as their fee. Some clothes belonging to the deceased and a vessel
with some rice are either burnt with the corpse or placed in the
grave. As the grave is being filled in they place a stalk of _orai_
[362] grass vertically on the head of the corpse and gradually draw
it upwards as the earth is piled on the grave. They say that this is
done in order to leave a passage for the air to pass to the nostrils
of the deceased. This is the grass from which reed pens are made,
and the stalk is hard and hollow. Afterwards they plant a root of
the same grass where the stalk is standing over the head of the
corpse. On the tenth day they sacrifice a pig and fowl and bury the
legs, tail, ears and nose of the pig in a hole with seven balls of iron
dross. They then proceed to the grave scattering a little parched rice
all the way along the path. Cooked rice is offered at the grave. If
the corpse has been burnt they pick up the bones and place them in a
pot, which is brought home and hung up behind the dead man's house. At
night-time a relative sits inside the house watching a burning lamp,
while some friends go outside the village and make a miniature hut
with sticks and grass and set fire to it. They then call out to the
dead man, 'Come, your house is being burnt,' and walk home striking
a mattock and sickle together. On coming to the house they kick down
the matting which covers the doorway; the man inside says, 'Who are
you?' and they answer, 'It is we.' They watch the lamp and when the
flame wavers they believe it to show that the spirit of the deceased
has followed them and has also entered the house. Next day the bones
are thrown into a river and the earthen pot broken against a stone.
14. Worship of ancestors
The _pitras_ or ancestors are worshipped at every festival, and when
the new rice is reaped a hen is offered to them. They pray to their
dead parents to accept the offering and then place a few grains of
rice before the hen. If she eats them, it is a sign that the ancestors
have accepted the offering and a man kills the hen by crushing its head
with his closed fist. This is probably, as remarked by Father Dehon, in
recollection of the method employed before the introduction of knives,
and the same explanation may be given of the barbaric method of the
Baigas of crushing a pig to death by a beam of wood used as a see-saw
across its body, and of the Gond bride and bridegroom killing a fowl
by treading on it when they first enter their house after the wedding.
15. Religion. The supreme deity
The following account of the tribal religion is abridged from Father
Dehon's full and interesting description:
"The Oraons worship a supreme god who is known as Dharmes; him they
invoke in their greatest difficulties when recourse to the village
priests and magicians has proved useless. Then they turn to Dharmes
and say, 'Now we have tried everything, but we have still you who can
help us.' They sacrifice to him a white cock. They think that god is
too good to punish them, and that they are not answerable to him in any
way for their conduct; they believe that everybody will be treated in
the same way in the other world. There is no hell for them or place
of punishment, but everybody will go to _merkha_ or heaven. The Red
Indians speak of the happy hunting-grounds and the Oraons imagine
something like the happy ploughing-grounds, where everybody will have
plenty of land, plenty of bullocks to plough it with, and plenty of
rice-beer to drink after his labour. They look on god as a big zamindar
or landowner, who does nothing himself, but keeps a _chaprasi_ as an
agent or debt-collector; and they conceive the latter as having all
the defects so common to his profession. Baranda, the _chaprasi_,
exacts tribute from them mercilessly, not exactly out of zeal for
the service of his master, but out of greed for his _talbana_ or
perquisites. When making a sacrifice to Dharmes they pray: 'O god,
from to-day do not send any more your _chaprasi_ to punish us. You
see we have paid our respects to you, and we are going to give him
his _dasturi_ (tip).'
16. Minor godlings
"But in the concerns of this world, to obtain good crops and freedom
from sickness, a host of minor deities have to be propitiated. These
consist of _bhuts_ or spirits of the household, the sept, the village,
and common deities, such as the earth and sun. Chola Pacho or the
lady of the grove lives in the _sarna_ or sacred grove, which has
been left standing when the forest was cleared. She is credited with
the power of giving rain and consequently good crops. Churel is the
shade of a woman who has died while pregnant or in childbirth. She
hovers over her burial-place and is an object of horror and fright to
every passer-by. It is her nature to look out for a companion, and she
is said always to choose that member of a family whom she liked best
during her lifetime. She will then come at night and embrace him and
tickle him under the arms, making him laugh till he dies. Bhula or the
wanderers are the shades of persons who have died an unnatural death,
either having been murdered, hanged, or killed by a tiger. They all
keep the scars of their respective wounds and one can imagine what a
weird-looking lot they are. They are always on the move, and are, as
it were, the mendicant portion of the invisible community. They are
not very powerful and are responsible only for small ailments, like
nightmares and slight indispositions. When an Ojha or spirit-raiser
discovers that a Bhula has appeared in the light of his lamp he shows
a disappointed face, and says: 'Pshaw, only Bhula!' No sacrifice
is offered to him, but the Ojha then and there takes a few grains
of rice, rubs them in charcoal and throws them at the flame of his
lamp, saying, 'Take this, Bhula, and go away.' Murkuri is the thumping
_bhut_. Europeans to show their kindness and familiarity thump people
on the back. If this is followed by fever or any kind of sickness
it will be ascribed to the passing of Murkuri from the body of the
European into the body of the native.
"_Chordewa_ is a witch rather than a _bhut_. It is believed that
some women have the power to change their soul into a black cat,
who then goes about in the houses where there are sick people. Such a
cat has a peculiar way of mewing, quite different from its brethren,
and is easily recognised. It steals quietly into the house, licks
the lips of the sick man and eats the food which has been prepared
for him. The sick man soon gets worse and dies. They say it is very
difficult to catch the cat, as it has all the nimbleness of its nature
and the cleverness of a _bhut_. However, they sometimes succeed, and
then something wonderful happens. The woman out of whom the cat has
come remains insensible, as it were in a state of temporary death,
until the cat re-enters her body. Any wound inflicted on the cat will
be inflicted on her; if they cut its ears or break its legs or put
out its eyes the woman will suffer the same mutilation. The Oraons
say that formerly they used to burn any woman who was suspected of
being a _Chordewa_.
17. Human sacrifice
"There is also Anna Kuari or Mahadhani, who is in our estimation
the most cruel and repulsive deity of all, as she requires human
sacrifice. Those savage people, who put good crops above everything,
look upon her in a different light. She can give good crops and make a
man rich, and this covers a multitude of sins. People may be sceptical
about it and say that it is impossible that in any part of India under
the British Government there should still be human sacrifices. Well,
in spite of all the vigilance of the authorities, there are still
human sacrifices in Chota Nagpur. As the vigilance of the authorities
increases, so also does the carefulness of the Urkas or Otongas
increase. They choose for their victims poor waifs or strangers,
whose disappearance no one will notice. April and May are the months
in which the Urkas are at work. Doisa, Panari, Kukra and Sarguja have
a very bad reputation. During these months no strangers will go about
the country alone and during that time nowhere will boys and girls
be allowed to go to the jungle and graze the cattle for fear of the
Urkas. When an Urka has found a victim he cuts his throat and carries
away the upper part of the ring finger and the nose. Anna Kuari finds
votaries not only among the Oraons, but especially among the big
zamindars and Rajas of the Native States. When a man has offered a
sacrifice to Anna Kuari she goes and lives in his house in the form
of a small child. From that time his fields yield double harvest,
and when he brings in his paddy he takes Anna Kuari and rolls her
over the heap to double its size. But she soon becomes restless and
is only pacified by new human sacrifices. At last after some years she
cannot bear remaining in the same house any more and kills every one."
18. Christianity
In Jashpur State where the Oraons number 47,000 about half the total
number have become Christians. The non-Christians call themselves
Sansar, and the principal difference between them is that the
Christians have cut off the pigtail, while the Sansar retain it. In
some families the father may be a Sansar and the son a Kiristan,
and they live together without any distinction. The Christians belong
to the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Missions, but though they all know
their Church, they naturally have little or no idea of the distinctions
of doctrine.
19. Festivals. The Karma or May-day
The principal festivals are the Sarhul, celebrated when the _sal_
tree [363] flowers, the Karma or May-day when the rice is ready for
planting out, and the Kanihari or harvest celebration.
"At the Karma festival a party of young people of both sexes," says
Colonel Dalton, "proceed to the forest and cut a young _karma_ tree
(_Nauclea parvifolia_) or the branch of one; they bear this home
in triumph and plant it in the centre of the Akhara or wrestling
ground. Next morning all may be seen at an early hour in holiday
array, the elders in groups under the fine old tamarind trees that
surround the Akhara, and the youth of both sexes, arm-linked in a
huge circle, dancing round the _karma_ tree, which, festooned with
garlands, decorated with strips of coloured cloth and sham bracelets
and necklets of plaited straw, and with the bright faces and merry
laughter of the young people encircling it, reminds one of the
gift-bearing tree so often introduced at our own great festival." The
tree, however, probably corresponds to the English Maypole, and the
festival celebrates the renewal of vegetation.
20. The _sal_ flower festival
At the Sarhul festival the marriage of the sun-god and earth-mother
is celebrated, and this cannot be done till the _sal_ tree gives
the flowers for the ceremony. It takes place about the beginning of
April on any day when the tree is in flower. A white cock is taken
to represent the sun and a black hen the earth; their marriage is
celebrated by marking them with vermilion, and they are sacrificed. The
villagers then accompany the Pahan or Baiga, the village priest, to
the _sarna_ or sacred grove, a remnant of the old _sal_ forest in
which is located Sarna Burhi or 'The old women of the grove.' "To
this dryad," writes Colonel Dalton, "who is supposed to have great
influence over the rain (a superstition not improbably founded on the
importance of trees as cloud-compellers), the party offer five fowls,
which are afterwards eaten, and the remainder of the day is spent
in feasting. They return laden with the flowers of the _sal_ tree,
and next morning with the Baiga pay a visit to every house, carrying
the flowers. The women of the village all stand on the threshold of
their houses, each holding two leaf-cups; one empty to receive the
holy water; the other with rice-beer for the Baiga. His reverence
stops at each house, and places flowers over it and in the hair of
the women. He sprinkles the holy water on the seeds that have been
kept for the new year and showers blessings on every house, saying,
'May your rooms and granary be filled with paddy that the Baiga's name
may be great.' When this is accomplished the woman throws a vessel
of water over his venerable person, heartily dousing the man whom the
moment before they were treating with such profound respect. This is no
doubt a rain-charm, and is a familiar process. The Baiga is prevented
from catching cold by being given the cup of rice-beer and is generally
gloriously drunk before he completes his round. There is now a general
feast, and afterwards the youth of both sexes, gaily decked with the
_sal_ blossoms, the pale cream-white flowers of which make the most
becoming of ornaments against their dusky skins and coal-black hair,
proceed to the Akhara and dance all night."
21. The harvest festival
The Kanihari, as described by Father Dehon, is held previous
to the threshing of the rice, and none is allowed to prepare his
threshing-floor until it has been celebrated. It can only take place
on a Tuesday. A fowl is sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the
new rice. In the evening a common feast is held at which the Baiga
presides, and when this is over they go to the place where Mahadeo
is worshipped and the Baiga pours milk over the stone that represents
him. The people then dance. Plenty of rice-beer is brought, and a scene
of debauchery takes place in which all restraint is put aside. They
sing the most obscene songs and give vent to all their passions. On
that day no one is responsible for any breach of morality.
22. Fast for the crops
Like other primitive races, and the Hindus generally, the Oraons
observe the Lenten fast, as explained by Sir J.G. Frazer, after sowing
their crops. Having committed his seed with every propitiatory rite to
the bosom of Mother Earth, the savage waits with anxious expectation
to see whether she will once again perform on his behalf the yearly
miracle of the renewal of vegetation, and the growth of the corn-plants
from the seed which the Greeks typified by the descent of Proserpine
into Hades for a season of the year and her triumphant re-emergence to
the upper air. Meanwhile he fasts and atones for any sin or shortcoming
of his which may possibly have offended the goddess and cause her to
hold her hand. From the beginning of _Asarh_ (June) the Oraons cease
to shave, abstain from eating turmeric, and make no leaf-plates for
their food, but eat it straight from the cooking-vessel. This they now
say is to prevent the field-mice from consuming the seeds of the rice.
23. Physical appearance and costume of the Oraons
"The colour of most Oraons," Sir H. Risley states, "is the darkest
brown approaching to black; the hair being jet-black, coarse and
rather inclined to be frizzy. Projecting jaws and teeth, thick
lips, low narrow foreheads, and broad flat noses are the features
characteristic of the tribe. The eyes are often bright and full,
and no obliquity is observable in the opening of the eyelids."
"The Oraon youths," Dalton states, "though with features very far
from being in accordance with the statutes of beauty, are of a
singularly pleasing class, their faces beaming with animation and
good humour. They are a small race, averaging 4 feet 5 inches, but
there is perfect proportion in all parts of their form, and their
supple, pliant, lithe figures are often models of symmetry. There
is about the young Oraon a jaunty air and mirthful expression that
distinguishes him from the Munda or Ho, who has more of the dignified
gravity that is said to characterise the North American Indian. The
Oraon is particular about his personal appearance only so long as he
is unmarried, but he is in no hurry to withdraw from the Dhumkuria
community, and generally his first youth is passed before he resigns
his decorative propensities.
"He wears his hair long like a woman, gathered in a knot behind,
supporting, when he is in gala costume, a red or white turban. In the
knot are wooden combs and other instruments useful and ornamental,
with numerous ornaments of brass. [364] At the very extremity of the
roll of hair gleams a small circular mirror set in brass, from which,
and also from his ears, bright brass chains with spiky pendants dangle,
and as he moves with the springy elastic step of youth and tosses his
head like a high-mettled steed in the buoyancy of his animal spirits,
he sets all his glittering ornaments in motion and displays as he
laughs a row of teeth, round, white and regular, that give light and
animation to his dusky features. He wears nothing in the form of a
coat; his decorated neck and chest are undraped, displaying how the
latter tapers to the waist, which the young dandies compress within
the smallest compass. In addition to the cloth, there is always round
the waist a girdle of cords made of tasar-silk or of cane. This is
now a superfluity, but it is no doubt the remnant of a more primitive
costume, perhaps the support of the antique fig-leaves.
"Out of the age of ornamentation nothing can be more untidy or more
unprepossessing than the appearance of the Oraon. The ornaments are
nearly all discarded, hair utterly neglected, and for raiment any
rags are used. This applies both to males and females of middle age.
24. Dress of women
"The dress of the women consists of one cloth, six yards long,
gracefully adjusted so as to form a shawl and a petticoat. The upper
end is thrown over the left shoulder and falls with its fringe and
ornamented border prettily over the back of the figure. Vast quantities
of red beads and a large, heavy brass ornament shaped like a _torque_
are worn round the neck. On the left hand are rings of copper,
as many as can be induced on each finger up to the first joint, on
the right hand a smaller quantity; rings on the second toe only of
brass or bell-metal, and anklets and bracelets of the same material
are also worn." The women wear only metal and not glass bangles, and
this with the three vertical tattoo-marks on the forehead and the fact
that the head and right arm are uncovered enables them to be easily
recognised. "The hair is made tolerably smooth and amenable by much
lubrication, and false hair or some other substance is used to give
size to the mass into which it is gathered not immediately behind,
but more or less on one side, so that it lies on the neck just behind
and touching the right ear; and flowers are arranged in a receptacle
made for them between the roll of hair and the head." Rings are worn
in the lobes of the ear, but not other ornaments. "When in dancing
costume on grand occasions they add to their head-dress plumes of
heron feathers, and a gay bordered scarf is tightly bound round the
upper part of the body."
25. Dances
"The tribe I am treating of are seen to best advantage at the great
national dance meetings called Jatras, which are held once a year at
convenient centres, generally large mango groves in the vicinity of old
villages. As a signal to the country round, the flags of each village
are brought out on the day fixed and set upon the road that leads
to the place of meeting. This incites the young men and maidens to
hurry through their morning's work and look up their _jatra_ dresses,
which are by no means ordinary attire. Those who have some miles to
go put up their finery in a bundle to keep it fresh and clean, and
proceed to some tank or stream in the vicinity of the tryst grove;
and about two o'clock in the afternoon may be seen all around groups
of girls laughingly making their toilets in the open air, and young
men in separate parties similarly employed. When they are ready the
drums are beaten, huge horns are blown, and thus summoned the group
from each village forms its procession. In front are young men with
swords and shields or other weapons, the village standard-bearers
with their flags, and boys waving yaks' tails or bearing poles with
fantastic arrangements of garlands and wreaths intended to represent
umbrellas of dignity. Sometimes a man riding on a wooden horse is
carried, horse and all, by his friends as the Raja, and others assume
the form of or paint themselves up to represent certain beasts of
prey. Behind this motley group the main body form compactly together
as a close column of dancers in alternate ranks of boys and girls,
and thus they enter the grove, where the meeting is held in a cheery
dashing style, wheeling and countermarching and forming lines, circles
and columns with grace and precision. The dance with these movements
is called _kharia_, and it is considered to be an Oraon rather than
a Munda dance, though Munda girls join in it. When they enter the
grove the different groups join and dance the _kharia_ together,
forming one vast procession and then a monstrous circle. The drums
and musical instruments are laid aside, and it is by the voices alone
that the time is given; but as many hundreds, nay, thousands, join,
the effect is imposing. In serried ranks, so closed up that they
appear jammed, they circle round in file, all keeping perfect step,
but at regular intervals the strain is terminated by a _hururu_,
which reminds one of Paddy's 'huroosh' as he 'welts the floor,' and
at the same moment they all face inwards and simultaneously jumping
up come down on the ground with a resounding stamp that makes the
finale of the movements, but only for a momentary pause. One voice
with a startling yell takes up the strain again, a fresh start is
made, and after gyrating thus till they tire of it the ring breaks
up, and separating into village groups they perform other dances
independently till near sunset, and then go dancing home."
26. Social customs
But more often they go on all night. Mr. Ball mentions their dance
as follows: [365] "The Oraon dance was distinct from any I had seen
by the Santals or other races. The girls, carefully arranged in lines
by sizes, with the tallest at one end and the smallest at the other,
firmly grasp one another's hands, and the whole movements are so
perfectly in concert that they spring about with as much agility
as could a single individual." Father Dehon gives the following
interesting notice of their social customs: "The Oraons are very
sociable beings, and like to enjoy life together. They are paying
visits or _pahis_ to one another nearly the whole year round. In these
the _handia_ (beer-jar) always plays a great part. Any man who would
presume to receive visitors without offering them a _handia_ would be
hooted and insulted by his guests, who would find a sympathising echo
from all the people of the village. One may say that from the time of
the new rice at the end of September to the end of the marriage feast
or till March there is a continual coming and going of visitors. For a
marriage feast forty _handias_ are prepared by the groom's father, and
all the people of the village who can afford it supply one also. Each
_handia_ gives about three gallons of rice-beer, so that in one day and
a half, in a village of thirty houses, about 200 gallons of rice-beer
are despatched. The Oraons are famous for their dances. They delight
in spending the whole night from sunset till morning in this most
exciting amusement, and in the dancing season they go from village to
village. They get, as it were, intoxicated with the music, and there is
never any slackening of the pace. On the contrary, the evolutions seem
to increase till very early in the morning, and it sometimes happens
that one of the dancers shoots off rapidly from the gyrating group, and
speeds away like a spent top, and, whirlwind-like, disappears through
paddy-fields and ditches till he falls entirely exhausted. Of course
it is the devil who has taken possession of him. One can well imagine
in what state the dancers are at the first crow of the cock, and when
'_L'aurore avec ses doigts de rose entr'ouvre les portes de l'orient,_'
she finds the girls straggling home one by one, dishevelled, _traînant
l'aile_, too tired even to enjoy the company of the boys, who remain
behind in small groups, still sounding their tom-toms at intervals
as if sorry that the performance was so soon over. And, wonderful to
say and incredible to witness, they will go straight to the stalls,
yoke their bullocks, and work the whole morning with the same spirit
and cheerfulness as if they had spent the whole night in refreshing
sleep. At eleven o'clock they come home, eat their meal, and stretched
out in the verandah sleep like logs until two, when poked and kicked
about unmercifully by the people of the house, they reluctantly get
up with heavy eyes and weary limbs to resume their work."
27. Social rules
The Oraons do not now admit outsiders into the tribe. There is no
offence for which a man is permanently put out of caste, but a woman
living with any man other than an Oraon is so expelled. Temporary
expulsion is awarded for the usual offences. The head of the caste
_panchayat_ is called Panua, and when an offender is reinstated,
the Panua first drinks water from his hand, and takes upon himself
the burden of the erring one's transgression. For this he usually
receives a fee of five rupees, and in some States the appointment is
in the hands of the Raja, who exacts a fine of a hundred rupees or
more from a new candidate. The Oraons eat almost all kinds of food,
including pork, fowls and crocodiles, but abstain from beef. Their
status is very low among the Hindus; they are usually made to live
in a separate corner of the village, and are sometimes not allowed to
draw water from the village well. As already stated, the dress of the
men consists only of a narrow wisp of cloth round the loins. Some of
them say, like the Gonds, that they are descended from the subjects
of Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon; this ancestry having no doubt
in the first instance been imputed to them by the Hindus. And they
explain that when Hanuman in the shape of a giant monkey came to
the assistance of Rama, their king Rawan tried to destroy Hanuman
by taking all the loin-cloths of his subjects and tying them soaked
in oil to the monkey's tail with a view to setting them on fire and
burning him to death. The device was unsuccessful and Hanuman escaped,
but since then the subjects of Rawan and their descendants have never
had a sufficient allowance of cloth to cover them properly.
28. Character
"The Oraons," Colonel Dalton says, "if not the most virtuous, are
the most cheerful of the human race. Their lot is not a particularly
happy one. They submit to be told that they are especially created as
a labouring class, and they have had this so often dinned into their
ears that they believe and admit it. I believe they relish work if
the taskmaster be not over-exacting. Oraons sentenced to imprisonment
without labour, as sometimes happens, for offences against the excise
laws, insist on joining the working gangs, and wherever employed,
if kindly treated, they work as if they felt an interest in their
task. In cold weather or hot, rain or sun, they go cheerfully about it,
and after some nine or ten hours of toil (seasoned with a little play
and chaff among themselves) they return blithely home in flower-decked
groups holding each other by the hand or round the waist and singing."
29. Language
The Kurukh language, Dr. Grierson states, has no written character,
but the gospels have been printed in it in the Devanagri type. The
translation is due to the Rev. F. Halm, who has also published a
Biblical history, a catechism and other small books in Kurukh. More
than five-sixths of the Oraons are still returned as speaking their
own language.
Paik
_Paik._--A small caste of the Uriya country formed from military
service, the term _paik_ meaning 'a foot-soldier.' In 1901 the
Paiks numbered 19,000 persons in the Kalahandi and Patna States and
the Raipur District, but since the transfer of the Uriya States to
Bengal less than 3000 remain in the Central Provinces. In Kalahandi,
where the bulk of them reside, they are called Nalia Sipahis from
the fact that they were formerly armed with _nalis_ or matchlocks by
the State. After the Khond rising of 1882 in Kalahandi these were
confiscated and bows and arrows given in lieu of them. The Paiks
say that they were the followers of two warriors, Kalmir and Jaimir,
who conquered the Kalahandi and Jaipur States from the Khonds about
a thousand years ago. There is no doubt that they formed the rough
militia of the Uriya Rajas, a sort of rabble half military and half
police, like the Khandaits. But the Khandaits were probably the leaders
and officers, and, as a consequence, though originally only a mixed
occupational group, have acquired a higher status than the Paiks and
in Orissa rank next to the Rajputs. The Paiks were the rank and file,
mainly recruited from the forest tribes, and they are counted as
a comparatively low caste, though to strangers they profess to be
Rajputs. In Sambalpur it is said that Rajputs, Sudhs, Bhuiyas and
Gonds are called Paiks. In Kalahandi they wear the sacred thread,
being invested with it by a Brahman at the time of their marriage,
and they say that this privilege was conferred on them by the Raja. It
is reported, however, that social distinctions may be purchased in
some of the Uriya States for comparatively small sums. A Bhatra or
member of a forest tribe was observed wearing the sacred thread,
and, on being questioned, stated that his grandfather had purchased
the right from the Raja for Rs. 50. The privileges of wearing gold
ear ornaments, carrying an umbrella, and riding on horseback were
obtainable in a similar manner. It is also related that when one
Raja imported the first pair of boots seen in his State, the local
landholders were allowed to wear them in turn for a few minutes on
payment of five rupees each, as a token of their right thereafter to
procure and wear boots of their own. In Damoh and Jubbulpore another
set of Paiks is to be found who also claim to be Rajputs, and are
commonly so called, though true Rajputs will not eat or intermarry
with them. These are quite distinct from the Sambalpur Paiks, but have
probably been formed into a caste in exactly the same manner. The
sept or family names of the Uriya Paiks sufficiently indicate their
mixed descent. Some of them are as follows: Dube (a Brahman title),
Chalak Bansi (of the Chalukya royal family), Chhit Karan (belonging
to the Karans or Uriya Kayasths), Sahani (a sais or groom), Sudh (the
name of an Uriya caste), Benet Uriya (a subdivision of the Uriya or Od
mason caste), and so on. It is clear that members of different castes
who became Paiks founded separate families, which in time developed
into exogamous septs. Some of the septs will not eat food cooked with
water in company with the rest of the caste, though they do not object
to intermarrying with them. After her marriage a girl may not take
food cooked by her parents nor will they accept it from her. And at a
marriage party each guest is supplied with grain and cooks it himself,
but everybody will eat with the bride and bridegroom as a special
concession to their position. Besides the exogamous clans the Paiks
have totemistic _gots_ or groups named after plants and animals, as
Harin (a deer), Kadamb (a tree), and so on. But these have no bearing
on marriage, and the bulk of the caste have the Nagesh or cobra as
their sept name. It is said that anybody who does not know his sept
considers himself to be a Nagesh, and if he does not know his clan,
he calls himself a Mahanti. Each family among the Paiks has also a
Sainga or title, of a high-sounding nature, as Naik (lord), Pujari
(worshipper), Baidya (physician), Raut (noble), and so on. Marriages
are generally celebrated in early youth, but no penalty is incurred
for a breach of this rule. If the signs of adolescence appear in
a girl for the first time on a Tuesday, Saturday or Sunday, it is
considered a bad omen, and she is sometimes married to a tree to avert
the consequences. Widow-marriage and divorce are freely permitted. The
caste burn their dead and perform the _shraddh_ ceremony. The women
are tattooed, and men sometimes tattoo their arms with figures of
the sun and moon in the belief that this will protect them from
snake-bite. The Paiks eat flesh and fish, but abstain from fowls and
other unclean animals and from liquor. Brahmans will not take water
from them, but other castes generally do so. Some of them are still
employed as armed retainers and are remunerated by free grants of land.
Panka
List of Paragraphs
1. _Origin of the caste._
2. _Caste subdivisions._
3. _Endogamous divisions._
4. _Marriage._
5. _Religion._
6. _Other customs._
7. _Occupation._
1. Origin of the caste
_Panka._ [366]--A Dravidian caste of weavers and labourers found
in Mandla, Raipur and Bilaspur, and numbering 215,000 persons in
1911. The name is a variant on that of the Pan tribe of Orissa
and Chota Nagpur, who are also known as Panika, Chik, Ganda and by
various other designations. In the Central Provinces it has, however,
a peculiar application; for while the Pan tribe proper is called Ganda
in Chhattisgarh and the Uriya country, the Pankas form a separate
division of the Gandas, consisting of those who have become members
of the Kabirpanthi sect. In this way the name has been found very
convenient, for since Kabir, the founder of the sect, was discovered by
a weaver woman lying on the lotus leaves of a tank, like Moses in the
bulrushes, and as a newly initiated convert is purified with water,
so the Pankas hold that their name Is _pani ka_ or 'from water.' As
far as possible then they disown their connection with the Gandas,
one of the most despised castes, and say that they are a separate
caste consisting of the disciples of Kabir. This has given rise to
the following doggerel rhyme about them:
Pani se Panka bhae, bundan rache sharir,
Age age Panka bhae, pachhe Das Kabir.
Which may be rendered, 'The Panka indeed is born of water, and his body
is made of drops of water, but there were Pankas before Kabir.' Or
another rendering of the second line is, 'First he was a Panka,
and afterwards he became a disciple of Kabir,' Nevertheless the
Pankas have been successful in obtaining a somewhat higher position
than the Gandas, in that their touch is not considered to convey
impurity. This is therefore an instance of a body of persons from
a low caste embracing a new religion and thereby forming themselves
into a separate caste and obtaining an advance in social position.
2. Caste subdivisions
Of the whole caste 84 per cent are Kabirpanthis and these form
one subcaste; but there are a few others. The Manikpuria say that
their ancestors came from Manikpur in Darbhanga State about three
centuries ago; the Saktaha are those who profess to belong to the
Sakta sect, which simply means that they eat flesh and drink liquor,
being unwilling to submit to the restrictions imposed on Kabirpanthis;
the Bajania are those who play on musical instruments, an occupation
which tends to lower them in Hindu eyes; and the Dom Pankas are
probably a section of the Dom or sweeper caste who have somehow
managed to become Pankas. The main distinction is however between
the Kabirha, who have abjured flesh and liquor, and the Saktaha,
who indulge in them; and the Saktaha group is naturally recruited
from backsliding Kabirpanthis. Properly the Kabirha and Saktaha do
not intermarry, but if a girl from either section goes to a man of
the other she will be admitted into the community and recognised as
his wife, though the regular ceremony is not performed. The Saktaha
worship all the ordinary village deities, but some of the Kabirha at
any rate entirely refrain from doing so, and have no religious rites
except when a priest of their sect comes round, when he gives them
a discourse and they sing religious songs.
3. Endogamous divisions
The caste have a number of exogamous septs, many of which are named
after plants and animals: as Tandia an earthen pot, Chhura a razor,
Neora the mongoose, Parewa the wild pigeon, and others. Other septs
are Panaria the bringer of betel-leaf, Kuldip the lamp-lighter,
Pandwar the washer of feet, Ghughua one who eats the leavings of the
assembly, and Khetgarhia, one who watches the fields during religious
worship. The Sonwania or 'Gold-water' sept has among the Pankas, as
with several of the primitive tribes, the duty of readmitting persons
temporarily put out of caste; while the Naurang or nine-coloured
sept may be the offspring of some illegitimate unions. The Sati sept
apparently commemorate by their name an ancestress who distinguished
herself by self-immolation, naturally a very rare occurrence in so
low a caste as the Pankas. Each sept has its own Bhat or genealogist
who begs only from members of the sept and takes food from them.
4. Marriage
Marriage is prohibited between members of the same sept and also
between first cousins, and a second sister may not be married during
the lifetime of the first. Girls are usually wedded under twelve
years of age. In Mandla the father of the boy and his relatives go to
discuss the match, and if this is arranged each of them kisses the
girl and gives her a piece of small silver. When a Saktaha is going
to look for a wife he makes a fire offering to Dulha Deo, the young
bridegroom god, whose shrine is in the cook-room, and prays to him
saying, 'I am going to such and such a village to ask for a wife; give
me good fortune.' The father of the girl at first refuses his consent
as a matter of etiquette, but finally agrees to let the marriage take
place within a year. The boy pays Rs. 9, which is spent on the feast,
and makes a present of clothes and jewels to the bride. In Chanda a
_chauka_ or consecrated space spread with cowdung with a pattern of
lines of flour is prepared and the fathers of the parties stand inside
this, while a member of the Pandwar sept cries out the names of the
_gotras_ of the bride and bridegroom and says that the everlasting
knot is to be tied between them with the consent of five caste-people
and the sun and moon as witnesses. Before the wedding the betrothed
couple worship Mahadeo and Parvati under the direction of a Brahman,
who also fixes the date of the wedding. This is the only purpose
for which a Brahman is employed by the caste. Between this date and
that of the marriage neither the boy nor girl should be allowed to
go to a tank or cross a river, as it is considered dangerous to their
lives. The superstition has apparently some connection with the belief
that the Pankas are sprung from water, but its exact meaning cannot
be determined. If a girl goes wrong before marriage with a man of the
caste, she is given to him as wife without any ceremony. Before the
marriage seven small pitchers full of water are placed in a bamboo
basket and shaken over the bride's head so that the water may fall on
her. The principal ceremony consists in walking round the sacred pole
called _magrohan_, the skirts of the pair being knotted together. In
some localities this is done twice, a first set of perambulations
being called the Kunwari (maiden) Bhanwar, and the second one of
seven, the Byahi (married) Bhanwar. After the wedding the bride and
her relations return with the bridegroom to his house, their party
being known as Chauthia. The couple are taken to a river and throw
their tinsel wedding ornaments into the water. The bride then returns
home if she is a minor, and when she subsequently goes to live with her
husband the _gauna_ ceremony is performed. Widow-marriage is permitted,
and divorce may be effected for bad conduct on the part of the wife,
the husband giving a sort of funeral feast, called _Marti jiti ka
bhat_, to the castefellows. Usually a man gives several warnings to
his wife to amend her bad conduct before he finally casts her off.
5. Religion
The Pankas worship only Kabir. They prepare a _chauka_ and, sitting in
it, sing songs in his praise, and a cocoanut is afterwards broken and
distributed to those who are present. The assembly is presided over
by a Mahant or priest and the _chauka_ is prepared by his subordinate
called the Diwan. The offices of Mahant and Diwan are hereditary, and
they officiate for a collection of ten or fifteen villages. Otherwise
the caste perform no special worship, but observe the full moon days
of Magh (January), Phagun (February) and Kartik (October) as fasts
in honour of Kabir. Some of the Kabirhas observe the Hindu festivals,
and the Saktahas, as already stated, have the same religious practices
as other Hindus. They admit into the community members of most castes
except the impure ones. In Chhattisgarh a new convert is shaved and
the other Pankas wash their feet over him in order to purify him. He
then breaks a stick in token of having given up his former caste
and is invested with a necklace of _tulsi_ [367] beads. A woman
of any such caste who has gone wrong with a man of the Panka caste
may be admitted after she has lived with him for a certain period on
probation, during which her conduct must be satisfactory, her paramour
also being put out of caste for the same time. Both are then shaved and
invested with the necklaces of _tulsi_ beads. In Mandla a new convert
must clean and whitewash his house and then vacate it with his family
while the Panch or caste committee come and stay there for some time
in order to purify it. While they are there neither the owner nor any
member of his family may enter the house. The Panch then proceed to
the riverside and cook food, after driving the new convert across the
river by pelting him with cowdung. Here he changes his clothes and
puts on new ones, and coming back again across the stream is made to
stand in the _chauk_ and sip the urine of a calf. The _chauk_ is then
washed out and a fresh one made with lines of flour, and standing in
this the convert receives to drink the _dal_, that is, water in which
a little betel, raw sugar and black pepper have been mixed and a piece
of gold dipped. In the evening the Panch again take their food in
the convert's house, while he eats outside it at a distance. Then he
again sips the _dal_, and the Mahant or priest takes him on his lap
and a cloth is put over them both; the Mahant whispers the _mantra_
or sacred verse into his ear, and he is finally considered to have
become a full Kabirha Panka and admitted to eat with the Panch.
6. Other customs
The Pankas are strict vegetarians and do not drink liquor. A Kabirha
Panka is put out of caste for eating flesh meat. Both men and women
generally wear white clothes, and men have the garland of beads round
the neck. The dead are buried, being laid on the back with the head
pointing to the north. After a funeral the mourners bathe and then
break a cocoanut over the grave and distribute it among themselves. On
the tenth day they go again and break a cocoanut and each man buries
a little piece of it in the earth over the grave. A little cup made
of flour containing a lamp is placed on the grave for three days
afterwards, and some food and water are put in a leaf cup outside the
house for the same period. During these days the family do not cook
for themselves but are supplied with food by their friends. After
childbirth a mother is supposed not to eat food during the time that
the midwife attends on her, on account of the impurity caused by this
woman's presence in the room.
7. Occupation
The caste are generally weavers, producing coarse country cloth, and a
number of them serve as village watchmen, while others are cultivators
and labourers. They will not grow _san_-hemp nor breed tasar silk
cocoons. They are somewhat poorly esteemed by their neighbours, who say
of them, 'Where a Panka can get a little boiled rice and a pumpkin,
he will stay for ever,' meaning that he is satisfied with this and
will not work to get more. Another saying is, 'The Panka felt brave
and thought he would go to war; but he set out to fight a frog and was
beaten'; and another, 'Every man tells one lie a day; but the Ahir
tells sixteen, the Chamar twenty, and the lies of the Panka cannot
be counted.' Such gibes, however, do not really mean much. Owing to
the abstinence of the Pankas from flesh and liquor they rank above
the Gandas and other impure castes. In Bilaspur they are generally
held to be quiet and industrious. [368] In Chhattisgarh the Pankas
are considered above the average in intelligence and sometimes act
as spokesmen for the village people and as advisers to zamindars and
village proprietors. Some of them become religious mendicants and
act as _gurus_ or preceptors to Kabirpanthis. [369]
Panwar Rajput
List of Paragraphs
1. _Historical notice. The Agnikula clans and the slaughter of
the Kshatriyas by Parasurama_.
2. _The legend of Parasurama_.
3. _The Panwar dynasty of Dhar and Ujjain_.
4. _Diffusion of the Panwars over India_.
5. _The Nagpur Panwars_.
6. _Subdivisions_.
7. _Marriage customs_.
8. _Widow-marriage_.
9. _Religion_.
10. _Worship of the spirits of those dying a violent death_.
11. _Funeral rites_.
12. _Caste discipline_.
13. _Social customs_.
1. Historical notice. The Agnikula clans and the slaughter of the
Kshatriyas by Parasurama
_Panwar_, [370] _Puar_, _Ponwar_, _Pramara Rajput_.--The Panwar or
Pramara is one of the most ancient and famous of the Rajput clans. It
was the first of the four Agnikulas, who were created from the fire-pit
on the summit of Mount Abu after the Kshatriyas had been exterminated
by Parasurama the Brahman. "The fire-fountain was lustrated with
the waters of the Ganges; [371] expiatory rites were performed,
and after a protracted debate among the gods it was resolved that
Indra should initiate the work of recreation. Having formed an image
of _duba_ grass he sprinkled it with the water of life and threw it
into the fire-fountain. Thence on pronouncing the _sajivan mantra_
(incantation to give life) a figure slowly emerged from the flame,
bearing in the right hand a mace and exclaiming, '_Mar, Mar!_' (Slay,
slay). He was called Pramar; and Abu, Dhar, and Ujjain were assigned
to him as a territory."
The four clans known as Agnikula, or born from the fire-pit,
were the Panwar, the Chauhan, the Parihar and the Chalukya or
Solanki. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar adduces evidence in support of the
opinion that all these were of foreign origin, derived from the
Gujars or other Scythian or Hun tribes. [372] And it seems therefore
not unlikely that the legend of the fire-pit may commemorate the
reconstitution of the Kshatriya aristocracy by the admission of these
tribes to Hinduism after its partial extinction during their wars of
invasion; the latter event having perhaps been euphemised into the
slaughter of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama the Brahman. A great number
of Indian castes date their origin from the traditional massacre
of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama, saying that their ancestors were
Rajputs who escaped and took to various occupations; and it would
appear that an event which bulks so largely in popular tradition
must have some historical basis. It is noticeable also that Buddhism,
which for some five centuries since the time of Asoka Maurya had been
the official and principal religion of northern India, had recently
entered on its decline. "The restoration of the Brahmanical religion
to popular favour and the associated revival of the Sanskrit language
first became noticeable in the second century, were fostered by the
satraps of Gujarat and Surashtra during the third, and made a success
by the Gupta emperors in the fourth century. [373] The decline of
Buddhism and the diffusion of Sanskrit proceeded side by side with
the result that by the end of the Gupta period the force of Buddhism
on Indian soil had been nearly spent; and India with certain local
exceptions had again become the land of the Brahman. [374] The Gupta
dynasty as an important power ended about A.D. 490 and was overthrown
by the Huns, whose leader Toramana was established at Malwa in Central
India prior to A.D. 500." [375] The revival of Brahmanism and the Hun
supremacy were therefore nearly contemporaneous. Moreover one of the
Hun leaders, Mihiragula, was a strong supporter of Brahmanism and an
opponent of the Buddhists. Mr. V.A. Smith writes: "The savage invader,
who worshipped as his patron deity Siva, the god of destruction,
exhibited ferocious hostility against the peaceful Buddhist cult,
and remorselessly overthrew the _stupas_ and monasteries, which he
plundered of their treasures." [376] This warrior might therefore
well be venerated by the Brahmans as the great restorer of their
faith and would easily obtain divine honours. The Huns also subdued
Rajputana and Central India and were dominant here for a time until
their extreme cruelty and oppression led to a concerted rising of the
Indian princes by whom they were defeated. The discovery of the Hun
or Scythian origin of several of the existing Rajput clans fits in
well with the legend. The stories told by many Indian castes of their
first ancestors having been Rajputs who escaped from the massacre
of Parasurama would then have some historical value as indicating
that the existing occupational grouping of castes dates from the
period of the revival of the Brahman cult after a long interval of
Buddhist supremacy. It is however an objection to the identification
of Parasurama with the Huns that he is the sixth incarnation of
Vishnu, coming before Rama and being mentioned in the Mahabharata,
and thus if he was in any way historical his proper date should be
long before their time. As to this it may be said that he might have
been interpolated or put back in date, as the Brahmans had a strong
interest in demonstrating the continuity of the Kshatriya caste from
Vedic times and suppressing the Hun episode, which indeed they have
succeeded in doing so well that the foreign origin of several of the
most prominent Rajput clans has only been established quite recently
by modern historical and archaeological research. The name Parasurama
signifies 'Rama with the axe' and seems to indicate that this hero came
after the original Rama. And the list of the incarnations of Vishnu
is not always the same, as in one list the incarnations are nearly
all of the animal type and neither Parasurama, Rama nor Krishna appear.
2. The legend of Parasurama
The legend of Parasurama is not altogether opposed to this view
in itself. [377] He was the son of a Brahman Muni or hermit,
named Jamadagni, by a lady, Renuka, of the Kshatriya caste. He is
therefore not held to have been a Brahman and neither was he a true
Kshatriya. This might portray the foreign origin of the Huns. Jamadagni
found his wife Renuka to be harbouring thoughts of conjugal infidelity,
and commanded his sons, one by one, to slay her. The four elder
ones successively refused, and being cursed by Jamadagni lost all
understanding and became as idiots; but the youngest, Parasurama,
at his father's bidding, struck off his mother's head with a blow of
his axe. Jamadagni thereupon was very pleased and promised to give
Parasurama whatever he might desire. On which Parasurama begged first
for the restoration of his mother to life, with forgetfulness of his
having slain her and purification from all defilement; secondly, the
return of his brothers to sanity and understanding; and for himself
that he should live long and be invincible in battle; and all these
boons his father bestowed. Here the hermit Jamadagni might represent
the Brahman priesthood, and his wife Renuka might be India, unfaithful
to the Brahmans and turning towards the Buddhist heresy. The four
elder sons would typify the princes of India refusing to respond to
the exhortations of the Brahmans for the suppression of Buddhism, and
hence themselves made blind to the true faith and their understandings
darkened with Buddhist falsehood. But Parasurama, the youngest,
killed his mother, that is, the Huns devastated India and slaughtered
the Buddhists; in reward for this he was made invincible as the Huns
were, and his mother, India, and his brothers, the indigenous princes,
regained life and understanding, that is, returned to the true Brahman
faith. Afterwards, the legend proceeds, the king Karrtavirya, the head
of the Haihaya tribe of Kshatriyas, stole the calf of the sacred cow
Kamdhenu from Jamadagni's hermitage and cut down the trees surrounding
it. When Parasurama returned, his father told him what had happened,
and he followed Karrtavirya and killed him in battle. But in revenge
for this the sons of the king, when Parasurama was away, returned to
the hermitage and slew the pious and unresisting sage Jamadagni, who
called fruitlessly for succour on his valiant son. When Parasurama
returned and found his father dead he vowed to extirpate the whole
Kshatriya race. 'Thrice times seven did he clear the earth of the
Kshatriya caste,' says the Mahabharata. If the first part of the story
refers to the Hun conquest of northern India and the overthrow of
the Gupta dynasty, the second may similarly portray their invasion
of Rajputana. The theft of the cow and desecration of Jamadagni's
hermitage by the Haihaya Rajputs would represent the apostasy of the
Rajput princes to Buddhist monotheism, the consequent abandonment of
the veneration of the cow and the spoliation of the Brahman shrines;
while the Hun invasions of Rajputana and the accompanying slaughter
of Rajputs would be Parasurama's terrible revenge.
3. The Panwar dynasty of Dhar and Ujjain
The Kings of Malwa or Ujjain who reigned at Dhar and flourished from
the ninth to the twelfth centuries were of the Panwar clan. The
seventh and ninth kings of this dynasty rendered it famous. [378]
"Raja Munja, the seventh king (974-995), renowned for his learning
and eloquence, was not only a patron of poets, but was himself a poet
of no small reputation, the anthologies including various works from
his pen. He penetrated in a career of conquest as far as the Godavari,
but was finally defeated and executed there by the Chalukya king. His
nephew, the famous Bhoja, ascended the throne of Dhara about A.D. 1018
and reigned gloriously for more than forty years. Like his uncle he
cultivated with equal assiduity the arts of peace and war. Though his
fights with neighbouring powers, including one of the Muhammadan armies
of Mahmud of Ghazni, are now forgotten, his fame as an enlightened
patron of learning and a skilled author remains undimmed, and his
name has become proverbial as that of the model king according to the
Hindu standard. Works on astronomy, architecture, the art of poetry
and other subjects are attributed to him. About A.D. 1060 Bhoja was
attacked and defeated by the confederate kings of Gujarat and Chedi,
and the Panwar kingdom was reduced to a petty local dynasty until
the thirteenth century. It was finally superseded by the chiefs of
the Tomara and Chauhan clans, who in their turn succumbed to the
Muhammadans in 1401." The city of Ujjain was at this time a centre of
Indian intellectual life. Some celebrated astronomers made it their
home, and it was adopted as the basis of the Hindu meridional system
like Greenwich in England. The capital of the state was changed from
Ujjain to Dhar or Dharanagra by the Raja Bhoja already mentioned;
[379] and the name of Dhar is better remembered in connection with
the Panwars than Ujjain.
A saying about it quoted by Colonel Tod was:
Jahan Puar tahan Dhar hai;
Aur Dhar jahan Puar;
Dhar bina Puar nahin;
Aur nahin Puar bina Dhar:
or, "Where the Panwar is there is Dhar, and Dhar is where the Panwar
is; without the Panwars Dhar cannot stand, nor the Panwars without
Dhar." It is related that in consequence of one of his merchants having
been held to ransom by the ruler of Dhar, the Bhatti Raja of Jaisalmer
made a vow to subdue the town. But as he found the undertaking too
great for him, in order to fulfil his vow he had a model of the city
made in clay and was about to break it up. But there were Panwars in
his army, and they stood out to defend their mock capital, repeating as
their reason the above lines; and in resisting the Raja were cut to
pieces to the number of a hundred and twenty. [380] There is little
reason to doubt that the incident, if historical, was produced by
the belief in sympathetic magic; the Panwars really thought that
by destroying its image the Raja could effect injury to the capital
itself, [381] just as many primitive races believe that if they make
a doll as a model of an enemy and stick pins into or otherwise injure
it, the man himself is similarly affected. A kindred belief prevails
concerning certain mythical old kings of the Golden Age of India,
of whom it is said that to destroy their opponents all they had to
do was to collect a bundle of juari stalks and cut off the heads,
when the heads of their enemies flew off in unison.
The Panwars were held to have ruled from nine castles over the
Marusthali or 'Region of death,' the name given to the great desert of
Rajputana, which extends from Sind to the Aravalli mountains and from
the great salt lake to the flat skirting the Garah. The principal of
these castles were Abu, Nundore, Umarkot, Arore, and Lodorva. [382]
And, 'The world is the Pramara's,' was another saying expressive of
the resplendent position of Dharanagra or Ujjain at this epoch. The
siege and capture of the town by the Muhammadans and consequent
expulsion of the Panwars are still a well-remembered tradition, and
certain castes of the Central Provinces, as the Bhoyars and Korkus,
say that their ancestors formed part of the garrison and fled to
the Satpura hills after the fall of Dharanagra. Mr. Crooke [383]
states that the expulsion of the Panwars from Ujjain under their
leader Mitra Sen is ascribed to the attack of the Muhammadans under
Shahab-ud-din Ghori about A.D. 1190.
4. Diffusion of the Panwars over India
After this they spread to various places in northern India, and to
the Central Provinces and Bombay. The modern state of Dhar is or was
recently still held by a Panwar family, who had attained high rank
under the Marathas and received it as a grant from the Peshwa. Malcolm
considered them to be the descendants of Rajput emigrants to the
Deccan. He wrote of them: [384] "In the early period of Maratha
history the family of Puar appears to have been one of the most
distinguished. They were of the Rajput tribe, numbers of which had
been settled in Malwa at a remote era; from whence this branch had
migrated to the Deccan. Sivaji Puar, the first of the family that can
be traced in the latter country, was a landholder; and his grandsons,
Sambaji and Kaloji, were military commanders in the service of the
celebrated Sivaji. Anand Rao Puar was vested with authority to collect
the Maratha share of the revenue of Malwa and Gujarat in 1734, and he
soon afterwards settled at Dhar, which province, with the adjoining
districts and the tributes of some neighbouring Rajput chiefs, was
assigned for the support of himself and his adherents. It is a curious
coincidence that the success of the Marathas should, by making Dhar
the capital of Anand Rao and his descendants, restore the sovereignty
of a race who had seven centuries before been expelled from the
government of that city and territory. But the present family, though
of the same tribe (Puar), claim no descent from the ancient Hindu
princes of Malwa. They have, like all the Kshatriya tribes who became
incorporated with the Marathas, adopted even in their modes of thinking
the habits of that people. The heads of the family, with feelings more
suited to chiefs of that nation than Rajput princes, have purchased
the office of patel or headman in some villages in the Deccan; and
their descendants continue to attach value to their ancient, though
humble, rights of village officers in that quarter. Notwithstanding
that these usages and the connections they formed have amalgamated
this family with the Marathas, they still claim, both on account
of their high birth and of being officers of the Raja of Satara
(not of the Peshwa), rank and precedence over the houses of Sindhia
and Holkar; and these claims, even when their fortunes were at the
lowest ebb, were always admitted as far as related to points of form
and ceremony." The great Maratha house of Nimbhalkar is believed to
have originated from ancestors of the Panwar Rajput clan. While one
branch of the Panwars went to the Deccan after the fall of Dhar and
marrying with the people there became a leading military family of the
Marathas, the destiny of another group who migrated to northern India
was less distinguished. Here they split into two, and the inferior
section is described by Mr. Crooke as follows: [385] "The Khidmatia,
Barwar or Chobdar are said to be an inferior branch of the Panwars,
descended from a low-caste woman. No high-caste Hindu eats food or
drinks water touched by them." According to the Ain-i-Akbari [386]
a thousand men of the sept guarded the environs of the palace of
Akbar, and Abul Fazl says of them: "The caste to which they belong
was notorious for highway robbery, and former rulers were not able to
keep them in check. The effective orders of His Majesty have led them
to honesty; they are now famous for their trustworthiness. They were
formerly called _Mawis_. Their chief has received the title of Khidmat
Rao. Being near the person of His Majesty he lives in affluence. His
men are called Khidmatias." Thus another body of Panwars went north
and sold their swords to the Mughal Emperor, who formed them into a
bodyguard. Their case is exactly analogous to that of the Scotch and
Swiss Guards of the French kings. In both cases the monarch preferred
to entrust the care of his person to foreigners, on whose fidelity he
could the better rely, as their only means of support and advancement
lay in his personal favour, and they had no local sympathies which
could be used as a lever to undermine their loyalty. Buchanan states
that a Panwar dynasty ruled for a considerable period over the
territory of Shahabad in Bengal. And Jagdeo Panwar was the trusted
minister of Sidhraj, the great Solanki Raja of Gujarat. The story
of the adventures of Jagdeo and his wife when they set out together
to seek their fortune is an interesting episode in the Rasmala. In
the Punjab the Panwars are found settled up the whole course of the
Sutlej and along the lower Indus, and have also spread up the Bias
into Jalandhar and Gurdaspur. [387]
5. The Nagpur Panwars
While the above extracts have been given to show how the Panwars
migrated from Dhar to different parts of India in search of fortune,
this article is mainly concerned with a branch of the clan who
came to Nagpur, and subsequently settled in the rice country of the
Wainganga Valley. At the end of the eleventh century Nagpur appears
to have been held by a Panwar ruler as an appanage of the kingdom of
Malwa. [388] It has already been seen how the kings of Malwa penetrated
to Berar and the Godavari, and Nagpur may well also have fallen to
them. Mr. Muhammad Yusuf quotes an inscription as existing at Bhandak
in Chanda of the year A.D. 1326, in which it is mentioned that the
Panwar of Dhar repaired a statue of Jag Narayan in that place. [389]
Nothing more is heard of them in Nagpur, and their rule probably came
to an end with the subversion of the kingdom of Malwa in the thirteenth
century. But there remain in Nagpur and in the districts of Bhandara,
Balaghat and Seoni to the north and east of it a large number of
Panwars, who have now developed into an agricultural caste. It may be
surmised that the ancestors of these people settled in the country
at the time when Nagpur was held by their clan, and a second influx
may have taken place after the fall of Dhar. According to their own
account, they first came to Nagardhan, an older town than Nagpur,
and once the headquarters of the locality. One of their legends is
that the men who first came had no wives, and were therefore allowed
to take widows of other castes into their houses. It seems reasonable
to suppose that something of this kind happened, though they probably
did not restrict themselves to widows. The existing family names of
the caste show that it is of mixed ancestry, but the original Rajput
strain is still perfectly apparent in their fair complexions, high
foreheads and in many cases grey eyes. The Panwars have still the
habit of keeping women of lower castes to a greater degree than the
ordinary, and this has been found to be a trait of other castes of
mixed origin, and they are sometimes known as Dhakar, a name having
the sense of illegitimacy. Though they have lived for centuries among
a Marathi-speaking people, the Panwars retain a dialect of their own,
the basis of which is Bagheli or eastern Hindi. When the Marathas
established themselves at Nagpur in the eighteenth century some of the
Panwars took military service under them and accompanied a general
of the Bhonsla ruling family on an expedition to Cuttack. In return
for this they were rewarded with grants of the waste and forest lands
in the valley of the Wainganga river, and here they developed great
skill in the construction of tanks and the irrigation of rice land,
and are the best agricultural caste in this part of the country. Their
customs have many points of interest, and, as is natural, they have
abandoned many of the caste observances of the Rajputs. It is to
this group of Panwars [390] settled in the Maratha rice country of
the Wainganga Valley that the remainder of this article is devoted.
6. Subdivisions
They number about 150,000 persons, and include many village proprietors
and substantial cultivators. The quotations already given have shown
how this virile clan of Rajputs travelled to the north, south and
east from their own country in search of a livelihood. Everywhere
they made their mark so that they live in history, but they paid no
regard to the purity of their Rajput blood and took to themselves
wives from the women of the country as they could get them. The
Panwars of the Wainganga Valley have developed into a caste marrying
among themselves. They have no subcastes but thirty-six exogamous
sections. Some of these have the names of Rajput clans, while others
are derived from villages, titles or names of offices, or from
other castes. Among the titular names are Chaudhri (headman), Patlia
(patel or chief officer of a village) and Sonwania (one who purifies
offenders among the Gonds and other tribes). Among the names of other
castes are Bopcha or Korku, Bhoyar (a caste of cultivators), Pardhi
(hunter), Kohli (a local cultivating caste) and Sahria (from the Saonr
tribe). These names indicate how freely they have intermarried. It is
noticeable that the Bhoyars and Korkus of Betul both say that their
ancestors were Panwars of Dhar, and the occurrence of both names
among the Panwars of Balaghat may indicate that these castes also
have some Panwar blood. Three names, Rahmat (kind), Turukh or Turk,
and Farid (a well-known saint), are of Muhammadan origin, and indicate
intermarriage in that quarter.
7. Marriage customs
Girls are usually, but not necessarily, wedded before
adolescence. Occasionally a Panwar boy who cannot afford a regular
marriage will enter his prospective father-in-law's house and serve him
for a year or more, when he will obtain a daughter in marriage. And
sometimes a girl will contract a liking for some man or boy of the
caste and will go to his house, leaving her home. In such cases the
parents accept the accomplished fact, and the couple are married. If
the boy's parents refuse their consent they are temporarily put
out of caste, and subsequently the neighbours will not pay them the
customary visits on the occasions of family joys and griefs. Even if
a girl has lived with a man of another caste, as long as she has not
borne a child, she may be re-admitted to the community on payment of
such penalty as the elders may determine. If her own parents will not
take her back, a man of the same _gotra_ or section is appointed as
her guardian and she can be married from his house.
The ceremonies of a Panwar marriage are elaborate. Marriage-sheds are
erected at the houses both of the bride and bridegroom in accordance
with the usual practice, and just before the marriage, parties
are given at both houses; the village watchman brings the _toran_
or string of mango-leaves, which is hung round the marriage-shed
in the manner of a triumphal arch, and in the evening the party
assembles, the men sitting at one side of the shed and the women at
the other. Presents of clothes are made to the child who is to be
married, and the following song is sung:
The mother of the bride grew angry and went away to the mango
grove.
Come soon, come quickly, Mother, it is the time for giving clothes.
The father of the bridegroom has sent the bride a fold of cloth
from his house,
The fold of it is like the curve of the winnowing-fan, and there
is a bodice decked with coral and pearls.
Before the actual wedding the father of the bridegroom goes to
the bride's house and gives her clothes and other presents, and the
following is a specimen given by Mr. Muhammad Yusuf of the songs sung
on this occasion:
Five years old to-day is Baja Bai the bride;
Send word to the mother of the bridegroom;
Her dress is too short, send for the Koshta, Husband;
The Koshta came and wove a border to the dress.
Afterwards the girl's father goes and makes similar presents to the
bridegroom. After many preliminary ceremonies the marriage procession
proper sets forth, consisting of men only. Before the boy starts
his mother places her breast in his mouth; the maid-servants stand
before him with vessels of water, and he puts a pice in each. During
the journey songs are sung, of which the following is a specimen:
The linseed and gram are in flower in Chait. [391]
O! the boy bridegroom is going to another country;
O Mother! how may he go to another country?
Make payment before he enters another country;
O Mother! how may he cross the border of another country?
Make payment before he crosses the border of another country;
O Mother! how may he touch another's bower?
Make payment before he touches another's bower;
O Mother! how shall he bathe with strange water?
Make payment before he bathes with strange water;
O Mother! how may he eat another's _banwat_? [392]
Make payment before he eats another's _banwat_;
O Mother! how shall he marry another woman?
He shall wed her holding the little finger of her left hand.
The bridegroom's party are always driven to the wedding in
bullock-carts, and when they approach the bride's village her
people also come to meet them in carts. All the party then turn and
race to the village, and the winner obtains much distinction. The
cartmen afterwards go to the bridegroom's father and he has to
make them a present of from one to forty rupees. On arriving at
the village the bridegroom is carried to Devi's shrine in a man's
arms, while four other men hold a canopy over him, and from there
to the marriage-shed. He touches a bamboo of this, and a man seated
on the top pours turmeric and water over his head. Five men of the
groom's party go to the bride's house carrying salt, and here their
feet are washed and the _tika_ or mark of anointing is made on their
foreheads. Afterwards they carry rice in the same manner and with this
is the wedding-rice, coloured yellow with turmeric and known as the
Lagun-gath. Before sunset the bridegroom goes to the bride's house for
the wedding. Two baskets are hung before Dulha Deo's shrine inside
the house, and the couple are seated in these with a cloth between
them. The ends of their clothes are knotted, each places the right
foot on the left foot of the other and holds the other's ear with the
hand. Meanwhile a Brahman has climbed on to the roof of the house,
and after saying the names of the bride and bridegroom shouts loudly,
'_Ram nawara, Sita nawari, Saodhan_,' or 'Ram, the Bridegroom, and
Sita, the Bride, pay heed,' The people inside the house repeat these
words and someone beats on a brass plate; the wedding-rice is poured
over the heads of the couple, and a quid of betel is placed first in
the mouth of one and then of the other. The bridegroom's party dance
in the marriage-shed and their feet are washed. Two plough-yokes are
brought in and a cloth spread over them, and the couple are seated on
them face to face. A string of twisted grass is drawn round their necks
and a thread is tied round their marriage-crowns. The bride's dowry is
given and her relatives make presents to her. This property is known
as _khamora_, and is retained by a wife for her own use, her husband
having no control over it. It is customary also in the caste for the
parents to supply clothes to a married daughter as long as they live,
and during this period a wife will not accept any clothes from her
husband. On the following day the maid-servants bring a present of
_gulal_ or red powder to the fathers of the bride and bridegroom,
who sprinkle it over each other. The bridegroom's father makes them
a present of from one to twenty rupees according to his means, and
also gives suitable fees to the barber, the washerman, the Barai or
betel-leaf seller and the Bhat or bard. The maid-servants then bring
vessels of water and throw it over each other in sport. After the
evening meal, the party go back, the bride and bridegroom riding in
the same cart. As they start the women sing:
Let us go to the basket-maker
And buy a costly pair of fans;
Fans worth a lot of money;
Let us praise the mother of the bride.
8. Widow-marriage
After a few days at her husband's house the bride returns home, and
though she pays short visits to his family from time to time, she
does not go to live with her husband until she is adolescent, when the
usual _pathoni_ or going-away ceremony is performed to celebrate the
event. The people repeat a set of verses containing advice which the
bride's mother is supposed to give her on this occasion, in which the
desire imputed to the caste to make money out of their daughters is
satirised. They are no doubt libellous as being a gross exaggeration,
but may contain some substratum of truth. The gist of them is as
follows: "Girl, if you are my daughter, heed what I say. I will
make you many sweetmeats and speak words of wisdom. Always treat
your husband better than his parents. Increase your private money
(_khamora_) by selling rice and sugar; abuse your sisters-in-law to
your husband's mother and become her favourite. Get influence over
your husband and make him come with you to live with us. If you
cannot persuade him, abandon your modesty and make quarrels in the
household. Do not fear the village officers, but go to the houses of
the patel [393] and Pandia [394] and ask them to arrange your quarrel."
It is not intended to imply that Panwar women behave in this manner,
but the passage is interesting as a sidelight on the joint family
system. It concludes by advising the girl, if she cannot detach her
husband from his family, to poison him and return as a widow. This
last counsel is a gibe at the custom which the caste have of taking
large sums of money for a widow on her second marriage. As such
a woman is usually adult, and able at once to perform the duties
of a wife and to work in the fields, she is highly valued, and her
price ranges from Rs. 25 to Rs. 1000. In former times, it is stated,
the disposal of widows did not rest with their parents but with the
Sendia or headman of the caste. The last of them was Karun Panwar
of Tumsar, who was empowered by the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur to act in
this manner, and was accustomed to receive an average sum of Rs. 25
for each widow or divorced woman whom he gave away in marriage. His
power extended even to the reinstatement of women expelled from the
caste, whom he could subsequently make over to any one who would
pay for them. At the end of his life he lost his authority among
the people by keeping a Dhimar woman as a mistress, and he had no
successor. A Panwar widow must not marry again until the expiry of
six months after her husband's death. The stool on which a widow
sits for her second marriage is afterwards stolen by her husband's
friends. After the wedding when she reaches the boundary of his
village the axle of her cart is removed, and a new one made of _tendu_
wood is substituted for it. The discarded axle and the shoes worn by
the husband at the ceremony are thrown away, and the stolen stool is
buried in a field. These things, Mr. Hira Lal points out, are regarded
as defiled, because they have been accessories in an unlucky ceremony,
that of the marriage of a widow. On this point Dr. Jevons writes [395]
that the peculiar characteristic of taboo is this transmissibility of
its infection or contagion. In ancient Greece the offerings used for
the purification of the murderer became themselves polluted during
the process and had to be buried. A similar reasoning applies to the
articles employed in the marriage of a widow. The wood of the _tendu_
or ebony tree [396] is chosen for the substituted axle, because it has
the valuable property of keeping off spirits and ghosts. When a child
is born a plank of this wood is laid along the door of the room to
keep the spirits from troubling the mother and the newborn infant. In
the same way, no doubt, this wood keeps the ghost of the first husband
from entering with the widow into her second husband's village. The
reason for the ebony-wood being a spirit-scarer seems to lie in its
property of giving out sparks when burnt. "The burning wood gives
out showers of sparks, and it is a common amusement to put pieces
in a camp fire in order to see the column of sparks ascend." [397]
The sparks would have a powerful effect on the primitive mind and
probably impart a sacred character to the tree, and as they would
scare away wild animals, the property of averting spirits might
come to attach to the wood. The Panwars seldom resort to divorce,
except in the case of open and flagrant immorality on the part of
a wife. "They are not strict," Mr. Low writes, [398] "in the matter
of sexual offences within the caste, though they bitterly resent and
if able heavily avenge any attempt on the virtue of their women by an
outsider. The men of the caste are on the other hand somewhat notorious
for the freedom with which they enter into relations with the women
of other castes." They not infrequently have Gond and Ahir girls from
the families of their farmservants as members of their households.
9. Religion
The caste worship the ordinary Hindu divinities, and their household
god is Dulha Deo, the deified bridegroom. He is represented by a
nut and a date, which are wrapped in a cloth and hung on a peg in
the wall of the house above the platform erected to him. Every year,
or at the time of a marriage or the birth of a first child, a goat
is offered to Dulha Deo. The animal is brought to the platform and
given some rice to eat. A dedicatory mark of red ochre is made on
its forehead and water is poured over the body, and as soon as it
shivers it is killed. The shivering is considered to be an indication
from the deity that the sacrifice is acceptable. The flesh is cooked
and eaten by the family inside the house, and the skin and bones
are buried below the floor. Narayan Deo or Vishnu or the Sun is
represented by a bunch of peacock's feathers. He is generally kept
in the house of a Mahar, and when his worship is to be celebrated he
is brought thence in a gourd to the Panwar's house, and a black goat,
rice and cakes are offered to him by the head of the household. While
the offering is being made the Mahar sings and dances, and when the
flesh of the goat is eaten he is permitted to sit inside the Panwar's
house and begin the feast, the Panwars eating after him. On ordinary
occasions a Mahar is not allowed to come inside the house, and any
Panwar who took food with him would be put out of caste; and this
rite is no doubt a recognition of the position of the Mahars as the
earlier residents of the country before the Panwars came to it. The
Turukh or Turk sept of Panwars pay a similar worship to Baba Farid,
the Muhammadan saint of Girar. He is also represented by a bundle of
peacock's feathers, and when a goat is sacrificed to him a Muhammadan
kills it and is the first to partake of its flesh.
10. Worship of the spirits of those dying a violent death
When a man has been killed by a tiger (_bagh_) he is deified and
worshipped as Bagh Deo. A hut is made in the yard of the house, and an
image of a tiger is placed inside and worshipped on the anniversary
of the man's death. The members of the household will not afterwards
kill a tiger, as they think the animal has become a member of the
family. A man who is bitten by a cobra (_nag_) and dies is similarly
worshipped as Nag Deo. The image of a snake made of silver or iron is
venerated, and the family will not kill a snake. If a man is killed
by some other animal, or by drowning or a fall from a tree, his
spirit is worshipped as Ban Deo or the forest god with similar rites,
being represented by a little lump of rice and red lead. In all these
cases it is supposed, as pointed out by Sir James Frazer, that the
ghost of the man who has come to such an untimely end is especially
malignant, and will bring trouble upon the survivors unless appeased
with sacrifices and offerings. A good instance of the same belief is
given by him in _Psyche's Task_ [399] as found among the Karens of
Burma: "They put red, yellow and white rice in a basket and leave it
in the forest, saying: Ghosts of such as died by falling from a tree,
ghosts of such as died of hunger or thirst, ghosts of such as died by
the tiger's tooth or the serpent's fang, ghosts of the murdered dead,
ghosts of such as died by smallpox or cholera, ghosts of dead lepers,
oh ill-treat us not, seize not upon our persons, do us no harm! Oh
stay here in this wood! We will bring hither red rice, yellow rice,
and white rice for your subsistence."
That the same superstition is generally prevalent in the Central
Provinces appears to be shown by the fact that among castes who
practise cremation, the bodies of men who come to a violent end or die
of smallpox or leprosy are buried, though whether burial is considered
as more likely to prevent the ghost from walking than cremation, is
not clear. Possibly, however, it may be considered that the bodies
are too impure to be committed to the sacred fire.
11. Funeral rites
Cremation of the dead is the rule, but the bodies of those who have not
died a natural death are buried, as also of persons who are believed
to have been possessed of the goddess Devi in their lifetime. The
bodies of small children are buried when the Khir Chatai ceremony
has not been performed. This takes place when a child is about two
years old: he is invited to the house of some member of the same
section on the Diwali day and given to eat some Khir or a mess of
new rice with milk and sugar, and thus apparently is held to become
a proper member of the caste, as boys do in other castes on having
their ears pierced. When a corpse is to be burnt a heap of cowdung
cakes is made, on which it is laid, while others are spread over it,
together with butter, sugar and linseed. The fire with which the
pyre is kindled is carried by the son or other chief mourner in
an earthen pot at the head of the corpse. After the cremation the
ashes of the body are thrown into water, but the bones are kept by
the chief mourner; his head and face are then shaved by the barber,
and the hair is thrown into the water with most of the bones; he may
retain a few to carry them to the Nerbudda at a convenient season,
burying them meanwhile under a mango or pipal tree. A present of a
rupee or a cow may be made to the barber. After the removal of a dead
body the house is swept, and the rubbish with the broom and dustpan
are thrown away outside the village. Before the body is taken away
the widow of the dead man places her hands on his breast and forehead,
and her bangles are broken by another widow. The _shraddh_ ceremony is
performed every year in the month of Kunwar (September) on the same
day of the fortnight as that on which the death took place. On the
day before the ceremony the head of the household goes to the houses
of those whom he wishes to invite, and sticks some grains of rice on
their foreheads. The guests must then fast up to the ceremony. On
the following day, when they arrive at noon, the host, wearing a
sacred thread of twisted grass, washes their feet with water in which
the sacred _kusa_ grass has been mixed, and marks their foreheads
with sandal-paste and rice. The leaf-plates of the guests are set
out inside the house, and a very small quantity of cooked rice is
placed in each. The host then gathers up all this rice and throws
it on to the roof of the house while his wife throws up some water,
calling aloud the name of the dead man whose _shraddh_ ceremony is
being performed, and after this the whole party take their dinner.
12. Caste discipline
As has been shown, the Panwars have abandoned most of the distinctive
Rajput customs. They do not wear the sacred thread and they permit the
remarriage of widows. They eat the flesh of goats, fowls, wild pig,
game-birds and fish, but abstain from liquor except on such ceremonial
occasions as the worship of Narayan Deo, when every one must partake
of it. Mr. Low states that the injurious habit of smoking _madak_
(a preparation of opium) is growing in the caste. They will take
water to drink from a Gond's hand and in some localities even cooked
food. This is the outcome of their close association in agriculture,
the Gonds having been commonly employed as farmservants by Panwar
cultivators. A Brahman usually officiates at their ceremonies, but his
presence is not essential and his duties may be performed by a member
of the caste. Every Panwar male or female has a _guru_ or spiritual
preceptor, who is either a Brahman, a Gosain or a Bairagi. From time
to time the _guru_ comes to visit his _chela_ or disciple, and on
such occasions the _chauk_ or sacred place is prepared with lines
of wheat-flour. Two wooden stools are set within it and the _guru_
and his _chela_ take their seats on these. Their heads are covered
with a new piece of cloth and the _guru_ whispers some text into
the ear of the disciple. Sweetmeats and other delicacies are then
offered to the _guru_, and the disciple makes him a present of one to
five rupees. When a Panwar is put out of caste two feasts have to be
given on reinstatement, known as the Maili and Chokhi Roti (impure and
pure food). The former is held in the morning on the bank of a tank
or river and is attended by men only. A goat is killed and served
with rice to the caste-fellows, and in serious cases the offender's
head and face are shaved, and he prays, 'God forgive me the sin,
it will never be repeated.' The Chokhi Roti is held in the evening
at the offender's house, the elders and women as well as men of the
caste being present. The Sendia or leader of the caste eats first,
and he will not begin his meal unless he finds a _douceur_ of from
one to five rupees deposited beneath his leaf-plate. The whole cost
of the ceremony of readmission is from fifteen to fifty rupees.
13. Social customs
The Panwar women wear their clothes tied in the Hindustani and not in
the Maratha fashion. They are tattooed on the legs, hands and face,
the face being usually decorated with single dots which are supposed
to enhance its beauty, much after the same fashion as patches in
England. Padmakar, the Saugor poet, Mr. Hira Lal remarks, compared the
dot on a woman's chin to a black bee buried in a half-ripe mango. The
women, Mr. Low says, are addicted to dances, plays and charades, the
first being especially graceful performances. They are skilful with
their fingers and make pretty grass mats and screens for the house,
and are also very good cooks and appreciate variety in food. The
Panwars do not eat off the ground, but place their dishes on little
iron stands, sitting themselves on low wooden stools. The housewife
is a very important person, and the husband will not give anything
to eat or drink out of the house without her concurrence. Mr. Low
writes on the character and abilities of the Panwars as follows:
"The Panwar is to Balaghat what the Kunbi is to Berar or the Gujar to
Hoshangabad, but at the same time he is less entirely attached to the
soil and its cultivation, and much more intelligent and cosmopolitan
than either. One of the most intelligent officials in the Agricultural
Department is a Panwar, and several members of the caste have made
large sums as forest and railway contractors in this District;
Panwar _shikaris_ are also not uncommon. They are generally averse
to sedentary occupations, and though quite ready to avail themselves
of the advantages of primary education, they do not, as a rule, care
to carry their studies to a point that would ensure their admission
to the higher ranks of Government service. Very few of them are
to be found as patwaris, constables or peons. They are a handsome
race, with intelligent faces, unusually fair, with high foreheads,
and often grey eyes. They are not, as a rule, above middle height,
but they are active and hard-working and by no means deficient in
courage and animal spirits, or a sense of humour. They are clannish
in the extreme, and to elucidate a criminal case in which no one but
Panwars are concerned, and in a Panwar village, is usually a harder
task than the average local police officer can tackle. At times
they are apt to affect, in conversation with Government officials,
a whining and unpleasant tone, especially when pleading their claim
to some concession or other; and they are by no means lacking in
astuteness and are good hands at a bargain. But they are a pleasant,
intelligent and plucky race, not easily cast down by misfortune and
always ready to attempt new enterprises in almost any direction save
those indicated by the Agricultural Department.
"In the art of rice cultivation they are past masters. They are skilled
tank-builders, though perhaps hardly equal to the Kohlis of Chanda. But
they excel especially in the mending and levelling of their fields,
in neat transplantation, and in the choice and adaptation of the
different varieties of rice to land of varying qualities. They are
by no means specially efficient as labourers, though they and their
wives do their fair share of field work; but they are well able to
control the labour of others, especially of aborigines, through whom
most of their tank and other works are executed."
Pardhan
List of Paragraphs
1. _General notice_.
2. _Tribal subdivisions_.
3. _Marriage_.
4. _Religion_.
5. _Social customs_.
6. _Methods of cheating among Patharis_.
7. _Musicians and priests_.
1. General notice
_Pardhan, Pathari, Panal._--An inferior branch of the Gond tribe whose
occupation is to act as the priests and minstrels of the Gonds. In
1911 the Pardhans numbered nearly 120,000 persons in the Central
Provinces and Berar. The only other locality where they are found is
Hyderabad, which returned 8000. The name Pardhan is of Sanskrit origin
and signifies a minister or agent. It is the regular designation of the
principal minister of a Rajput State, who often fulfils the functions
of a Mayor of the Palace. That it was applied to the tribe in this
sense is shown by the fact that they are also known as Diwan, which
has the same meaning. There is a tradition that the Gond kings employed
Pardhans as their ministers, and as the Pardhans acted as genealogists
they may have been more intelligent than the Gonds, though they are
in no degree less illiterate. To themselves and their Gond relations
the Pardhans are frequently not known by that name, which has been
given to them by the Hindus, but as Panal. Other names for the tribe
are Parganiha, Desai and Pathari. Parganiha is a title signifying the
head of a _pargana_, and is now applied by courtesy to some families
in Chhattisgarh. Desai has the same signification, being a variant
of Deshmukh or the Maratha revenue officer in charge of a circle of
villages. Pathari means a bard or genealogist, or according to another
derivation a hillman. On the Satpura plateau and in Chhattisgarh the
tribe is known as Pardhan Patharia. In Balaghat they are also called
Mokasi. The Gonds themselves look down on the Pardhans and say that
the word Patharia means inferior, and they relate that Bura Deo, their
god, had seven sons. These were talking together one day as they dined
and they said that every caste had an inferior branch to do it homage,
but they had none; and they therefore agreed that the youngest brother
and his descendants should be inferior to the others and make obeisance
to them, while the others promised to treat him almost as their equal
and give him a share in all the offerings to the dead. The Pardhans or
Patharias are the descendants of the youngest brother and they accost
the Gonds with the greeting 'Babu Johar,' or 'Good luck, sir.' The
Gonds return the greeting by saying 'Pathari Johar,' or 'How do you
do, Pathari.' Curiously enough Johar is also the salutation sent by
a Rajput chief to an inferior landholder, [400] and the custom must
apparently have been imitated by the Gonds. A variant of the story
is that one day the seven Gond brothers were worshipping their god,
but he did not make his appearance; so the youngest of them made a
musical instrument out of a string and a piece of wood and played on
it. The god was pleased with the music and came down to be worshipped,
and hence the Pardhans as the descendants of the youngest brother
continue to play on the _kingri_ or lyre, which is their distinctive
instrument. The above stories have been invented to account for the
social inferiority of the Pardhans to the Gonds, but their position
merely accords with the general rule that the bards and genealogists
of any caste are a degraded section. The fact is somewhat contrary
to preconceived ideas, but the explanation given of it is that such
persons make their living by begging from the remainder of the caste
and hence are naturally looked down upon by them; and further, that in
pursuit of their calling they wander about to attend at wedding feasts
all over the country, and consequently take food with many people of
doubtful social position. This seems a reasonable interpretation of
the rule of the inferiority of the bard, which at any rate obtains
generally among the Hindu castes.
2. Tribal Subdivisions
The tribe have several endogamous divisions, of which the principal are
the Raj Pardhans, the Ganda Pardhans and the Thothia Pardhans. The
Raj Pardhans appear to be the descendants of alliances between
Raj Gonds and Pardhan women. They say that formerly the priests of
Bura Deo lived a celibate life, and both men and women attended to
worship the god; but on one occasion the priests ran away with some
women and after this the Gonds did not know who should be appointed
to serve the deity. While they were thus perplexed, a _kingri_ (or
rude wooden lyre) fell from heaven on to the lap of one of them,
and, in accordance with this plain indication of the divine will,
he became the priest, and was the ancestor of the Raj Pardhans; and
since this _contretemps_ the priests are permitted to marry, while
women are no longer allowed to attend the worship of Bura Deo. The
Thothia subtribe are said to be the descendants of illicit unions,
the word Thothia meaning 'maimed'; while the Gandas are the offspring
of intermarriages between the Pardhans and members of that degraded
caste. Other groups are the Mades or those of the Mad country in
Chanda and Bastar, the Khalotias or those of the Chhattisgarh plain,
and the Deogarhias of Deogarh in Chhindwara; and there are also some
occupational divisions, as the Kandres or bamboo-workers, the Gaitas
who act as priests in Chhattisgarh, and the Arakhs who engage in
service and sell old clothes. A curious grouping is found in Chanda,
where the tribe are divided into the Gond Patharis and Chor or
'Thief' Patharis. The latter have obtained their name from their
criminal propensities, but they are said to be proud of it and to
refuse to intermarry with any families not having the designation of
Chor Pathari. In Raipur the Patharis are said to be the offspring of
Gonds by women of other castes, and the descendants of such unions. The
exogamous divisions of the Pardhans are the same as those of the Gonds,
and like them they are split up into groups worshipping different
numbers of gods whose members may not marry with one another.
3. Marriage
A Pardhan wedding is usually held in the bridegroom's village
in some public place, such as the market or cross-roads. The boy
wears a blanket and carries a dagger in his hand. The couple walk
five times round in a circle, after which the boy catches hold of
the girl's hand. He tries to open her fist which she keeps closed,
and when he succeeds in this he places an iron ring on her little
finger and puts his right toe over that of the girl's. The officiating
priest then ties the ends of their clothes together and five chickens
are killed. The customary bride-price is Rs. 12, but it varies in
different localities. A widower taking a girl bride has, as a rule,
to pay a double price. A widow is usually taken in marriage by her
deceased husband's younger brother.
4. Religion
As the priests of the Gonds, the Pardhans are employed to conduct the
ceremonial worship of their great god Bura Deo, which takes place on
the third day of the bright fortnight of Baisakh (April). Many goats
or pigs are then offered to him with liquor, cocoanuts, betel-leaves,
flowers, lemons and rice. Bura Deo is always enshrined under a
tree outside the village, either of the mahua or _saj_ (_Terminalia
tomentosa_) varieties. In Chhattisgarh the Gonds say that the origin
of Bura Deo was from a child born of an illicit union between a Gond
and a Rawat woman. The father murdered the child by strangling it,
and its spirit then began to haunt and annoy the man and all his
relations, and gradually extended its attentions to all the Gonds
of the surrounding country. It finally consented to be appeased by
a promise of adoration from the whole tribe, and since then has been
installed as the principal deity of the Gonds. The story is interesting
as showing how completely devoid of any supernatural majesty or power
is the Gond conception of their principal deity.
5. Social Customs
Like the Gonds, the Pardhans will eat almost any kind of food,
including beef, pork and the flesh of rats and mice, but they will
not eat the leavings of others. They will take food from the hands of
Gonds, but the Gonds do not return the compliment. Among the Hindus
generally the Pardhans are much despised, and their touch conveys
impurity while that of a Gond does not. Every Pardhan has tattooed
on his left arm near the inside of the elbow a dotted figure which
represents his totem or the animal, plant or other natural object
after which his sept is named. Many of them have a better type of
countenance than the Gonds, which is perhaps due to an infusion of
Hindu blood. They are also generally more intelligent and cunning. They
have criminal propensities, and the Patharias of Chhattisgarh are
especially noted for cattle-lifting and thieving. Writing forty years
ago Captain Thomson [401] described the Pardhans of Seoni as bearing
the very worst of characters, many of them being regular cattle-lifters
and gang robbers. In some parts of Seoni they had become the terror
of the village proprietors, whose houses and granaries they fired
if they were in any way reported on or molested. Since that time
the Pardhans have become quite peaceable, but they still have a bad
reputation for petty thieving.
6. Methods of cheating among Patharis
In Chhattisgarh one subdivision is said to be known as Sonthaga
(_sona_, gold, and _thag_, a cheat), because they cheat people by
passing counterfeit gold. Their methods were described as follows
in 1872 by Captain McNeill, District Superintendent of Police: [402]
"They procure a quantity of the dry bark of the pipal, [403] mahua,
[404] tamarind or _gular_ [405] trees and set it on fire; when it
has become red-hot it is raked into a small hole and a piece of
well-polished brass is deposited among the glowing embers. It is
constantly moved and turned about and in ten or fifteen minutes has
taken a deep orange colour resembling gold. It is then placed in a
small heap of wood-ashes and after a few minutes taken out again and
carefully wrapped in cotton-wool. The peculiar orange colour results
from the sulphur and resin in the bark being rendered volatile. They
then proceed to dispose of the gold, sometimes going to a fair and
buying cattle. On concluding a bargain they suddenly find they have
no money, and after some hesitation reluctantly produce the gold,
and say they are willing to part with it at a disadvantage, thereby
usually inducing the belief that it has been stolen. The cupidity of
the owner of the cattle is aroused, and he accepts the gold at a rate
which would be very advantageous if it were genuine. At other times
they join a party of pilgrims, to which some of their confederates have
already obtained admission in disguise, and offer to sell their gold as
being in great want of money. A piece is first sold to the confederates
on very cheap terms and the other pilgrims eagerly participate." It
would appear that the Patharis have not much to learn from the owners
of buried treasure or the confidence or three-card trick performers of
London, and their methods are in striking contrast to the guileless
simplicity usually supposed to be a characteristic of the primitive
tribes. Mr. White states that "All the property acquired is taken back
to the village and there distributed by a _panchayat_ or committee,
whose head is known as Mokasi. The Mokasi is elected by the community
and may also be deposed by it, though he usually holds office for
life; to be a successful candidate for the position of Mokasi one
should have wealth and experience and it is not a disadvantage to
have been in jail. The Mokasi superintends the internal affairs of
the community and maintains good relations with the proprietor and
village watchman by means of gifts."
7. Musicians and priests
The Pardhans and Patharis are also, as already stated, village
musicians, and their distinctive instrument the _kingri_ or _kingadi_
is described by Mr. White as consisting of a stick passed through a
gourd. A string or wire is stretched over this and the instrument is
played with the fingers. Another kind possesses three strings of woven
horse-hair and is played with the help of a bow. The women of the Ganda
Pardhan subtribe act as midwives. Mr. Tawney wrote of the Pardhans
of Chhindwara: [406] "The Raj-Pardhans are the bards of the Gonds and
they can also officiate as priests, but the Bhumka generally acts in
the latter capacity and the Pardhans confine themselves to singing
the praises of the god. At every public worship in the Deo-khalla or
dwelling-place of the gods, there should, if possible, be a Pardhan,
and great men use them on less important occasions. They cannot even
worship their household gods or be married without the Pardhans. The
Raj-Pardhans are looked down on by the Gonds, and considered as
somewhat inferior, seeing that they take the offerings at religious
ceremonies and the clothes of the dear departed at funerals. This has
never been the business of a true Gond, who seems never happier than
when wandering in the jungle, and who above all things loves his axe,
and next to that a tree to chop at. There is nothing in the ceremonies
or religion of the Pardhans to distinguish them from the Gonds."
Pardhi
List of Paragraphs
1. _General notice of the caste_.
2. _Subdivisions_.
3. _Marriage and funeral customs_.
4. _Religion_.
5. _Dress, food and social customs_.
6. _Ordeals_.
7. _Methods of catching birds_.
8. _Hunting with leopards_.
9. _Decoy stags_.
10. _Hawks_.
11. _Crocodile fishing_.
12. _Other occupations and criminal practices_.
1. General notice of the caste
_Pardhi, [407] Bahelia, Mirshikar, Moghia, Shikari, Takankar._--A
low caste of wandering fowlers and hunters. They numbered about
15,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar in 1911, and
are found scattered over several Districts. These figures include
about 2000 Bahelias. The word Pardhi is derived from the Marathi
_paradh_, hunting. Shikari, the common term for a native hunter,
is an alternative name for the caste, but particularly applied to
those who use firearms, which most Pardhis refuse to do. Moghia is
the Hindustani word for fowler, and Takankar is the name of a small
occupational offshoot of the Pardhis in Berar, who travel from village
to village and roughen the household grinding-mills when they have
worn smooth. The word is derived from _takna_, to tap or chisel. The
caste appears to be a mixed group made up of Bawarias or other Rajput
outcastes, Gonds and social derelicts from all sources. The Pardhis
perhaps belong more especially to the Maratha country, as they are
numerous in Khandesh, and many of them talk a dialect of Gujarati. In
the northern Districts their speech is a mixture of Marwari and
Hindi, while they often know Marathi or Urdu as well. The name for
the similar class of people in northern India is Bahelia, and in the
Central Provinces the Bahelias and Pardhis merge into one another and
are not recognisable as distinct groups. The caste is recruited from
the most diverse elements, and women of any except the impure castes
can be admitted into the community; and on this account their customs
differ greatly in different localities. According to their own legends
the first ancestor of the Pardhis was a Gond, to whom Mahadeo taught
the art of snaring game so that he might avoid the sin of shooting it;
and hence the ordinary Pardhis never use a gun.
2. Subdivisions
Like other wandering castes the Pardhis have a large number of
endogamous groups, varying lists being often given in different
areas. The principal subcastes appear to be the Shikari or Bhil
Pardhis, who use firearms; the Phanse Pardhis, who hunt with traps
and snares; the Langoti Pardhis, so called because they wear only
a narrow strip of cloth round the loins; and the Takankars. Both
the Takankars and Langotis have strong criminal tendencies. Several
other groups are recorded in different Districts, as the Chitewale,
who hunt with a tame leopard; the Gayake, who stalk their prey behind
a bullock; the Gosain Pardhis, who dress like religious mendicants in
ochre-coloured clothes and do not kill deer, but only hares, jackals
and foxes; the Shishi ke Telwale, who sell crocodile's oil; and the
Bandarwale who go about with performing monkeys. The Bahelias have a
subcaste known as Karijat, the members of which only kill birds of a
black colour. Their exogamous groups are nearly all those of Rajput
tribes, as Sesodia, Panwar, Solanki, Chauhan, Rathor, and soon; it is
probable that these have been adopted through imitation by vagrant
Bawarias and others sojourning in Rajputana. There are also a few
groups with titular or other names, and it is stated that members
of clans bearing Rajput names will take daughters from the others in
marriage, but will not give their daughters to them.
3. Marriage and funeral customs
Girls appear to be somewhat scarce in the caste and a bride-price is
usually paid, which is given as Rs. 9 in Chanda, Rs. 35 in Bilaspur,
and Rs. 60 or more in Hoshangabad and Saugor. If a girl should be
seduced by a man of the caste she would be united to him by the
ceremony of a widow's marriage: but her family will require a bride
from her husband's family in exchange for the girl whose value he has
destroyed. Even if led astray by an outsider a girl may be readmitted
into the caste; and in the extreme case of her being debauched
by her brother, she may still be married to one of the community,
but no one will take food from her hands during her lifetime, though
her children will be recognised as proper Pardhis. A special fine of
Rs. 100 is imposed on a brother who commits this crime. The ceremony
of marriage varies according to the locality in which they reside;
usually the couple walk seven times round a _tanda_ or collection of
their small mat tents. In Berar a cloth is held up by four poles as
a canopy over them and they are preceded by a married woman carrying
five pitchers of water. Divorce and the marriage of widows are freely
permitted. The caste commonly bury their dead, placing the head to
the north. They do not shave their heads in token of mourning.
4. Religion
In Berar their principal deity is the goddess Devi, who is known
by different names. Every family of Langoti Pardhis has, Mr. Gayer
states, [408] its image in silver of the goddess, and because of this
no Langoti Pardhi woman will wear silver below the waist or hang her
_sari_ on a peg, as it must never be put on the same level as the
goddess. They also sometimes refuse to wear red or coloured clothes,
one explanation for this being that the image of the goddess is placed
on a bed of red cloth. In Hoshangabad their principal deity is called
Guraiya Deo, and his image, consisting of a human figure embossed
in silver, is kept in a leather bag on the west side of their tents;
and for this reason women going out of the encampment for a necessary
purpose always proceed to the east. They also sleep with their feet to
the east. Goats are offered to Guraiya Deo and their horns are placed
in his leather bag. In Hoshangabad they sacrifice a fowl to the ropes
of their tents at the Dasahra and Diwali festivals, and on the former
occasion clean their hunting implements and make offerings to them
of turmeric and rice. They are reported to believe that the sun and
moon die and are reborn daily. The hunter's calling is one largely
dependent on luck or chance, and, as might be expected, the Pardhis
are firm believers in omens, and observe various rules by which they
think their fortune will be affected. A favourite omen is the simple
device of taking some rice or juari in the hand and counting the
grains. Contrary to the usual rule, even numbers are considered lucky
and odd ones unlucky. If the first result is unsatisfactory a second
or third trial may be made. If a winnowing basket or millstone be let
fall and drop to the right hand it is a lucky omen, and similarly
if a flower from Devi's garland should fall to the right side. The
bellowing of cows, the mewing of a cat, the howling of a jackal and
sneezing are other unlucky omens. If a snake passes from left to right
it is a bad omen and if from right to left a good one. A man must not
sleep with his head on the threshold of a house or in the doorway of
a tent under penalty of a fine of Rs. 2-8; the only explanation given
of this rule is that such a position is unlucky because a corpse is
carried out across the threshold. A similar penalty is imposed if
he falls down before his wife even by accident. A Pardhi, with the
exception of members of the Sesodia clan, must never sleep on a cot,
a fine of five rupees being imposed for a breach of this rule. A
man who has once caught a deer must not again have the hair of his
head touched by a razor, and thus the Pardhis may be recognised by
their long and unkempt locks. A breach of this rule is punished with
a fine of fifteen rupees, but it is not observed everywhere. A woman
must never step across the rope or peg of a tent, nor upon the place
where the blood of a deer has flowed on to the ground. During her
monthly period of impurity a woman must not cross a river nor sit in
a boat. A Pardhi will never kill or sell a dog and they will not hunt
wild dogs even if money is offered to them. This is probably because
they look upon the wild dog as a fellow-hunter, and consider that to
do him injury would bring ill-luck upon themselves. A Pardhi has also
theoretically a care for the preservation of game. When he has caught
a number of birds in his trap, he will let a pair of them loose so
that they may go on breeding. Women are not permitted to take any part
in the work of hunting, but are confined strictly to their household
duties. A woman who kicks her husband's stick is fined Rs. 2-8. The
butt end of the stick is employed for mixing vegetables and other
purposes, but the meaning of the rule is not clear unless one of its
uses is for the enforcement of conjugal discipline. A Pardhi may not
swear by a dog, a cat or a squirrel. Their most solemn oath is in the
name of their deity Guraiya Deo, and it is believed that any one who
falsely takes this oath will become a leper. The Phans Pardhis may
not travel in a railway train, and some of them are forbidden even
to use a cart or other conveyance.
5. Dress, food and social customs
In dress and appearance the Pardhis are disreputable and dirty. Their
features are dark and their hair matted and unkempt. They never wear
shoes and say that they are protected by a special promise of the
goddess Devi to their first ancestor that no insect or reptile in
the forests should injure them. The truth is, no doubt, that shoes
would make it impossible for them to approach their game without
disturbing it, and from long practice the soles of their feet become
impervious to thorns and minor injuries. Similarly the Langoti Pardhis
are so called because they wear only a narrow strip of cloth round
the loins, the reason probably being that a long one would impede
them by flapping and catching in the brushwood. But the explanation
which they themselves give, [409] a somewhat curious one in view of
their appearance, is that an ordinary _dhoti_ or loin-cloth if worn
might become soiled and therefore unlucky. Their women do not have
their noses pierced and never wear spangles or other marks on the
forehead. The Pardhis still obtain fire by igniting a piece of cotton
with flint and iron. Mr. Sewell notes that their women eat at the same
time as the men, instead of after them as among most Hindus. They
explain this custom by saying that on one occasion a woman tried
to poison her husband and it was therefore adopted as a precaution
against similar attempts; but no doubt it has always prevailed, and
the more orthodox practice would be almost incompatible with their
gipsy life. Similar reasons of convenience account for their custom
of celebrating marriages all the year round and neglecting the Hindu
close season of the four months of the rains. They travel about with
little huts made of matting, which can be rolled up and carried off
in a few minutes. If rain comes on they seek shelter in the nearest
village. [410] In some localities the caste eat no food cooked
with butter or oil. They are usually considered as an impure caste,
whose touch is a defilement to Hindus. Brahmans do not officiate at
their ceremonies, though the Pardhis resort to the village Joshi or
astrologer to have a propitious date indicated for marriages. They have
to pay for such services in money, as Brahmans usually refuse to accept
even uncooked grain from them. After childbirth women are held to be
impure and forbidden to cook for their families for a period varying
from six weeks to six months. During their periodical impurity they are
secluded for four, six or eight days, the Pardhis observing very strict
rules in these matters, as is not infrequently the case with the lowest
castes. Their caste meetings, Mr. Sewell states, are known as Deokaria
or 'An act performed in honour of God'; at these meetings arrangements
for expeditions are discussed and caste disputes decided. The penalty
for social offences is a fine of a specified quantity of liquor, the
liquor provided by male and female delinquents being drunk by the
men and women respectively. The punishment for adultery in either
sex consists in cutting off a piece of the left ear with a razor,
and a man guilty of intercourse with a prostitute is punished as if
he had committed adultery. The Pardhi women are said to be virtuous.
6. Ordeals
The Pardhis still preserve the primitive method of trial by ordeal. If
a woman is suspected of misconduct she is made to pick a pice coin out
of boiling oil; or a pipal leaf is placed on her hand and a red-hot
axe laid over it, and if her hand is burnt or she refuses to stand
the test she is pronounced guilty. Or, in the case of a man, the
accused is made to dive into water; and as he dives an arrow is shot
from a bow. A swift runner fetches and brings back the arrow, and if
the diver can remain under water until the runner has returned he is
held to be innocent. In Nimar, if an unmarried girl becomes pregnant,
two cakes of dough are prepared, a piece of silver being placed in one
and a lump of coal in the other. The girl takes one of the cakes, and
if it is found to contain the coal she is expelled from the community,
while if she chooses the piece of silver, she is pardoned and made over
to one of the caste. The idea of the ordeal is apparently to decide the
question whether her condition was caused by a Pardhi or an outsider.
7. Methods of catching birds
The Phans Pardhis hunt all kinds of birds and the smaller animals with
the _phanda_ or snare. Mr. Ball describes their procedure as follows:
[411] "For peacock, saras crane and bustard they have a long series of
nooses, each provided with a wooden peg and all connected with a long
string. The tension necessary to keep the nooses open is afforded by
a slender slip of antelope's horn (very much resembling whalebone),
which forms the core of the loop. Provided with several sets of these
nooses, a trained bullock and a shield-like cloth screen dyed buff and
pierced with eye-holes, the bird-catcher sets out for the jungle, and
on seeing a flock of pea-fowl circles round them under cover of the
screen and the bullock, which he guides by a nose-string. The birds
feed on undisturbed, and the man rapidly pegs out his long strings
of nooses, and when all are properly disposed, moves round to the
opposite side of the birds and shows himself; when they of course run
off, and one or more getting their feet in the nooses fall forwards
and flap on the ground; the man immediately captures them, knowing
that if the strain is relaxed the nooses will open and permit of the
bird's escape. Very cruel practices are in vogue with these people with
reference to the captured birds, in order to keep them alive until a
purchaser is found. The peacocks have a feather passed through the
eyelids, by which means they are effectually blinded, while in the
case of smaller birds both the legs and wings are broken." Deer,
hares and even pig are also caught by a strong rope with running
nooses. For smaller birds the appliance is a little rack about four
inches high with uprights a few inches apart, between each of which
is hung a noose. Another appliance mentioned by Mr. Ball is a set
of long conical bag nets, which are kept open by hooks and provided
with a pair of folding doors. The Pardhi has also a whistle made
of deer-horn, with which he can imitate the call of the birds. Tree
birds are caught with bird-lime as described by Sir G. Grierson. [412]
The Bahelia has several long shafts of bamboos called _nal_ or _nar_,
which are tied together like a fishing rod, the endmost one being
covered with bird-lime. Concealing himself behind his bamboo screen the
Bahelia approaches the bird and when near enough strikes and secures
it with his rod; or he may spread some grain out at a short distance,
and as the birds are hopping about over it he introduces the pole,
giving it a zig-zag movement and imitating as far as possible the
progress of a snake. Having brought the point near one of the birds,
which is fascinated by its stealthy approach, he suddenly jerks
it into its breast and then drawing it to him, releases the poor
palpitating creature, putting it away in his bag, and recommences
the same operation. This method does not require the use of bird-lime.
8. Hunting with leopards
The manner in which the Chita Pardhis use the hunting leopard (_Felis
jubata_) for catching deer has often been described. [413] The leopard
is caught full-grown by a noose in the manner related above. Its neck
is first clasped in a wooden vice until it is half-strangled, and its
feet are then bound with ropes and a cap slipped over its head. It is
partially starved for a time, and being always fed by the same man,
after a month or so it becomes tame and learns to know its master. It
is then led through villages held by ropes on each side to accustom
it to the presence of human beings. On a hunting party the leopard is
carried on a cart, hooded, and, being approached from down wind, the
deer allow the cart to get fairly close to them. The Indian antelope or
black-buck are the usual quarry, and as these frequent cultivated land,
they regard country carts without suspicion. The hood is then taken off
and the leopard springs forward at the game with extreme velocity,
perhaps exceeding that which any other quadruped possesses. The
accounts given by Jerdon say that for the moment its speed is greater
than that of a race-horse. It cannot maintain this for more than three
or four hundred yards, however, and if in that distance the animal has
not seized its prey, it relinquishes the pursuit and stalks about in
a towering passion. The Pardhis say that when it misses the game the
leopard is as sulky as a human being and sometimes refuses food for a
couple of days. If successful in the pursuit, it seizes the antelope
by the throat; the keeper then comes up, and cutting the animal's
throat collects some of the blood in the wooden ladle with which the
leopard is always fed; this is offered to him, and dropping his hold
he laps it up eagerly, when the hood is cleverly slipped on again.
The conducting of the cheetah from its cage to the chase is by no means
an easy matter. The keeper leads him along, as he would a large dog,
with a chain; and for a time as they scamper over the country the
leopard goes willingly enough; but if anything arrests his attention,
some noise from the forest, some scented trail upon the ground, he
moves more slowly, throws his head aloft and peers savagely round. A
few more minutes perhaps and he would be unmanageable. The keeper,
however, is prepared for the emergency. He holds in his left hand a
cocoanut shell, sprinkled on the inside with salt; and by means of a
handle affixed to the shell he puts it at once over the nose of the
cheetah. The animal licks the salt, loses the scent, forgets the object
which arrested his attention, and is led quietly along again. [414]
9. Decoy stags
For hunting stags, tame stags were formerly used as decoys according
to the method described as follows: "We had about a dozen trained
stags, all males, with us. These, well acquainted with the object
for which they were sent forward, advanced at a gentle trot over
the open ground towards the skirt of the wood. They were observed
at once by the watchers of the herd, and the boldest of the wild
animals advanced to meet them. Whether the intention was to welcome
them peacefully or to do battle for their pasturage I cannot tell;
but in a few minutes the two parties were engaged in a furious
contest. Head to head, antlers to antlers, the tame deer and the
wild fought with great fury. Each of the tame animals, every one
of them large and formidable, was closely engaged in contest with a
wild adversary, standing chiefly on the defensive, not in any feigned
battle or mimicry of war but in a hard-fought combat. We now made our
appearance in the open ground on horseback, advancing towards the
scene of conflict. The deer on the skirts of the wood, seeing us,
took to flight; but those actually engaged maintained their ground
and continued the contest. In the meantime a party of native huntsmen,
sent for the purpose, gradually drew near to the wild stags, getting
in between them and the forest. What their object was we were not at
the time aware; in truth it was not one that we could have approved
or encouraged. They made their way into the rear of the wild stags,
which were still combating too fiercely to mind them; they approached
the animals, and with a skilful cut of their long knives the poor
warriors fell hamstrung. We felt pity for the noble animals as we
saw them fall helplessly on the ground, unable longer to continue
the contest and pushed down of course by the decoy-stags. Once down,
they were unable to rise again." [415]
10. Hawks
Hawks were also used in a very ingenious fashion to prevent duck from
flying away when put upon water: "The trained hawks were now brought
into requisition, and marvellous it was to see the instinct with which
they seconded the efforts of their trainers. The ordinary hawking of
the heron we had at a later period of this expedition; but the use now
made of the animal was altogether different, and displayed infinitely
more sagacity than one would suppose likely to be possessed by such
an animal. These were trained especially for the purpose for which
they were now employed. A flight of ducks--thousands of birds--were
enticed upon the water as before by scattering corn over it. The
hawks were then let fly, four or five of them. We made our appearance
openly upon the bank, guns in hand, and the living swarm of birds
rose at once into the air. The hawks circled above them, however,
in a rapid revolving flight and they dared not ascend high. Thus was
our prey retained fluttering in mid-air, until hundreds had paid the
penalty with their lives. Only picture in your mind's eye the circling
hawks above gyrating monotonously, the fluttering captives in mid-air,
darting now here, now there to escape, and still coward-like huddling
together; and the motley group of sportsmen on the bank and you have
the whole scene before you at once." [416]
11. Crocodile fishing
For catching crocodile, a method by which as already stated one group
of the Pardhis earn their livelihood, a large double hook is used,
baited with a piece of putrid deer's flesh and attached to a hempen
rope 70 or 80 feet long. When the crocodile has swallowed the hook,
twenty or thirty persons drag the animal out of the water and it
is despatched with axes. Crocodiles are hunted only in the months
of Pus (December), Magh (January) and Chait (March), when they are
generally fat and yield plenty of oil. The flesh is cut into pieces
and stewed over a slow fire, when it exudes a watery oil. This is
strained and sold in bottles at a rupee a seer (2 lbs.). It is used
as an embrocation for rheumatism and for neck galls of cattle. The
Pardhis do not eat crocodile's flesh.
12. Other occupations and criminal practices
A body of Pardhis are sometimes employed by all the cultivators of a
village jointly for the purpose of watching the spring crops during
the day and keeping black-buck out of them. They do this perhaps
for two or three months and receive a fixed quantity of grain. The
Takankars are regularly employed as village servants in Berar and
travel about roughening the stones of the household grinding-mills
when their surfaces have worn smooth. For this they receive an annual
contribution of grain from each household. The caste generally have
criminal tendencies and Mr. Sewell states, that "The Langoti Pardhis
and Takankars are the worst offenders. Ordinarily when committing
dacoity they are armed with sticks and stones only. In digging through
a wall they generally leave a thin strip at which the leader carefully
listens before finally bursting through. Then when the hole has been
made large enough, he strikes a match and holding it in front of him
so that his features are shielded has a good survey of the room before
entering.... As a rule, they do not divide the property on or near
the scene of the crime, but take it home. Generally it is carried by
one of the gang well behind the rest so as to enable it to be hidden
if the party is challenged." In Bombay they openly rob the standing
crops, and the landlords stand in such awe of them that they secure
their goodwill by submitting to a regular system of blackmail. [417]
Parja
List of Paragraphs
1. _General notice of the tribe_.
2. _Exogamous septs_.
3. _Kinship and marriage_.
4. _Marriage dance_.
5. _Nuptial ceremony_.
6. _Widow-marriage and divorce_.
7. _Religion and festivals_.
8. _Disposal of the dead_.
9. _Occupation and social customs_.
1. General notice of the tribe
_Parja._--A small tribe, [418] originally an offshoot of the Gonds,
who reside in the centre and east of the Bastar State and the adjoining
Jaipur zamindari of Madras. They number about 13,000 persons in the
Central Provinces and 92,000 in Madras, where they are also known as
Poroja. The name Parja appears to be derived from the Sanskrit Parja,
a subject. The following notice of it is taken from the _Madras
Census Report_ [419] of 1871: "The term Parja is, as Mr. Carmichael
has pointed out, merely a corruption of a Sanskrit term signifying
a subject; and it is understood as such by the people themselves,
who use it in contradistinction to a free hillman. Formerly, says a
tradition that runs through the whole tribe, Rajas and Parjas were
brothers, but the Rajas took to riding horses or, as the Barenja
Parjas put it, sitting still, and we became carriers of burdens and
Parjas. It is quite certain in fact that the term Parja is not a tribal
denomination, but a class denomination; and it may be fitly rendered
by the familiar epithet of ryot. There is no doubt, however, that by
far the greater number of these Parjas are akin to the Khonds of the
Ganjam Maliahs. They are thrifty, hardworking cultivators, undisturbed
by the intestinal broils which their cousins in the north engage in,
and they bear in their breasts an inalienable reverence for their soil,
the value of which they are rapidly becoming acquainted with. Their
ancient rights to these lands are acknowledged by colonists from among
the Aryans, and when a dispute arises about the boundaries of a field
possessed by recent arrivals a Parja is usually called in to point out
the ancient landmarks. Gadbas are also represented as indigenous from
the long lapse of years that they have been in the country, but they
are by no means of the patriarchal type that characterises the Parjas."
In Bastar the caste are also known as Dhurwa, which may be derived
from Dhur, the name applied to the body of Gonds as opposed to the
Raj-Gonds. In Bastar, Dhurwa now conveys the sense of a headman of a
village. The tribe have three divisions, Thakara or Tagara, Peng and
Mudara, of which only the first is found in Bastar. Thakara appears
to be a corruption of Thakur, a lord, and the two names point to the
conclusion that the Parjas were formerly dominant in this tract. They
themselves have a story, somewhat resembling the one quoted above
from Madras, to the effect that their ancestor was the elder brother
of the first Raja of Bastar when he lived in Madras, to the south
of Warangal. From there he had to flee on account of an invasion of
the Muhammadans, and was accompanied by the goddess Danteshwari,
the tutelary deity of the Rajas of Bastar. In accordance with the
command of the goddess the younger brother was considered as the
Raja and rode on a horse, while the elder went before him carrying
their baggage. At Bhadrachallam they met the Bhatras, and further
on the Halbas. The goddess followed them, guiding their steps, but
she strictly enjoined on the Raja not to look behind him so as to
see her. But when they came to the sands of the rivers Sankani and
Dankani, the tinkle of the anklets of the goddess could not be heard
for the sand. The Raja therefore looked behind him to see if she was
following, on which she said that she could go no more with him,
but he was to march as far as he could and then settle down. The
two brothers settled in Bastar, where the descendants of the younger
became the ruling clan, and those of the elder were their servants, the
Parjas. The story indicates, perhaps, that the Parjas were the original
Gond inhabitants and rulers of the country, and were supplanted by a
later immigration of the same tribe, who reduced them to subjection,
and became Raj-Gonds. Possibly the first transfer of power was effected
by the marriage of an immigrant into a Parja Raja's family, as so often
happened with these old dynasties. The Parjas still talk about the Rani
of Bastar as their _Bohu_ or 'younger brother's wife,' and the custom
is probably based on some such legend. The Madras account of them
as the arbiters of boundary disputes points to the same conclusion,
as this function is invariably assigned to the oldest residents in
any locality. The Parjas appear to be Gonds and not Khonds. Their
sept names are Gondi words, and their language is a form of Gondi,
called after them Parji. Parji has hitherto been considered a form
of Bhatri, but Sir G. Grierson [420] has now classified the latter
as a dialect of the Uriya language, while Parji remains 'A local
and very corrupt variation of Gondi, considerably mixed with Hindi
forms.' While then the Parjas, in Bastar at any rate, must be held
to be a branch of the Gonds, they may have a considerable admixture
of the Khonds, or other tribes in different localities, as the rules
of marriage are very loose in this part of the country. [421]
2. Exogamous septs
The tribe have exogamous totemistic septs, as Bagh a tiger, Kachhim a
tortoise, Bokda a goat, Netam a dog, Gohi a big lizard, Pandki a dove
and so on. If a man kills accidentally the animal after which his sept
is named, the earthen cooking-pots of his household are thrown away,
the clothes are washed, and the house is purified with water in which
the bark of the mango or _jamun_ [422] tree has been steeped. This
is in sign of mourning, as it is thought that such an act will bring
misfortune. If a man of the snake sept kills a snake accidentally,
he places a piece of new yarn on his head, praying for forgiveness,
and deposits the body on an anthill, where snakes are supposed to
live. If a man of the goat sept eats goat's flesh, it is thought that
he will become blind at once. A Parja will not touch the body of his
totem-animal when dead, and if he sees any one killing or teasing it
when alive, he will go away out of sight. It is said that a man of the
Kachhim sept once found a tortoise while on a journey, and leaving it
undisturbed, passed on. When the tortoise died it was reborn in the
man's belly and troubled him greatly, and since then every Parja is
liable to be afflicted in the same way in the side of the abdomen,
the disease which is produced being in fact enlarged spleen. The
tortoise told the man that as he had left it lying by the road, and
had not devoted it to any useful purpose, he was afflicted in this
way. Consequently, when a man of the Kachhim sept finds a tortoise
nowadays, he gives it to somebody else who can cut it up. The story
is interesting as a legend of the origin of spleen, but has apparently
been invented as an excuse for killing the sacred animal.
3. Kinship and marriage
Marriage is prohibited in theory between members of the same sept. But
as the number of septs is rather small, the rule is not adhered to,
and members of the same sept are permitted to marry so long as they
do not come from the same village; the original rule of exogamy being
perhaps thus exemplified. The proposal for a match is made by the
boy's father, who first offers a cup of liquor to the girl's father
in the bazar, and subsequently explains his errand. If the girl's
father, after consulting with his family, disapproves of the match,
he returns an equal quantity of liquor to the boy's father in token
of his decision. The girl is usually consulted, and asked if she
would like to marry her suitor, but not much regard is had to her
opinion. If she dislikes him, however, she usually runs away from him
after a short interlude of married life. If a girl becomes pregnant
with a caste-fellow before marriage, he is required to take her,
and give to the family the presents which he would make to them on
a regular marriage. The man can subsequently be properly married to
some other woman, but the girl cannot be married at all. If a girl
is seduced by a man outside the caste, she is made over to him. It
is essential for a man to be properly married at least once, and an
old bachelor will sometimes go through the form of being wedded to
his maternal uncle's daughter, even though she may be an infant. If
no proposal for marriage is made for a girl, she is sometimes handed
over informally to any man who likes to take her, and who is willing
to give as much for her as the parents would receive for a regular
marriage. A short time before the wedding, the boy's father sends a
considerable quantity of rice to the girl's father, and on the day
before he sends a calf, a pot of liquor, fifteen annas worth of copper
coin, and a new cloth. The bridegroom's expenses are about Rs. 50,
and the bride's about Rs. 10.
4. Marriage dance
At weddings the tribe have a dance called Surcha, for which the men
wear a particular dress consisting of a long coat, a turban and two
or three scarves thrown loosely over the shoulders. Strings of little
bells are tied about the feet, and garlands of beads round the neck;
sometimes men and women dance separately, and sometimes both sexes
together in a long line or a circle. Music is provided by bamboo
flutes, drums and an iron instrument something like a flute. As they
dance, songs are sung in the form of question and answer between the
lines of men and women, usually of a somewhat indecent character. The
following short specimen may be given:--
_Man_. If you are willing to go with me we will both follow the
officer's elephant. If I go back without you my heart can have no rest.
_Woman_. Who dare take me away from my husband while the Company
is reigning. My husband will beat me and who will pay him the
compensation?
_Man_. You had better make up your mind to go with me. I will ask the
Treasurer for some money and pay it to your husband as compensation.
_Woman_. Very well, I will make ready some food, and will run away
with you in the next bright fortnight.
These dialogues often, it is said, lead to quarrels between husband and
wife, as the husband cannot rebuke his wife in the assembly. Sometimes
the women fall in love with men in the dance, and afterwards run away
with them.
5. Nuptial ceremony
The marriage takes place at the boy's house, where two marriage-sheds
are made. It is noticeable that the bride on going to the bridegroom's
house to be married is accompanied only by her female relatives,
no man of her family being allowed to be with her. This is probably
a reminiscence of the old custom of marriage by capture, as in
former times she was carried off by force, the opposition of her
male relatives having been quelled. In memory of this the men still
do not countenance the wedding procession by their presence. The
bridal couple are made to sit down together on a mat, and from three
to seven pots of cold water are poured over them. About a week after
the wedding the couple go to a market with their friends, and after
walking round it they all sit down and drink liquor.
6. Widow-marriage and divorce
The remarriage of widows is permitted, and a widow is practically
compelled to marry her late husband's younger brother, if he has
one. If she persistently refuses to do so, in spite of the strongest
pressure, her parents turn her out of their house. In order to be
married the woman goes to the man's house with some friends; they
sit together on the ground, and the friends apply the _tika_ or sign
by touching their foreheads with dry rice. A man can divorce his
wife if she is of bad character, or if she is supposed to be under
an unfavourable star, or if her children die in infancy. A divorced
woman can marry again as if she were a widow.
7. Religion and festivals
The Parjas worship the class of divinities of the hills and forests
usually revered among primitive tribes, as well as Danteshwari,
the tutelary goddess of Bastar. On the day that sowing begins they
offer a fowl to the field, first placing some grains of rice before
it. If the fowl eats the rice they prognosticate a good harvest,
and if not the reverse. A few members of the tribe belong to the
Ramanandi sect, and on this account a little extra attention is paid
to them. If such a one is invited to a feast he is given a wooden
seat, while others sit on the ground. It is said that a few years
ago a man became a Kabirpanthi, but he subsequently went blind and
his son died, and since this event the sect is absolutely without
adherents. Most villages have a Sirha or man who is possessed by
the deity, and his advice is taken in religious matters, such as
the detection of witches. Another official is called Medha Gantia or
'The Counter of posts.' He appoints the days for weddings, calculating
them by counting on his fingers, and also fixes auspicious days for
the construction of a house or for the commencement of sowing. It is
probable that in former times he kept count of the days by numbering
posts or trees. When rain is wanted the people fix a piece of wood
into the ground, calling it Bhimsen Deo or King of the Clouds. They
pour water over it and pray to it, asking for rain. Every year, after
the crops are harvested, they worship the rivers or streams in the
village. A snake, a jackal, a hare and a dog wagging its ears are
unlucky objects to see when starting on a journey, and also a dust
devil blowing along in front. They do not kill wild dogs, because
they say that tigers avoid the forests where these reside, and some
of them hold that a tiger on meeting a wild dog climbs a tree to get
out of his way. Wednesday and Thursday are lucky days for starting on
a journey, and the operations of sowing, reaping and threshing should
be commenced and completed on one of these days. When a man intends
to build a house he places a number of sets of three grains of rice,
one resting on the other two, on the ground in different places. Each
set is covered by a leaf-cup with some earth to hold it down. Next
morning the grains are inspected, and if the top one has fallen down
the site is considered to be lucky, as indicating that the earth is
wishful to bear the burden of a house in this place. A house should
face to the east or west, and not to the north or south. Similarly,
the roads leading out of the village should run east or west from
the starting-point. The principal festivals of the Parjas are the
Hareli [423] or feast of the new vegetation in July, the Nawakhani
[424] or feast of the new rice crop in August or September, and the
Am Nawakhani or that of the new mango crop in April or May. At the
feasts the new season's crop should be eaten, but if no fresh rice has
ripened, they touch some of the old grain with a blade of a growing
rice-plant, and consider that it has become the new crop. On these
occasions ancestors are worshipped by members of the family only
inside the house, and offerings of the new crops are made to them.
8. Disposal of the dead
The dead are invariably buried, the corpse being laid in the ground
with head to the east and feet to the west. This is probably the most
primitive burial, it being supposed that the region of the dead is
towards the west, as the setting sun disappears in that direction. The
corpse is therefore laid in the grave with the feet to the west ready
to start on its journey. Members of the tribe who have imbibed Hindu
ideas now occasionally lay the corpse with the head to the north in
the direction of the Ganges. Rice-gruel, water and a tooth-stick
are placed on the grave nightly for some days after death. As an
interesting parallel instance, near home, of the belief that the
soul starts on a long journey after death, the following passage
may be quoted from Mr. Gomme's Folklore: "Among the superstitions
of Lancashire is one which tells us of a lingering belief in a long
journey after death, when food is necessary to support the soul. A
man having died of apoplexy at a public dinner near Manchester,
one of the company was heard to remark, 'Well, poor Joe, God rest
his soul! He has at least gone to his long rest wi' a belly full o'
good meat, and that's some consolation!' And perhaps a still more
remarkable instance is that of the woman buried in Curton Church,
near Rochester, who directed by her will that the coffin was to have
a lock and key, the key being placed in her dead hand, so that she
might be able to release herself at pleasure." [425]
After the burial a dead fish is brought on a leaf-plate to the
mourners, who touch it, and are partly purified. The meaning of this
rite, if there be any, is not known. After the period of mourning,
which varies from three to nine days, is over, the mourners and their
relatives must attend the next weekly bazar, and there offer liquor
and sweets in the name of the dead man, who upon this becomes ranked
among the ancestors.
9. Occupation and social customs
The Parjas are cultivators, and grow rice and other crops in the
ordinary manner. Many of them are village headmen, and to these the
term Dhurwa is more particularly applied. The tribe will eat fowls,
pig, monkeys, the large lizard, field-rats, and bison and wild
buffalo, but they do not eat carnivorous animals, crocodiles, snakes
or jackals. Some of them eat beef while others have abjured it, and
they will not accept the leavings of others. They are not considered
to be an impure caste. If any man or woman belonging to a higher
caste has a _liaison_ with a Parja, and is on that account expelled
from their own caste, he or she can be admitted as a Parja. In their
other customs and dress and ornaments the tribe resemble the Gonds
of Bastar. Women are tattooed on the chest and arms with patterns of
dots. The young men sometimes wear their hair long, and tie it in a
bunch behind, secured by a strip of cloth.
Pasi
List of Paragraphs
1. _The nature and origin of the caste_.
2. _Brahmanical legends_.
3. _Its mixed composition_.
4. _Marriage and other customs_.
5. _Religion, superstitions and social customs_.
6. _Occupation_.
7. _Criminal tendencies_.
1. The nature and origin of the caste
_Pasi, Passi._ [426]--A Dravidian occupational caste of northern
India, whose hereditary employment is the tapping of the palmyra,
date and other palm trees for their sap. The name is derived from the
Sanskrit _pashika_, 'One who uses a noose,' and the Hindi, _pas_ or
_pasa_, a noose. It is a curious fact that when the first immigrant
Parsis from Persia landed in Gujarat they took to the occupation
of tapping palm trees, and the poorer of them still follow it. The
resemblance in the name, however, can presumably be nothing more than
a coincidence. The total strength of the Pasis in India is about a
million and a half persons, nearly all of whom belong to the United
Provinces and Bihar. In the Central Provinces they number 3500, and
reside principally in the Jubbulpore and Hoshangabad Districts. The
caste is now largely occupational, and is connected with the Bhars,
Arakhs, Khatiks and other Dravidian groups of low status. But in the
past they seem to have been of some importance in Oudh. "All through
Oudh," Mr. Crooke states, "they have traditions that they were lords of
the country, and that their kings reigned in the Districts of Kheri,
Hardoi and Unao. Ramkot, where the town of Bangarmau in Unao now
stands, is said to have been one of their chief strongholds. The last
of the Pasi lords of Ramkot, Raja Santhar, threw off his allegiance
to Kanauj and refused to pay tribute. On this Raja Jaichand gave his
country to the Banaphar heroes Alha and Udal, and they attacked and
destroyed Ramkot, leaving it the shapeless mass of ruins which it now
is." Similar traditions prevail in other parts of Oudh. It is also
recorded that the Rajpasis, the highest division of the caste, claim
descent from Tilokchand, the eponymous hero of the Bais Rajputs. It
would appear then that the Pasis were a Dravidian tribe who held a part
of Oudh before it was conquered by the Rajputs. As the designation
of Pasi is an occupational term and is derived from the Sanskrit,
it would seem that the tribe must formerly have had some other name,
or they may be an occupational offshoot of the Bhars. In favour of this
suggestion it may be noted that the Bhars also have strong traditions
of their former dominance in Oudh. Thus Sir C. Elliott states in his
_Chronicles of Unao_ [427] that after the close of the heroic age,
when Ajodhya was held by the Surajvansi Rajputs under the great Rama,
we find after an interval of historic darkness that Ajodhya has been
destroyed, the Surajvansis utterly banished, and a large extent of
country is being ruled over by aborigines called Cheros in the far
east, Bhars in the centre and Rajpasis in the west. Again, in Kheri
the Pasis always claim kindred with the Bhars, [428] and in Mirzapur
[429] the local Pasis represent the Bhars as merely a subcaste of
their own tribe, though this is denied by the Bhars themselves. It
seems therefore a not improbable hypothesis that the Pasis and perhaps
also the kindred tribe of Arakhs are functional groups formed from the
Bhar tribe. For a discussion of the early history of this important
tribe the reader must be referred to Mr. Crooke's excellent article.
2. Brahmanical legends
The following tradition is related by the Pasis themselves in Mirzapur
and the Central Provinces: One day a man was going to kill a number
of cows. Parasurama was at that time practising austerities in the
jungles. Hearing the cries of the sacred animals he rushed to their
assistance, but the cow-killer was aided by his friends. So Parasurama
made five men out of _kusha_ grass and brought them to life by letting
drops of his perspiration fall upon them. Hence arose the name Pasi,
from the Hindi _pasina_, sweat. The men thus created rescued the
cows. Then they returned to Parasurama and asked him to provide
them with a wife. Just at that moment a Kayasth girl was passing
by, and her Parasurama seized and made over to the Pasis. From them
sprang the Kaithwas subcaste. Another legend related by Mr. Crooke
tells that during the time Parasurama was incarnate there was an
austere devotee called Kuphal who was asked by Brahma to demand of
him a boon, whereupon he requested that he might be perfected in the
art of thieving. His request was granted, and there is a well-known
verse regarding the devotions of Kuphal, the pith of which is that
the mention of the name of Kuphal, who received a boon from Brahma,
removes all fear of thieves; and the mention of his three wives--Maya
(illusion), Nidra (sleep), and Mohani (enchantment)--deprives thieves
of success in their attempts against the property of those who repeat
these names. Kuphal is apparently the progenitor of the caste, and
the legend is intended to show how the position of the Pasis in the
Hindu cosmos or order of society according to the caste system has
been divinely ordained and sanctioned, even to the recognition of
theft as their hereditary pursuit.
3. Its mixed composition
Whatever their origin may have been the composition of the caste is
now of a very mixed nature. Several names of other castes, as Gujar,
Gual or Ahir, Arakh, Khatik, Bahelia, Bhil and Bania, are returned
as divisions of the Pasis in the United Provinces. Like all migratory
castes they are split into a number of small groups, whose constitution
is probably not very definite. The principal subcastes in the Central
Provinces are the Rajpasis or highest class, who probably were at one
time landowners; the Kaithwas or Kaithmas, supposed to be descended
from a Kayasth, as already related; the Tirsulia, who take their name
from the _trisula_ or three-bladed knife used to pierce the stem of
the palm tree; the Bahelia or hunters, and Chiriyamar or fowlers;
the Ghudchadha or those who ride on ponies, these being probably
saises or horse-keepers; the Khatik or butchers and Gujar or graziers;
and the Mangta or beggars, these being the bards and genealogists of
the caste, who beg from their clients and take food from their hands;
they are looked down on by the other Pasis.
4. Marriage and other customs
In the Central Provinces the tribe have now no exogamous groups; they
avoid marriage with blood relations as far back as their memory carries
them. At their weddings the couple walk round the _srawan_ or heavy
log of wood, which is dragged over the fields before sowing to break up
the larger clods of earth. In the absence of this an ordinary plough or
harrow will serve as a substitute, though why the Pasis should impart
a distinctively agricultural implement into their marriage ceremony
is not clear. Like the Gonds, the Pasis celebrate their weddings at
the bridegroom's house and not at the bride's. Before the wedding the
bridegroom's mother goes and sits over a well, taking with her seven
_urad_ cakes [430] and stalks of the plant. The bridegroom walks
seven times round the well, and at each turn the parapet is marked
with red and white clay and his mother throws one of the cakes and
stalks into the well. Finally, the mother threatens to throw herself
into the well, and the bridegroom begs her not to do so, promising
that he will serve and support her. Divorce and the remarriage of
widows are freely permitted. Conjugal morality is somewhat lax, and
Mr. Crooke quotes a report from Pertabgarh to the effect that if a
woman of a tribe become pregnant by a stranger and the child be born
in the house of her father or husband, it will be accepted as a Pasi
of pure blood and admitted to all tribal privileges. The bodies of
adults may be buried or burnt as convenient, but those of children
or of persons dying from smallpox, cholera or snake-bite are always
buried. Mourning is observed during ten days for a man and nine days
for a woman, while children who die unmarried are not mourned at all.
5. Religion, superstitions and social customs
The Pasis worship all the ordinary Hindu deities. All classes of
Brahmans will officiate at their marriages and other ceremonies,
and do anything for them which does not involve touching them or
any article in their houses. In Bengal, Sir H. Risley writes, the
employment of Brahmans for the performance of ceremonies appears to
be a very recent reform for, as a rule, in sacrifices and funeral
ceremonies, the worshipper's sister's son performs the functions of a
priest. "Among the Pasis of Monghyr this ancient custom, which admits
of being plausibly interpreted as a survival of female kinship, still
prevails generally." The social status of the Pasis is low, but they
are not regarded as impure. At their marriage festivals, Mr. Gayer
notes, boys are dressed up as girls and made to dance in public, but
they do not use drums or other musical instruments. They breed pigs and
cure the bacon obtained from them. Marriage questions are decided by
the tribal council, which is presided over by a chairman (_Chaudhri_)
selected at each meeting from among the most influential adult males
present. The council deals especially with cases of immorality and
pollution caused by journeys across the black water (_kala pani_)
which the criminal pursuits of the tribe occasionally necessitate.
6. Occupation
The traditional occupation of the Pasis, as already stated, is the
extraction of the sap of palm trees. But some of them are hunters
and fowlers like the Pardhis, and like them also they make and mend
grindstones, while others are agriculturists; and the caste has also
strong criminal propensities, and includes a number of professional
thieves. Some are employed in the Nagpur mills and others have taken
small building contracts. Pasis are generally illiterate and in poor
circumstances, and are much addicted to drink. In climbing [431]
palm trees to tap them for their juice the worker uses a heel-rope,
by which his feet are tied closely together. At the same time he has a
stout rope passing round the tree and his body. He leans back against
this rope and presses the soles of his feet, thus tied together,
against the tree. He then climbs up the tree by a series of hitches or
jerks of his back and feet alternately. The juice of the palmyra palm
(_tar_) and the date palm (_khajur_) is extracted by the Pasi. The
_tar_ trees, Sir H. Risley states, [432] are tapped from March to
May, and the date palm in the cold season. The juice of the former,
known as _tari_ or toddy, is used in the manufacture of bread, and an
intoxicating liquor is obtained from it by adding sugar and grains
of rice. Hindustani drunkards often mix _dhatura_ with the toddy to
increase its intoxicating properties. The quantity of juice extracted
from one tree varies from five to ten pounds. Date palm _tari_ is
less commonly drunk, being popularly believed to cause rheumatism,
but is extensively used in preparing sugar.
7. Criminal tendencies
Eighty years ago, when General Sleeman wrote, the Pasis were noted
thieves. In his _Journey through Oudh_ [433] he states that in Oudh
there were then supposed to be one hundred thousand families of Pasis,
who were skilful thieves and robbers by profession, and were formerly
Thugs and poisoners as well. They generally formed the worst part of
the gangs maintained by refractory landowners, "who keep Pasis to
fight for them, as they pay themselves out of the plunder and cost
little to their employers. They are all armed with bows and are
very formidable at night. They and their refractory employés keep
the country in a perpetual state of disorder." Mr. Gayer notes [434]
that the criminally disposed members of the caste take contracts for
the watch and sale of mangoes in groves distant from habitations,
so that their movements will not be seen by prying eyes. They also
seek employment as roof-thatchers, in which capacity they are enabled
to ascertain which houses contain articles worth stealing. They show
considerable cunning in disposing of their stolen property. The men
will go openly in the daytime to the receiver and acquaint him with
the fact that they have property to dispose of; the receiver goes to
the bazar, and the women come to him with grass for sale. They sell
the grass to the receiver, and then accompany him home with it and
the stolen property, which is artfully concealed in it.
Patwa
_Patwa, Patwi, Patra, Ilakelband._--The occupational caste of weavers
of fancy silk braid and thread. In 1911 the Patwas numbered nearly
6000 persons in the Central Provinces, being returned principally
from the Narsinghpur, Raipur, Saugor, Jubbulpore and Hoshangabad
Districts. About 800 were resident in Berar. The name is derived from
the Sanskrit _pata_, woven cloth, or Hindi _pat_, silk. The principal
subcastes of the Patwas are the Naraina; the Kanaujia, also known as
Chhipi, because they sew marriage robes; the Deobansi or 'descendants
of a god,' who sell lac and glass bangles; the Lakhera, who prepare
lac bangles; the Kachera, who make glass bangles; and others. Three
of the above groups are thus functional in character. They have also
Rajput and Kayastha subcastes, who may consist of refugees from those
castes received into the Patwa community. In the Central Provinces
the Patwas and Lakheras are in many localities considered to be the
same caste, as they both deal in lac and sell articles made of it;
and the account of the occupations of the Lakhera caste also applies
largely to the Patwas. The exogamous groups of the caste are named
after villages, or titles or nicknames borne by the reputed founder
of the group. They indicate that the Patwas of the Central Provinces
are generally descended from immigrants from northern India. The Patwa
usually purchases silk and colours it himself. He makes silk strings
for pyjamas and coats, armlets and other articles. Among these are
the silk threads called _rakhis_, used on the Rakshabandhan festival,
[435] when the Brahmans go round in the morning tying them on to
the wrists of all Hindus as a protection against evil spirits. For
this the Brahman receives a present of one or two pice. The _rakhi_
is made of pieces of raw silk fibre twisted together, with a knot at
one end and a loop at the other. It goes round the wrist, and the knot
is passed through the loop. Sisters also tie it round their brothers'
wrists and are given a present. The Patwas make the _phundri_ threads
for tying up the hair of women, whether of silk or cotton, and various
threads used as amulets, such as the _janjira_, worn by men round the
neck, and the _ganda_ or wizard's thread, which is tied round the
arm after incantations have been said over it; and the necklets of
silk or cotton thread bound with thin silver wire which the Hindus
wear at Anant Chaudas, a sort of All Saints' Day, when all the gods
are worshipped. In this various knots are made by the Brahmans, and
in each a number of deities are tied up to exert their beneficent
influence for the wearer of the thread. These are the bands which
Hindus commonly wear on their necks. The Patwas thread necklaces of
gold and jewels on silk thread, and also make the strings of cowries,
slung on pack-thread, which are tied round the necks of bullocks when
they race on the Pola day, and on ponies, probably as a charm. After a
child is born in the family of one of their clients, the Patwas make
tassels of cotton and hemp thread coloured red, green and yellow,
and hang them to the centre-beam of the house and the top of the
child's cradle, and for this they get a present, which from a rich
man may be as much as ten rupees. The sacred thread proper is usually
made by Brahmans in the Central Provinces. Some of the Patwas wander
about hawking their wares from village to village. Besides the silk
threads they sell the _tiklis_ or large spangles which women wear
on their foreheads, lac bangles and balls of henna, and the large
necklaces of lac beads covered with tinsel of various colours which
are worn in Chhattisgarh. A Patwa must not rear the tasar silkworm
nor boil the cocoons on pain of expulsion from caste.
Pindari
List of Paragraphs
1. _Origin of the name_.
2. _Rise of the Pindaris_.
3. _Their strength and sphere of operations_.
4. _Pindari expeditions and methods_.
5. _Return from an expedition_.
6. _Suppression of the Pindaris_. _Death of Chitu_.
7. _Character of the Pindaris_.
8. _The existing Pindaris_.
9. _Attractions of a Pindari's life_.
1. Origin of the name
_Pindari, Pindara, Pendhari._ [436]--The well-known professional
class of freebooters, whose descendants now form a small cultivating
caste. In the Central Provinces they numbered about 150 persons
in 1911, while there are about 10,000 in India. They are mainly
Muhammadans but include some Hindus. The Pindaris of the Central
Provinces are for the most part the descendants of Gonds, Korkus
and Bhils whose children were carried off in the course of raids,
circumcised, and brought up to follow the profession of a Pindari. When
the bands were dispersed many of them returned to their native
villages and settled down. Malcolm considered that the name Pindari
was derived from _pinda_, an intoxicating drink, and was given to
them on account of their dissolute habits. He adds that Karim Khan,
a famous Pindari leader, had never heard of any other reason for
the name, and Major Henley had the etymology confirmed by the most
intelligent of the Pindaris of whom he inquired. [437] In support of
this may be adduced the name of Bhangi, given to the sweeper caste on
account of their drinking _bhang_ or hemp. Wilson again held the most
probable derivation to be from the Marathi _pendha_, in the sense of
a bundle of rice-straw, and _hara_ one who takes, because the name
was originally applied to horsemen who hung on to an army and were
employed in collecting forage. The fact that the existing Pindaris
are herdsmen and tenders of buffaloes and thus might well have been
employed for the collection of forage may be considered somewhat to
favour the above view; but the authors of _Hobson-Jobson_, after citing
these derivations, continue: "We cannot think any of the etymologies
very satisfactory. We venture another as a plausible suggestion
merely. Both _pind-parna_ in Hindi and _pindas-basnen_ in Marathi
signify 'to follow,' the latter being defined as 'to stick closely;
to follow to the death; used of the adherence of a disagreeable
fellow.' Such phrases could apply to these hangers-on of an army in
the field looking out for prey." Mr. W. Irvine [438] has suggested
that the word comes from a place or region called Pandhar, which
is referred to by native historians and seems to have been situated
between Burhanpur and Handia on the Nerbudda; and states that there is
good evidence to prove that a large number of Pindaris were settled
in this part of the country. Mr. D. Chisholm reports from Nimar that
"Pandhar or Pandhar is the name given to a stream which rises in the
Gularghat hills of the Asir range and flows after a very circuitous
course into the Masak river by Mandeva. The name signifies five,
as it is joined by four other small streams. The Asir hills were the
haunts of the Pindaris, and the country about these, especially by
the banks of the Pandhar, is very wild; but it is not commonly known
that the Pindaris derived their name from this stream." And as the
Pindaris are first heard of as hangers-on of the Maratha armies in
the Deccan prior to A.D. 1700, it seems unlikely also that their
name can be taken from a place in the Nimar District, where it is
not recorded that they were settled before 1794. Nor does the Pandhar
itself seem sufficiently important to have given a name to the whole
body of freebooters. Malcolm's or Wilson's derivations are perhaps on
the whole the most probable. Prinsep writes: "Pindara seems to have
the same reference to Pandour that Kuzak has to Cossack. The latter
word is of Turkish origin but is commonly used to express a mounted
robber in Hindustan." Though the Pandours were the predatory light
cavalry of the Austrian army, and had considerable resemblance to
the Pindaris, it does not seem possible to suppose that there is any
connection between the two words. The Pendra zamindari in Bilaspur is
named after the Pindaris, the dense forests of the Rewah plateau which
includes Pendra having been one of their favourite asylums of refuge.
2. Rise of the Pindaris
The Pindari bands appear to have come into existence during the wars
of the late Muhammadan dynasties in the Deccan, and in the latter part
of the seventeenth century they attached themselves to the Marathas in
their revolt against Aurangzeb. The first mention of the name occurs
at this time. During and after the Maratha wars many of the Pindari
leaders obtained grants in Central India from Sindhia and Holkar,
and were divided into two parties owing a nominal allegiance to these
princes and designated as the Sindhia Shahi and Holkar Shahi. In the
period of chaos which reigned at this time outside British territories
their raids in all directions attended by the most savage atrocities
became more and more intolerable. These outrages extended from
Bundelkhand to Cuddapah south of Madras and from Orissa to Gujarat.
When attached to the Maratha armies, Malcolm states, the Pindaris
always camped separately and were not permitted to plunder in the
Maratha territories; they were given an allowance averaging four
annas each a day, and further supported themselves by employing
their small horses and bullocks in carrying grain, forage and wood,
for which articles the Pindari bazar was the great mart. When let
loose to pillage, which was always the case some days before the
army entered an enemy's country, all allowances stopped; no restraint
whatever was put upon these freebooters till the campaign was over,
when the Maratha commander, if he had the power, generally seized
the Pindari chiefs or surrounded their camps and forced them to yield
up the greater part of their booty. A knowledge of this practice led
the Pindaris to redouble their excesses, that they might be able to
satisfy without ruin the expected rapacity of their employers.
In 1794, Grant-Duff writes, Sindhia assigned some lands to the
Pindaris near the banks of the Nerbudda, which they soon extended
by conquests from the Grassias or original independent landholders
in their neighbourhood. Their principal leaders at that time were
two brothers named Hiru and Burun, who are said to have been put
to death for their aggressions on the territory of Sindhia and
of Raghuji Bhonsla. The sons of Hiru and Burun became Pindari
chiefs; but Karim Khan, a Pindara who had acquired great booty
at the plunder of the Nizam's troops after the battle of Hurdla,
and was distinguished by superior cunning and enterprise, was the
principal leader of this refuse of the Maratha armies. Karim got the
district of Shujahalpur from Umar Khan which, with some additions,
was afterwards confirmed to him by Sindhia. During the war of 1803
and the subsequent disturbed state of the country Karim contrived to
obtain possession of several districts in Malwa belonging to Sindhia's
jagirdars; and his land revenue at one time is said to have amounted
to fifteen lakhs of rupees a year. He also wrested some territory from
the Nawab of Bhopal on which he built a fort as a place of security
for his family and of deposit for his plunder. Karim was originally a
Sindhia Shahi, but like most of the Pindaris, except about 5000 of the
Holkar Shahis who remained faithful, he changed sides or plundered
his master whenever it suited his convenience, which was as often
as he found an opportunity. Sindhia, jealous of his encroachments,
on pretence of lending him some gems inveigled him to an interview,
made him prisoner, plundered his camp, recovered the usurped districts
and lodged Karim in the fort of Gwalior.
A number of leaders started up after the confinement of Karim,
of whom Chitu, Dost Muhammad, Namdar Khan and Sheikh Dullah became
the most conspicuous. They associated themselves with Amir Khan in
1809 during his expedition to Berar; and in 1810, when Karim Khan
purchased his release from Gwalior, they assembled under that leader
a body of 25,000 horse and some battalions of newly raised infantry
with which they again proposed to invade Berar; but Chitu, always
jealous of Karim's ascendency, was detached by Raghuji Bhonsla from
the alliance, and afterwards co-operated with Sindhia in attacking
him; Karim was in consequence driven to seek an asylum with his old
patron Amir Khan, but by the influence of Sindhia Amir Khan kept him
in a state of confinement until 1816.
When the Marathas ceased to spread themselves over India, the Pindaris
who had attended their armies were obliged to plunder the territories
of their former protectors for subsistence. To the unemployed soldiery
of India, particularly to the Muhammadans, the life of a Pindara had
many allurements; but the Maratha horsemen who possessed hereditary
rights or had any pretensions to respectability did not readily join
them. One of the above leaders, Sheikh Dullah or Abdullah, apparently
became a dacoit after the Pindaris had been dispersed, and he is
still remembered in Hoshangabad and Nimar in the following saying:
Niche zamin aur upar Allah,
Aur bich men phiren Sheikh Dullah,
or 'God is above and the earth beneath, and Sheikh Dullah ranges at
his will between.'
3. Their strength and sphere of operations
In 1814, Prinsep states, [439] the actual military force at the
disposal of the Pindaris amounted to 40,000 horse, inclusive of the
Pathans, who though more orderly and better disciplined than the
Pindaris of the Nerbudda, possessed the same character and were
similarly circumstanced in every respect, supporting themselves
entirely by depredations whenever they could practise them. Their
number would be doubled were we to add the remainder of Holkar's
troops of the irregular kind, which were daily deserting the service
of a falling house in order to engage in the more profitable career
of predatory enterprise; and the loose cavalry establishments of
Sindhia and the Bhonsla, which were bound by no ties but those of
present entertainment, and were always in great arrears of pay. The
presence of this force in the centre of India and able to threaten
each of the three Presidencies imposed the most extensive annual
precautions for defence, in spite of which the territories of our
allies were continually overrun. On two occasions, once when they
entered Gujarat in 1808-9 and again in 1812 when the Bengal provinces
of Mirzapur and Shahabad were devastated, they penetrated into our
immediate territories. Grant-Duff records that in one raid on the coast
from Masulipatam northward they in ten days plundered 339 villages,
burning many, killing and wounding 682 persons, torturing 3600 and
carrying off or destroying property to the amount of two lakhs and
a half. Indeed their reputation was such that the mere rumour of an
incursion caused a regular panic at Madras in 1816, of which General
Hislop gives an amusing account: [440] "In the middle of this year the
troops composing the garrison of Fort St. George were moved out and
encamped on the island outside Black Town wall. This imprudent step
was taken, as was affirmed, to be in readiness to meet the Pindaris,
who were reported to be on their road to Madras, although it was well
known that not half a dozen of them were at that time within 200 miles
of the place. The native inhabitants of all classes throughout Madras
and its vicinity were in the utmost alarm, and looked for places of
retreat and security for their property. It brought on Madras all
the distresses in imagination of Hyder Ali's invasion. It was about
this period that an idle rumour reached Madras of the arrival of the
Pindaris at the Mount; all was uproar, flight and despair to the walls
of Madras. This alarm originated in a few Dhobis and grass-cutters
of the artillery having mounted their _tattus_ and, in mock imitation
of the Pindaris, galloped about and played with long bamboos in their
hands in the vicinity of the Mount. The effect was such, however, that
many of the civil servants and inhabitants of the Mount Road packed
up and moved to the Fort for protection. Troopers, messengers, etc.,
were seen galloping to the Government House and thence to the different
public authorities. Such was the alarm in the Government House that
on the afternoon of that day an old officer, anxious to offer some
advice to the Governor, rode smartly to the Government gardens, and on
reaching the entrance observed the younger son of the Governor running
with all possible speed into the house; who having got to a place of
security ventured to look back and then discovered in the old officer
a face which he had before seen; when turning back again he exclaimed,
'Upon my word, sir, I was so frightened I took you for a Pindari.'"
4. Pindari expeditions and methods
A Pindari expedition [441] usually started at the close of the rains,
as soon as the rivers became fordable after the Dasahra festival in
October. Their horses were then shod, having previously been carefully
trained to prepare them for long marches and hard work. A leader of
tried courage having been chosen as Luhbaria, all who were so inclined
set forth on a foray, or Luhbar as it was called in the Pindari
nomenclature, the strength of the party often amounting to several
thousands. In every thousand Pindaris about 400 were tolerably well
mounted and armed; of this number about every fifteenth man carried
a matchlock, but their favourite weapon was the ordinary bamboo
spear of the Marathas, from 12 to 18 feet long. Of the remaining 600
two-thirds were usually common Lootais or plunderers, indifferently
mounted and armed with every variety of weapon; and the rest slaves,
attendants and camp-followers, mounted on _tattus_ or wild ponies and
keeping up with the Luhbar in the best manner they could. They were
encumbered neither by tents nor baggage; each horseman carried a few
cakes of bread for his own subsistence and some feeds of grain for
his horse. They advanced at the rapid rate of forty or fifty miles a
day, neither turning to the right nor to the left till they arrived at
their place of destination. They then divided, and made a sweep of all
the cattle and property they could find; committing at the same time
the most horrid atrocities and destroying what they could not carry
away. They trusted to the secrecy and suddenness of the irruption
for avoiding those who guarded the frontiers of the countries they
invaded; and before a force could be brought against them they were on
their return. Their chief strength lay in their being intangible. If
pursued they made marches of extraordinary length, sometimes upwards
of sixty miles, by roads almost impracticable for regular troops. If
overtaken they dispersed and reassembled at an appointed rendezvous;
if followed to the country from which they issued they broke into small
parties. The cruelties they perpetrated were beyond belief. As it was
impossible for them to remain more than a few hours on the same spot
the utmost despatch was necessary in rifling any towns or villages
into which they could force an entrance; every one whose appearance
indicated the probability of his possessing money was immediately
put to the most horrid torture till he either pointed out his hoard
or died under the infliction. Nothing was safe from the pursuit of
Pindari lust or avarice; it was their common practice to burn and
destroy what they could not carry away; and in the wantonness of
barbarity to ravish and murder women and children under the eyes of
their husbands and parents. The ordinary modes of torture inflicted
by these miscreants were to apply red-hot irons to the soles of the
feet; or to throw the victim on the ground and place a plank or beam
across his chest on which two men pressed with their whole weight;
and to throw oil on the clothes and set fire to them, or tie wisps
of rag soaked in oil to the ends of all the victim's fingers and set
fire to these. Another favourite method was to put hot ashes into a
horse-bag, which they tied over a man's mouth and nostrils and thumped
him on the back until he inhaled the ashes. The effect on the lungs
of the sufferer was such that few long survived the operation.
5. Return from an expedition
The return of the Pindaris from an expedition presented at one view
their character and habits. When they recrossed the Nerbudda and
reached their homes their camp became like a fair. After the claims
of the chief of the territory (whose right was a fourth part of the
booty, but who generally compounded for one or two valuable articles)
had been satisfied, the usual share paid to their Luhbaria, or chosen
leader for the expedition, and all debts to merchants and others who
had made advances discharged, the plunder of each man was exposed for
sale; traders from every part came to make cheap bargains; and while
the women were busy in disposing of their husbands' property, the men,
who were on such occasions certain of visits from all their friends,
were engaged in hearing music, seeing dancers and drolls, and in
drinking. This life of debauchery and excess lasted till their money
was gone; they were then compelled to look for new scenes of rapine,
or, if the season was favourable, were supported by their chiefs, or
by loans at high interest from merchants who lived in their camps, many
of whom amassed large fortunes. This worst part of the late population
of Central India is, as a separate community, now extinct. [442]
6. Suppression of the Pindaris. Death of Chitu
The result of the Pindari raids was that Central India was being
rapidly reduced to the condition of a desert, and the peasants, unable
to support themselves on the land, had no option but to join the robber
bands or starve. It was not until 1817 that Lord Hastings obtained
authority from home to take regular measures for their repression;
and at the same time he also forced or persuaded the principal chiefs
of Central India to act vigorously in concert with him. When these
were put into operation and the principal routes from Central India
occupied by British detachments, the Pindaris were completely broken
up and scattered in the course of a single campaign. They made no
stand against regular troops, and their bands, unable to escape from
the ring of forces drawn round them, were rapidly dispersed over
the country. The people eagerly plundered and seized them in revenge
for the wrongs long suffered at their hands, and the Bhil Grassias
or border landholders gladly carried out the instructions to hunt
them down. On one occasion a native havildar with only thirty-four
men attacked and put a large body of them to flight. The principal
chiefs, reduced to the condition of hunted outlaws in the jungles,
soon accepted the promise of their lives, and on surrendering
were either settled on a grant of land or kept in confinement. The
well-known leader Chitu joined Apa Sahib, who had then escaped from
Nagpur and was in hiding in the Pachmarhi hills. Being expelled from
there in February 1819 he proceeded to the fort of Asirgarh in Nimar,
but was refused admittance by Sindhia's commandant. He sought shelter
in the neighbouring jungle, and on horseback and alone attempted to
penetrate a thick cover known to be infested with tigers. He was missed
for some days afterwards and no one knew what had become of him. His
horse was at last discovered grazing near the margin of the forest,
saddled and bridled, and exactly in the state in which it was when
Chitu had last been seen upon it. Upon search a bag of Rs. 250 was
found in the saddle; and several seal rings with some letters of Apa
Sahib, promising future reward, served more completely to fix the
identity of the horse's late master. These circumstances, combined
with the known resort of tigers to the spot, induced a search for
the body, when at no great distance some clothes clotted with blood,
and farther on fragments of bones, and at last the Pindari's head
entire with features in a state to be recognised, were successively
discovered. The chief's mangled remains were given over to his son
for interment, and the miserable fate of one who so shortly before
had ridden at the head of twenty thousand horse gave an awful lesson
of the uncertainty of fortune and drew pity even from those who had
been victims of his barbarity when living. [443]
7. Character of the Pindaris
The Pindaris, as might be expected, were recruited from all classes
and castes, and though many became Muhammadans the Hindus preserved
the usages of their respective castes. Most of the Hindu men belonged
to the Ladul or grass-cutter class, and their occupation was to bring
grass and firewood to the camps. "Those born in the Durrahs or camps,"
Malcolm states, [444] "appear to have been ignorant in a degree almost
beyond belief and were in the same ratio superstitious. The women of
almost all the Muhammadan Pindaris dressed like Hindus and worshipped
Hindu deities. From accompanying their husbands in most of their
excursions they became hardy and masculine; they were usually mounted
on small horses or camels, and were more dreaded by the villagers
than the men, whom they exceeded in cruelty and rapacity." Colonel
Tod notes that the Pindaris, like other Indian robbers, were devout
in the observance of their religion:
"A short distance to the west of the Regent's (Kotah) camp is the
Pindari-ka-chhaoni, where the sons of Karim Khan, the chief leader of
those hordes, resided; for in those days of strife the old Regent would
have allied himself with Satan, if he had led a horde of plunderers. I
was greatly amused to see in this camp the commencement of an Id-Gah
or place of prayer; for the villains, while they robbed and murdered
even defenceless women, prayed five times a day!" [445]
8. The existing Pindaris
While the freebooting Pindaris had no regular caste organisation,
their descendants have now become more or less of a caste in
accordance with the usual tendency of a distinctive occupation,
producing a difference in status, to form a fresh caste. The existing
Pindaris in the Central Provinces are both Muhammadans and Hindus, the
Muhammadans, as already stated, having been originally the children
of Hindus who were kidnapped and converted. It is one of the very
few merits of the Pindaris that they did not sell their captives to
slavery. Their numerous prisoners of all ages and both sexes were
employed as servants, made over to the chiefs or held to ransom from
their relatives, but the Pindaris did not carry on like the Banjaras
a traffic in slaves. [446] The Muhammadan Pindaris were said some
time ago to have no religion, but with the diffusion of knowledge
they have now adopted the rites of Islam and observe its rules and
restrictions. In Bhandara the Hindu Pindaris are Garoris or Gowaris,
They say that the ancestors of the Pindaris and Gowaris were two
brothers, the business of the Pindari brother being to tend buffaloes
and that of the Gowari brother to herd cows. These Pindaris will
beg from the owners of buffaloes for the above reason. They revere
the dog and will not kill it, and also worship snakes and tigers,
believing that these animals never do them injury. They carry their
dead to the grave in a sitting posture, seated in a _jholi_ or wallet,
and bury them in the same position. They wear their beards and do
not shave. Some of these Pindaris are personal servants, others
cultivators and labourers, and others snake-charmers and jugglers.
9. Attractions of a Pindari's life
The freebooting life of the Pindaris, unmitigated scoundrels though
they were, no doubt had great charms, and must often have been recalled
with regret by those who settled down to the quiet humdrum existence
of a cultivator. This feeling has been admirably depicted in Sir
Alfred Lyall's well-known poem, of which it will be permissible to
quote a short extract:
When I rode a Dekhani charger with the saddle-cloth gold-laced,
And a Persian sword and a twelve-foot spear and a pistol at
my waist.
It's many a year gone by now; and yet I often dream
Of a long dark march to the Jumna, of splashing across the stream,
Of the waning moon on the water and the spears in the dim starlight
As I rode in front of my mother [447] and wondered at all the
sight.
Then the streak of the pearly dawn--the flash of a sentinel's gun,
The gallop and glint of horsemen who wheeled in the level sun,
The shots in the clear still morning, the white smoke's eddying
wreath,
Is this the same land that I live in, the dull dank air that
I breathe?
And if I were forty years younger, with my life before me to
choose,
I wouldn't be lectured by Kafirs or bullied by fat Hindoos;
But I'd go to some far-off country where Musalmans still are men,
Or take to the jungle like Chetoo, and die in the tiger's den.
Prabhu
1. Historical notice
_Prabhu, Parbhu._--The Maratha caste of clerks, accountants and
patwaris corresponding to the Kayasths. They numbered about 1400
persons in the southern Districts of the Central Provinces and Berar
in 1911. The Prabhus, like the Kayasths, claim to be descendants of
a child of Chandra Sena, a Kshatriya king and himself a son of Arjun,
one of the five Pandava brothers. Chandra Sena was slain by Parasurama,
the Brahman destroyer of the Kshatriyas, but the child was saved by a
Rishi, who promised that he should be brought up as a clerk. The boy
was named Somraj and was married to the daughter of Chitra Gupta, the
recorder of the dead. The caste thus claim Kshatriya origin. The name
Prabhu signifies 'lord,' but the Brahmans pretend that the real name
of the caste was Parbhu, meaning one of irregular birth. The Prabhus
say that Parbhu is a colloquial corruption used by the uneducated. The
_gotras_ of the Prabhus are eponymous, the names being the same as
those of Brahmans. In the Central Provinces many of them have the
surname of Chitnavis or Secretary. Child-marriage is in vogue and
widow-remarriage is forbidden. The wedding ceremony resembles that
of the Brahmans.
In his _Description of a Prabhu marriage_ [448] Rai Bahadur B.A. Gupte
shows how the old customs are being broken through among the educated
classes under the influence of modern ideas. Marriages are no longer
arranged without regard to the wishes of the couple, which are thus
ascertained: "The next step [449] is to find out the inclination of the
hero of the tale. His friends and equals do that easily enough. They
begin talking of the family and the girl, and are soon able to fathom
his mind. They leave on his desk all the photographs of the girls
offered and watch his movements. If he is sensible he quietly drops
or returns all the likenesses except the one he prefers, and keeps
this in his drawer. He dare not display it, for it is immodest to do
so. The news of the approval by the boy soon reaches the parents of the
girl." Similarly in her case: "The girl has no direct voice, but her
likes and dislikes are carefully fathomed through her girl friends. If
she says, 'Why is papa in such a hurry to get rid of me,' or turns
her face and goes away as soon as the proposed family is mentioned,
a sensible father drops the case and turns his attention to some other
boy. This is the direct result of higher education under British rule,
but among the masses the girl has absolutely no voice, and the boy has
very little unless he revolts and disobediently declines to accept a
girl already selected." Similarly the educated Prabhus are beginning
to dispense with the astrologer's calculations showing the agreement
of the horoscopes of the couple, which are too often made a cloak for
the extortion of large presents. "It very often happens that everything
is amicably settled except the greed of the priest, and he manages to
find out some disagreement between the horoscopes of the marriageable
parties to vent his anger. This trick has been sufficiently exposed,
and the educated portion of this ultra-literary caste have in most
cases discarded horoscopes and planetary conjunctions altogether. Under
these restrictions the only thing the council of astrologers have to
do is to draw up two documents giving diagrams based on the names
of the parties--for names are presumably selected according to the
conjunctions of the stars at birth. But they are often not, and depend
on the liking of the father for a family god, a mythological hero,
a patron or a celebrated ancestor in the case of the boy. In that of
the girl the favourite deity or a character in the most recent fable
or drama the father has just read."
According to custom the bridegroom should go to the bride's house to
be married, but if it is more convenient to have the wedding at the
bridegroom's town, the bride goes there to a temporary house taken
by her father, and then the bridegroom proceeds to a temple with
his party and is welcomed as if he had arrived on completion of a
journey. Mr. Gupte thus describes the reception of the bride when
she has come to be married: "But there comes an urgent telegram. The
bride and her mother are expected and information is given to the
bridegroom's father. In all haste preparations are made to give
her a grand and suitable reception. Oh, the flutter among the girls
assembled in the house of the bridegroom from all quarters. Every one
is dressed in her best and is trying to be the foremost in welcoming
the new bride, the Goddess Lakshmi. The numerous maidservants of
the house want to prostrate themselves before their future queen on
the Suna or borderland of the city, which is of course the railway
station. Musicians have been already despatched and the platform is
full of gaily dressed girls. The train arrives, the party assemble at
the waiting-room, a maidservant waves rice and water to 'take off'
the effects of evil eyes and they start amid admiring eyes of the
passengers and onlookers. As soon as the bride reaches her father's
temporary residence another girl waves rice and water and throws
it away. The girls of the bridegroom's house run home and come back
again with a Kalash (water-pot) full of water, with its mouth covered
with mango-leaves and topped over with a cocoanut and a large tray of
sugar. This is called _Sakhar pani_, sugar and water, the first to
wash the mouth with and the second to sweeten it. The girls have by
this time all gathered round the bride and are busy cheering her up
with encouraging remarks: 'Oh, she is a Rati, the goddess of beauty,'
says one, and another, 'How delicate,' 'What a fine nose' from a
third, and 'Look at her eyes' from a fourth. All complimentary and
comforting. 'We are glad it is our house you are coming to,' says
a sister-in-law in prospect. 'We are happy you are going to be our
_malikin_ (mistress),' adds a maidservant. As soon as the elder ladies
have completed their courteous inquiries _pan-supari_ and _attar_ are
distributed and the party returns home. But on arrival the girls gather
round the bridegroom to tease him. 'Oh, you Sudharak (reformer),' 'Oh,
you Sahib (European), _you_ have selected your bride.' 'You have seen
her _before_ marriage. You have broken the rule of the society. You
ought to be excommunicated.' 'But,' says another, 'he will now have
no time to speak to us. His Rati (goddess of beauty) and he! The Sahib
and the Memsahib! We shall all be forgotten now. Who cares for sisters
and cousins in these days of civilisation?' But all these little jokes
of the little girls are meant as congratulations to him for having
secured a good girl." At a wedding among the highest families such
as is described here, the bridegroom is presented with drinking cups
and plates, trays for holding sandalwood paste, betel-leaf and an
incense-burner, all in solid silver to the value of about Rs. 1000;
water-pots and cooking vessels and a small bath in German silver
costing Rs. 300 to Rs. 400; and a set of brass vessels. [450]
2. General Customs
The Prabhus wear the sacred thread. In Bombay boys receive it a short
time before their marriage without the ceremonies which form part of
the regular Brahman investiture. On the fifth day after the birth
of a child, the sword and also pens, paper and ink are worshipped,
the sword being the symbol of their Kshatriya origin and the pens,
paper and ink of their present occupation of clerks. [451] The
funeral ceremonies, Mr. Enthoven writes, are performed during the
first thirteen days after death. Oblations of rice are offered every
day, in consequence of which the soul of the dead attains a spiritual
body, limb by limb, till on the thirteenth day it is enabled to start
on its journey. In twelve months the journey ends, and a _shraddh_
ceremony is performed on an extensive scale on the anniversary of
the death. Most of the Prabhus are in Government service and others
are landowners. In the Bombay Presidency [452] they had at first
almost a monopoly of Government service as English writers, and the
term Prabhu was commonly employed to denote a clerk of any caste who
could write English. Both men and women of the caste are generally
of a fair complexion, resembling the Maratha Brahmans. The taste of
the women in dress is proverbial, and when a Sunar, Sutar or Kasar
woman has dressed herself in her best for some family festival, she
will ask her friends, '_Prabhuin disto_,' or 'Do I look like a Prabhu?'
Raghuvansi
1. Historical notice
_Raghuvansi, Raghvi._--A class of Rajputs of impure descent, who have
now developed in the Central Provinces into a caste of cultivators,
marrying among themselves. Their first settlement here was in the
Nerbudda Valley, and Sir C. Elliott wrote of them: [453] "They are
a queer class, all professing to be Rajputs from Ajodhia, though on
cross-examination they are obliged to confess that they did not come
here straight from Ajodhia, but stopped in Bundelkhand and the Gwalior
territory by the way. They are obviously of impure blood as they marry
only among themselves; but when they get wealthy and influential they
assume the sacred thread, stop all familiarity with Gujars and Kirars
(with whom they are accustomed to smoke the huqqa and to take water)
and profess to be very high-caste Rajputs indeed." From Hoshangabad
they have spread to Betul, Chhindwara and Nagpur and now number 24,000
persons in all in the Central Provinces. Chhindwara, on the Satpura
plateau, is supposed to have been founded by one Ratan Raghuvansi,
who built the first house on the site, burying a goat alive under
the foundations. The goat is still worshipped as the tutelary deity
of the town. The name Raghuvansi is derived from Raja Raghu, king of
Ajodhia and ancestor of the great Rama, the hero of the Ramayana. In
Nagpur the name has been shortened to Raghvi, and the branch of the
caste settled here is somewhat looked down upon by their fellows
in Hoshangabad. Sir R. Craddock [454] states that their religion
is unorthodox and they have _gurus_ or priests of their own caste,
discarding Brahmans. Their names end in Deo. Their origin, however,
is still plainly discernible in their height, strength of body and
fair complexion. The notice continues: "Whatever may happen to other
classes the Raghvi will never give way to the moneylender. Though he
is fond of comfort he combines a good deal of thrift with it, and the
clannish spirit of the caste would prevent any oppression of Raghvi
tenants by a landlord or moneylender of their own body." In Chhindwara,
Mr. Montgomerie states, [455] they rank among the best cultivators,
and formerly lived in clans, holding villages on _bhaiachari_ or
communal tenure. As malguzars or village proprietors, they are very
prone to absorb tenant land into their home-farms.
2. Social customs
The Raghuvansis have now a set of exogamous groups of the usual
low-caste type, designated after titles, nicknames or natural
objects. They sometimes invest their sons with the sacred thread
at the time of marriage instead of performing the proper thread
ceremony. Some discard the cord after the wedding is over. At
a marriage the Raghuvansis of Chhindwara and Nagpur combine the
Hindustani custom of walking round the sacred pole with the Maratha one
of throwing coloured rice on the bridal couple. Sometimes they have
what is known as a _gankar_ wedding. At this, flour, sugar and _ghi_
[456] are the only kinds of food permissible, large cakes of flour
and sugar being boiled in pitchers full of _ghi_, and everybody being
given as much of this as he can eat. The guests generally over-eat
themselves, and as weddings are celebrated in the hot weather, one or
two may occasionally die of repletion. The neighbours of Raghuvansis
say that the host considers such an occurrence as evidence of the
complete success of his party, but this is probably a libel. Such a
wedding feast may cost two or three thousand rupees. After the wedding
the women of the bride's party attack those of the bridegroom's
with bamboo sticks, while these retaliate by throwing red powder
on them. The remarriage of widows is freely permitted, but a widow
must be taken from the house of her own parents or relatives, and
not from that of her first husband or his parents. In fact, if any
members of the dead husband's family meet the second husband on the
night of the wedding they will attack him and a serious affray may
follow. On reaching her new house the woman enters it by a back door,
after bathing and changing all her clothes. The old clothes are given
away to a barber or washerman, and the presentation of new clothes
by the second husband is the only essential ceremony. No wife will
look on a widow's face on the night of her second marriage, for fear
lest by doing so she should come to the same position. The majority of
the caste abstain from liquor, and they eat flesh in some localities,
but not in others. The men commonly wear beards divided by a shaven
patch in the centre of the chin; and the women have two body-cloths,
one worn like a skirt according to the northern custom. Mr. Crooke
states [457] that "in northern India a tradition exists among them
that the cultivation of sugar is fatal to the farmer, and that the
tiling of a house brings down divine displeasure upon the owner;
hence to this day no sugar is grown and not a tiled house is to be
seen in their estates." These superstitions do not appear to be known
at all in the Central Provinces.
Rajjhar
1. General notice
_Rajjhar, Rajbhar, Lajjhar._--A caste of farmservants found in the
northern Districts. In 1911 they numbered about 8000 persons in the
Central Provinces, being returned principally from the Districts
of the Satpura plateau. The names Rajjhar and Rajbhar appear to be
applied indiscriminately to the same caste, who are an offshoot of
the great Bhar tribe of northern India. The original name appears
to have been Raj Bhar, which signifies a landowning Bhar, like
Raj-Gond, Raj-Korku and so on. In Mandla all the members of the
caste were shown as Rajbhar in 1891, and Rajjhar in 1901, and the
two names seem to be used interchangeably in other Districts in the
same manner. Some section or family names, such as Bamhania, Patela,
Barhele and others, are common to people calling themselves Rajjhar
and Rajbhar. But, though practically the same caste, the Rajjhars
seem, in some localities, to be more backward and primitive than the
Rajbhars. This is also the case in Berar, where they are commonly
known as Lajjhar and are said to be akin to the Gonds. A Gond will
there take food from a Lajjhar, but not a Lajjhar from a Gond. They
are more Hinduised than the Gonds and have prohibited the killing or
injuring of cows by some caste penalties. [458]
2. Origin and subdivisions
The caste appears to be in part of mixed origin arising from the
unions of Hindu fathers with women of the Bhar tribe. Several of
their family names are derived from those of other castes, as Bamhania
(from Brahman), Sunarya (from Sunar), Baksaria (a Rajput sept), Ahiriya
(an Ahir or cowherd), and Bisatia from Bisati (a hawker). Other names
are after plants or animals, as Baslya from the _bans_ or bamboo,
Mohanya from the _mohin_ tree, Chhitkaria from the _sitaphal_ or
custard-apple tree, Hardaya from the banyan tree, Richhya from the
bear, and Dukhania from the buffalo. Members of this last sept will not
drink buffalo's milk or wear black cloth, because this is the colour
of their totem animal. Members of septs named after other castes have
also adopted some natural object as a sept totem; thus those of the
Sunarya sept worship gold as being the metal with which the Sunar is
associated. Those of the Bamhania sept revere the banyan and pipal
trees, as these are held sacred by Brahmans. The Bakraria or Bagsaria
sept believe their name to be derived from that of the _bagh_ or tiger,
and they worship this animal's footprints by tying a thread round them.
3. Marriage
The marriage of members of the same sept, and also that of first
cousins, is forbidden. The caste do not employ Brahmans at their
marriage and other ceremonies, and they account for this somewhat
quaintly by saying that their ancestors were at one time accustomed
to rely on the calculations of Brahman priests; but many marriages
which the Brahman foretold as auspicious turned out very much the
reverse; and on this account they have discarded the Brahman, and now
determine the suitability or otherwise of a projected union by the
common primitive custom of throwing two grains of rice into a vessel
of water and seeing whether they will meet. The truth is probably that
they are too backward ever to have had recourse to the Brahman priest,
but now, though they still apparently have no desire for his services,
they recognise the fact to be somewhat discreditable to themselves, and
desire to explain it away by the story already given. In Hoshangabad
the bride still goes to the bridegroom's house to be married as among
the Gonds. A bride-price is paid, which consists of four rupees,
a _khandi_ [459] of juari or wheat, and two pieces of cloth. This
is received by the bride's father, who, however, has in turn to
pay seven rupees eight annas and a goat to the caste _panchayat_
or committee for the arrangement and sanction of the match. This
last payment is known as _Skarab-ka-rupaya_ or liquor-money, and
with the goat furnishes the wherewithal for a sumptuous feast to the
caste. The marriage-shed must be made of freshly-cut timber, which
should not be allowed to fall to the ground, but must be supported
and carried off on men's shoulders as it is cut. When the bridegroom
arrives at the marriage-shed he is met by the bride's mother and
conducted by her to an inner room of the house, where he finds the
bride standing. He seizes her fist, which she holds clenched, and
opens her fingers by force. The couple then walk five times round the
_chauk_ or sacred space made with lines of flour on the floor, the
bridegroom holding the bride by her little finger. They are preceded
by some relative of the bride, who walks round the post carrying a
pot of water, with seven holes in it; the water spouts from these
holes on to the ground, and the couple must tread in it as they go
round the post. This forms the essential and binding portion of the
marriage. That night the couple sleep in the same room with a woman
lying between them. Next day they return to the bridegroom's house,
and on arriving at his door the boy's mother meets him and touches
his head, breast and knees with a churning-stick, a winnowing-fan and
a pestle, with the object of exorcising any evil spirits who may be
accompanying the bridal couple. As the pair enter the marriage-shed
erected before the bridegroom's house they are drenched with water by
a man sitting on the roof, and when they come to the door of the house
the bridegroom's younger brother, or some other boy, sits across it
with his legs stretched out to prevent the bride from entering. The
girl pushes his legs aside and goes into the house, where she stays
for three months with her husband, and then returns to her parents for
a year. After this she is sent to her husband with a basket of fried
cakes and a piece of cloth, and takes up her residence with him. When
a widow is to be married, the couple pour turmeric and water over each
other, and then walk seven times round in a circle in an empty space,
holding each other by the hand. A widow commonly marries her deceased
husband's younger brother, but is not compelled to do so. Divorce is
permitted for adultery on the part of the wife.
4. Social Customs
The caste bury their dead with the head pointing to the west. This
practice is peculiar, and is also followed, Colonel Dalton states, by
the hill Bhuiyas of Bengal, who in so doing honour the quarter of the
setting sun. When a burial takes place, all the mourners who accompany
the corpse throw a little earth into the grave. On the same day some
food and liquor are taken to the grave and offered to the dead man's
spirit, and a feast is given to the caste-fellows. This concludes
the ceremonies of mourning, and the next day the relatives go about
their business. The caste are usually petty cultivators and labourers,
while they also collect grass and fuel for sale, and propagate the lac
insect. In Seoni they have a special relation with the Ahirs, from whom
they will take cooked food, while they say that the Ahirs will also eat
from their hands. In Narsinghpur a similar connection has been observed
between the Rajjhars and the Lodhi caste. This probably arises from
the fact that the former have worked for several generations as the
farm-servants of Lodhi or Ahir employers, and have been accustomed to
live in their houses and partake of their meals, so that caste rules
have been abandoned for the sake of convenience. A similar intimacy
has been observed between the Panwars and Gonds, and other castes
who stand in this relation to each other. The Rajjhars will also
eat _katcha_ food (cooked with water) from Kunbis and Kahars. But
in Hoshangabad some of them will not take food from any caste, even
from Brahmans. Their women wear glass bangles only on the right hand,
and a brass ornament known as _mathi_ on the left wrist. They wear
no ornaments in the nose or ears, and have no breast-cloth. They
are tattooed with dots on the face and patterns of animals on the
right arm, but not on the left arm or legs. A _liaison_ between
a youth and maiden of the caste is considered a trifling matter,
being punished only with a fine of two to four annas or pence. A
married woman detected in an intrigue is mulcted in a sum of four
or five rupees, and if her partner be a man of another caste a lock
of her hair is cut off. The caste are generally ignorant and dirty,
and are not much better than the Gonds and other forest tribes.
Rajput
[The following article is based mainly on Colonel Tod's classical
_Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan_, 2nd ed., Madras, Higginbotham,
1873, and Mr. Crooke's articles on the Rajput clans in his _Tribes and
Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh_. Much information as to
the origin of the Rajput clans has been obtained from inscriptions and
worked up mainly by the late Mr. A.M.T. Jackson and Messrs. B.G. and
D.R. Bhandarkar; this has been set out with additions and suggestions
in Mr. V.A. Smith's _Early History of India_, 3rd ed., and has been
reproduced in the subordinate articles on the different clans. Though
many of the leading clans are very weakly represented in the Central
Provinces, some notice of them is really essential in an article
treating generally of the Rajput caste, on however limited a scale, and
has therefore been included. In four cases, Panwar, Jadum, Raghuvansi
and Daharia, the original Rajput clans have now developed into separate
cultivating castes, ranking well below the Rajputs; separate articles
have been written on these as for independent castes.]
List of Paragraphs
1. _Introductory notice_.
2. _The thirty-six royal races_.
3. _The origin of the Rajputs_.
4. _Subdivisions of the clans_.
5. _Marriage customs_.
6. _Funeral rites_.
7. _Religion_.
8. _Food_.
9. _Opium_.
10. _Improved training of Rajput chiefs_.
11. _Dress_.
12. _Social customs_.
13. _Seclusion of women_.
14. _Traditional character of the Rajputs_.
15. _Occupation_.
List of Subordinate Articles
1. Baghel.
2. Bagri.
3. Bais.
4. Baksaria.
5. Banaphar.
6. Bhadauria.
7. Bisen.
8. Bundela.
9. Chandel.
10. Chauhan.
11. Dhakar.
12. Gaharwar, Gherwal.
13. Gaur, Chamar-Gaur.
14. Haihaya, Haihaivansi, Kalachuri.
15. Huna, Hoon.
16. Kachhwaha, Cutchwaha.
17. Nagvansi.
18. Nikumbh.
19. Paik.
20. Parihar.
21. Rathor, Rathaur.
22. Sesodia, Gahlot, Aharia.
23. Solankhi, Solanki, Chalukya.
24. Somvansi, Chandravansi.
25. Surajvansi.
26. Tomara, Tuar, Tunwar.
27. Yadu, Yadava, Yadu-Bhatti, Jadon.
1. Introductory notice
_Rajput, Kshatriya, Chhatri, Thakur._--The Rajputs are the
representatives of the old Kshatriya or warrior class, the second
of the four main castes or orders of classical Hinduism, and were
supposed to have been made originally from the arms of Brahma. The old
name of Kshatriya is still commonly used in the Hindi form Chhatri,
but the designation Rajput, or son of a king, has now superseded
it as the standard name of the caste. Thakur, or lord, is the common
Rajput title, and that by which they are generally addressed. The total
number of persons returned as Rajputs in the Province in 1911 was about
440,000. India has about nine million Rajputs in all, and they are most
numerous in the Punjab, the United Provinces, and Bihar and Orissa,
Rajputana returning under 700,000 and Central India about 800,000.
The bulk of the Rajputs in the Central Provinces are of very impure
blood. Several groups, such as the Panwars of the Wainganga Valley,
the Raghuvansis of Chhindwara and Nagpur, the Jadams of Hoshangabad and
the Daharias of Chhattisgarh, have developed into separate castes and
marry among themselves, though a true Rajput must not marry in his own
clan. Some of them have abandoned the sacred thread and now rank with
the good cultivating castes below Banias. Reference may be made to the
separate articles on these castes. Similarly the Surajvansi, Gaur or
Gorai, Chauhan, and Bagri clans marry among themselves in the Central
Provinces, and it is probable that detailed research would establish
the same of many clans or parts of clans bearing the name of Rajput in
all parts of India. If the definition of a proper Rajput were taken,
as it should be correctly, as one whose family intermarried with clans
of good standing, the caste would be reduced to comparatively small
dimensions. The name Dhakar, also shown as a Rajput clan, is applied
to a person of illegitimate birth, like Vidur. Over 100,000 persons,
or nearly a quarter of the total, did not return the name of any clan
in 1911, and these are all of mixed or illegitimate descent. They are
numerous in Nimar, and are there known as _chhoti-tur_ or low-class
Rajputs. The Bagri Rajputs of Seoni and the Surajvansis of Betal marry
among themselves, while the Bundelas of Saugor intermarry with two
other local groups, the Panwar and Dhundhele, all the three being of
impure blood. In Jubbulpore a small clan of persons known as Paik or
foot-soldier return themselves as Rajputs, but are no doubt a mixed
low-caste group. Again, some landholding sections of the primitive
tribes have assumed the names of Rajput clans. Thus the zamindars of
Bilaspur, who originally belonged to the Kawar tribe, call themselves
Tuar or Tomara Rajputs, and the landholding section of the Mundas
in Chota Nagpur say that they are of the Nagvansi clan. Other names
are returned which are not those of Rajput clans or their offshoots
at all. If these subdivisions, which cannot be considered as proper
Rajputs, and all those who have returned no clan be deducted, there
remain not more than 100,000 who might be admitted to be pure Rajputs
in Rajputana. But a close local scrutiny even of these would no doubt
result in the detection of many persons who have assumed and returned
the names of good clans without being entitled to them. And many
more would come away as being the descendants of remarried widows. A
Rajput of really pure family and descent is in fact a person of some
consideration in most parts of the Central Provinces.
2. The thirty-six royal races
Traditionally the Rajputs are divided into thirty-six great clans
or races, of which Colonel Tod gives a list compiled from different
authorities as follows (alternative names by which the clan or
important branches of it are known are shown in brackets):
1. Ikshwaka or Surajvansi.
2. Indu, Somvansi or Chandravansi.
3. Gahlot or Sesodia (Raghuvansi).
4. Yadu (Bhatti, Jareja, Jadon, Banaphar).
5. Tuar or Tomara.
6. Rathor.
7. Kachhwaha (Cutchwaha).
8. Pramara or Panwar (Mori).
9. Chauhan (Hara, Khichi, Nikumbh, Bhadauria).
10. Chalukya or Solankhi (Baghel).
11. Parihar.
12. Chawara or Chaura.
13. Tak or Takshac (Nagvansi, Mori).
14. Jit or Gete.
15. Huna.
16. Kathi.
17. Balla.
18. Jhalla.
19. Jaitwa or Kamari.
20. Gohil.
21. Sarweya.
22. Silar.
23. Dhabi.
24. Gaur.
25. Doda or Dor.
26. Gherwal or Gaharwar (Bundela).
27. Badgujar.
28. Sengar.
29. Sikarwal.
30. Bais.
31. Dahia.
32. Johia.
33. Mohil.
34. Nikumbh.
35. Rajpali.
36. Dahima.
And two extra, Hul and Daharia.
Several of the above races are extinct or nearly so, and on the other
hand some very important modern clans, as the Gautam, Dikhit and Bisen,
and such historically important ones as the Chandel and Haihaya,
are not included in the thirty-six royal races at all. Practically
all the clans should belong either to the solar and lunar branch,
that is, should be descended from the sun or moon, but the division,
if it ever existed, is not fully given by Colonel Tod. Two special
clans, the Surajvansi and Chandra or Somvansi, are named after the sun
and moon respectively; and a few others, as the Sesodia, Kachhwaha,
Gohil, Bais and Badgujar, are recorded as being of the solar race,
descended from Vishnu through his incarnation as Rama. The Rathors also
claimed solar lineage, but this was not wholly conceded by the Bhats,
and the Dikhits are assigned to the solar branch by their legends. The
great clan of the Yadavas, of whom the present Jadon or Jadum and
Bhatti Rajputs are representatives, was of the lunar race, tracing
their descent from Krishna, though, as a matter of fact, Krishna was
also an incarnation of Vishnu or the sun; and the Tuar or Tomara,
as well as the Jit or Gete, the Rajput section of the modern Jats,
who were considered to be branches of the Yadavas, would also be of
the moon division, The Gautam and Bisen clans, who are not included in
the thirty-six royal races, now claim lunar descent. Four clans, the
Panwar, Chauhan, Chalukya or Solankhi, and Parihar, had a different
origin, being held to have been born through the agency of the gods
from a firepit on the summit of Mount Abu. They are hence known
as Agnikula or the fire races. Several clans, such as the Tak or
Takshac, the Huna and the Chaura, were considered by Colonel Tod to
be the representatives of the Huns or Scythians, that is, the nomad
invading tribes from Central Asia, whose principal incursions took
place during the first five centuries of the Christian era.
At least six of the thirty-six royal races, the Sarweya, Silar, Doda
or Dor, Dahia, Johia and Mohil, were extinct in Colonel Tod's time,
and others were represented only by small settlements in Rajputana and
Surat. On the other hand, there are now a large number of new clans,
whose connection with the thirty-six is doubtful, though in many
cases they are probably branches of the old clans who have obtained
a new name on settling in a different locality.
3. The origin of the Rajputs
It was for long the custom to regard the Rajputs as the direct
descendants and representatives of the old Kshatriya or warrior
class of the Indian Aryans, as described in the Vedas and the great
epics. Even Colonel Tod by no means held this view in its entirety,
and modern epigraphic research has caused its partial or complete
abandonment Mr. V.A. Smith indeed says: [460] "The main points to
remember are that the Kshatriya or Rajput caste is essentially an
occupational caste, composed of all clans following the Hindu ritual
who actually undertook the act of government; that consequently people
of most diverse races were and are lumped together as Rajputs, and
that most of the great clans now in existence are descended either
from foreign immigrants of the fifth or sixth century A.D. or from
indigenous races such as the Gonds and Bhars." Colonel Tod held three
clans, the Tak or Takshac, the Huna and the Chaura, to be descended
from Scythian or nomad Central Asian immigrants, and the same origin
has been given for the Haihaya. The Huna clan actually retains the
name of the White Huns, from whose conquests in the fifth century it
probably dates its existence. The principal clan of the lunar race,
the Yadavas, are said to have first settled in Delhi and at Dwarka in
Gujarat. But on the death of Krishna, who was their prince, they were
expelled from these places, and retired across the Indus, settling in
Afghanistan. Again, for some reason which the account does not clearly
explain, they came at a later period to India and settled first in
the Punjab and afterwards in Rajputana. The Jit or Jat and the Tomara
clans were branches of the Yadavas, and it is supposed that the Jits
or Jats were also descended from the nomad invading tribes, possibly
from the Yueh-chi tribe who conquered and occupied the Punjab during
the first and second centuries. [461] The legend of the Yadavas, who
lived in Gujarat with their chief Krishna, but after his defeat and
death retired to Central Asia, and at a later date returned to India,
would appear to correspond fairly well with the Saka invasion of the
second century B.C. which penetrated to Kathiawar and founded a dynasty
there. In A.D. 124 the second Saka king was defeated by the Andhra
king Vilivayakura II. and his kingdom destroyed. [462] But at about
the same period, the close of the first century, a fresh horde of the
Sakas came to Gujarat from Central Asia and founded another kingdom,
which lasted until it was subverted by Chandragupta Vikramaditya
about A.D. 390. [463] The historical facts about the Sakas, as given
on the authority of Mr. V.A. Smith, thus correspond fairly closely
with the Yadava legend. And the later Yueh-chi immigrants might
well be connected by the Bhats with the Saka hordes who had come
at an earlier date from the same direction, and so the Jats [464]
might be held to be an offshoot of the Yadavas. This connection of
the Yadava and Jat legends with the facts of the immigration of the
Sakas and Yueh-chi appears a plausible one, but may be contradicted
by historical arguments of which the writer is ignorant. If it were
correct we should be justified in identifying the lunar clans of
Rajputs with the early Scythian immigrants of the first and second
centuries. Another point is that Buddha is said to be the progenitor
of the whole Indu or lunar race. [465] It is obvious that Buddha
had no real connection with these Central Asian tribes, as he died
some centuries before their appearance in India. But the Yueh-chi or
Kushan kings of the Punjab in the first and second centuries A.D. were
fervent Buddhists and established that religion in the Punjab. Hence
we can easily understand how, if the Yadus or Jats and other lunar
clans were descended from the Saka and Yueh-chi immigrants, the
legend of their descent from Buddha, who was himself a Kshatriya,
might be devised for them by their bards when they were subsequently
converted from Buddhism to Hinduism. The Sakas of western India, on the
other hand, who it is suggested may be represented by the Yadavas,
were not Buddhists in the beginning, whether or not they became
so afterwards. But as has been seen, though Buddha was their first
progenitor, Krishna was also their king while they were in Gujarat,
so that at this time they must have been supposed to be Hindus. The
legend of descent from Buddha arising with the Yueh-chi or Kushans
might have been extended to them. Again, the four Agnikula or fire-born
clans, the Parihar, Chalukya or Solankhi, Panwar and Chauhan, are
considered to be the descendants of the White Hun and Gujar invaders
of the fifth and sixth centuries. These clans were said to have been
created by the gods from a firepit on the summit of Mount Abu for
the re-birth of the Kshatriya caste after it had been exterminated
by the slaughter of Parasurama the Brahman. And it has been suggested
that this legend refers to the cruel massacres of the Huns, by which
the bulk of the old aristocracy, then mainly Buddhist, was wiped out;
while the Huns and Gujars, one at least of whose leaders was a fervent
adherent of Brahmanism and slaughtered the Buddhists of the Punjab,
became the new fire-born clans on being absorbed into Hinduism. [466]
The name of the Huns is still retained in the Huna clan, now almost
extinct. There remain the clans descended from the sun through Rama,
and it would be tempting to suppose that these are the representatives
of the old Aryan Kshatriyas. But Mr. Bhandarkar has shown [467] that
the Sesodias, the premier clan of the solar race and of all Rajputs,
are probably sprung from Nagar Brahmans of Gujarat, and hence from the
Gujar tribes; and it must therefore be supposed that the story of solar
origin and divine ancestry was devised because they were once Brahmans,
and hence, in the view of the bards, of more honourable origin than
the other clans. Similarly the Badgujar clan, also of solar descent,
is shown by its name of _bara_ or great Gujar to have been simply an
aristocratic section of the Gujars; while the pedigree of the Rathors,
another solar clan, and one of those who have shed most lustre on the
Rajput name, was held to be somewhat doubtful by the Bhats, and their
solar origin was not fully admitted. Mr. Smith gives two great clans
as very probably of aboriginal or Dravidian origin, the Gaharwar
or Gherwal, from whom the Bundelas are derived, and the Chandel,
who ruled Bundelkhand from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, and
built the fine temples at Mahoba, Kalanjar and Khajaraho as well as
making many great tanks. This corresponds with Colonel Tod's account,
which gives no place to the Chandels among the thirty-six royal
races, and states that the Gherwal Rajput is scarcely known to his
brethren in Rajasthan, who will not admit his contaminated blood to
mix with theirs, though as a brave warrior he is entitled to their
fellowship. [468] Similarly the Kathi clan may be derived from the
indigenous Kathi tribe who gave their name to Kathiawar. And the
Surajvansi, Somvansi and Nagvansi clans, or descendants of the sun,
moon and snake, which are scarcely known in Rajputana, may represent
landholding sections of lower castes or non-Aryan tribes who have been
admitted to Rajput rank. But even though it be found that the majority
of the Rajput clans cannot boast a pedigree dating farther back than
the first five centuries of our era, this is at any rate an antiquity
to which few if any of the greatest European houses can lay claim.
4. Subdivisions of the clans
Many of the great clans are now split up into a number of branches. The
most important of these were according to locality, the different
_sachae_ or branches being groups settled in separate areas. Thus
the Chalukya or Solankhi had sixteen branches, of which the Baghels
of Rewah or Baghelkhand were the most important. The Panwars had
thirty-five branches, of which the Mori and the Dhunda, now perhaps
the Dhundele of Saugor, are the best known. The Gahlot had twenty-four
branches, of which one, the Sesodia, became so important that it has
given its name to the whole clan. The Chamar-Gaur section of the Gaur
clan now claim a higher rank than the other Gaurs, though the name
would apparently indicate the appearance of a Chamar in their family
tree; while the Tilokchandi Bais form an aristocratic section of the
Bais clan, named after a well-known king, Tilokchand, who reigned in
upper India about the twelfth century and is presumably claimed by
them as an ancestor. Besides this the Rajputs have _gotras_, named
after eponymous saints exactly like the Brahman _gotras_, and probably
adopted in imitation of the Brahmans. Since, theoretically, marriage
is prohibited in the whole clan, the _gotra_ divisions would appear
to be useless, but Sir H. Risley states that persons of the same clan
but with different _gotras_ have begun to intermarry. Similarly it
would appear that the different branches of the great clans mentioned
above must intermarry in some cases; while in the Central Provinces,
as already stated, several clans have become regular castes and form
endogamous and not exogamous groups. In northern India, however,
Mr. Crooke's accounts of the different clans indicate that marriage
within the clan is as a rule not permitted. The clans themselves
and their branches have different degrees of rank for purposes of
marriage, according to the purity of their descent, while in each clan
or subclan there is an inferior section formed of the descendants of
remarried widows, or even the offspring of women of another caste,
who have probably in the course of generations not infrequently got
back into their father's clan. Thus many groups of varying status
arise, and one of the principal rules of a Rajput's life was that he
must marry his daughter, sometimes into a clan of equal, or sometimes
into one of higher rank than his own. Hence arose great difficulty
in arranging the marriages of girls and sometimes the payment of a
price to the bridegroom; while in order to retain the favour of the
Bhats and avoid their sarcasm, lavish expenditure had to be incurred
by the bride's father on presents to these rapacious mendicants. [469]
Thus a daughter became in a Rajput's eyes a long step on the road to
ruin, and female infanticide was extensively practised. This crime has
never been at all common in the Central Provinces, where the rule of
marrying a daughter into an equal or higher clan has not been enforced
with the same strictness as in northern India. But occasional instances
formerly occurred in which the child's neck was placed under one leg
of its mother's cot, or it was poisoned with opium or by placing the
juice of the _akra_ or swallow-wort plant on the mother's nipple.
5. Marriage customs
Properly the proposal for a Rajput marriage should emanate from the
bride's side, and the customary method of making it was to send a
cocoanut to the bridegroom. 'The cocoanut came,' was the phrase used
to intimate that a proposal of marriage had been made. [470] It is
possible that the bride's initiative was a relic of the Swayamwara or
maiden's choice, when a king's daughter placed a garland on the neck
of the youth she preferred among the competitors in a tournament,
and among some Rajputs the Jayamala or garland of victory is still
hung round the bridegroom's neck in memory of this custom; but it may
also have been due to the fact that the bride had to pay the dowry. One
tenth of this was paid as earnest when the match had been arranged, and
the boy's party could not then recede from it. At the entrance of the
marriage-shed was hung the _toran_, a triangle of three wooden bars,
having the apex crowned with the effigy of a peacock. The bridegroom
on horseback, lance in hand, proceeded to break the _toran_, which was
defended by the damsels of the bride. They assailed him with missiles
of various kinds, and especially with red powder made from the flowers
of the _palas_ [471] tree, at the same time singing songs full of
immoral allusions. At length the _toran_ was broken amid the shouts
of the retainers, and the fair defenders retired. If the bridegroom
could not attend in person his sword was sent to represent him,
and was carried round the marriage-post, with the bride, this being
considered a proper and valid marriage. At the rite of _hatleva_ or
joining the hands of the couple it was customary that any request made
by the bridegroom to the bride's father should meet with compliance,
and this usage has led to many fatal results in history. Another
now obsolete custom was that the bride's father should present an
elephant to his son-in-law as part of the dowry, but when a man could
not afford a real elephant a small golden image of the animal might be
substituted. In noble families the bride was often accompanied to her
husband's house by a number of maidens belonging to the servant and
menial castes. These were called Devadhari or lamp-bearers, and became
inmates of the harem, their offspring being _golas_ or slaves. In
time of famine many of the poor had also perforce to sell themselves
as slaves in order to obtain subsistence, and a chiefs household would
thus contain a large number of them. They were still adorned in Mewar,
Colonel Tod states, like the Saxon slaves of old, with a silver ring
round the left ankle instead of the neck. They were well treated,
and were often among the best of the military retainers; they took
rank among themselves according to the quality of the mothers, and
often held confidential places about the ruler's person. A former
chief of Deogarh would appear at court with three hundred _golas_ or
slaves on horseback in his train, men whose lives were his own. [472]
These special customs have now generally been abandoned by the Rajputs
of the Central Provinces, and their weddings conform to the usual
Hindu type as described in the article on Kurmi. The remarriage of
widows is now recognised in the southern Districts, though not in the
north; but even here widows frequently do marry and their offspring
are received into the caste, though with a lower status than those
who do not permit this custom. Among the Baghels a full Rajput will
allow a relative born of a remarried widow to cook his food for him,
but not to add the salt nor to eat it with him. Those who permit
the second marriage of widows also allow a divorced woman to remain
in the caste and to marry again. But among proper Rajputs, as with
Brahmans, a wife who goes wrong is simply put away and expelled from
the society. Polygamy is permitted and was formerly common among
the chiefs. Each wife was maintained in a separate suite of rooms,
and the chief dined and spent the evening alternately with each of
them in her own quarters. The lady with her attendants would prepare
dinner for him and wait upon him while he ate it, waving the punkah or
fan behind him and entertaining him with her remarks, which, according
to report, frequently constituted a pretty severe curtain lecture.
6. Funeral rites
The dead are burnt, except infants, whose bodies are buried. Mourning
is observed for thirteen days for a man, nine days for a woman,
and three days for a child. The _shraddh_ ceremony or offering of
sacrificial cakes to the spirit is performed either during the usual
period in the month of Kunwar (September), or on the anniversary day
of the death. It was formerly held that if a Kshatriya died on the
battlefield it was unnecessary to perform his funeral rites because
his spirit went straight to heaven, and thus the end to which the
ceremonies were directed was already attained without them. It was
also said that the wife of a man dying such a death should not regard
herself as a widow nor undergo the privations imposed on widowhood. But
this did not apply so far as self-immolation was concerned, since the
wives of warriors dying in battle very frequently became _sati_. In the
case of chiefs also it was sometimes the custom, probably for political
reasons, that the heir should not observe mourning; because if he did
so he would be incapable of appearing in an assembly for thirteen days,
or of taking the public action which might be requisite to safeguard
his succession. The body of the late chief would be carried out by the
back door of the house, and as soon as it left his successor would
take his seat on the _gaddi_ or cushion and begin to discharge the
public business of government.
7. Religion
The principal deity of the Rajputs is the goddess Devi or Durga in her
more terrible form as the goddess of war. Their swords were sacred to
her, and at the Dasahra festival they worshipped their swords and other
weapons of war and their horses. The dreadful goddess also protected
the virtue of the Rajput women and caused to be enacted the terrible
holocausts, not infrequent in Rajput history, when some stronghold
was besieged and could hold out no longer. A great furnace was then
kindled in the citadel and into this the women, young and old, threw
themselves, or else died by their husbands' swords, while the men,
drunk with _bhang_ and wearing saffron-coloured robes, sallied out to
sell their lives to the enemy as dearly as possible. It is related
that on one occasion Akbar desired to attempt the virtue of a queen
of the Sesodia clan, and for that purpose caused her to lose herself
in one of the mazes of his palace. The emperor appeared before her
suddenly as she was alone, but the lady, drawing a dagger, threatened
to plunge it into her breast if he did not respect her, and at the same
time the goddess of her house appeared riding on a tiger. The baffled
emperor gave way and retired, and her life and virtue were saved.
The Rajputs also worship the sun, whom many of them look upon as
their first ancestor. They revere the animals and trees sacred to the
Hindus, and some clans show special veneration to a particular tree,
never cutting or breaking the branches or leaves. In this manner the
Bundelas revere the _kadamb_ tree, the Panwars the _nim_ [473] tree,
the Rathors the pipal [474] tree, and so on. This seems to be a relic
of totemistic usage. In former times each clan had also a tribal god,
who was its protector and leader and watched over the destinies of
the clan. Sometimes it accompanied the clan into battle. "Every royal
house has its palladium, which is frequently borne to battle at the
saddle-bow of the prince. Rao Bhima Hara of Kotah lost his life and
protecting deity together. The celebrated Khichi (Chauhan) leader
Jai Singh never took the field without the god before him. 'Victory
to Bujrung' was his signal for the charge so dreaded by the Maratha,
and often has the deity been sprinkled with his blood and that of
the foe." [475] It is said that a Rajput should always kill a snake
if he sees one, because the snake, though a prince among Rajputs,
is an enemy, and he should not let it live. If he does not kill it,
the snake will curse him and bring ill-luck upon him. The same rule
applies, though with less binding force, to a tiger.
8. Food
The Rajputs eat the flesh of clean animals, but not pigs or fowls. They
are, however, fond of the sport of pig-sticking, and many clans, as
the Bundelas and others, will eat the flesh of the wild pig. This
custom was perhaps formerly universal. Some of them eat of male
animals only and not of females, either because they fear that the
latter would render them effeminate or that they consider the sin
to be less. Some only eat animals killed by the method of _jatka_
or severing the head with one stroke of the sword or knife. They
will not eat animals killed in the Muhammadan fashion by cutting
the throat. They abstain from the flesh of the _nilgai_ or blue bull
as being an animal of the cow tribe. Among the Brahmans and Rajputs
food cooked with water must not be placed in bamboo baskets, nor must
anything made of bamboo be brought into the _rasoya_ or cooking-place,
or the _chauka_, the space cleaned and marked out for meals. A special
brush of date-palm fibre is kept solely for sweeping these parts of
the house. At a Rajput banquet it was the custom for the prince to
send a little food from his own plate or from the dish before him to
any guest whom he especially wished to honour, and to receive this was
considered a very high distinction. In Mewar the test of legitimacy in
a prince of the royal house was the permission to eat from the chief's
plate. The grant of this privilege conferred a recognised position,
while its denial excluded the member in question from the right to
the succession. [476] This custom indicates the importance attached
to the taking of food together as a covenant or sacrament.
9. Opium
The Rajputs abstain from alcoholic liquor, though some of the lower
class, as the Bundelas, drink it. In classical times there is no doubt
that they drank freely, but have had to conform to the prohibition
of liquor imposed by the Brahmans on high-caste Hindus. In lieu of
liquor they became much addicted to the noxious drugs, opium and ganja
or Indian hemp, drinking the latter in the form of the intoxicating
liquid known as _bhangs_, which is prepared from its leaves. _Bhang_
was as a rule drunk by the Rajputs before battle, and especially as a
preparation for those last sallies from a besieged fortress in which
the defenders threw away their lives. There is little reason to doubt
that they considered the frenzy and carelessness of death produced by
the liquor as a form of divine possession. Opium has contributed much
to the degeneration of the Rajputs, and their relapse to an idle,
sensuous life when their energies were no longer maintained by the
need of continuous fighting for the protection of their country. The
following account by Forbes of a Rajput's daily life well illustrates
the slothful effeminacy caused by the drug: [477] "In times of peace
and ease the Rajput leads an indolent and monotonous life. It is
usually some time after sunrise before he bestirs himself and begins
to call for his hookah; after smoking he enjoys the luxury of tea
or coffee, and commences his toilet and ablutions, which dispose
of a considerable part of the morning. It is soon breakfast-time,
and after breakfast the hookah is again in requisition, with but
few intervals of conversation until noon. The time has now arrived
for a siesta, which lasts till about three in the afternoon. At
this hour the chief gets up again, washes his hands and face, and
prepares for the great business of the day, the distribution of the
red cup, _kusumba_ or opium. He calls together his friends into the
public hall, or perhaps retires with them to a garden-house. Opium
is produced, which is pounded in a brass vessel and mixed with water;
it is then strained into a dish with a spout, from which it is poured
into the chief's hand. One after the other the guests now come up,
each protesting that _kusumba_ is wholly repugnant to his taste and
very injurious to his health, but after a little pressing first one
and then another touches the chief's hand in two or three places,
muttering the names of Deos (gods), friends or others, and drains the
draught. Each after drinking washes the chief's hand in a dish of
water which a servant offers, and after wiping it dry with his own
scarf makes way for his neighbour. After this refreshment the chief
and his guests sit down in the public hall, and amuse themselves
with chess, draughts or games of chance, or perhaps dancing-girls
are called in to exhibit their monotonous measures, or musicians and
singers, or the never-failing favourites, the Bhats and Charans. At
sunset the torch-bearers appear and supply the chamber with light,
upon which all those who are seated therein rise and make obeisance
towards the chief's cushion. They resume their seats, and playing,
singing, dancing, story-telling go on as before. At about eight the
chief rises to retire to his dinner and his hookah, and the party is
broken up." There is little reason to doubt that the Rajputs ascribed
a divine character to opium and the mental exaltation produced by
it, as suggested in the article on Kalar in reference to the Hindus
generally. Opium was commonly offered at the shrines of deified Rajput
heroes. Colonel Tod states: "_Umul lar khana_, to eat opium together,
is the most inviolable, pledge, and an agreement ratified by this
ceremony is stronger than any adjuration." [478] The account given by
Forbes of the manner in which the drug was distributed by the chief
from his own hand to all his clansmen indicates that the drinking
of it was the renewal of a kind of pledge or covenant between them,
analogous to the custom of pledging one another with wine, and a
substitute for the covenant made by taking food together, which
originated from the sacrificial meal. It has already been seen that
the Rajputs attached the most solemn meaning and virtue to the act
of partaking of the chief's food, and it is legitimate to infer that
they regarded the drinking of a sacred drug like opium from his hand
in the same light. The following account [479] of the drinking of
healths in a Highland clan had, it may be suggested, originally the
same significance as the distribution of opium by the Rajput chief:
"Lord Lovat was wont in the hall before dinner to have a kind of
herald proclaiming his pedigree, which reached almost up to Noah,
and showed each man present to be a cadet of his family, whilst after
dinner he drank to every one of his cousins by name, each of them in
return pledging him--the better sort in French claret, the lower class
in husky (whisky)." Here also the drinking of wine together perhaps
implied the renewal of a pledge of fealty and protection between the
chief and his clansmen, all of whom were held to be of his kin. The
belief in the kinship of the whole clan existed among the Rajputs
exactly as in the Scotch clans. In speaking of the Rathors Colonel
Tod states that they brought into the field fifty thousand men, _Ek
bap ka beta_, the sons of one father, to combat with the emperor of
Delhi; and remarks: "What a sensation does it not excite when we know
that a sentiment of kindred pervades every individual of this immense
affiliated body, who can point out in the great tree the branch of
his origin, of which not one is too remote from the main stem to
forget his pristine connection with it." [480]
The taking of opium and wine together, as already described, thus
appear to be ceremonies of the same character, both symbolising the
renewal of a covenant between kinsmen.
10. Improved training of Rajput chiefs
The temptations to a life of idleness and debauchery to which Rajput
gentlemen were exposed by the cessation of war have happily been
largely met and overcome by the careful education and training which
their sons now receive in the different chiefs' colleges and schools,
and by the fostering of their taste for polo and other games. There is
every reason to hope that a Rajput prince's life will now be much like
that of an English country gentleman, spent largely in public business
and the service of his country, with sport and games as relaxation. Nor
are the Rajputs slow to avail themselves of the opportunities for the
harder calling of arms afforded by the wars of the British Empire,
in which they are usually the first to proffer their single-hearted
and unselfish assistance.
11. Dress
The most distinctive feature of a Rajput's dress was formerly his
turban; the more voluminous and heavy this was, the greater distinction
attached to the bearer. The cloth was wound in many folds above the
head, or cocked over one ear as a special mark of pride. An English
gentleman once remarked to the minister of the Rao of Cutch on the
size and weight of his turban, when the latter replied, 'Oh, this is
nothing, it only weighs fifteen pounds.' [481] A considerable reverence
attached to the turban, probably because it was the covering of the
head, the seat of life, and the exchanging of turbans was the mark of
the closest friendship. On one occasion Shah Jahan, before he came
to the throne of Delhi, changed turbans with the Rana of Mewar as a
mark of amity. Shah Jahan's turban was still preserved at Udaipur,
and seen there by Colonel Tod in 1820. They also wore the beard and
moustaches very long and full, the moustache either drooping far
below the chin, or being twisted out stiffly on each side to impart
an aspect of fierceness. Many Rajputs considered it a disgrace to
have grey beards or moustaches, and these were accustomed to dye them
with a preparation of indigo. Thus dyed, however, after a few days
the beard and moustache assumed a purple tint, and finally faded to a
pale plum colour, far from being either deceptive or ornamental. The
process of dyeing was said to be tedious, and the artist compelled
his patient to sit many hours under the indigo treatment with his
head wrapped up in plantain leaves. [482] During the Muhammadan wars,
however, the Rajputs gave up their custom of wearing beards in order
to be distinguished from Moslems, and now, as a rule, do not retain
them, while most of them have also discarded the long moustaches
and large turbans. In battle, especially when they expected to die,
the Rajputs wore saffron-coloured robes as at a wedding. At the same
time their wives frequently performed _sati_, and the idea was perhaps
that they looked on their deaths as the occasion of a fresh bridal
in the warrior's Valhalla. Women wear skirts and shoulder-cloths,
and in Rajputana they have bangles of ivory or bone instead of the
ordinary glass, sometimes covering the arm from the shoulders to the
wrist. Their other ornaments should be of gold if possible, but the
rule is not strictly observed, and silver and baser metals are worn.
12. Social customs
The Rajputs wear the sacred thread, but many of them have abandoned
the proper _upanayana_ or thread ceremony, and simply invest boys with
it at their marriage. In former times, when a boy became fit to bear
arms, the ceremony of _kharg bandai_, or binding on of the sword, was
performed, and considered to mark his attainment of manhood. The king
himself had his sword thus bound on by the first of his vassals. The
Rajputs take food cooked with water (_katchi_) only from Brahmans, and
that cooked without water (_pakki_) from Banias, and sometimes from
Lodhis and Dhimars. Brahmans will take _pakki_ food from Rajputs,
and Nais and Dhimars _katchi_ food. When a man is ill, however,
he may take food from members of such castes as Kurmi and Lodhi
as a matter of convenience without incurring caste penalties. The
large turbans and long moustaches and beards no longer characterise
their appearance, and the only point which distinguishes a Rajput
is that his name ends with Singh (lion). But this suffix has also
been adopted by others, especially the Sikhs, and by such castes as
the Lodhis and Raj-Gonds who aspire to rank as Rajputs. A Rajput is
usually addressed as Thakur or lord, a title which properly applies
only to a Rajput landholder, but has now come into general use. The
head of a state has the designation of Raja or Rana, and those of the
leading states of Maharaja or Maharana, that is, great king. Maharana,
which appears to be a Gujarati form, is used by the Sesodia family of
Udaipur. The sons of a Raja are called Kunwar or prince. The title Rao
appears to be a Marathi form of Raj or Raja; it is retained by one or
two chiefs, but has now been generally adopted as an honorific suffix
by Maratha Brahmans. Rawat appears to have been originally equivalent
to Rajput, being simply a diminutive of Rajputra, the Sanskrit form
of the latter. It is the name of a clan of Rajputs in the Punjab, and
is used as an honorific designation by Ahirs, Saonrs, Kols and others.
13. Seclusion of women
Women are strictly secluded by the Rajputs, especially in Upper India,
but this practice does not appear to have been customary in ancient
times, and it would be interesting to know whether it has been copied
from the Muhammadans. It is said that a good Rajput in the Central
Provinces must not drive the plough, his wife must not use the _rehnta_
or spinning-wheel, and his household may not have the _kathri_ or
_gudri_, the mattress made of old pieces of cloth or rag sewn one on
top of the other, which is common in the poorer Hindu households.
14. Traditional character of the Rajputs
The Rajputs as depicted by Colonel Tod resembled the knights of the
age of chivalry. Courage, strength and endurance were the virtues most
highly prized. One of the Rajput trials of strength, it is recorded,
was to gallop at full speed under the horizontal branch of a tree and
cling to it while the horse passed on. This feat appears to have been
a common amusement, and it is related in the annals of Mewar that the
chief of Bunera broke his spine in the attempt; and there were few who
came off without bruises and falls, in which consisted the sport. Of
their martial spirit Colonel Tod writes: "The Rajput mother claims her
full share in the glory of her son, who imbibes at the maternal fount
his first rudiments of chivalry; and the importance of this parental
instruction cannot be better illustrated than in the ever-recurring
simile, 'Make thy mother's milk resplendent.' One need not reason
on the intensity of sentiment thus implanted in the infant Rajput,
of whom we may say without metaphor the shield is his cradle and
daggers his playthings, and with whom the first commandment is 'Avenge
thy father's feud.' [483] A Rajput yet loves to talk of the days of
chivalry, when three things alone occupied him, his horse, his lance
and his mistress; for she is but third in his estimation after all,
and to the first two he owed her." [484] And of their desire for fame:
"This sacrifice (of the Johar) accomplished, their sole thought was to
secure a niche in that immortal temple of fame, which the Rajput bard,
as well as the great minstrel of the West peoples 'with youths who
died to be by poets sung.' For this the Rajput's anxiety has in all
ages been so great as often to defeat even the purpose of revenge, his
object being to die gloriously rather than to inflict death; assured
that his name would never perish, but, preserved in immortal rhyme by
the bard, would serve as the incentive to similar deeds." [485] He sums
up their character in the following terms: "High courage, patriotism,
loyalty, honour, hospitality and simplicity are qualities which must
at once be conceded to them; and if we cannot vindicate them from
charges to which human nature in every clime is obnoxious; if we are
compelled to admit the deterioration of moral dignity from continual
inroads of, and their consequent collision with rapacious conquerors;
we must yet admire the quantum of virtue which even oppression and
bad example have failed to banish. The meaner vices of deceit and
falsehood, which the delineators of national character attach to the
Asiatic without distinction, I deny to be universal with the Rajputs,
though some tribes may have been obliged from position to use these
shields of the weak against continuous oppression." [486] The women
prized martial courage no less than the men: they would hear with
equanimity of the death of their sons or husbands in the battlefield,
while they heaped scorn and contumely on those who returned after
defeat. They were constantly ready to sacrifice themselves to the
flames rather than fall into the hands of a conqueror; and the Johar,
the final act of a besieged garrison, when the women threw themselves
into the furnace, while the men sallied forth to die in battle against
the enemy, is recorded again and again in Rajput annals. Three times
was this tragedy enacted at the fall of Chitor, formerly the capital
fortress of the Sesodia clan; and the following vivid account is
given by Colonel Tod of a similar deed at Jaisalmer, when the town
fell to the Muhammadans: [487] "The chiefs were assembled; all were
unanimous to make Jaisalmer resplendent by their deeds and preserve
the honour of the Yadu race. Muhaj thus addressed them: 'You are of
a warlike race and strong are your arms in the cause of your prince;
what heroes excel you who thus tread in the Chhatri's path? For the
maintenance of my honour the sword is in your hands; let Jaisalmer be
illumined by its blows upon the foe.' Having thus inspired the chiefs
and men, Muhaj and Ratan repaired to the palace of their queens. They
told them to take the _sohag_ [488] and prepare to meet in heaven,
while they gave up their lives in defence of their honour and their
faith. Smiling the Rani replied, 'This night we shall prepare, and
by the morning's light we shall be inhabitants of heaven'; and thus
it was with all the chiefs and their wives. The night was passed
together for the last time in preparation for the awful morn. It
came; ablutions and prayers were finished and at the royal gate were
convened children, wives and mothers. They bade a last farewell to
all their kin; the Johar commenced, and twenty-four thousand females,
from infancy to old age, surrendered their lives, some by the sword,
others in the volcano of fire. Blood flowed in torrents, while the
smoke of the pyre ascended to the heavens: not one feared to die,
and every valuable was consumed with them, so that not the worth
of a straw was preserved for the foe. The work done, the brothers
looked upon the spectacle with horror. Life was now a burden and
they prepared to quit it They purified themselves with water, paid
adoration to the divinity, made gifts to the poor, placed a branch
of the _tulsi_ [489] in their casques, the _saligram_ [490] round
their neck; and having cased themselves in armour and put on the
saffron robe, they bound the marriage crown around their heads and
embraced each other for the last time. Thus they awaited the hour
of battle. Three thousand eight hundred warriors, their faces red
with wrath, prepared to die with their chiefs." In this account the
preparation for the Johar as if for a wedding is clearly brought out,
and it seems likely that husbands and wives looked on it as a bridal
preparatory to the resumption of their life together in heaven.
Colonel Tod gives the following account of a Rajput's arms: [491]
"No prince or chief is without his _silla-khana_ or armoury, where he
passes hours in viewing and arranging his arms. Every favourite weapon,
whether sword, dagger, spear, matchlock or bow, has a distinctive
epithet. The keeper of the armoury is one of the most confidential
officers about the person of the prince. These arms are beautiful and
costly. The _sirohi_ or slightly curved blade is formed like that of
Damascus, and is the greatest favourite of all the variety of weapons
throughout Rajputana. The long cut-and-thrust sword is not uncommon,
and also the _khanda_ or double-edged sword. The matchlocks, both of
Lahore and the country, are often highly finished and inlaid with
mother-of-pearl and gold; those of Boondi are the best. The shield
of the rhinoceros-hide offers the best resistance, and is often
ornamented with animals beautifully painted and enamelled in gold and
silver. The bow is of buffalo-horn, and the arrows of reed, which
are barbed in a variety of fashions, as the crescent, the trident,
the snake's tongue, and other fanciful forms." It is probable that
the forms were in reality by no means fanciful, but were copied from
sacred or divine objects; and similarly the animals painted on the
shields may have been originally the totem animals of the clan.
15. Occupation
The traditional occupation of a Rajput was that of a warrior and
landholder. Their high-flown titles, Bhupal (Protector of the earth),
Bhupati (Lord of the earth), Bhusur (God of the earth), Bahuja (Born
from the arms), indicate, Sir H. Risley says, [492] the exalted
claims of the tribe. The notion that the trade of arms was their
proper vocation clung to them for a very long time, and has retarded
their education, so that they have perhaps lost status relatively to
other castes under British supremacy. The rule that a Rajput must
not touch the plough was until recently very strictly observed in
the more conservative centres, and the poorer Rajputs were reduced
by it to pathetic straits for a livelihood, as is excellently shown
by Mr. Barnes in the _Kangra Settlement Report_: [493] "A Mian or
well-known Rajput, to preserve his name and honour unsullied, must
scrupulously observe four fundamental maxims: first, he must never
drive the plough; second, he must never give his daughter in marriage
to an inferior nor marry himself much below his rank; thirdly, he must
never accept money in exchange for the betrothal of his daughter;
and lastly, his female household must observe strict seclusion. The
prejudice against the plough is perhaps the most inveterate of all;
that step can never be recalled; the offender at once loses the
privileged salutation; he is reduced to the second grade of Rajputs;
no man will marry his daughter, and he must go a step lower in the
social scale to get a wife for himself. In every occupation of life
he is made to feel his degraded position. In meetings of the tribe and
at marriages the Rajputs undefiled by the plough will refuse to sit at
meals with the Hal Bah or plough-driver as he is contemptuously styled;
and many to avoid the indignity of exclusion never appear at public
assemblies.... It is melancholy to see with what devoted tenacity
the Rajput clings to these deep-rooted prejudices. Their emaciated
looks and coarse clothes attest the vicissitudes they have undergone
to maintain their fancied purity. In the quantity of waste land which
abounds in the hills, a ready livelihood is offered to those who will
cultivate the soil for their daily bread; but this alternative involves
a forfeiture of their dearest rights, and they would rather follow any
precarious pursuit than submit to the disgrace. Some lounge away their
time on the tops of the mountains, spreading nets for the capture
of hawks; many a day they watch in vain, subsisting on berries and
on game accidentally entangled in their nets; at last, when fortune
grants them success, they despatch the prize to their friends below,
who tame and instruct the bird for the purpose of sale. Others will
stay at home and pass their time in sporting, either with a hawk or,
if they can afford it, with a gun; one Rajput beats the bushes and the
other carries the hawk ready to be sprung after any quarry that rises
to the view. At the close of the day if they have been successful they
exchange the game for a little meal and thus prolong existence over
another span. The marksman armed with a gun will sit up for wild pig
returning from the fields, and in the same manner barter their flesh
for other necessaries of life. However, the prospect of starvation has
already driven many to take the plough, and the number of seceders
daily increases. Our administration, though just and liberal, has
a levelling tendency; service is no longer to be procured, and to
many the stern alternative has arrived of taking to agriculture
and securing comparative comfort, or enduring the pangs of hunger
and death. So long as any resource remains the fatal step will be
postponed, but it is easy to foresee that the struggle cannot be long
protracted; necessity is a hard task-master, and sooner or later the
pressure of want will overcome the scruples of the most bigoted." The
objection to ploughing appears happily to have been quite overcome in
the Central Provinces, as at the last census nine-tenths of the whole
caste were shown as employed in pasture and agriculture, one-tenth of
the Rajputs being landholders, three-fifths actual cultivators, and
one-fifth labourers and woodcutters. The bulk of the remaining tenth
are probably in the police or other branches of Government service.
Rajput, Baghel
_Rajput, Baghel._--The Baghel Rajputs, who have given their name to
Baghelkhand or Rewah, the eastern part of Central India, are a branch
of the Chalukya or Solankhi clan, one of the four Agnikulas or those
born from the firepit on Mount Abu. The chiefs of Rewah are Baghel
Rajputs, and the late Maharaja Raghuraj Singh has written a traditional
history of the sept in a book called the _Bhakt Mala_. [494] He derives
their origin from a child, having the form of a tiger (_bagh_) who
was born to the Solankhi Raja of Gujarat at the intercession of the
famous saint Kabir. One of the headquarters of the Kabirpanthi sect
are at Kawardha, which is close to Rewah, and the ruling family are
members of the sect; hence probably the association of the Prophet
with their origin. The _Bombay Gazetteer_ [495] states that the
founder of the clan was one Anoka, a nephew of the Solankhi king
of Gujarat, Kumarpal (A.D. 1143-1174). He obtained a grant of the
village Vaghela, the tiger's lair, about ten miles from Anhilvada,
the capital of the Solankhi dynasty, and the Baghel clan takes its
name from this village. Subsequently the Baghels extended their power
over the whole of Gujarat, but in A.D. 1304 the last king, Karnadeva,
was driven out by the Muhammadans, and one of his most beautiful
wives was captured and sent to the emperor's harem. Karnadeva and
his daughter fled and hid themselves near Nasik, but the daughter
was subsequently also taken, while it is not stated what became of
Karnadeva. Mr. Hira Lal suggests that he fled towards Rewah, and
that he is the Karnadeva of the list of Rewah Rajas, who married a
daughter of the Gond-Rajput dynasty of Garha-Mandla. [496] At any
rate the Baghel branch of the Solankhis apparently migrated to Rewah
from Gujarat and founded that State about the fourteenth century, as
in the fifteenth they became prominent. According to Captain Forsyth,
the Baghels claim descent from a tiger, and protect it when they can;
and, probably, as suggested by Mr. Crooke, [497] the name is really
totemistic, or is derived from some ancestor of the clan who obtained
the name of the tiger as a title or nickname, like the American Red
Indians. The Baghels are found in the Hoshangabad District, and in
Mandla and Chhattisgarh which are close to Rewah. Amarkantak, at the
source of the Nerbudda, is the sepulchre of the Maharajas of Rewah, and
was ceded to them with the Sohagpur tahsil of Mandla after the Mutiny,
in consideration of their loyalty and services during that period.
Rajput, Bagri
_Rajput, Bagri._--This clan is found in small numbers in the
Hoshangabad and Seoni Districts. The name Bagri, Malcolm says,
[498] is derived from that large tract of plain called Bagar or
'hedge of thorns,' the Bagar being surrounded by ridges of wooded
hills on all sides as if by a hedge. The Bagar is the plain country
of the Bikaner State, and any Jat or Rajput coming from this tract
is called Bagri. [499] The Rajputs of Bikaner are Rathors, but they
are not numerous, and the great bulk of the people are Jats. Hence it
is probable that the Bagris of the Central Provinces were originally
Jats. In Seoni they say that they are Baghel Rajputs, but this claim is
unsupported by any tradition or evidence. In Central India the Bagris
are professed robbers and thieves, but these seem to be a separate
group, a section of the Badhak or Bawaria dacoits, and derived from
the aboriginal population of Central India. The Bagris of Seoni are
respectable cultivators and own a number of villages. They rank higher
than the local Panwars and wear the sacred thread, but will remove
dead cattle with their own hands. They marry among themselves.
Rajput, Bais
_Rajput, Bais._ [500]--The Bais are one of the thirty-six royal
races. Colonel Tod considered them a branch of the Surajvansi, but
according to their own account their eponymous ancestor was Salivahana,
the mythic son of a snake, who conquered the great Raja Vikramaditya
of Ujjain and fixed his own era in A.D. 55. This is the Saka era, and
Salivahana was the leader of the Saka nomads who invaded Gujarat on
two occasions, before and shortly after the beginning of the Christian
era. It is suggested in the article on Rajput that the Yadava lunar
clan are the representatives of these Sakas, and if this were correct
the Bais would be a branch of the lunar race. The fact that they are
snake-worshippers is in favour of their connection with the Yadavas and
other clans, who are supposed to represent the Scythian invaders of the
first and subsequent centuries, and had the legend of being descended
from a snake. The Bais, Mr. Crooke says, believe that no snake has
destroyed, or ever can destroy, one of the clan. They seem to take no
precautions against the bite except hanging a vessel of water at the
head of the sufferer, with a small tube at the bottom, from which the
water is poured on his head as long as he can bear it. The cobra is,
in fact, the tribal god. The name is derived by Mr. Crooke from the
Sanskrit Vaishya, one who occupies the soil. The principal hero of the
Bais was Tilokchand, who is supposed to have come from the Central
Provinces. He lived about A.D. 1400, and was the premier Raja of
Oudh. He extended his dominions over all the tract known as Baiswara,
which comprises the bulk of the Rai Bareli and Unao Districts, and
is the home of the Bais Rajputs. The descendants of Tilokchand form a
separate subdivision known as Tilokchandi Bais, who rank higher than
the ordinary Bais, and will not eat with them. The Bais Rajputs are
found all over the United Provinces. In the Central Provinces they
have settled in small numbers in the northern and eastern Districts.
Rajput, Baksaria
_Rajput, Baksaria._--A small clan found principally in the Bilaspur
District, who derive their name from Baxar in Bengal. They were
accustomed to send a litter, that is to say, a girl of their clan,
to the harem of each Mughal Emperor, and this has degraded them. They
allow widow-marriage, and do not wear the sacred thread. It is probable
that they marry among themselves, as other Rajputs do not intermarry
with them, and they are no doubt an impure group with little pretension
to be Rajputs. The name Baksaria is found in the United Provinces as
a territorial subcaste of several castes.
Rajput, Banaphar
_Rajput, Banaphar._--Mr. Crooke states that this sept is a branch of
the Yadavas, and hence it is of the lunar race. The sept is famous
on account of the exploits of the heroes Alha and Udal who belonged
to it, and who fought for the Chandel kings of Mahoba and Khajuraha
in their wars against Prithwi Raj Chauhan, the king of Delhi. The
exploits of Alha and Udal form the theme of poems still well known
and popular in Bundelkhand, to which the sept belongs. The Banaphars
have only a moderately respectable rank among Rajputs. [501]
Rajput, Bhadauria
_Rajput, Bhadauria._--An important clan who take their name from the
village of Bhadawar near Ater, south of the Jumna. They are probably
a branch of the Chauhans, being given as such by Colonel Tod and
Sir H.M. Elliot. [502] Mr. Crooke remarks [503] that the Chauhans
are disposed to deny this relationship, now that from motives of
convenience the two tribes have begun to intermarry. If they are,
as supposed, an offshoot of the Chauhans, this is an instance of
the subdivision of a large clan leading to intermarriage between two
sections, which has probably occurred in other instances also. This
clan is returned from the Hoshangabad District.
Rajput, Bisen
_Rajput, Bisen._--This clan belongs to the United Provinces and
Oudh. They do not appear in history before the time of Akbar, and
claim descent from a well-known Brahman saint and a woman of the
Surajvansi Rajputs whom he married. The Bisens occupy a respectable
position among Rajputs, and intermarry with other good clans.
Rajput, Bundela
_Rajput, Bundela._--A well-known clan of Rajputs of somewhat
inferior position, who have given their name to Bundelkhand, or
the tract comprised principally in the Districts of Saugor, Damoh,
Jhansi, Hamirpur and Banda, and the Panna, Orchha, Datia and other
States. The Bundelas are held to be derived from the Gaharwar or
Gherwal Rajputs, and there is some reason for supposing that these
latter were originally an aristocratic section of the Bhar tribe with
some infusion of Rajput blood. But the Gaharwars now rank almost with
the highest clans. According to tradition one of the Gaharwar Rajas
offered a sacrifice of his own head to the Vindhya-basini Devi or
the goddess of the Vindhya hills, and out of the drops (_bund_) of
blood which fell on the altar a boy was born. He returned to Panna
and founded the clan which bears the name Bundela, from _bund_,
a drop. [504] It is probable that, as suggested by Captain Luard,
the name is really a corruption of Vindhya or Vindhyela, a dweller in
the Vindhya hills, where, according to their own tradition, the clan
had its birth. The Bundelas became prominent in the thirteenth or
fourteenth century, after the fall of the Chandels. "Orchha became
the chief of the numerous Bundela principalities; but its founder
drew upon himself everlasting infamy, by putting to death the wise
Abul Fazl, the historian and friend of the magnanimous Akbar, and the
encomiast and advocate of the Hindu race. From the period of Akbar
the Bundelas bore a distinguished part in all the grand conflicts,
to the very close of the monarchy." [505]
The Bundelas held the country up to the Nerbudda in the Central
Provinces, and, raiding continually into the Gond territories south
of the Nerbudda on the pretence of protecting the sacred cow which
the Gonds used for ploughing, they destroyed the castle on Chauragarh
in Narsinghpur on a crest of the Satpuras, and reduced the Nerbudda
valley to subjection. The most successful chieftain of the tribe was
Chhatarsal, the Raja of Panna, in the eighteenth century, who was
virtually ruler of all Bundelkhand; his dominions extending from Banda
in the north to Jubbulpore in the south, and from Rewah in the east
to the Betwa River in the west. But he had to call in the help of the
Peshwa to repel an invasion of the Mughal armies, and left a third
of his territory by will to the Marathas. Chhatarsal left twenty-two
legitimate and thirty illegitimate sons, and their descendants now
hold several small Bundela States, while the territories left to the
Peshwa subsequently became British. The chiefs of Panna, Orchha, Datia,
Chhatarpur and numerous other small states in the Bundelkhand agency
are Bundela Rajputs. [506] The Bundelas of Saugor do not intermarry
with the good Rajput clans, but with an inferior group of Panwars and
another clan called Dhundhele, perhaps an offshoot of the Panwars, who
are also residents of Saugor. Their character, as disclosed in a number
of proverbial sayings and stories current regarding them, somewhat
resembles that of the Scotch highlanders as depicted by Stevenson. They
are proud and penurious to the last degree, and quick to resent the
smallest slight. They make good _shikaris_ or sportsmen, but are
so impatient of discipline that they have never found a vocation by
enlisting in the Indian Army. Their characteristics are thus described
in a doggerel verse: "The Bundelas salute each other from miles apart,
their _pagris_ are cocked on the side of the head till they touch the
shoulders. A Bundela would dive into a well for the sake of a cowrie,
but would fight with the Sardars of Government." No Bania could go
past a Bundela's house riding on a pony or holding up an umbrella;
and all low-caste persons who passed his house must salute it with
the words, _Diwan ji ko Ram Ram_. Women must take their shoes off to
pass by. It is related that a few years ago a Bundela was brought up
before the Assistant Commissioner, charged with assaulting a tahsil
process-server, and threatening him with his sword. The Bundela, who
was very poor and wearing rags, was asked by the magistrate whether
he had threatened the man with his sword. He replied "Certainly not;
the sword is for gentlemen like you and me of equal position. To him,
if I had wished to beat him I would have taken my shoe." Another story
is that there was once a very overbearing Tahsildar, who had a shoe 2
1/2 feet long with which he used to collect the land revenue. One day
a Bundela malguzar appeared before him on some business. The Tahsildar
kept his seat. The Bundela walked quietly up to the table and said,
"Will the Sirkar step aside with me for a moment, as I have something
private to say." The Tahsildar got up and walked aside with him, on
which the Bundela said, 'That is sufficient, I only wished to tell you
that you should rise to receive me.' When the Bundelas are collected
at a feast they sit with their hands folded across their stomachs and
their eyes turned up, and remain impassive while food is being put on
their plates, and never say, 'Enough,' because they think that they
would show themselves to be feeble men if they refused to eat as much
as was put before them. Much of the food is thus ultimately wasted,
and given to the sweepers, and this leads to great extravagance at
marriages and other ceremonial occasions. The Bundelas were much
feared and were not popular landlords, but they are now losing their
old characteristics and settling down into respectable cultivators.
Rajput, Chandel
_Rajput, Chandel._--An important clan of Rajputs, of which a
small number reside in the northern Districts of Saugor, Damoh and
Jubbulpore, and also in Chhattisgarh. The name is derived by Mr. Crooke
from the Sanskrit _chandra_, the moon. The Chandel are not included in
the thirty-six royal races, and are supposed to have been a section
of one of the indigenous tribes which rose to power. Mr. V.A. Smith
states that the Chandels, like several other dynasties, first came into
history early in the ninth century, when Nannuka Chandel about A.D. 831
overthrew a Parihar chieftain and became lord of the southern parts of
Jejakabhukti or Bundelkhand. Their chief towns were Mahoba and Kalanjar
in Bundelkhand, and they gradually advanced northwards till the Jumna
became the frontier between their dominions and those of Kanauj. They
fought with the Gujar-Parihar kings of Kanauj and the Kalachuris of
Chedi, who had their capital at Tewar in Jubbulpore, and joined in
resisting the incursions of the Muhammadans. In A.D. 1182 Parmal, the
Chandel king, was defeated by Prithwi Raja, the Chauhan king of Delhi,
after the latter had abducted the Chandel's daughter. This was the
war in which Alha and Udal, the famous Banaphar heroes, fought for the
Chandels, and it is commemorated in the Chand-Raisa, a poem still well
known to the people of Bundelkhand. In A.D. 1203 Kalanjar was taken
by the Muhammadan Kutb-ud-Din Ibak, and the importance of the Chandel
rulers came to an end, though they lingered on as purely local chiefs
until the sixteenth century. The Chandel princes were great builders,
and beautified their chief towns, Mahoba, Kalanjar and Khajuraho with
many magnificent temples and lovely lakes, formed by throwing massive
dams across the openings between the hills. [507] Among these were
great irrigation works in the Hamirpur District, the forts of Kalanjar
and Ajaighar, and the noble temples at Khajuraho and Mahoba. [508]
Even now the ruins of old forts and temples in the Saugor and Damoh
Districts are attributed by the people to the Chandels, though many
were in fact probably constructed by the Kalachuris of Chedi.
Mr. Smith derives the Chandels either from the Gonds or Bhars, but
inclines to the view that they were Gonds. The following considerations
tend, I venture to think, to favour the hypothesis of their origin
from the Bhars. According to the best traditions, the Gonds came from
the south, and practically did not penetrate to Bundelkhand. Though
Saugor and Damoh contain a fair number of Gonds they have never
been of importance there, and this is almost their farthest limit
to the north-west. The Gond States in the Central Provinces did not
come into existence for several centuries after the commencement
of the Chandel dynasty, and while there are authentic records of
all these states, the Gonds have no tradition of their dominance
in Bundelkhand. The Gonds have nowhere else built such temples as
are attributed to the Chandels at Khajuraho, whilst the Bhars were
famous builders. "In Mirzapur traces of the Bhars abound on all sides
in the shape of old tanks and village forts. The bricks found in
the Bhar-dihs or forts are of enormous dimensions, and frequently
measure 19 by 11 inches, and are 2 1/4 inches thick. In quality
and size they are similar to bricks often seen in ancient Buddhist
buildings. The old capital of the Bhars, five miles from Mirzapur,
is said to have had 150 temples." [509] Elliot remarks [510] that
"common tradition assigns to the Bhars the possession of the whole
tract from Gorakhpur to Bundelkhand and Saugor, and many old stone
forts, embankments and subterranean caverns in Gorakhpur, Azamgarh,
Jaunpur, Mirzapur and Allahabad, which are ascribed to them, would seem
to indicate no inconsiderable advance in civilisation." Though there
are few or no Bhars now in Bundelkhand, there are a large number of
Pasis in Allahabad which partly belongs to it, and small numbers in
Bundelkhand; and the Pasi caste is mainly derived from the Bhars;
[511] while a Gaharwar dynasty, which is held to be derived from
the Bhars, was dominant in Bundelkhand and Central India before the
rise of the Chandels. According to one legend, the ancestor of the
Chandels was born with the moon as a father from the daughter of the
high priest of the Gaharwar Raja Indrajit of Benares or of Indrajit
himself. [512] As will be seen, the Gaharwars were an aristocratic
section of the Bhars. Another legend states that the first Chandel
was the offspring of the moon by the daughter of a Brahman Pandit
of Kalanjar. [513] In his _Notes on the Bhars of Bundelkhand_ [514]
Mr. Smith argues that the Bhars adopted the Jain religion, and also
states that several of the temples at Khajuraho and Mahoba, erected
in the eleventh century, are Jain. These were presumably erected
by the Chandels, but I have never seen it suggested that the Gonds
were Jains or were capable of building Jain temples in the eleventh
century. Mr. Smith also states that Maniya Deo, to whom a temple exists
at Mahoba, was the tutelary deity of the Chandels; and that the only
other shrine of Maniya Deo discovered by him in the Hamirpur District
was in a village reputed formerly to have been held by the Bhars. [515]
Two instances of intercourse between the Chandels and Gonds are given,
but the second of them, that the Rani Durgavati of Mandla was a Chandel
princess, belongs to the sixteenth century, and has no bearing on the
origin of the Chandels. The first instance, that of the Chandel Raja
Kirat Singh hunting at Maniagarh with the Gond Raja of Garha-Mandla,
cannot either be said to furnish any real evidence in favour of a Gond
origin for the Chandels; it maybe doubted whether there was any Gond
Raja of Garha-Mandla till after the fall of the Kalachuri dynasty of
Tewar, which is quite close to Garha-Mandla, in the twelfth century;
and a reference so late as this would not affect the question. [516]
Finally, the Chandels are numerous in Mirzapur, which was formerly
the chief seat of the Bhars, while the Gonds have never been either
numerous or important in Mirzapur. These considerations seem to point
to the possibility of the derivation of the Chandels from the Bhars
rather than from the Gonds; and the point is perhaps of some interest
in view of the suggestion in the article on Kol that the Gonds did
not arrive in the Central Provinces for some centuries after the
rise of the Chandel dynasty of Khajuraho and Mahoba. The Chandels
may have simply been a local branch of the Gaharwars, who obtained
a territorial designation from Chanderi, or in some other manner,
as has continually happened in the case of other clans. The Gaharwars
were probably derived from the Bhars. The Chandels now rank as a good
Rajput clan, and intermarry with the other leading clans.
Rajput, Chauhan
_Rajput, Chauhan_.--The Chauhan was the last of the Agnikula or
fire-born clans, According to the legend: "Again Vasishtha seated on
the lotus prepared incantations; again he called the gods to aid; and
as he poured forth the libation a figure arose, lofty in stature, of
elevated front, hair like jet, eyes rolling, breast expanded, fierce,
terrific, clad in armour with quiver filled, a bow in one hand and
a brand in the other, quadriform (Chaturanga), whence his name was
given as Chauhan." This account makes the Chauhan the most important
of the fire-born clans, and Colonel Tod says that he was the most
valiant of the Agnikulas, and it may be asserted not of them only but
of the whole Rajput race; and though the swords of the Rahtors would
be ready to contest the point, impartial decision must assign to the
Chauhan the van in the long career of arms. [517] General Cunningham
shows that even so late as the time of Prithwi Raj in the twelfth
century the Chauhans had no claim to be sprung from fire, but were
content to be considered descendants of a Brahman sage Bhrigu. [518]
Like the other Agnikula clans the Chauhans are now considered to have
sprung from the Gurjara or White Hun invaders of the fifth and sixth
centuries, but I do not know whether this is held to be definitely
proved in their case. Sambhar and Ajmer in Rajputana appear to have
been the first home of the clan, and inscriptions record a long
line of thirty-nine kings as reigning there from Anhul, the first
created Chauhan. The last but one of them, Vigraha Raja or Bisal Deo,
in the middle of the twelfth century extended the ancestral dominions
considerably, and conquered Delhi from a chief of the Tomara clan. At
this time the Chauhans, according to their own bards, held the line
of the Nerbudda from Garha-Mandla to Maheshwar and also Asirgarh,
while their dominions extended north to Hissar and south to the
Aravalli hills. [519] The nephew of Bisal Deo was Prithwi Raj, the
most famous Chauhan hero, who ruled at Sambhar, Ajmer and Delhi. His
first exploit was the abduction of the daughter of Jaichand, the
Gaharwar Raja of Kanauj, in about A.D. 1175. The king of Kanauj had
claimed the title of universal sovereign and determined to celebrate
the Ashwa-Medha or horse-sacrifice, at which all the offices should
be performed by vassal kings. Prithwi Raj alone declined to attend
as a subordinate, and Jaichand therefore made a wooden image of
him and set it up at the gate in the part of doorkeeper. But when
his daughter after the tournament took the garland of flowers to
bestow it on the chief whom she chose for her husband, she passed
by all the assembled nobles and threw the garland on the neck of
the wooden image. At this moment Prithwi Raj dashed in with a few
companions, and catching her up, escaped with her from her father's
court. [520] Afterwards, in 1182, Prithwi Raj defeated the Chandel
Raja Parmal and captured Mahoba. In 1191 Prithwi Raj was the head of
a confederacy of Hindu princes in combating the invasion of Muhammad
Ghori. He repelled the Muhammadans at Tarain about two miles north
of Delhi, but in the following year was completely defeated and
killed at Thaneswar, and soon afterwards Delhi and Ajmer fell to
the Muhammadans. The Chauhan kingdom was broken up, but scattered
parts of it remained, and about A.D. 1307 Asirgarh in Nimar, which
continued to be held by the Chauhans, was taken by Ala-ud-Din Khilji
and the whole garrison put to the sword except one boy. This boy,
Raisi Chauhan, escaped to Rajputana, and according to the bardic
chronicle his descendants formed the Hara branch of the Chauhans and
conquered from the Minas the tract known as Haravati, from which they
perhaps took their name. [521] This is now comprised in the Kotah and
Bundi states, ruled by Hara chiefs. Another well-known offshoot from
the Chauhans are the Khichi clan, who belong to the Sind-Sagar Doab;
and the Nikumbh and Bhadauria clans are also derived from them. The
Chauhans are numerous in the Punjab and United Provinces and rank as
one of the highest Rajput clans. In the Central Provinces they are
found principally in the Narsinghpur and Hoshangabad Districts, and
also in Mandla. The Chauhan Rajputs of Mandla marry among themselves,
with other Chauhans of Mandla, Seoni and Balaghat They have exogamous
sections with names apparently derived from villages like an ordinary
caste. The remarriage of widows is forbidden, but those widows who
desire to do so go and live with a man and are put out of caste. This,
however, is said not to happen frequently. A widow's hair is not
shaved, but her glass bangles are broken, she is dressed in white,
made to sleep on the ground, and can wear no ornaments. Owing to the
renown of the clan their name has been adopted by numerous classes of
inferior Rajputs and low Hindu castes who have no right to it. Thus
in the Punjab a large subcaste of Chamars call themselves Chauhan,
and in the Bilaspur District a low caste of village watchmen go
by this name. These latter may be descendants of the illegitimate
offspring of Chauhan Rajputs by low-caste women.
Rajput, Dhakar
_Rajput, Dhakar_.--In the Central Provinces this term has the meaning
of one of illegitimate descent, and it is often used by the Kirars,
who are probably of mixed descent from Rajputs. In northern India,
however, the Dhakars are a clan of Rajputs, who claim Surajvansi
origin; but this is not generally admitted. Mr. Crooke states that
some are said to be emigrants from the banks of the Nerbudda; but
the main body say they came from Ajmer in the sixteenth century. They
were notorious in the eighteenth century for their lawlessness, and
gave the imperial Mughal officers much trouble in the neighbourhood
of Agra, rendering the communications between that city and Etawah
insecure. In the Mutiny they broke out again, and are generally a
turbulent, ill-conducted sept, always ready for petty acts of violence
and cattle-stealing. They are, however, recognised as Rajputs of good
position and intermarry with the best clans. [522]
In the Central Provinces the Dhakars are found principally in
Hoshangabad, and it is doubtful if they are proper Rajputs.
Rajput, Gaharwar
_Rajput, Gaharwar, Gherwal_.--This is an old clan. Mr. V.A. Smith
states that they had been dominant in Central India about Nowgong and
Chhatarpur before the Parihars in the eighth century. The Parihar
kings were subsequently overthrown by the Chandels of Mahoba. In
their practice of building embankments and constructing lakes the
Chandels were imitators of the Gaharwars, who are credited with the
formation of some of the most charming lakes in Bundelkhand. [523]
And in A.D. 1090 a Raja of the Gaharwar clan called Chandradeva seized
Kanauj (on the Ganges north-west of Lucknow), and established his
authority certainly over Benares and Ajodhia, and perhaps over the
Delhi territory. Govindachandra, grandson of Chandradeva, enjoyed a
long reign, which included the years A.D. 1114 and 1154. His numerous
land grants and widely distributed coins prove that he succeeded to a
large extent in restoring the glories of Kanauj, and in making himself
a power of considerable importance. The grandson of Govindachandra
was Jayachandra, renowned in the popular Hindu poems and tales of
northern India as Raja Jaichand, whose daughter was carried off by
the gallant Rai Pithora or Prithwi Raj of Ajmer. Kanauj was finally
captured and destroyed by Shihab-ud-Din in 1193, when Jaichand retired
towards Benares but was overtaken and slain. [524] His grandson,
Mr. Crooke says, [525] afterwards fled to Kantit in the Mirzapur
District and, overcoming the Bhar Raja of that place, founded the
family of the Gaharwar Rajas of Kantit Bijaypur, which was recently
still in existence. All the other Gaharwars trace their lineage to
Benares or Bijaypur. The predecessors of the Gaharwars in Kantit and
in a large tract of country lying contiguous to it were the Bhars, an
indigenous race of great enterprise, who, though not highly civilised,
were far removed from barbarism. According to Sherring they have
left numerous evidences of their energy and skill in earthworks,
forts, dams and the like. [526] Similarly Elliot says of the Bhars:
"Common tradition assigns to them the possession of the whole tract
from Gorakhpur to Bundelkhand and Saugor, and the large pargana of
Bhadoi or Bhardai in Benares is called after their name. Many old stone
forts, embankments and subterranean caverns in Gorakhpur, Azamgarh,
Jaunpur, Mirzapur and Allahabad, which are ascribed to them, would seem
to indicate no inconsiderable advance in civilisation." [527] Colonel
Tod says of the Gaharwars: "The Gherwal Rajput is scarcely known to
his brethren in Rajasthan, who will not admit his contaminated blood
to mix with theirs, though as a brave warrior he is entitled to their
fellowship." [528] It is thus curious that the Gaharwars, who are one
of the oldest clans to appear in authentic history, if they ruled
Central India in the eighth century before the Parihars, should be
considered to be of very impure origin. And as they are subsequently
found in Mirzapur, a backward forest tract which is also the home
of the Bhars, and both the Gaharwars and Bhars have a reputation as
builders of tanks and forts, it seems likely that the Gaharwars were
really, as suggested by Mr. V.A. Smith, the aristocratic branch of the
Bhars, probably with a considerable mixture of Rajput blood. Elliot
states that the Bhars formerly occupied the whole of Azamgarh, the
pargana of Bara in Allahabad and Khariagarh in the Kanauj tract. This
widespread dominance corresponds with what has been already stated
as regards the Gaharwars, who, according to Mr. V.A. Smith, ruled
in Central India, Kanauj, Oudh, Benares and Mirzapur. And the name
Gaharwar, according to Dr. Hoernle, is connected with the Sanskrit root
_gah_, and has the sense of 'dwellers in caves or deep jungle.' [529]
The origin of the Gaharwars is of interest in the Central Provinces,
because it is from them that the Bundela clan of Saugor and Bundelkhand
is probably descended. [530]
The Gaharwars, Mr. Crooke states, now hold a high rank among Rajput
septs; they give daughters to the Baghel, Chandel and Bisen, and take
brides of the Bais, Gautam, Chauhan, Parihar and other clans. The
Gaharwars are found in small numbers in the Central Provinces,
chiefly in the Chhattisgarh Districts and Feudatory States.
Rajput, Gaur
_Rajput, Gaur, Chamar Gaur_.--Colonel Tod remarks of this tribe:
"The Gaur tribe was once respected in Rajasthan, though it never there
attained to any considerable eminence. The ancient kings of Bengal were
of this race, and gave their name to the capital, Lakhnauti." This town
in Bengal, and the kingdom of which it was the capital, were known as
Ganda, and it has been conjectured that the Gaur Brahmans and Rajputs
were named after it. Sir H.M. Elliot and Mr. Crooke, however, point out
that the home of the Gaur Brahmans and Rajputs and a cultivating caste,
the Gaur Tagas, is in the centre and west of the United Provinces,
far removed from Bengal; the Gaur Brahmans now reside principally
in the Meerut Division, and between them and Bengal is the home of
the Kanaujia Brahmans. General Cunningham suggests that the country
comprised in the present Gonda District round the old town of Sravasti,
was formerly known as Gauda, and was hence the origin of the caste
name. [531] The derivation from Gaur in Bengal is perhaps, however,
more probable, as the name was best known in connection with this
tract. The Gaur Rajputs do not make much figure in history. "Repeated
mention of them is found in the wars of Prithwi Raj as leaders of
considerable renown, one of whom founded a small state in the centre
of India. This survived through seven centuries of Mogul domination,
till it at length fell a prey indirectly to the successes of the
British over the Marathas, when Sindhia in 1809 annihilated the power
of the Gaur and took possession of his capital, Supur." [532]
In the United Provinces the Gaur Rajputs are divided into three groups,
the Bahman, or Brahman, the Bhat, and the Chamar Gaur. Of these the
Chamar Gaur, curiously enough appear to rank the highest, which is
accounted for by the following story: When trouble fell upon the Gaur
family, one of their ladies, far advanced in pregnancy, took refuge
in a Chamar's house, and was so grateful to him for his disinterested
protection that she promised to call her child by his name. The Bhats
and Brahmans, to whom the others fled, do not appear to have shown a
like chivalry, and hence, strange as it may appear, the subdivisions
called after their name rank below the Chamar Gaur. [533] The names of
the subsepts indicate that this clan of Rajputs is probably of mixed
origin. If the Brahman subsept is descended from Brahmans, it would
be only one of several probable cases of Rajput clans originating
from this caste. As regards the Bhat subcaste, the Charans or Bhats
of Rajputana are admittedly Rajputs, and there is therefore nothing
curious in finding a Bhat subsection in a Rajput clan. What the
real origin of the Chamar Gaurs was is difficult to surmise. The
Chamar Gaur is now a separate clan, and its members intermarry with
the other Gaur Rajputs, affording an instance of the subdivision of
clans. In the Central Provinces the greater number of the persons
returned as Gaur Rajputs really belong to a group known as Gorai, who
are considered to be the descendants of widows or kept women in the
Gaur clan, and marry among themselves. They should really therefore
be considered a separate caste, and not members of the Rajput caste
proper. In the United Provinces the Gaurs rank with the good Rajput
clans. In the Central Provinces the Gaur and Chamar-Gaur clans are
returned from most Districts of the Jubbulpore and Nerbudda divisions,
and also in considerable numbers from Bhandara.
Rajput, Haihaya
_Rajput, Haihaya, Haihaivansi, Kalaehuri_.--This well-known historical
clan of the Central Provinces is not included among the thirty-six
royal races, and Colonel Tod gives no information about them. The
name Haihaya is stated to be a corruption of Ahihaya, which means
snake-horse, the legend being that the first ancestor of the clan was
the issue of a snake and a mare. Haihaivansi signifies descendants
of the horse. Colonel Tod states that the first capital of the Indu
or lunar race was at Mahesvati on the Nerbudda, still existing
as Maheshwar, and was founded by Sahasra Arjuna of the Haihaya
tribe. [534] This Arjuna of the thousand arms was one of the Pandava
brothers, and it may be noted that the Ratanpur Haihaivansis still
have a story of their first ancestor stealing a horse from Arjuna,
and a consequent visit of Arjuna and Krishna to Ratanpur for its
recovery. Since the Haihayas also claim descent from a snake and are
of the lunar race, it seems not unlikely that they may have belonged
to one of the Scythian or Tartar tribes, the Sakas or Yueh-chi,
who invaded India shortly after the commencement of the Christian
era, as it has been conjectured that the other lunar Rajput clans
worshipping or claiming descent from a snake originated from these
tribes. The Haihaivansis or Kalachuris became dominant in the Nerbudda
valley about the sixth century, their earliest inscription being dated
A.D. 580. Their capital was moved to Tripura or Tewar near Jubbulpore
about A.D. 900, and from here they appear to have governed an extensive
territory for about 300 years, and were frequently engaged in war with
the adjoining kingdoms, the Chandels of Mahoba, the Panwars of Malwa,
and the Chalukyas of the south. One king, Gangeyadeva, appears even
to have aspired to become the paramount power in northern India, and
his sovereignty was recognised in distant Tirhut. Gangeyadeva was fond
of residing at the foot of the holy fig-tree of Prayaga (Allahabad),
and eventually found salvation there with his hundred wives. From
about A.D. 1100 the power of the Kalachuri or Haihaya princes began to
decline, and their last inscription is dated A.D. 1196. It is probable
that they were subverted by the Gond kings of Garha-Mandla, the first
of whom, Jadurai, appears to have been in the service of the Kalachuri
king, and subsequently with the aid of a dismissed minister to have
supplanted his former-master. [535] The kingdom of the Kalachuri or
Haihaya kings was known as Chedi, and, according to Mr. V.A. Smith,
corresponded more or less roughly to the present area of the Central
Provinces. [536]
In about the tenth century a member of the reigning family of Tripura
was appointed viceroy of some territories in Chhattisgarh, and two or
three generations afterwards his family became practically independent
of the parent house, and established their own capital at Ratanpur
in Bilaspur District (A.D. 1050). This state was known as Dakshin or
southern Kosala. During the twelfth century its importance rapidly
increased, partly no doubt on the ruins of the Jubbulpore kingdom,
until the influence of the Ratanpur princes, Ratnadeva II. and
Prithwideva II., may be said to have extended from Amarkantak to
beyond the Godavari, and from the confines of Berar in the west to
the boundaries of Orissa in the east. [537] The Ratanpur kingdom of
Chedi or Dakshin Kosala was the only one of the Rajput states in the
Central Provinces which escaped subversion by the Gonds, and it enjoyed
a comparatively tranquil existence till A.D. 1740, when Ratanpur fell
to the Marathas almost without striking a blow. "The only surviving
representative of the Haihayas of Ratanpur," Mr. Wills states, [538]
"is a quite simple-minded Rajput who lives at Bargaon in Raipur
District. He represents the junior or Raipur branch of the family,
and holds five villages which were given him revenue-free by the
Marathas for his maintenance. The malguzar of Senduras claims descent
from the Ratanpur family, but his pretensions are doubtful. He enjoys
no privileges such as those of the Bargaon Thakur, to whom presents
are still made when he visits the chiefs who were once subordinate to
his ancient house." In the Ballia District of the United Provinces
[539] are some Hayobans Rajputs who claim descent from the Ratanpur
kings. Chandra Got, a cadet of this house, is said to have migrated
northwards in A.D. 850 [540] and settled in the Saran District
on the Ganges, where he waged successful war with the aboriginal
Cheros. Subsequently one of his descendants violated a Brahman woman
called Maheni of the house of his Purohit or family priest, who burnt
herself to death, and is still locally worshipped. After this tragedy
the Hayobans Rajputs left Saran and settled in Ballia. Colonel Tod
states that, "A small branch of these ancient Haihayas yet exist
in the country of the Nerbudda, near the very top of the valley,
at Sohagpur in Baghelkhand, aware of their ancient lineage, and,
though few in number, are still celebrated for their valour." [541]
This Sohagpur must apparently be the Sohagpur tahsil of Rewah, ceded
from Mandla after the Mutiny.
Rajput, Huna
_Rajput, Huna, Hoon_.--This clan retains the name and memory of the
Hun barbarian hordes, who invaded India at or near the epoch of their
incursions into Europe. It is practically extinct; but in his _Western
India_ Colonel Tod records the discovery of a few families of Hunas
in Baroda State: "At a small village opposite Ometa I discovered
a few huts of Huns, still existing under the ancient name of Hoon,
by which they are known to Hindu history. There are said to be three
or four families of them at the village of Trisavi, three _kos_ from
Baroda, and although neither feature nor complexion indicate much
relation to the Tartar-visaged Hun, we may ascribe the change to
climate and admixture of blood, as there is little doubt that they
are descended from these invaders, who established a sovereignty on
the Indus in the second and sixth centuries of the Christian era,
and became so incorporated with the Rajput population as to obtain a
place among the thirty-six royal races of India, together with the
Gete, the Kathi, and other tribes of the Sacae from Central Asia,
whose descendants still occupy the land of the sun-worshipping Saura
or Chaura, no doubt one of the same race."
Rajput, Kachhwaha
_Rajput, Kachhwaha, Cutchwaha_--A celebrated clan of Rajputs included
among the thirty-six royal races, to which the Maharajas of the
important states of Amber or Jaipur and Alwar belong. They are of the
solar race and claim descent from Kash, the second son of the great
king Rama of Ajodhia, the incarnation of Vishnu. Their original seat,
according to tradition, was Rohtas on the Son river, and another of
their famous progenitors was Raja Nal, who migrated from Rohtas and
founded Narwar. [542] The town of Damoh in the Central Provinces
is supposed to be named after Damyanti, Raja Nal's wife. According
to General Cunningham the name Kachhwaha is an abbreviation of
Kachhaha-ghata or tortoise-killer. The earliest appearance of the
Kachhwaha Rajputs in authentic history is in the tenth century, when
a chief of the clan captured Gwalior from the Parihar-Gujar kings of
Kanauj and established himself there. His dynasty had an independent
existence till A.D. 1128, when it became tributary to the Chandel
kings of Mahoba. [543] The last prince of Gwalior was Tejkaran,
called Dulha Rai or the bridegroom prince, and he received from his
father-in-law the district of Daora in the present Jaipur State,
where he settled. In 1150 one of his successors wrested Amber from
the Minas and made it his capital. The Amber State from the first
acknowledged the supremacy of the Mughal emperors, and the chief
of the period gave his daughter in marriage to Akbar. This chief's
son, Bhagwan Das, is said to have saved Akbar's life at the battle
of Sarnal. Bhagwan Das gave a daughter to Jahangir, and his adopted
son, Man Singh, the next chief, was one of the most conspicuous of
the Mughal Generals, and at different periods was governor of Kabul,
Bengal, Bihar and the Deccan. The next chief of note, Jai Singh I.,
appears in all the wars of Aurangzeb in the Deccan. He was commander
of 6000 horse, and captured Sivaji, the celebrated founder of the
Maratha power. The present city of Jaipur was founded by a subsequent
chief, Jai Singh II., in 1728. During the Mutiny the Maharaja of Jaipur
placed all his military power at the disposal of the Political Agent,
and in every way assisted the British Government. At the Durbar of
1877 his salute was raised to 21 guns. Jaipur, one of the largest
states in Rajputana, has an area of nearly 16,000 square miles, and
a population of 2 1/2 million persons. The Alwar State was founded
about 1776 by Pratap Singh, a descendant of a prince of the Jaipur
house, who had separated from it three centuries before. It has an
area of 3000 square miles and a population of nearly a million. [544]
In Colonel Tod's time the Kachhwaha chiefs in memory of their descent
from Rama, the incarnation of the sun, celebrated with great solemnity
the annual feast of the sun. On this occasion a stately car called the
chariot of the sun was brought from Rama's temple, and the Maharaja
ascending into it perambulated his capital. The images of Rama and
Siva were carried with the army both in Alwar and Jaipur. The banner
of Amber was always called the _Panchranga_ or five-coloured flag,
and is frequently mentioned in the traditions of the Rajput bards. But
it does not seem to be stated what the five colours were. Some of
the finest soldiers in the old Sepoy army were Kachhwaha Rajputs. The
Kachhwahas are fairly numerous in the United Provinces and rank with
the highest Rajput clans. [545] In the Central Provinces they are
found principally in the Saugor, Hoshangabad and Nimar Districts.
Rajput, Nagvansi
_Rajput, Nagvansi_.--This clan are considered to be the descendants of
the Tak or Takshac, which is one of the thirty-six royal races, and was
considered by Colonel Tod to be of Scythian origin. The Takshac were
also snake-worshippers. "Naga and Takshac are synonymous appellations
in Sanskrit for the snake, and the Takshac is the celebrated Nagvansa
of the early heroic history of India. The Mahabharat describes in its
usual allegorical style the war between the Pandus of Indraprestha and
the Takshacs of the north. Parikhita, a prince on the Pandu side, was
assassinated by the Takshac, and his son and successor, Janamejaya,
avenged his death and made a bonfire of 20,000 snakes." [546] This
allegory is supposed to have represented the warfare of the Aryan
races against the Sakas or Scythians. The Tak or Takshac would be
one of the clans held to be derived from the earlier invading tribes
from Central Asia, and of the lunar race. The Tak are scarcely known
in authentic history, but the poet Chand mentions the Tak from Aser
or Asirgarh as one of the princes who assembled at the summons of
Prithwi Raj of Delhi to fight against the Muhammadans. In another
place he is called Chatto the Tak. Nothing more is known of the
Tak clan unless the cultivating Taga caste of northern India is
derived from them. But the Nagvansi clan of Rajputs, who profess to
be descended from them, is fairly numerous. Most of the Nagvansis,
however, are probably in reality descended from landholders of the
indigenous tribes who have adopted the name of this clan, when they
wished to claim rank as Rajputs. The change is rendered more easy by
the fact that many of these tribes have legends of their own, showing
the descent of their ruling families from snakes, the snake and tiger,
owing to their deadly character, being the two animals most commonly
worshipped. Thus the landholding section of the Kols or Mundas of
Chota Nagpur have a long legend [547] of their descent from a princess
who married a snake in human form, and hence call themselves Nagvansi
Rajputs; and Dr. Buchanan states that the Nagvansi clan of Gorakhpur
is similarly derived from the Chero tribe. [548] In the Central
Provinces the Nagvansi Rajputs number about 400 persons, nearly all
of whom are found in the Chhattisgarh Districts and Feudatory States,
and are probably descendants of Kol or Munda landholding families.
Rajput, Nikumbh
_Rajput, Nikumbh_.--The Nikumbh is given as one of the thirty-six
royal races, but it is also the name of a branch of the Chauhans, and
it seems that, as suggested by Sherring, [549] it may be an offshoot
from the great Chauhan clan. The Nikumbh are said to have been given
the title of Sirnet by an emperor of Delhi, because they would not
bow their heads on entering his presence, and when he fixed a sword
at the door some of them allowed their necks to be cut through by the
sword rather than bend the head. The term Sirnet is supposed to mean
headless. A Chauhan column with an inscription of Raja Bisal Deo was
erected at Nigumbode, a place of pilgrimage on the Jumna, a few miles
below Delhi, and it seems a possible conjecture that the Nikumbhs may
have obtained their name from this place. [550] Mr. Crooke, however,
takes the Nikumbh to be a separate clan. The foundation of most of
the old forts and cities in Alwar and northern Jaipur is ascribed to
them, and two of their inscriptions of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries have been discovered in Khandesh. In northern India some
of them are now known as Raghuvansi. [551] They are chiefly found in
the Hoshangabad and Nimar Districts, and may be connected with the
Raghuvansi or Raghwi caste of these Provinces.
Rajput, Paik
_Rajput, Paik_.--This term means a foot-soldier, and is returned
from the northern Districts. It belongs to a class of men formerly
maintained as a militia by zamindars and landholders for the purpose
of collecting their revenue and maintaining order. They were probably
employed in much the same manner in the Central Provinces as in Bengal,
where Buchanan thus describes them: [552] "In order to protect the
money of landowners and convey it from place to place, and also, as
it is alleged, to enforce orders, two kinds of guards are kept. One
body called Burkandaz, commanded by Duffadars and Jemadars, seems
to be a more recent establishment The other called Paik, commanded
by Mirdhas and Sirdars, are the remains of the militia of the Bengal
kingdom. Both seem to have constituted the foot-soldiers whose number
makes such a formidable appearance in the Ain-i-Akbari. These unwieldy
establishments seem to have been formed when the Government collected
rent immediately from the farmer and cultivator, and when the same
persons managed not only the collections but the police and a great
part of the judicial department. This vast number of armed men, more
especially the latter, formed the infantry of the Mughal Government,
and were continued under the zamindars, who were anxious to have as
many armed men as possible to support them in their depredations. And
these establishments formed no charge, as they lived on lands which the
zamindar did not bring to account." The Paiks are thus a small caste
formed from military service like the Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa,
and are no doubt recruited from all sections of the population. They
have no claim to be considered as Rajputs.
Rajput, Parihar
_Rajput, Parihar_.--This clan was one of the four Agnikulas or
fire-born. Their founder was the first to issue from the fire-fountain,
but he had not a warrior's mien. The Brahmans placed him as guardian
of the gate, and hence his name, _Prithi-ha-dwara_ of which Parihar
is supposed to be a corruption [553]. Like the Chauhans and Solankis
the Parihar clan is held to have originated from the Gurjara or
Gujar invaders who came with the white Huns in the fifth and sixth
centuries, and they were one of the first of the Gujar Rajput clans to
emerge into prominence. They were dominant in Bundelkhand before the
Chandels, their last chieftain having been overthrown by a Chandel
prince in A.D. 831 [554]. A Parihar-Gujar chieftain, whose capital
was at Bhinmal in Rajputana, conquered the king of Kanauj, the ruler
of what remained of the dominions of the great Harsha Vardhana, and
established himself there about A.D. 816 [555]. Kanauj was then held by
Gujar-Parihar kings till about 1090, when it was seized by Chandradeva
of the Gaharwar Rajput clan. The Parihar rulers were thus subverted
by the Gaharwars and Chandels, both of whom are thought to be derived
from the Bhars or other aboriginal tribes, and these events appear
to have been in the nature of a rising of the aristocratic section
of the indigenous residents against the Gujar rulers, by whom they
had been conquered and perhaps taught the trade of arms. After this
period the Parihars are of little importance. They appear to have
retired to Rajputana, as Colonel Tod states that Mundore, five miles
north of Jodhpur, was their headquarters until it was taken by the
Rahtors. The walls of the ruined fortress of Mundore are built of
enormous square masses of stone without cement, and attest both its
antiquity and its former strength [556]. The Parihars are scattered
over Rajputana, and a colony of them on the Chambal was characterised
as the most notorious body of thieves in the annals of Thug history
[557]. Similarly in Etawah they are said to be a peculiarly lawless
and desperate community [558]. The Parihar Rajputs rank with the
leading clans and intermarry with them. In the Central Provinces they
are found principally in Saugor, Damoh and Jubbulpore.
Rajput, Rathor
_Rajput, Rathor, Rathaur._--The Rathor of Jodhpur or Marwar is one
of the most famous clans of Rajputs, and that which is most widely
dominant at the present time, including as it does the Rajas of
Jodhpur, Bikaner, Ratlam, Kishengarh and Idar, as well as several
smaller states. The origin of the Rathor clan is uncertain. Colonel
Tod states that they claim to be of the solar race, but by the bards
of the race are denied this honour; and though descended from Kash, the
second son of Rama, are held to be the offspring of one of his progeny,
Kashyap, by the daughter of a Dait (Titan). The view was formerly
held that the dynasty which wrested Kanauj from the descendants of
Harsha Vardhana, and held it from A.D. 810 to 1090, until subverted
by the Gaharwars, were Rathors, but proof has now been obtained that
they were really Parihar-Gujars. Mr. Smith suggests that after the
destruction of Kanauj by the Muhammadans under Shihab-ud-Din Ghori
in A.D. 1193 the Gaharwar clan, whose kings had conquered it in 1090
and reigned there for a century, migrated to the deserts of Marwar
in Rajputana, where they settled and became known as Rathors. [559]
It has also been generally held that the Rashtrakuta dynasty of
Nasik and Malkhed in the Deccan which reigned from A.D. 753 to 973,
and built the Kailasa temples at Ellora were Rathors, but Mr. Smith
states that there is no evidence of any social connection between the
Rashtrakutas and Rathors. [560] At any rate Siahji, the grandson or
nephew of Jai Chand, the last king of Kanauj, who had been drowned
in the Ganges while attempting to escape, accomplished with about
200 followers--the wreck of his vassalage--the pilgrimage to Dwarka
in Gujarat. He then sought in the sands and deserts of Rajputana
a second line of defence against the advancing wave of Muhammadan
invasion, and planted the standard of the Rathors among the sandhills
of the Luni in 1212. This, however, was not the first settlement of
the Rathors in Rajputana, for an inscription, dated A.D. 997, among
the ruins of the ancient city of Hathundi or Hastikundi, near Bali
in Jodhpur State, tells of five Rathor Rajas who ruled there early
in the tenth century, and this fact shows that the name Rathor is
really much older than the date of the fall of Kanauj. [561]
In 1381 Siahji's tenth successor, Rao Chonda, took Mundore from
a Parihar chief, and made his possession secure by marrying the
latter's daughter. A subsequent chief, Rao Jodha, laid the foundation
of Jodhpur in 1459, and transferred thither the seat of government. The
site of Jodhpur was selected on a peak known as Joda-gir, or the hill
of strife, four miles distant from Mundore on a crest of the range
overlooking the expanse of the desert plains of Marwar. The position
for the new city was chosen at the bidding of a forest ascetic, and was
excellently adapted for defence, but had no good water-supply. [562]
Joda had fourteen sons, of whom the sixth, Bika, was the founder of the
Bikaner state. Raja Sur Singh (1595-1620) was one of Akbar's greatest
generals, and the emperor Jahangir buckled the sword on to his son
Gaj Singh with his own hands. Gaj Singh, the next Raja (1620-1635),
was appointed viceroy of the Deccan, as was his successor, Jaswant
Singh, under Aurangzeb. The Mughal Emperors, Colonel Tod remarks,
were indebted for half their conquests to the Lakh Tulwar Rahtoran,
the hundred thousand swords which the Rathors boasted that they
could muster. [563] On another occasion, when Jahangir successfully
appealed to the Rajputs for support against his rebel son Khusru,
he was so pleased with the zeal of the Rathor prince, Raja Gaj Singh,
that he not only took the latter's hand, but kissed it, [564] perhaps
an unprecedented honour. But the constant absence from his home on
service in distant parts of the empire was so distasteful to Raja Sur
Singh that, when dying in the Deccan, he ordered a pillar to be erected
on his grave containing his curse upon any of his race who should
cross the Nerbudda. The pomp of imperial greatness or the sunshine of
court favour was as nothing with the Rathor chiefs, Colonel Tod says,
when weighed against the exercise of their influence within their own
cherished patrimony. The simple fare of the desert was dearer to the
Rathor than all the luxuries of the imperial banquet, which he turned
from in disgust to the recollection of the green pulse of Mundore,
or his favourite _rabi_ or maize porridge, the prime dish of the
Rathor. [565] The Rathor princes have been not less ready in placing
themselves and the forces of their States at the disposal of the
British Government, and the latest and perhaps most brilliant example
of their loyalty occurred during 1914, when the veteran Sir Partap
Singh of Idar insisted on proceeding to the front against Germany,
though over seventy years of age, and was accompanied by his nephew,
a boy of sixteen.
The Ratlam State was founded by Ratan Singh, a grandson of Raja
Udai Singh of Jodhpur, who was born about 1618, and obtained it
as a grant for good service against the Usbegs at Kandahar and the
Persians in Khorasan about 1651-52. Kishangarh was founded by Kishan
Singh, a son of the same Raja Udai Singh, who obtained a grant of
territory from Akbar about 1611. Idar State in Gujarat has, according
to its traditions, been held by Rathor princes from a very early
period. Jodhpur State is the largest in Rajputana, with an area of
35,000 square miles, and a population of two million. The Maharaja
is entitled to a salute of twenty-one guns. A great part of the
State is a sandy desert, and its older name of Marwar is, according
to Colonel Tod, a corruption of Marusthan, or the region of death. In
the Central Provinces the Rathor Rajputs number about 6000 persons, and
are found mainly in the Saugor, Jubbulpore, Narsinghpur and Hoshangabad
Districts. The census statistics include about 5000 persons enumerated
in Mandla and Bilaspur, nearly all of whom are really Rathor Telis.
Rajput, Sesodia
_Rajput, Sesodia, Gahlot, Aharia_.--The Gahlot or Sesodia is generally
admitted to be the premier Rajput clan. Their chief is described by
the bards as "The Suryavansi Rana, of royal race, Lord of Chitor,
the ornament of the thirty-six royal races." The Sesodias claim
descent from the sun, through Loh, the eldest son of the divine Rama
of Ajodhia. In token of their ancestry the royal banner of Mewar
consisted of a golden sun on a crimson field. Loh is supposed to have
founded Lahore. His descendants migrated to Saurashtra or Kathiawar,
where they settled at Vidurbha or Balabhi, the capital of the Valabhi
dynasty. The last king of Valabhi was Siladitya, who was killed by
an invasion of barbarians, and his posthumous son, Gohaditya, ruled
in Idar and the hilly country in the south-west of Mewar. From him
the clan took its name of Gohelot or Gahlot. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar,
however, from a detailed examination of the inscriptions relating
to the Sesodias, arrives at the conclusion that the founders of
the line were Nagar Brahmans from Vadnagar in Gujarat, the first
of the line being one Guhadatta, from which the clan takes its
name of Gahlot [566] The family were also connected with the ruling
princes of Valabhi. Mr. Bhandarkar thinks that the Valabhi princes,
and also the Nagar Brahmans, belonged to the Maitraka tribe, who,
like the Gujars, were allied to the Huns, and entered India in the
fifth or sixth century. Mr. Bhandarkar's account really agrees quite
closely with the traditions of the Sesodia bards themselves, except
that he considers Guhadatta to have been a Nagar Brahman of Valabhi,
and descended from the Maitrakas, a race allied to the Huns, while the
bards say that he was a descendant of the Aryan Kshatriyas of Ajodhia,
who migrated to Surat and established the Valabhi kingdom. The earliest
prince of the Gahlot dynasty for whom a date has been obtained is
Sila, A.D. 646, and he was fifth in descent from Guhadatta, who may
therefore be placed in the first part of the sixth century. Bapa,
the founder of the Gahlot clan in Mewar, was, according to tradition,
sixth in descent from Gohaditya, and he had his capital at Nagda,
a few miles to the north of Udaipur city. [567] A tradition quoted by
Mr. Bhandarkar states that Bapa was the son of Grahadata. He succeeded
in propitiating the god Siva. One day the king of Chitor died and
left no heir to his throne. It was decided that whoever would be
garlanded by a certain elephant would be placed on the throne. Bapa
was present on the occasion, and the elephant put the garland round
his neck not only once, but thrice. Bapa was thus seated on the
throne. One day he was suffering from some eye-disease. A physician
mixed a certain medicine in alcoholic liquor and applied it to his
eyes, which were speedily cured. Bapa afterwards inquired what the
medicine was, and learnt the truth. He trembled like a reed and said,
"I am a Brahman, and you have given me medicine mixed in liquor. I
have lost my caste," So saying he drank molten lead (_sisa_), and
forthwith died, and hence arose the family name Sesodia. [568] This
story, current in Rajputana, supports Mr. Bhandarkar's view of the
Brahman origin of the clan. According to tradition Bapa went to Chitor,
then held by the Mori or Pramara Rajputs, to seek his fortune, and
was appointed to lead the Chitor forces against the Muhammadans on
their first invasion of India. [569] After defeating and expelling
them he ousted the Mori ruler and established himself at Chitor,
which has since been the capital of the Sesodias. The name Sesodia
is really derived from Sesoda, the residence of a subsequent chief
Rahup, who captured Mundore and was the first to bear the title of
Rana of Mewar. Similarly Aharia is another local name from Ahar, a
place in Mewar, which was given to the clan. They were also known as
Raghuvansi, or of the race of king Raghu, the ancestor of the divine
Rama. The Raghuvansis of the Central Provinces, an impure caste
of Rajput origin, are treated in a separate article, but it is not
known whether they were derived from the Sesodias. From the fourteenth
century the chronicles of the Sesodias contain many instances of Rajput
courage and devotion. Chitor was sacked three times before the capital
was removed to Udaipur, first by Ala-ul-Din Khilji in 1303, next by
Bahadur Shah, the Muhammadan king of Gujarat in 1534, and lastly by
Akbar in 1567. These events were known as Saka or massacres of the
clan. On each occasion the women of the garrison performed the Johar
or general immolation by fire, while the men sallied forth, clad in
their saffron-coloured robes and inspired by _bhang_, to die sword
in hand against the foe. At the first sack the goddess of the clan
appeared in a dream to the Rana and demanded the lives of twelve of
its chiefs as a condition of its preservation. His eleven sons were
in their turn crowned as chief, each ruling for three days, while on
the fourth he sallied out and fell in battle. [570] Lastly, the Rana
devoted himself in order that his favourite son Ajeysi might be spared
and might perpetuate the clan. At the second sack 32,000 were slain,
and at the third 30,000. Finally Aurangzeb destroyed the temples and
idols at Chitor, and only its ruins remain. Udaipur city was founded
in 1559. The Sesodias resisted the Muhammadans for long, and several
times defeated them. Udai Singh, the founder of Udaipur, abandoned
his capital and fled to the hills, whence he caused his own territory
to be laid waste, with the object of impeding the imperial forces. Of
this period it is recorded that the Ranas were from father to son in
outlawry against the emperor, and that sovereign had carried away the
doors of the gate of Chitor, and had set them up in Delhi. Fifty-two
rajas and chiefs had perished in the struggle, and the Rana in
his trouble lay at nights on a counterpane spread on the ground,
and neither slept in his bed nor shaved his hair; and if he perchance
broke his fast, had nothing better with which to satisfy it than beans
baked in an earthen pot. For this reason it is that certain practices
are to this day observed at Udaipur. A counterpane is spread below the
Rana's bed, and his head remains unshaven and baked beans are daily
laid upon his plate. [571] A custom of perhaps somewhat similar origin
is that in this clan man and wife take food together, and the wife does
not wait till her husband has finished. It is said that the Sesodia
Rajputs are the only caste in India among whom this rule prevails,
and it may have been due to the fact that they had to eat together
in haste when occasion offered during this period of guerilla warfare.
In 1614 Rana Amar Singh, recognising that further opposition was
hopeless, made his submission to the emperor, on the condition that he
should never have to present himself in person but might send his two
sons in his place. This stipulation being accepted, the heir-apparent
Karan Singh proceeded to Ajmer where he was magnanimously treated by
Jahangir and shortly afterwards the imperial troops were withdrawn
from Chitor. It is the pride of the Udaipur house that it never gave
a daughter in marriage to any of the Musalman emperors, and for many
years ceased to intermarry with other Rajput families who had formed
such alliances. But Amar Singh II. (1698-1710) made a league with
the Maharajas of Jodhpur and Jaipur for mutual protection against
the Muhammadans; and it was one of the conditions of the compact
that the latter chiefs should regain the privilege of marriage with
the Udaipur family which had been suspended since they had given
daughters in marriage to the emperors. But the Rana unfortunately
added a proviso that the son of an Udaipur princess should succeed
to the Jodhpur or Jaipur States in preference to any elder son by
another mother. The quarrels to which this stipulation gave rise led
to the conquest of the country by the Marathas, at whose hands Mewar
suffered more cruel devastation than it had ever been subjected to by
the Muhammadans. Ruinous war also ensued between Jodhpur and Jaipur
for the hand of the famous Udaipur princess Kishen Kumari at the time
when Rajputana was being devastated by the Marathas and Pindaris;
and the quarrel was only settled by the voluntary death of the object
of contention, who, after the kinsman sent to slay her had recoiled
before her young beauty and innocence, willingly drank the draught
of opium four times administered before the fatal result could be
produced. [572]
The Maharana of Udaipur is entitled to a salute of nineteen
guns. The Udaipur State has an area of nearly 13,000 square miles
and a population of about a million persons. Besides Udaipur three
minor states, Partabgarh, Dungarpur and Banswara, are held by members
of the Sesodia clan. In the Central Provinces the Sesodias numbered
nearly 2000 persons in 1911, being mainly found in the districts of
the Nerbudda Division.
Rajput, Solankhi
_Rajput, Solankhi, Solanki, Chalukya._--This clan was one of the
Agnikula or fire-born, and are hence considered to have probably been
Gurjaras or Gujars. Their original name is said to have been Chaluka,
because they were formed in the palm (_chalu_) of the hand. They
were not much known in Rajputana, but were very prominent in the
Deccan. Here they were generally called Chalukya, though in northern
India the name Solankhi is more common. As early as A.D. 350 Pulakesin
I. made himself master of the town of Vatapi, the modern Badami In the
Bijapur District, and founded a dynasty, which developed into the most
powerful kingdom south of the Nerbudda, and lasted for two centuries,
when it was overthrown by the Rashtrakutas [573]. Pulakesin II. of
this Chalukya dynasty successfully resisted an inroad of the great
emperor Harsha Vardhana of Kanauj, who aspired to the conquest of the
whole of India. The Rashtrakuta kings governed for two centuries,
and in A.D. 973 Taila or Tailapa II., a scion of the old Chalukya
stock, restored the family of his ancestors to its former glory,
and founded the dynasty known as that of the Chalukyas of Kalyan,
which lasted like that which it superseded for nearly two centuries
and a quarter, up to about A.D. 1190. In the tenth century apparently
another branch of the clan migrated from Rajputana into Gujarat and
established a new dynasty there, owing to which Gujarat, which had
formerly been known as Lata, obtained its present name [574]. The
principal king of this line was Sidh Raj Solankhi, who is well known
to tradition. From these Chalukya or Solankhi rulers the Baghel clan
arose, which afterwards migrated to Rewah. The Solankhis are found
in the United Provinces, and a small number are returned from the
Central Provinces, belonging mainly to Hoshangabad and Nimar.
Rajput, Somvansi
_Rajput, Somvansi, Chandravansi._--These two are returned as separate
septs, though both names mean 'Descendants of the moon.' Colonel Tod
considers Surajvansi and Somvansi, or the descendants of the sun and
moon as the first two of the thirty-six royal clans, from which all
the others were evolved. But he gives no account of them, nor does it
appear that they were regularly recognised clans in Rajputana. It is
probable that both Somvansi and Chandravansi, as well as Surajvansi and
perhaps Nagvansi (Descendants of the snake) have served as convenient
designations for Rajputs of illegitimate birth, or for landholding
sections of the cultivating castes and indigenous tribes when they
aspired to become Rajputs. Thus the Surajvansis, and Somvansis of
different parts of the country might be quite different sets of
people. There seems some reason for supposing that the Somvansis of
the United Provinces as described by Mr. Crooke are derived from the
Bhar tribe; [575] in the Central Provinces a number of Somvansis
and Chandravansis are returned from the Feudatory States, and are
probably landholders who originally belonged to one of the forest
tribes residing in them. I have heard the name Somvansi applied
to a boy who belonged to the Baghel clan of Rajputs, but he was of
inferior status on account of his mother being a remarried widow,
or something of the kind.
Rajput, Surajvansi
_Rajput, Surajvansi._--The Surajvansi (Descendants of the Sun) is
recorded as the first of the thirty-six royal clans, but Colonel Tod
gives no account of it, and it does not seem to be known to history
as a separate clan. Mr. Crooke mentions an early tradition that the
Surajvansis migrated from Ajodhia to Gujarat in A.D. 224, but this
is scarcely likely to be authentic in view, of the late dates now
assigned for the origin of the important Rajput clans. Surajvansi
should properly be a generic term denoting any Rajput belonging to a
clan of the solar race, and it seems likely that it may at different
times have been adopted by Rajputs who were no longer recognised in
their own clan, or by families of the cultivating castes or indigenous
tribes who aspired to become Rajputs. Thus Mr. Crooke notes that a
large section of the Soiris (Savaras or Saonrs) have entirely abandoned
their own tribal name and call themselves Surajvansi Rajputs; [576]
and the same thing has probably happened in other cases. In the Central
Provinces the Surajvansis belong mainly to Hoshangabad, and here they
form a separate caste, marrying among themselves and not with other
Rajput clans. Hence they would not be recognised as proper Rajputs,
and are probably a promoted group of some cultivating caste.
Rajput, Tomara
_Rajput, Tomara, Tuar, Turtwar_.--This clan is an ancient one, supposed
by Colonel Tod to be derived from the Yadavas or lunar race. The
name is said to come from _tomar_ a club. [577] The Tomara clan was
considered to be a very ancient one, and the great king Vikramaditya,
whose reign was the Hindu Golden Age, was held to have been sprung
from it. These traditions are, however, now discredited, as well as
that of Delhi having been built by a Tomara king, Anang Pal I., in
A.D. 733. Mr. V.A. Smith states that Delhi was founded in 993-994,
and Anangapala, a Tomara king, built the Red Fort about 1050. In
1052 he removed the celebrated iron pillar, on which the eulogy of
Chandragupta Vikramaditya is incised, from its original position,
probably at Mathura, and set it up in Delhi as an adjunct to a group
of temples from which the Muhammadans afterwards constructed the
great mosque. [578] This act apparently led to the tradition that
Vikramaditya had been a Tomara, and also to a much longer historical
antiquity being ascribed to the clan than it really possessed. The
Tomara rule at Delhi only lasted about 150 years, and in the middle
of the twelfth century the town was taken by Bisal Deo, the Chauhan
chieftain of Ajmer, whose successor, Prithwi Raj, reigned at Delhi, but
was defeated and killed by the Muhammadans in A.D. 1192. Subsequently,
perhaps in the reign of Ala-ud-Din Khilji, a Tomara dynasty established
itself at Gwalior, and one of their kings, Dungara Singh (1425-1454),
had executed the celebrated rock-sculptures of Gwalior. [579] In 1518
Gwalior was taken by the Muhammadans, and the last Tomara king reduced
to the status of an ordinary jagirdar. The Tomara clan is numerous in
the Punjab country near Delhi, where it still possesses high rank,
but in the United Provinces it is not so much esteemed. [580] No
ruling chief now belongs to this clan. In the Central Provinces the
Tomaras or Tunwars belong principally to the Hoshangabad District The
zamindars of Bilaspur, who were originally of the Tawar subcaste of
the Kawar tribe, now also claim to be Tomara Rajputs on the strength
of the similarity of the name.
Rajput; Yadu
_Rajput; Yadu, Yadava, Yadu-Bhatti, Jadon._ [581]--The Yadus are a
well-known historical clan. Colonel Tod says that the Yadu was the
most illustrious of all the tribes of Ind, and became the patronymic
of the descendants of Buddha, progenitor of the lunar (Indu)
race. It is not clear, even according to legendary tradition, what,
if any, connection the Yadus had with Buddha, but Krishna is held
to have been a prince of this tribe and founded Dwarka in Gujarat
with them, in which locality he is afterwards supposed to have been
killed. Colonel Tod states that the Yadu after the death of Krishna,
and their expulsion from Dwarka and Delhi, the last stronghold of
their power, retired by Multan across the Indus, founded Ghazni in
Afghanistan, and peopled these countries even to Samarcand. Again
driven back on the Indus they obtained possession of the Punjab and
founded Salbhanpur. Thence expelled they retired across the Sutlej
and Gara into the Indian deserts, where they founded Tannote, Derawal
and Jaisalmer, the last in A.D. 1157. It has been suggested in the
main article on Rajput that the Yadus might have been the Sakas, who
invaded India in the second century A.D. This is only a speculation. At
a later date a Yadava kingdom existed in the Deccan, with its capital
at Deogiri or Daulatabad and its territory lying between that place and
Nasik. [582] Mr. Smith states that these Yadava kings were descendants
of feudatory nobles of the Chalukya kingdom, which embraced parts of
western India and also Gujarat. The Yadu clan can scarcely, however,
be a more recent one than the Chalukya, as in that case it would not
probably have been credited with having had Krishna as its member. The
Yadava dynasty only lasted from A.D. 1150 to 1318, when the last prince
of the line, Harapala, stirred up a revolt against the Muhammadans to
whom the king, his father-in-law, had submitted, and being defeated,
was flayed alive and decapitated. It is noticeable that the Yadu-Bhatti
Rajputs of Jaisalmer claim descent from Salivahana, who founded the
Saka era in A.D. 78, and it is believed that this era belonged to the
Saka dynasty of Gujarat, where, according to the tradition given above,
the Yadus also settled. This point is not important, but so far as
it goes would favour the identification of the Sakas with the Yadavas.
The Bhatti branch of the Yadus claim descent from Bhati, the grandson
of Salivahana. They have no legend of having come from Gujarat, but
they had the title of Rawal, which is used in Gujarat, and also by the
Sesodia clan who came from there. The Bhattis are said to have arrived
in Jaisalmer about the middle of the eighth century, Jaisalmer city
being founded much later in A.D. 1183. Jaisalmer State, the third
in Rajputana, has an area of 16,000 square miles, most of which is
desert, and a population of about 100,000 persons. The chief has the
title of Maharawal and receives a salute of fifteen guns. The Jareja
Rajputs of Sind and Cutch are another branch of the Yadus who have
largely intermarried with Muhammadans. They now claim descent from
Jamshid, the Persian hero, and on this account, Colonel Tod states,
the title of their rulers is Jam. They were formerly much addicted
to female infanticide. The name Yadu has in other parts of India
been corrupted into Jadon, and the class of Jadon Rajputs is fairly
numerous in the United Provinces, and in some places is said to have
become a caste, its members marrying among themselves. This is also
the case in the Central Provinces, where they are known as Jadum,
and have been treated under that name in a separate article. The
small State of Karauli in Rajputana is held by a Jadon chief.
Rajwar
_Rajwar._ [583]--A low cultivating caste of Bihar and Chota Nagpur,
who are probably an offshoot of the Bhuiyas. In 1911 a total of 25,000
Rajwars were returned in the Central Provinces, of whom 22,000 belong
to the Sarguja State recently transferred from Bengal. Another 2000
persons are shown in Bilaspur, but these are Mowars, an offshoot
of the Rajwars, who have taken to the profession of gardening and
have changed their name. They probably rank a little higher than
the bulk of the Rajwars. "Traditionally," Colonel Dalton states,
"the Rajwars appear to connect themselves with the Bhuiyas; but this
is only in Bihar. The Rajwars in Sarguja and the adjoining States
are peaceably disposed cultivators, who declare themselves to be
fallen Kshatriyas; they do not, however, conform to Hindu customs,
and they are skilled in a dance called Chailo, which I believe to be
of Dravidian origin. The Rajwars of Bengal admit that they are the
descendants of mixed unions between Kurmis and Kols. They are looked
upon as very impure by the Hindus, who will not take water from their
hands." The Rajwars of Bihar told Buchanan that their ancestor was
a certain Rishi, who had two sons. From the elder were descended
the Rajwars, who became soldiers and obtained their noble title;
and from the younger the Musahars, who were so called from their
practice of eating rats, which the Rajwars rejected. The Musahars,
as shown by Sir H. Risley, are probably Bhuiyas degraded to servitude
in Hindu villages, and this story confirms the Bhuiya origin of the
Rajwars. In the Central Provinces the Bhuiyas have a subcaste called
Rajwar, which further supports this hypothesis, and in the absence of
evidence to the contrary it is reasonable to suppose that the Rajwars
are an offshoot of the Bhuiyas, as they themselves say, in Bihar. The
substitution of Kols for Bhuiyas in Bengal need not cause much concern
in view of the great admixture of blood and confused nomenclature
of all the Chota Nagpur tribes. In Bengal, where the Bhuiyas have
settled in Hindu villages, and according to the usual lot of the
forest tribes who entered the Hindu system have been degraded into
the servile and impure caste of Musahars, the Rajwars have shared
their fate, and are also looked upon as impure. But in Chota Nagpur
the Bhuiyas have their own villages and live apart from the Hindus,
and here the Rajwars, like the landholding branches of other forest
tribes, claim to be an inferior class of Rajputs.
In Sarguja the caste have largely adopted Hindu customs. They abstain
from liquor, employ low-class Brahmans as priests, and worship the
Hindu deities. When a man wishes to arrange a match for his son he
takes a basket of wheat-cakes and proceeding to the house of the girl's
father sets them down outside. If the match is acceptable the girl's
mother comes and takes the cakes into the house and the betrothal
is then considered to be ratified. At the wedding the bridegroom
smears vermilion seven times on the parting of the bride's hair,
and the bride's younger sister then wipes a little of it off with
the end of the cloth. For this service she is paid a rupee by the
bridegroom. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. After
the birth of a child the mother is given neither food nor water for
two whole days; on the third day she gets only boiled water to drink
and on the fourth day receives some food. The period of impurity
after a birth extends to twelve days. When the navel-string drops
it is carefully put away until the next Dasahra, together with the
child's hair, which is cut on the sixth day. On the Dasahra festival
all the women of the village take them to a tank, where a lotus plant
is worshipped and anointed with oil and vermilion, and the hair and
navel-string are then buried at its roots. The dead are burned, and the
more pious keep the bones with a view to carrying them to the Ganges
or some other sacred river. Pending this, the bones are deposited in
the cow-house, and a lamp is kept burning in it every night so long
as they are there. The Rajwars believe that every man has a soul or
Pran, and they think that the soul leaves the body, not only at death,
but whenever he is asleep or becomes unconscious owing to injury or
illness. Dreams are the adventures of the soul while wandering over
the world apart from the body. They think it very unlucky for a man
to see his own reflection in water and carefully avoid doing so.
Ramosi
1. General notice
_Ramosi, Ramoshi._--A criminal tribe of the Bombay Presidency, of which
about 150 persons were returned from the Central Provinces and Berar
in 1911. They belong to the western tract of the Satpuras adjoining
Khandesh. The name is supposed to be a corruption of Ramvansi, meaning
'The descendants of Rama.' They say [584] that when Rama, the hero of
the Ramayana, was driven from his kingdom by his step-mother Kaikeyi,
he went to the forest land south of the Nerbudda. His brother Bharat,
who had been raised to the throne, could not bear to part with Rama,
so he followed him to the forest, began to do penance, and made friends
with a rough but kindly forest tribe. After Rama's restoration Bharat
took two foresters with him to Ajodhia (Oudh) and brought them to the
notice of Rama, who appointed them village watchmen and allowed them
to take his name. If this is the correct derivation it may be compared
with the name of Rawanvansi or Children of Rawan, the opponent of Rama,
which is applied to the Gonds of the Central Provinces. The Ramosis
appear to be a Hinduised caste derived from the Bhils or Kolis or a
mixture of the two tribes. They were formerly a well-known class of
robbers and dacoits. The principal scenes of their depredations were
the western Ghats, and an interesting description of their methods
is given by Captain Mackintosh in his account of the tribe. [585]
Some extracts from this are here reproduced.
2. Methods of robbery
They armed themselves chiefly with swords, taking one, two or three
matchlocks, or more should they judge it necessary. Several also
carried their shields and a few had merely sticks, which were in
general shod with small bars of iron from eight to twelve inches in
length, strongly secured by means of rings and somewhat resembling
the ancient mace. One of the party carried a small copper or earthen
pot or a cocoanut-shell with a supply of _ghi_ or clarified butter
in it, to moisten their torches with before they commenced their
operations. The Ramosis endeavoured as much as possible to avoid being
seen by anybody either when they were proceeding to the object of
their attack or returning afterwards to their houses. They therefore
travelled during the night-time; and before daylight in the morning
they concealed themselves in a jungle or ravine near some water,
and slept all day, proceeding in this way for a long distance till
they reached the vicinity of the village to be attacked. When they
were pursued and much pressed, at times they would throw themselves
into a bush or under a prickly pear plant, coiling themselves up
so carefully that the chances were their pursuers would pass them
unnoticed. If they intended to attack a treasure party they would
wait at some convenient spot on the road and sally out when it
came abreast of them, first girding up their loins and twisting
a cloth tightly round their faces, to prevent the features from
being recognised. Before entering the village where their dacoity or
_durrowa_ was to be perpetrated, torches were made from the turban of
one of the party, which was torn into three, five or seven pieces,
but never into more, the pieces being then soaked with butter. The
same man always supplied the turban and received in exchange the best
one taken in the robbery. Those who were unarmed collected bags of
stones, and these were thrown at any people who tried to interfere
with them during the dacoity. They carried firearms, but avoided
using them if possible, as their discharge might summon defenders
from a distance. They seldom killed or mutilated their victims,
except in a fight, but occasionally travellers were killed after
being robbed as a measure of precaution. They retreated with their
spoils as rapidly as possible to the nearest forest or hill, and from
there, after distributing the booty into bags to make it portable,
they marched off in a different direction from that in which they
had come. Before reaching their homes one of the party was deputed
with an offering of one, two or five rupees to be presented as an
offering to their god Khandoba or the goddess Bhawani in fulfilment of
a vow. All the spoil was then deposited before their Naik or headman,
who divided it into equal shares for members of the gang, keeping a
double share for himself.
3. Ramosis employed as village watchmen
In order to protect themselves from the depredations of these gangs
the villagers adopted a system of hiring a Ramosi as a surety to
be responsible for their property, and this man gradually became a
Rakhwaldar or village watchman. He received a grant of land rent-free
and other perquisites, and also a fee from all travellers and gangs of
traders who halted in the village in return for his protection during
the night. If a theft or house-breaking occurred in a village, the
Ramosi was held responsible to the owner for the value of the property,
unless a large gang had been engaged. If he failed to discover the
thief he engaged to make the lost property good to the owner within
fifteen days or a month unless its value was considerable. If a gang
had been engaged, the Ramosi, accompanied by the patel and other
village officials and cultivators, proceeded to track them by their
footprints. Obtaining a stick he cut it to the exact length of the
footprint, or several such if a number of prints could be discovered,
and followed the tracks, measuring the footprints, to the boundary
of the village. The inhabitants of the adjoining village were then
called and were responsible for carrying on the trail through their
village. The measures of footprints were handed over to them, and after
satisfying themselves that the marks came from outside and extended
into their land they took up the trail accompanied by the Ramosi. In
this way the gang was tracked from village to village, and if it was
run to earth the residents of the villages to which it belonged had to
make good the loss. If the tracks were lost owing to the robbers having
waded along a stream or got on to rocky ground or into a public road,
then the residents of the village in whose borders the line failed
were considered responsible for the stolen property. Usually, however,
a compromise was made, and they paid half, while the other half was
raised from the village in which the theft occurred. If the Ramosi
failed to track the thieves out of the village he had to make good
the value of the theft, but he was usually assisted by the village
officer. Often, too, the owner had to be contented with half or a
quarter of the amount lost as compensation. In the early part of the
century the Ramosis of Poona became very troublesome and constantly
committed robberies in the houses of Europeans. As a consequence a
custom grew up of employing a Ramosi as chaukidar or watchman for
guarding the bungalow at night on a salary of seven rupees a month,
and soon became general. It was the business of the Ramosi watchman to
prevent other Ramosis from robbing the house. Apparently this was the
common motive for the custom, prevalent up to recent years, of paying
a man solely for the purpose of watching the house at night, and it
originated, as in Poona, as a form of insurance and an application
of the proverb of setting a thief to catch a thief. The selection of
village watchmen from among the low, criminal castes appears to have
been made on the same principle.
4. Social customs
The principal deity of the Ramosis is Khandoba, the Maratha god of
war. [586] He is the deified sword, the name being _khanda-aba_
or sword-father. An oath taken on the Bhandar or little bag of
turmeric dedicated to Khandoba is held by them most sacred and no
Ramosi will break this oath. Every Ramosi has a family god known as
Devak, and persons having the same Devak cannot intermarry. The Devak
is usually a tree or a bunch of the leaves of several trees. No one
may eat the fruit of or otherwise use the tree which is his Devak. At
their weddings the branches of several trees are consecrated as Devaks
or guardians of the wedding. A Gurao cuts the leafy branches of the
mango, _umar_, [587] _jamun_ [588] and of the _rui_ [589] and _shami_
[590] shrubs and a few stalks of grass and sets them in Hanuman's
temple. From here the bridegroom's parents, after worshipping Hanuman
with a betel-leaf and five areca-nuts, take them home and fasten
them to the front post of the marriage-shed. When the bridegroom is
taken before the family gods of the bride, he steals one of them in
token of his profession, but afterwards restores it in return for a
payment of money. In social position the Ramosis rank a little above
the Mahars and Mangs, not being impure. They speak Marathi but have
also a separate thieves' jargon of their own, of which a vocabulary
is given in the account of Captain Mackintosh. When a Ramosi child
is seven or eight years old he must steal something. If he is caught
and goes to prison the people are delighted, fall at his feet when he
comes out and try to obtain him as a husband for their daughters. [591]
It is doubtful whether these practices obtain in the Central Provinces,
and as the Ramosis are not usually reckoned here among the notorious
criminal tribes they may probably have taken to more honest pursuits.
Rangrez
_Rangrez._--The Muhammadan caste of dyers. The caste is found
generally in the northern Districts, and in 1901 its members were
included with the Chhipas, from whom, however, they should be
distinguished as having a different religion and also because they
practise a separate branch of the dyeing industry. The strength of
the caste in the Central Provinces does not exceed a few hundred
persons. The Rangrez is nominally a Muhammadan of the Sunni sect,
but the community forms an endogamous group after the Hindu fashion,
marrying only among themselves. Good-class Muhammadans will neither
intermarry with nor even take food from members of the Rangrez
community. In Sohagpur town of Hoshangabad this is divided into two
branches, the Kheralawalas or immigrants from Kherala in Malwa and the
local Rangrezes. These two groups will take food together but will
not intermarry. Kheralawala women commonly wear a skirt like Hindu
women and not Muhammadan pyjamas. In Jubbulpore the Rangrez community
employ Brahmans to conduct their marriage and other ceremonies. Long
association with Hindus has as usual caused the Rangrez to conform to
their religious practices and the caste might almost be described
as a Hindu community with Muhammadan customs. The bulk of them
no doubt were originally converted Hindus, but as their ancestors
probably immigrated from northern India their present leaning to
that religion would perhaps be not so much an obstinate retention
of pre-Islamic ritual as a subsequent lapse following on another
change of environment. In northern India Mr. Crooke records them
as being governed mainly by Muhammadan rules. There [592] they hold
themselves to be the descendants of one Khwaja Bali, a very pious man,
about whom the following verse is current:
Khwaja Bali Rangrez
Range Khuda ki sez:
'Khwaja Bali dyes the bed of God.' The name is derived from _rang_,
colour, and _rez, rekhtan_, to pour. In Bihar, Sir G. Grierson
states [593] the word Rangrez is often confounded with 'Angrezi'
or 'English'; and the English are sometimes nicknamed facetiously
Rangrez or 'dyers,' The saying, 'Were I a dyer I would dye my own
beard first,' in reference to the Muhammadan custom of dyeing the
beard, has the meaning of 'Charity begins at home,' [594]
The art of the Rangrez differs considerably from that of the
Chhipa or Rangari, the Hindu dyer, and he produces a much greater
variety of colours. His principal agents were formerly the safflower
(_Carthamus tinctorius_), turmeric and myrobalans. The fact that the
brilliant red dye of safflower was as a rule only used by Muhammadan
dyers, gives some ground for the supposition that it may have been
introduced by them to India. This would account for the existence
of a separate caste of Muhammadan dyers, and in support of it may
be adduced the fact that the variety of colours is much greater in
the dress of the residents of northern India and Rajputana than in
those of the Maratha Districts. The former patronise many different
shades, more especially for head-cloths, while the latter as a rule
do not travel beyond red, black or blue. The Rangrez obtains his red
shades from safflower, yellow from _haldi_ or turmeric, green from
a mixture of indigo and turmeric, purple from indigo and safflower,
_khaki_ or dust-colour from myrobalans and iron filings, orange from
turmeric and safflower, and _badami_ or almond-colour from turmeric
and two wild plants _kachora_ and _nagarmothi_, the former of which
gives a scent. Cloths dyed in the _badami_ shades are affected, when
they can afford it, by Gosains and other religious mendicants, who
thus dwell literally in the odour of sanctity. Muhammadans generally
patronise the shades of green or purple, the latter being often used
as a lining for white coats. Fakirs or Muhammadan beggars wear light
green. Marwari Banias and others from Rajputana like the light yellow,
pink or orange shades. A green or black head-cloth is with them a
sign of mourning. Cloths dyed in yellow or scarlet are bought by
Brahmans and other castes of Hindus for their marriages. Blue is not
a lucky colour among the Hindus and is considered as on a level with
black. It may be worn on ordinary occasions, but not at festivals
or at auspicious periods. Muhammadans rather affect black and do not
consider it an unlucky colour. I have seen a Rangrez dye a piece of
cloth in about twenty colours in the course of two or three hours,
but several of these dyes are fugitive and will not stand washing. The
trade of the Rangrez is being undermined by the competition of cheap
chemical dyes imported from Germany and sold in the form of powders;
the process of dyeing with these is absolutely simple and can be
carried out by any one. They are far cheaper than safflower, and this
agent has consequently been almost driven from the market. People buy
a little dyeing powder from the bazar and dye their own cloths. But
men will only wear cloths dyed in this manner, and known as _katcha
kapra_, on their heads and not on their bodies; women sometimes wear
them also on their bodies. The decay in the indigenous art of dyeing
must be a matter for regret.
Rautia
1. Origin of the tribe
_Rautia._ [595]--A cultivating caste of the Chota Nagpur plateau. In
1911 about 12,000 Rautias were enumerated in the Province, nearly all
of whom belong to the Jashpur State with a few in Sarguja. These states
lie outside the scope of the Ethnographic Survey and hence no regular
inquiry has been made on the Rautias. The following brief notice is
mainly taken from the account of the caste in Sir H. Risley's _Tribes
and Castes of Bengal_. He describes the caste as, "refined in features
and complexion by a large infusion of Aryan blood. Their chief men
hold estates on quit-rent from the Maharaja of Chota Nagpur, and the
bulk of the remainder are tenants with occupancy right and often paying
only a low quit-rent or half the normal assessment." These favourable
tenures may probably be explained by the fact that they were held
in former times on condition of military service, and were analogous
to the feudal fiefs of Europe. The Rautias themselves say that this
was their original occupation in Chota Nagpur. The name Rautia is
a form of Rawat, and this latter word signifies a prince and is a
title borne by relatives of a Raja. It may be noticed that Rawat is
the ordinary name by which the Ahir caste is known in Chhattisgarh,
the neighbouring country to Chota Nagpur in the Central Provinces;
and further that the Rautias will take food from a Chhattisgarhi
Rawat. This fact, coupled with the identity of the name, appears
to demonstrate a relationship of the two castes. The Rautias will
not take food from any other Hindu caste, but they will eat with
the Kawar and Gond tribes, at least in Raigarh. The Kawars have a
subtribe called Rautia as also have the Kols. In Sir H. Risley's list
of the sept-names of the Rautias [596] we find two names, Aind the
eel, and Rukhi a squirrel, which are also the names of Munda septs,
and one, Karsayal or deer, which is the name of a Kawar sept. They
have also a name Sanwani, which is probably Sonwani or 'gold-water,'
and is common to many of the primitive tribes. The most plausible
hypothesis of the origin of the Rautias on the above facts seems
to be that they were a tribal militia in Chota Nagpur, the leaders
being Ahirs or Rawats with possibly a sprinkling of the local Rajputs,
while the main body were recruited from the Kawar and Kol tribes. The
Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa furnish an exact parallel to the
Rautias, being a tribal militia, who have now become a caste, and are
constituted mainly from the Bhuiya tribe with a proportion of Chasas
or cultivators and Rajputs. They also have obtained possession of
the land, and in Orissa the Sresta or good Khandaits rank next to
the Rajputs. The history and position of the Rautias appears to be
similar to that of the Khandaits. The Halbas of Bastar are probably
another nearly analogous instance. They were Gonds, who apparently
formed the tribal militia of the Rajas of Bastar and got grants of
land and consequently a certain rise in status though not to the same
level as the Khandaits and Rautias. It does not seem that the Rautias
have any special connection with the Gonds, and their acceptance of
food from Gonds may perhaps, as suggested by Mr. Hira Lal, be due to
the fact that they served a Gond Raja.
2. Subdivisions
The Rautias had formerly three subdivisions, the Barki, Majhli and
Chhotki Bhir or Gorhi, or the high, middle and low class Rautias. But
it is related that the Barki group found that they could not obtain
girls in marriage for their sons, so they extended the privileges
of the _connubium_ to the Majhli group after taking a caste
feast. Possibly the Barki Rautias formerly practised hypergamy with
the Majhli, taking daughters in marriage but not giving daughters, and
in course of time this has led to the obliteration of the distinction
between them. The different status of the three groups was based on
their purity of descent. The Majhli and Chhotki were the descendants
of Rautia fathers and mothers of other castes; the offspring going to
the Majhli group if the mother was a Gond or Kawar or of respectable
caste, while the children of impure Ganda and Ghasia women by Rautia
fathers were admitted into the Chhotki group. These divisions confirm
the hypothesis previously given of the genesis of the Rautia caste;
and it is further worth noting that the Khandaits have also Bar and
Chhot Gohir divisions or those of pure and mixed blood, and the Halbas
of Bastar are similarly divided into the Purait or pure Halbas,
and the Surait or descendants of Halba fathers by women of other
castes. In a military society, where the men were frequently on the
move or stationed in outlying forts and posts, temporary unions and
illegitimate children would naturally be of common occurrence. And
the mixed nature of the three castes affords some support to the
hypothesis of their common origin from military service.
The tribe have totemistic septs, and retain some veneration for their
totems. Those of the Bagh or tiger sept throw away their earthen pots
on hearing of the death of a tiger. Those of the Sand or bull sept
will not castrate bullocks themselves, and must have this operation
performed on their plough-bullocks by others. Those of the Kansi sept
formerly, according to their own account, would not root up the _kans_
grass [597] growing in their fields, but now they no longer object to
do so. Other septs are Tithi a bird, Bira a hawk, Barwan a wild dog,
and so on.
3. Marriage
Marriage is forbidden within the sept, but is permitted between the
children of a brother and a sister or of two sisters. Matches are
arranged at the caste feasts and the usual bride-price is four rupees
with six or seven pieces of cloth and some grain. When the procession
arrives at the bride's village her party go out to meet it, and the
Gandas or musicians on each side try to break each other's drums,
but are stopped by their employers. At the wedding two wooden images
of the bridegroom and bride are made and placed in the centre of the
marriage-shed. A goat is led round these and killed, and the bride
and bridegroom walk round them seven times. They rub vermilion on the
wooden images and then on each other's foreheads. It is probable that
the wooden images are made and set up in the centre of the shed to
attract the evil eye and divert it from the real bride and bridegroom,
and the goat may be a substituted sacrifice on their behalf. Divorce
and the remarriage of widows are permitted.
4. Funeral rites
In the forest tracts the tribe bury the dead, placing the corpse with
the feet to the south. Before being placed in the grave the corpse
is rubbed with oil and turmeric and carried seven times round the
grave according to the ritual of a wedding. This is called the _Chhed
vivah_ or marriage to the grave. The Kabirpanthi Rautias are placed
standing in the grave with the face turned to the north. Well-to-do
members of the caste burn their dead and employ Brahmans to perform
the _shraddh_ ceremony.
5. Inheritance
The tribe have some special rules of inheritance. In Bengal [598]
the eldest son of the legitimate wife inherits the whole of the
father's property, subject to the obligation of making grants for the
maintenance of his younger brothers. These grants decrease according
to the standing of the brothers, the elder ones getting more and the
younger less. Sons of a wife married by the ceremony used for widows
receive smaller grants. But the widow of an elder brother counts as
the regular wife of a younger brother and her sons have full rights of
succession. In the Central Provinces the eldest son does not succeed
to the whole property but obtains a share half as large again as the
other sons. And if the father divides the property in his lifetime and
participates in it he himself takes only the share of a younger son.
Sanaurhia
1. A band of criminals
_Sanaurhia, Chandravedi._ [599]--A small but well-known community
of criminals in Bundelkhand. They claim to be derived from the
Sanadhya Brahmans, and it seems possible that this may in fact have
been their origin; but at present they are a confraternity recruited
by the initiation of promising boys from all castes except sweepers
and Chamars; [600] and a census taken of them in northern India in
1872 showed that they included members of the following castes:
Brahman, Rajput, Teli, Kurmi, Ahir, Kanjar, Nai, Dhobi, Dhimar,
Sunar and Lodhi. It is said, however, that they do not form a caste
or intermarry, members of each caste continuing their relations with
their own community. Their regular method of stealing is through the
agency of a boy, and no doubt they pick up a likely urchin whenever
they get the chance, as only selected boys would be clever enough
for the work. Their trade is said to possess much fascination, and
Mr. Crooke quotes a saying, 'Once a Sanaurhia always a Sanaurhia';
so that unless the increased efficiency of the police has caused the
dangers of their calling to outweigh its pleasures they should have
no difficulty in obtaining recruits.
2. Traditions of origin
Mr. Seagrim [601] states that their home is in the Datia State of
Bundelkhand, and some of them live in the adjoining Alamgarh tract of
Indore State. Formerly they also resided in the Orchha and Chanderi
States of Bundelkhand, having six or eight villages in each state
[602] in their sole occupation, with colonies in other villages. In
1857 it was estimated that the Tehri State contained 4000 Sanaurhias,
Banpur 300 and Datia 300. They occupied twelve villages in Tehri,
and an officer of the state presided over the community and acted as
umpire in the division of the spoils. The office of Mukhia or leader
was hereditary in the caste, and in default of male issue descended to
females. If among the booty there happened to be any object of peculiar
elegance or value, it was ceremoniously presented to the chief of the
state. They say that their ancestors were two Sanadhya Brahmans of the
village of Ramra in Datia State. They were both highly accomplished
men, and one had the gift of prophecy, while the other could understand
the language of birds. One day they met at a river a rich merchant and
his wife, who were on a pilgrimage to Jagannath. As they were drinking
water a crow sitting on a tree commenced cawing, and the Sanadhya
heard him say that whoever got hold of the merchant's walking-stick
would be rich. The two Brahmans then accompanied the merchant until
they obtained an opportunity of making off with his stick; and they
found it to be full of gold mohurs, the traveller having adopted this
device as a precaution against being robbed. The Brahmans were so
pleased at their success that they took up stealing as a profession,
and opened a school where they taught small boys of all castes the
art of stealing property in the daytime. Prior to admission the boys
were made to swear by the moon that they would never commit theft at
night, and on this account they are known as Chandravedi or 'Those
who observe the moon.' In Bombay and Central India this name is more
commonly used than Sanaurhia. Another name for them is Uthaigira or
'A picker-up of that which has fallen,' corresponding to the nickname
of Uchla or 'Lifter' applied to the Bhamtas. Mr. Seagrim described them
as going about in small gangs of ten to twenty persons without women,
under a leader who has the title of Mukhia or Nalband. The other
men are called Upardar, and each of these has with him one or two
boys of between eight and twelve years old, who are known as _Chauwa_
(chicks) and do the actual stealing. The Nalband or leader trains these
boys to their work, and also teaches them a code vocabulary (_Parsi_)
and a set of signals (_teni_) by which the Upardar can convey to them
his instructions while business is proceeding. The whole gang set out
at the end of the rains and, arriving at some distant place, break up
into small parties; the Nalband remains at a temporary headquarters,
where he receives and disposes of the spoil, and arranges for the
defence of any member of the gang who is arrested, and for the support
of his wife and children if he is condemned to imprisonment.
3. Methods of stealing
The methods of the Sanaurhias as described by Mr. Seagrim show
considerable ingenuity. When they desire to steal something from a
stall in a crowded market two of the gang pretend to have a violent
quarrel, on which all the people in the vicinity collect to watch,
including probably the owner of the stall. In this case the _Chauwa_
or boy, who has posted himself in a position of vantage, will quickly
abstract the article agreed upon and make off. Or if there are
several purchasers at a shop, the man will wait until one of them
lays down his bundle while he makes payment, and then pushing up
against him signal to the _Chauwa_, who snatches up the bundle and
bolts. If he is caught, the Sanaurhia will come up as an innocent
member of the crowd and plead for mercy on the score of his youth;
and the boy will often be let off with a few slaps. Sometimes three
or four Sanaurhias will proceed to some place of resort for pilgrims
to bathe, and two or three of them entering the water will divert
the attention of the bather by pointing out some strange object
or starting a discussion. In the meantime the _Chauwas_ or chicks,
under the direction of another on the bank, will steal any valuable
article left by the bather. The attention of any one left on shore to
watch the property is diverted by a similar device. If they see a man
with expensive clothes the _Chauwa_ will accidentally brush against
him and smear him with dirt or something that causes pollution;
the victim will proceed to bathe, and one of the usual stratagems
is adopted. Or the Sanaurhia will engage the man in conversation and
the _Chauwa_ will come running along and collide with them; on being
abused by the Sanaurhia for his clumsiness he asks to be pardoned,
explaining that he is only a poor sweeper and meant no harm; and on
hearing this the victim, being polluted, must go off and bathe. [603]
Colonel Sleeman relates the following case of such a theft: [604]
"While at Saugor I got a note one morning from an officer in command
of a treasure escort just arrived from Narsinghpur stating that
the old Subahdar of his company had that morning been robbed of his
gold necklace valued at Rs. 150, and requesting that I would assist
him in recovering it. The old Subahdar brought the note, and stated
that he had undressed at the brook near the cantonments, and placed
the necklace with his clothes, about twenty yards from the place
where he bathed; that on returning to his clothes he could not find
the necklace, and the only person he saw near the place was a young
lad who was sauntering in the mango grove close by. This lad he had
taken and brought with him, and I found after a few questions that he
belonged to the Sanaurhia Brahmans of Bundelkhand. As the old Subahdar
had not seen the boy take the necklace or even approach the clothes,
I told him that we could do nothing, and he must take the boy back to
camp and question him in his own way. The boy, as I expected, became
alarmed, and told me that if I would not send him back with the angry
old Subahdar he would do anything I pleased. I bade him tell me how
he had managed to secure the necklace; and he told me that while the
Subahdar turned his back upon his clothes in prayer, he had taken it
up and made it over to one of the men of his party; and that it must
have been taken to their bivouac, which was in a grove about three
miles from the cantonments. I sent off a few policemen, who secured
the whole party, but could not find anything upon them. Seeing some
signs of a hole having been freshly made under one of the trees they
dug up the fresh earth and discovered the necklace, which the old man
was delighted to recover so easily." Another device which they have
is to beat the _Chauwa_ severely in the sight of a rich stranger. The
boy runs crying and clings to the stranger asking him for help, and
in the meantime picks his pocket. When the Sanaurhias are convicted
in Native States and put into jail they refuse to eat, pleading that
they are poor Brahmans, and pretend to starve themselves to death,
and thus often get out of jail. In reply to a letter inquiring about
these people from the Superintendent of Chanderi about 1851, the Raja
of Banpur wrote:
"I have to state that from former times these people following
their profession have resided in my territory and in the states of
other native princes; and they have always followed this calling,
but no former kings or princes or authority have ever forbidden the
practice. In consequence of these people stealing by day only, and that
they do not take life or distress any person by personal ill-usage,
and that they do not break into houses by digging walls or breaking
door-locks, but simply by their smartness manage to abstract property;
owing to such trifling thefts I looked upon their proceedings as a
petty matter and have not interfered with them." [605] This recalls
another famous excuse.
Sansia
List of Paragraphs
1. _Historical notice of the caste_.
2. _Social customs_.
3. _Taboos of relationship_.
4. _Organisation for dacoity_.
5. _Description of a dacoity_.
6. _Omens_.
7. _Ordeals_.
8. _Sansias at the present time_.
1. Historical notice of the caste
_Sansia_. [606]--A small caste of wandering criminals of northern
India, who live by begging and dealing in cattle. They also steal and
commit dacoities, house-breaking and thefts on railway trains. The
name Sansia is borne as well by the Uriya or Od masons of the Uriya
country, but these are believed to be quite a distinct group from the
criminal Sansias of Central India and are noticed in another short
article. Separate statistics of the two groups were not obtained at
the census. The Sansias are closely connected with the Berias, and
say that their ancestors were two brothers Sains Mul and Sansi, and
that the Berias are descended from the former and the Sansias from the
latter. They were the bards of the Jat caste, and it was their custom
to chronicle the names of the Jats and their ancestors, and when they
begged from Jat families to recite their praises. The Sansias, Colonel
Sleeman states, had particular families (of the Jats) allotted to them,
from whom they had not only the privilege of begging, but received
certain dues; some had fifty, some a hundred houses appointed to them,
and they received yearly from the head of each house one rupee and a
quarter and one day's food. When the Jats celebrated their marriages
they were accustomed to invite the Sansias, who as their minstrels
recited the praises of the ancestors of the Jats, tracing them up to
the time of Punya Jat; and for this they received presents, according
to the means of the parties, of cows, ponies or buffaloes. Should
any Jat demur to paying the customary dues the Sansias would dress
up a cloth figure of his father and parade with it before the house,
when the sum demanded was generally given; for if the figure were
fastened on a bamboo and placed over the house the family would lose
caste and no one would smoke or drink water with them. [607]
The Sansias say that their ancestors have always resided in Marwar
and Ajmer. About twenty-four miles distant from Ajmer are two towns,
Pisangan and Sagun; on their eastern side is a large tank, and the
bones of all persons of the Sansia tribe who died in any part of the
country were formerly buried there, being covered by a wooden platform
with four pillars. [608] On one occasion a quarrel had arisen over
a Sansia woman, and a large number of the caste were killed in this
place. So they left Marwar, and some of them came to the Deccan,
where they took to house-breaking and dacoity; and so successful
were they that the other Sansias followed them and gave up all their
former customs, even those of reciting the praises of and begging
from the Jats.
2. Social customs
The Sansias are divided into two groups, Kalkar and Malha; and
these two are further subdivided into eight and twelve sections
respectively. No one belonging to the Kalkar group may marry another
person of that group, but he may marry anybody belonging to any
section of the Malha group. Thus the two groups being exogamous the
sections do not serve any purpose, but it is possible that the rules
are really more complicated. In the Punjab their marriage ceremony is
peculiar, the bride being covered by a basket, on which the bridegroom
sits while the nuptial rites are being performed. [609] According to
Colonel Sleeman, after the arrangement of a match the caste committee
assemble to determine the price to be paid to the father of the girl,
which may amount to as much as Rs. 2000. When this is settled some
liquor is spilt on the ground in the name of Bhagwan or Vishnu, and
an elder pronounces that the two have become man and wife; a feast is
given to the caste, and the ceremony is concluded. After child-birth
a woman cannot wash herself for five days, but on the sixth she may
go to a stream and wash. Even on ordinary occasions a woman must
never wash herself inside the house, but must always go to a stream,
which rule does not apply to men. When the hair of a child begins to
grow it is all shaved except the scalp-lock, which is dedicated to
Bhagwan; and at ten or twelve years of age this lock is also shaved
off and a dinner is given to members of the caste. The last ceremony
is of the nature of a puberty-rite, and if children die prior to its
performance their bodies are buried, whereas after it they have a right
to cremation. After a body has been burnt the bones are buried on the
spot in an earthen vessel, over the mouth of which a large stone is
placed. Some pig's flesh is cooked and sweet cakes prepared, portions
of which are placed upon the stone; and the deceased is then called
upon, by reason of the usual ceremonies having been performed at his
death, to watch over his surviving relatives. If any Sansia happened to
commit a murder when engaged in a dacoity he was afterwards obliged to
make an offering for forgiveness, and to spend a rupee and a quarter
in liquor for the caste-fellows. If a dacoit had himself been killed
and his body abandoned, his clothes, with some new clothes, were put
upon a sleeping-cot, and his companions of the same caste carried it to
a convenient spot, where it was either burnt or buried in the ground.
3. Taboos of relationship
Colonel Sleeman records some curious taboos among relations. [610] A
man cannot go into the hut of his mother-in-law or of his son's wife;
for if their petticoat should touch him he would be turned out of his
caste and would not be admitted into it until he had paid a large
sum. "If we quarrel with a woman," said a Sansia, "and she strikes
us with her petticoat we lose our caste; we should be allowed to eat
and drink with our tribe, but not to perform worship with them nor to
assist in burial rites. If a woman piles up a heap of stones and puts
her petticoat upon it and throws filth upon it and says to any other,
'This disgrace fell upon your ancestors for seven generations back,'
both are immediately expelled from our caste, and cannot return to
it until they have paid a large sum of money."
4. Organisation for dacoity
As in the case of the Badhaks the arrangements for a dacoity were
carefully organised. Each band had a Jemadar or leader, while the
others were called Sipahis or soldiers. A tenth of all the booty taken
was given to the Jemadar in return for the provision of the spears,
torches and other articles, and of the remainder the Jemadar received
two shares and the Sipahis one each. But no novice was permitted
to share in the booty or carry a spear until he had participated in
two or three successful dacoities; and inasmuch as outsiders, with
the exception of the impure Dhers and Mangs, were freely admitted
to the Sansia community in return for a small money payment, some
such apprenticeship as this was no doubt necessary. If a Sipahi was
killed in a dacoity his wife was entitled to a sum of Rs. 350 and
half an ordinary share in future dacoities as long as she remained
with the gang. The Sansias never pitched their camp in the vicinity
of the place in which they contemplated an enterprise, but despatched
their scouts to it, themselves remaining some twenty miles distant.
5. Description of a dacoity
The scouts, [611] having prospected the town and determined the
house to be exploited, usually that of the leading banker, would
then proceed to it in the early morning before business began and
ask to purchase some ornaments or change some money; by this request
they often induced the banker to bring out his cash chest from the
place of security where he was accustomed to deposit it at night,
and learnt where it should be looked for. Having picked up as much
information as possible, the scouts would purchase some spear-heads,
bury them in a neighbouring ravine, and rejoin the main body. The party
would arrive at the rendezvous in the evening, and having fitted their
spears to bamboo shafts, would enter the town carrying them concealed
in a bundle of _karbi_ or the long thick stalks of the large millet,
juari. [612] One man was appointed to carry the torch, [613] and the
oil to be poured on this had always to be purchased in the town or
village where the dacoity was to take place, the use of any other oil
being considered most unlucky. The vessel containing the oil was not
allowed to touch the earth until its contents had been poured upon
the torch, when it was dashed upon the ground. From this time until
the completion of the dacoity no one might spit or drink water or
relieve himself under penalty of putting a stop to the enterprise. The
Jemadar invoked Khandoba, an incarnation of Mahadeo, and said that if
by his assistance the box of money was broken at the first or second
stroke of the axe, a chain of gold weighing one and a quarter tolas
would be made over to him. The party then approached the shop, the
roads surrounding it being picketed to guard against a rescue, and the
Jemadar, accompanied by four or five men and the torch-bearer, rushed
into the shop crying Din, Din. The doors usually gave way under a few
heavy blows with the axe, which they wielded with great expertness, and
the scout pointed out the location of the money and valuables. Once
in possession of the property the torch was extinguished and the
whole party made off as rapidly as possible. During their retreat
they tried to avoid spearing people who pursued them, first calling
out to them to go away. If any member of the party was killed or so
desperately wounded that he could not be removed, the others cut off
his head and carried it off so as to prevent recognition; a man who
was slightly wounded would be carried off by his companions, but if
the pursuit became hot and he had to be left, they cut off his head
also and took it with them, escaping by this drastic method the risk
of his turning approver with the consequent danger of conviction for
the rest of the gang. About a mile from the place of the dacoity they
stopped and mustered their party, and the Jemadar called out to the
god Bhagwan to direct any pursuers in the wrong direction and enable
them to reach their families. If any dacoit had ever been killed at
this particular town they also called upon his spirit to assist them,
promising to offer him a goat or some liquor; and so, throwing down
a rupee or two at any temple or stream which they might pass on their
way, they came to their families. When about a mile away from the camp
they called out 'Cuckoo' to ascertain if any misfortune had occurred
during their absence; if they thought all was well they went nearer
and imitated the call of the partridge; and finally when close to the
encampment made a hissing noise like a snake. On arrival at the camp
they at once mounted their ponies and started off, marching fifty or
sixty miles a day, for two or three days.
6. Omens
The Sansias never committed a dacoity on moonlight nights, but had five
appointed days during the dark half of the month, the seventh, ninth,
eleventh, thirteenth and the night of the day on which the new moon
was first seen. If they did not meet with a favourable omen on any
of these nights, no dacoity was committed that month. The following
is a list of omens given by one of the caste: [614] "If we see a cat
when we are near the place where we intend to commit a dacoity, or we
hear the relations of a dead person lamenting, or hear a person sneeze
while cooking his meal, or see a dog run away with a portion of any
person's food, or a kite screams while sitting on a tree, or a woman
breaks the earthen vessel in which she may have been drawing water,
we consider the omens unfavourable. If a person drops his turban or
we meet a corpse, or the Jemadar has forgotten to put some bread into
his waistbelt, or any dacoit forgets his axe or spear or sees a snake
whether dead or alive; these omens are also considered unfavourable
and we do not commit the dacoity. Should we see a wolf and any one
of us have on a red turban, we take this and tear it into seven
pieces and hang each piece upon a separate tree. We then purchase a
rupee's worth of liquor and kill a goat, which is cut up into four
pieces. Four men pretend that they are wolves and rushing on the four
quarters of the meat seize them, imitating the howl of these animals,
while the rest of the dacoits pelt them with the entrails; the meat
is afterwards cooked and eaten in the name of Bhagwan."
It would appear that the explanation of this curious ceremony must
be that the Sansias thought the appearance of the wolf to be an
omen that one of them would furnish a meal for him. The turban
is venerated on account of its close association with the head, a
sacred part of the body among Hindus, and in this case it probably
served as a substituted offering for the head, while its red colour
represented blood; and the mimic rite of the goat being devoured
by men pretending to be wolves fulfilled the omen which portended
that the wolves would be provided with a meal, and hence averted
the necessity of one of the band being really devoured. In somewhat
analogous fashion the Gonds and Baigas placate or drive away a tiger
who has killed a man in order to prevent him from obtaining further
victims. Some similar idea apparently underlay the omen of the dog
running away with food. Perhaps the portent of hearing the kite scream
on a tree also meant that he looked on them with a prescient eye as
a future meal. On the other hand, meeting a corpse and seeing a snake
are commonly considered to be lucky omens, and their inclusion in this
list is curious. [615] The passage continues: "Among our favourable
omens are meeting a woman selling milk; or a person carrying a basket
of grain or a bag of money; or if we see a calf sucking its mother,
or meet a person with a vessel of water, or a marriage procession;
or if any person finds a rupee that he has lost; or we meet a bearer
carrying fish or a pig or a blue-jay; if any of these occur near our
camp on the day we contemplate a dacoity, we proceed forthwith to
commit it and consider that these signs assure us a good booty. If
a Fakir begs from us while we are on our way to the place of dacoity
we cannot give him anything." Another Sansia said: "We think it very
favourable if, when on the way to commit a dacoity we hear or see
the jackal; it is as good as gold and silver to us; also if we hear
the bray of the ass in a village we consider it to be lucky."
7. Ordeals
The following is a description given by a Sansia of their ordeals:
[616] If a Jemadar suspects a Sipahi of secreting plunder a _panchayat_
is assembled, [617] the members of which receive five rupees from
both parties. Seven pipal [618] leaves are laid upon his hand and
bound round with thread, and upon these a heated iron _tawa_ or plate
is set; he is then ordered to walk seven paces and put the plate
down upon seven thorns; should he be able to do so he is pronounced
innocent, but if he is burnt by the plate and throws it down he is
considered guilty. Another ordeal is by fixing arrows, two of which
are shot off at once from one bow, one in the name of Bhagwan (god),
and the other in the name of the _panchayat_; the place being on the
bank of the river. The arrow that flies the farthest is stuck upright
into the ground; upon which a man carrying a long bamboo walks up to
his breast in the water and the suspected person is desired to join
him. One of the _panchayat_ then claps his hands seven times and runs
off to pick up the arrow; at this instant the suspected person is
obliged to put his head under water, and if he can hold his breath
until the other returns to the bank with the arrow and has again
clapped his hands seven times he is pronounced innocent. If he cannot
do so he is declared guilty and punished. A third form of ordeal was
as follows: The Jemadar and the gang assemble under a pipal tree,
and after knocking off the neck of an earthen pitcher they kill
a goat and collect its blood in the pitcher, and put some glass
bangles in it. Four lines are drawn on the pitcher with vermilion
(representing blood), and it is placed under a tree and 1 1/4 seers
[619] of _gur_ (sugar) are tied up in a piece of cloth 1 1/4 cubits
in length and hung on to a branch of the tree. The Jemadar then says,
'I will forgive any person who has not secreted more than fifteen
or twenty rupees, but whoever has stolen more than that sum shall
be punished.' The Jemadar dips his finger in the pitcher of blood,
and afterwards touches the sugar and calls out loudly, 'If I have
embezzled any money may Bhagwan punish me'; and each dacoit in turn
pronounces the same sentence. No one who is guilty will do this but
at once makes his confession. The oath pronounced on 1 1/4 seers of
sugar tied up in 1 1/4 cubits of cloth was considered the most solemn
and binding which a Sansia could take.
8. Sansias at the present time
At present, Mr. Kennedy states, [620] the Sansias travel about in gangs
of varying strength with their families, bullocks, sheep, goats and
dogs. The last mentioned of these animals are usually small mongrels
with a terrier strain, mostly stolen or bred from types dishonestly
obtained during their peregrinations. Dacoity is still the crime which
they most affect, and they also break into houses and steal cattle. Men
usually have a necklace of red coral and gold beads round the neck,
from which is suspended a square piece of silver or gold bearing
an effigy of a man on horseback. This represents either the deity
Ramdeo Pir or one of the wearer's ancestors, and is venerated as a
charm. They are very quarrelsome, and their drinking-bouts in camp
usually end in a free fight, in which they also beat their women,
and the affray not infrequently results in the death of one of the
combatants. When this happens the slayer makes restitution to the
relatives by defraying the expenses of a fresh drinking-bout. [621]
During the daytime men are seldom to be found in the encampment,
as they are in the habit of hiding in the ditches and jungle, where
the women take them their food; at night they return to their tents,
but are off again at dawn.
Sansia, Uria
1. The caste and its subdivisions
_Sansia, Uria_. [622]--A caste of masons and navvies of the Uriya
country. The Sansias are really a branch of the great migratory Ud or
Odde caste of earth-workers, whose name has been corrupted into various
forms. [623] Thus in Chanda they are known as Wadewar or Waddar. The
term Uria is here a corruption of Odde, and it is the one by which
the caste prefer to be known, but they are generally called Sansia
by outsiders. The caste sometimes class the Sansias as a subcaste of
Urias, the others being Benatia Urias and Khandait Urias. Since the
Uriya tract has been transferred to Bengal, and subsequently to Bihar
and Orissa, there remain only about 1000 Sansias in the Chhattisgarh
Districts and States. Although it is possible that the name of the
caste may have been derived from some past connection, the Sansias
of the Uriya country have at present no affinities with the outcaste
and criminal tribe of Sansis or Sansias of northern India. They enjoy
a fairly high position in Sarnbalpur, and Brahmans will take water
from them.
They are divided into two subcastes, the Benetia and Khandait. The
Benetia are the higher and look down on the Khandaits, because, it
is said, these latter have accepted service as foot-soldiers, and
this is considered a menial occupation. Perhaps in the households
of the Uriya Rajas the tribal militia had also to perform personal
services, and this may have been considered derogatory., In Orissa,
on the other hand, the Khandaits have become landholders and occupy a
high position next to Rajputs. The Benetia Sansias practise hypergamy
with the Khandait Sansias, taking their daughters in marriage, but
not giving daughters to them. When a Benetia is marrying a Khandait
girl his party will not take food with the bride's relatives, but only
partake of some sugar and curds and depart with the bride. The Sansias
have totemistic exogamous septs, usually derived from the names of
sacred objects, as Kachhap, tortoise, Sankh, the conch-shell, Tulsi,
basil, and so on.
2. Marriage customs
Girls are married between seven and ten, and after she is twelve
years old a girl cannot go through the proper ceremony, but can
only be wedded by a simple rite used for widows, in which vermilion
is rubbed on her forehead and some grains of rice stuck on it. The
marriage procession, as described by Mr. Rama Prasad Bohidar, is
a gorgeous affair: "The drummers, all drunk, head the procession,
beating their drums to the tune set by the piper. Next in order are
placed dancing-boys between two rows of lights carried on poles adorned
with festoons of paper flowers. Rockets and fireworks have their
proper share in the procession, and last of all comes the bridegroom
in his wedding apparel, mounted on a horse. His person is studded
with various kinds of gold necklaces borrowed for the occasion,
and the fingers of his right hand are covered with rings. Bangles
and chains of silver shine on his wrists and arms. His forehead is
beautifully painted with ground sandalwood divided in the centre
by a streak of vermilion. His head carries a crown of palm-leaves
overlaid with bright paper of various colours. A network of _malti_
flowers hangs loosely from the head over the back and covers a portion
of the loins of the steed. The eyes are painted with collyrium and
the feet with red dye. The lips and teeth are also reddened by the
betel-leaf, which the bridegroom chews in profusion. A silk cloth
does the work of a belt, in which is fixed a dagger on the right
side." Here the red colour which predominates in the bridegroom's
decorations is lucky for the reasons given in the article on Lakhera;
the blacking of the eyes is also considered to keep off evil spirits;
betel-leaf is itself a powerful agent of magic and averter of spirits,
and to the same end the bridegroom carries iron in the shape of the
dagger. The ceremony is of the customary Uriya type. On the seventh
day of the wedding the husband and wife go to the river and bathe,
throwing away the sacred threads worn at the time of marriage, and
also those which have been tied round their wrists. On returning
home the wife piles up seven brass vessels and seven stools one above
the other and the husband kicks them over, this being repeated seven
times. The husband then washes his teeth with water brought from the
river, breaks the vessel containing the water in the bride's house,
and runs away, while the women of her family throw pailfuls of coloured
water over him. On the ninth day the bride comes and smears a mixture
of curds and sugar on the forehead of each member of the bridegroom's
family, probably as a sign of her admission to their clan, and returns
home. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted.
3. Religion and worship of ancestors
The caste worship Viswakarma, the celestial architect, and on four
principal festivals they revere their trade-implements and the book
on architecture, by which they work. At Dasahra a pumpkin is offered
to these articles in lieu of a goat. They observe the _shraddh_
ceremony, and first make two offerings to the spirits of ancestors
who have died a violent death or have committed suicide, and to
those of relatives who died unmarried, for fear lest these unclean
and malignant spirits should seize and defile the offerings to the
beneficent ancestors. Thereafter _pindas_ or sacrificial cakes are
offered to three male and three female ancestors both on the father's
and mother's side, twelve cakes being offered in all. The Sansias eat
the flesh of clean animals, but the consumption of liquor is strictly
forbidden, on pain, it is said, of permanent exclusion from caste.
4. Occupation
In Sambalpur the caste are usually stone-workers, making cups, mortars,
images of idols and other articles. They also build tanks and wander
from place to place for this purpose in large companies. It is related
that on one occasion they came to dig a tank in Drug, and the Raja
of that place, while watching their work, took a fancy to one of the
Odnis, as their women were called, and wanted her to marry him. But
as she was already married, and was a virtuous woman, she refused. The
Raja persisted in his demand, on which the whole body of Sansias from
Chhattisgarh, numbering, it is said, nine lakhs of persons, left their
work and proceeded to Wararbandh, near Raj-Nandgaon. Here they dug
the great tank of Wararbandh [624] in one night to obtain a supply of
water for themselves. But the Raja followed them, and as they could
not resist him by force, the woman whom he was pursuing burnt herself
alive, and thus earned undying fame in the caste. This legend is
perpetuated in the Odni Git, a popular folk-song in Chhattisgarh. But
it is a traditional story of the Sansias in connection with large
tanks, and in another version the scene is laid in Gujarat. [625]
Savar
List of Paragraphs
1. _Distribution and historical notices_.
2. _Tribal legends_.
3. _Tribal subdivisions_.
4. _Marriage_.
5. _Death ceremonies_.
6. _Religion_.
7. _Occupation_.
1. Distribution and historical notices
_Savar, [626] Sawara, Savara, Saonr, Sahra_ (and several other
variations. In Bundelkhand the Savars, there called Saonrs, are
frequently known by the honorific title of Rawat).--A primitive tribe
numbering about 70,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911,
and principally found in the Chhattisgarh Districts and those of
Saugor and Damoh. The eastern branch of the tribe belongs chiefly
to the Uriya country. The Savars are found in large numbers in the
Madras Districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam and in Orissa. They also
live in the Bundelkhand Districts of the United Provinces. The total
number of Savars enumerated in India in 1911 was 600,000, of which the
Bundelkhand Districts contained about 100,000 and the Uriya country
the remainder. The two branches of the tribe are thus separated by a
wide expanse of territory. As regards this peculiarity of distribution
General Cunningham says: "Indeed there seems good reason to believe
that the Savaras were formerly the dominant branch of the great
Kolarian family, and that their power lasted down to a comparatively
late period, when they were pushed aside by other Kolarian tribes
in the north and east, and by the Gonds in the south. In the Saugor
District I was informed that the Savaras had formerly fought with the
Gonds and that the latter had conquered them by treacherously making
them drunk." [627] Similarly Cunningham notices that the zamindar of
Suarmar in Raipur, which name is derived from Savar, is a Gond. A
difference of opinion has existed as to whether the Savars were
Kolarian or Dravidian so far as their language was concerned, Colonel
Dalton adopting the latter view and other authorities the former and
correct one. In the Central Provinces the Savars have lost their own
language and speak the Aryan Hindi or Uriya vernacular current around
them. But in Madras they still retain their original speech, which
is classified by Sir G. Grierson as Mundari or Kolarian. He says:
"The most southerly forms of Munda speech are those spoken by the
Savars and Gadabas of the north-east of Madras. The former have been
identified with the Suari of Pliny and the Sabarae of Ptolemy. A
wild tribe of the same name is mentioned in Sanskrit literature,
even so far back as in late Vedic times, as inhabiting the Deccan,
so that the name at least can boast great antiquity." [628] As to
the origin of the name Savar, General Cunningham says that it must be
sought for outside the language of the Aryans. "In Sanskrit _savara_
simply means 'a corpse.' From Herodotus, however, we learn that
the Scythian word for an axe was _sagaris_, and as 'g' and 'v' are
interchangeable letters _savar_ is the same word as _sagar_. It seems
therefore not unreasonable to infer that the tribe who were so called
took their name from their habit of carrying axes. Now it is one of the
striking peculiarities of the Savars that they are rarely seen without
an axe in their hands. The peculiarity has been frequently noticed
by all who have seen them." [629] The above opinion of Cunningham,
which is of course highly speculative, is disputed by Mr. Crooke,
who says that "The word Savara, if it be, as some believe, derived
from _sava_ a corpse, comes from the root _sav_ 'to cause to decay,'
and need not necessarily therefore be of non-Aryan origin, while on
the other hand no distinct inference can be drawn from the use of the
axe by the Savars, when it is equally used by various other Dravidian
jungle tribes such as the Korwas, Bhuiyas and the like." [630]
In the classical stories of their origin the first ancestor of the
Savars is sometimes described as a Bhil. The word Savar is mentioned
in several Sanskrit works written between 800 B.C. and A.D. 1200, and
it seems probable that they are a Munda tribe who occupied the tracts
of country which they live in prior to the arrival of the Gonds. The
classical name Savar has been corrupted into various forms. Thus
in the Bundeli dialect '_ava_' changes into '_au_' and a nasal is
sometimes interpolated. _Savar_ has here become Saunr or Saonr. The
addition of 'a' at the end of the word sometimes expresses contempt,
and Savar becomes Savara as Chamar is corrupted into _Chamra_. In the
Uriya country 'v' is changed into 'b' and an aspirate is interpolated,
and thus Savara became Sabra or Sahara, as Gaur has become Gahra. The
word Sahara, Mr. Crooke remarks, [631] has excited speculation as
to its derivation from Arabic, in which Sahara means a wilderness;
and the name of the Savars has accordingly been deduced from the same
source as the great Sahara desert. This is of course incorrect.
2. Tribal legends
Various stories of the origin of the Savars are given in Sanskrit
literature. In the Aitareya Brahmana they are spoken of as the
descendants of Vishwamitra, while in the Mahabharat they are said
to have been created by Kamdhenu, Vasishtha's wonder-working cow, in
order to repel the aggression of Vishwamitra. Local tradition traces
their origin to the celebrated Seori of the Ramayana, who is supposed
to have lived somewhere near the present Seorinarayan in the Bilaspur
District and to have given her name to this place. Ramchandra in his
wanderings met her there, ate the plums which she had gathered for
him after tasting each one herself, and out of regard for her devotion
permitted her name to precede his own of Narayan in that given to the
locality. Another story makes one Jara Savar their original ancestor,
who was said to have shot Krishna in the form of a deer. Another states
that they were created for carrying stones for the construction of
the great temple at Puri and for dragging the car of Jagannath, which
they still do at the present time. Yet another connecting them with the
temple of Jagannath states that their ancestor was an old Bhil hermit
called Sawar, who lived in Karod, two miles from Seorinarayan. The
god Jagannath had at this time appeared in Seorinarayan and the old
Sawar used to worship him. The king of Orissa had built the great
temple at Puri and wished to install Jagannath in it, and he sent
a Brahman to fetch him from Seorinarayan, but nobody knew where he
was except the old hermit Sawar. The Brahman besought him in vain
to be allowed to see the god and even went so far as to marry his
daughter, and finally the old man consented to take him blindfold to
the place. The Brahman, however, tied some mustard seeds in a corner
of his cloth and made a hole in it so that they dropped out one by one
on the way. After some time they grew up and served to guide him to
the spot. This story of the mustard seeds of course finds a place in
the folklore of many nations. The Brahman then went to Seorinarayan
alone and begged the god to go to Puri. Jagannath consented, and
assuming the form of a log of wood floated down the Mahanadi to Puri,
where he was taken out and placed in the temple. A carpenter agreed
to carve the god's image out of the log of wood on condition that
the temple should be shut up for six months while the work was going
on. But some curious people opened the door before the time and the
work could not proceed, and thus the image of the god is only half
carved out of the wood up to the present day. As a consolation to the
old man the god ordained that the place should bear the hermit's name
before his own as Seorinarayan. Lastly the Saonrs of Bundelkhand have
the following tradition. In the beginning of creation Mahadeo wished
to teach the people how to cultivate the ground, and so he made a
plough and took out his bull Nandi to yoke to it But there was dense
forest on the earth, so he created a being whom he called Savar and
gave him an axe to clear the forest. In the meantime Mahadeo went
away to get another bullock. The Savar after clearing the forest felt
very hungry, and finding nothing else to eat killed Nandi and ate
his flesh on a teak leaf. And for this reason the young teak leaves
when rubbed give out sap which is the colour of blood to the present
day. After some time Mahadeo returned, and finding the forest well
cleared was pleased with the Savar, and as a reward endowed him with
the knowledge of all edible and medicinal roots and fruits of the
forest. But on looking round for Nandi he found him lying dead with
some of his flesh cut off. The Savar pleaded ignorance, but Mahadeo
sprinkled a little nectar on Nandi, who came to life again and told
what had happened. Then Mahadeo was enraged with the Savar and said,
'You shall remain a barbarian and dwell for ever in poverty in the
jungles without enough to eat.' And accordingly this has always been
the condition of the Savar's descendants.
Other old authors speak of the Parna or leaf-clad Savars; and a Savar
messenger is described as carrying a bow in his hand "with his hair
tied up in a knot behind with a creeper, black himself, and wearing
a loin-cloth of _bhilawan_ leaves"; [632] an excellent example of
'a leaf-fringed legend.'
3. Tribal subdivisions
The Bundelkhand Savars have been so long separated from the others that
they have sometimes forgotten their identity and consider themselves as
a subtribe of Gonds, though the better informed repudiate this. They
may be regarded as a separate endogamous group. The eastern branch
have two main divisions called Laria and Uriya, or those belonging to
Chhattisgarh and Sambalpur respectively. A third division known as the
Kalapithia or 'Black Backs' are found in Orissa, and are employed
to drag the car of Jagannath. These on account of their sacred
occupation consider themselves superior to the others, abstain from
fowls and liquor, and sometimes wear the sacred thread. The Larias are
the lowest subdivision. Marriage is regulated by exogamous septs or
_bargas_. The northern Savars say that they have 52 of these, 52 being
a number frequently adopted to express the highest possible magnitude,
as if no more could be imagined. The Uriya Savars say they have 80
_bargas_. Besides the prohibition of marriage within the same _barga_,
the union of first cousins is sometimes forbidden. Among the Uriya
Savars each _barga_ has the two further divisions of Joria and Khuntia,
the Jorias being those who bury or burn their dead near a _jor_ or
brook, and the Khuntias those who bury or burn them near a _khunt_ or
old tree. Jorias and Khuntias of the same _barga_ cannot intermarry,
but in the case of some other subdivisions of the _barga_, as between
those who eat rice at one festival in the year and those eating it
at two, marriage is allowed between members of the two subdivisions,
thus splitting the exogamous group into two. The names of the _bargas_
are usually totemistic, and the following are some examples: Badaiya,
the carpenter bird; Bagh, the tiger; Bagula, the heron; Bahra, a
cook; Bhatia, a _brinjal_ or egg-plant; Bisi, the scorpion; Basantia,
the trunk of the cotton tree; Hathia, an elephant; Jancher, a tree
(this _barga_ is divided into Bada and Kachcha, the Bada worshipping
the tree and the Kachcha a branch of it, and marriage between the
two subdivisions is allowed); Jharia (this _barga_ keeps a lock of
a child's hair unshaved for four or five years after its birth);
Juadi, a gambler; Karsa, a deer; Khairaiya, the _khair_ or catechu
tree; Lodhi, born from the caste of that name (in Saugor); Markam,
the name of a Gond sept; Rajhans, a swan; Suriya Bansia, from the sun
(members of this _barga_ feed the caste-fellows on the occasion of a
solar eclipse and throw away their earthen pots); Silgainya from _sil_,
a slate; and Tiparia from _tipari_, a basket (these two septs are
divided into Kachcha and Pakka groups which can marry with each other);
Sona, gold (a member of this sept does not wear gold ornaments until
he has given a feast and a caste-fellow has placed one on his person).
4. Marriage
Marriage is usually adult, but in places where the Savars live near
Hindus they have adopted early marriage. A reason for preferring
the latter custom is found in the marriage ceremony, when the bride
and bridegroom must be carried on the shoulders of their relatives
from the bride's house to the bridegroom's. If they are grown up,
this part of the ceremony entails no inconsiderable labour on the
relatives. In the Uriya country, while the Khuntia subdivision of each
_barga_ see nothing wrong in marrying a girl after adolescence, the
Jorias consider it a great sin, to avoid which they sometimes marry
a girl to an arrow before she attains puberty. An arrow is tied to
her hand, and she goes seven times round a mahua branch stuck on an
improvised altar, and drinks _ghi_ and oil, thus creating the fiction
of a marriage. The arrow is then thrown into a river to imply that her
husband is dead, and she is afterwards disposed of by the ceremony of
widow-marriage. If this mock ceremony has not been performed before
the girl becomes adult, she is taken to the forest by a relative and
there tied to a tree, to which she is considered to be married. She
is not taken back to her father's house but to that of some relative,
such as her brother-in-law or grandfather, who is permitted to talk
to her in an obscene and jesting manner, and is subsequently disposed
of as a widow. Or in Sambalpur she may be nominally married to an old
man and then again married as a widow. The Savars follow generally
the local Hindu form of the marriage ceremony. On the return of the
bridal pair seven lines are drawn in front of the entrance to the
bridegroom's house. Some relative takes rice and throws it at the
persons returning with the marriage procession, and then pushes the
pair hastily across the lines and into the house. They are thus freed
from the evil spirits who might have accompanied them home and who
are kept back by the rice and the seven lines. A price of Rs. 5 is
sometimes paid for the bride. In Saugor if the bride's family cannot
afford a wedding feast they distribute small pieces of bread to the
guests, who place them in their head-cloths to show their acceptance
of this substitute. To those guests to whom it is necessary to make
presents five cowries are given. Widow-marriage is allowed, and in
some places the widow is bound to marry her late husband's younger
brother unless he declines to take her. If she marries somebody else
the new husband pays a sum by way of compensation either to her father
or to the late husband's family. Divorce is permitted on the husband's
initiative for adultery or serious disagreement. If the wife wishes
for a divorce she simply runs away from her husband. The Laria Savars
must give a _marti-jiti ka bhat_ or death-feast on the occasion of
a divorce. The Uriyas simply pay a rupee to the headman of the caste.
5. Death ceremonies
The Savars both burn and bury their dead, placing the corpse on the
pyre with its head to the north, in the belief that heaven lies in
that direction. On the eleventh day after the death in Sambalpur
those members of the caste who can afford it present a goat to the
mourners. The Savars believe that the souls of those who die become
ghosts, and in Bundelkhand they used formerly to bury the dead near
their fields in the belief that the spirits would watch over and
protect the crops. If a man has died a violent death they raise
a small platform of earth under a teak or _saj_ tree, in which
the ghost of the dead man is believed to take up its residence,
and nobody thereafter may cut down that tree. The Uriya Savars
take no special measures unless the ghost appears to somebody in a
dream and asks to be worshipped as Baghiapat (tiger-eaten) or Masan
(serpent-bitten). In such cases a _gunia_ or sorcerer is consulted,
and such measures as he prescribes are taken to appease the dead man's
soul. If a person dies without a child a hole is made in a stone,
and his soul is induced to enter it by the _gunia_. A few grains of
rice are placed in the hole, and it is then closed with melted lead
to imprison the ghost, and the stone is thrown into a stream so that
it may never be able to get out and trouble the family. Savars offer
water to the dead. A second wife usually wears a metal impression of
the first wife by way of propitiation to her.
6. Religion
The Savars worship Bhawani under various names and also Dulha Deo,
the young bridegroom who was killed by a tiger. He is located
in the kitchen of every house in some localities, and this has
given rise to the proverb, '_Jai chulha, tai Dulha_,' or 'There
is a Dulha Deo to every hearth.' The Savars are considered to be
great sorcerers. '_Sawara ke pange, Rawat ke bandhe_,' or 'The man
bewitched by a Savar and the bullock tied up by a Rawat (grazier)
cannot escape'; and again, 'Verily the Saonr is a cup of poison.' Their
charms, called Sabari _mantras_, are especially intended to appease
the spirits of persons who have died a violent death. If one of their
family was seriously ill they were accustomed formerly to set fire
to the forest, so that by burning the small animals and insects which
could not escape they might propitiate the angry gods.
7. Occupation
The dress of the Savars is of the scantiest. The women wear _khilwan_
or pith ornaments in the ear, and abstain from wearing nose-rings,
a traditional method of deference to the higher castes. The proverb
has it, 'The ornaments of the Sawara are _gumchi_ seeds.' These
are the red and black seeds of _Abrus precatorius_ which are used in
weighing gold and silver and are called _rati_. Women are tattooed and
sometimes men also to avoid being pierced with a red-hot iron by the
god of death. Tattooing is further said to allay the sexual passion
of women, which is eight times more intense than that of men. Their
occupations are the collection of jungle produce and cultivation. They
are very clever in taking honeycombs: 'It is the Savar who can drive
the black bees from their hive.' The eastern branch of the caste is
more civilised than the Saonras of Bundelkhand, who still sow juari
with a pointed stick, saying that it was the implement given to them
by Mahadeo for this purpose. In Saugor and Damoh they employ Brahmans
for marriage ceremonies if they can afford it, but on other occasions
their own caste priests. In some places they will take food from most
castes but in others from nobody who is not a Savar. Sometimes they
admit outsiders and in others the children only of irregular unions;
thus a Gond woman kept by a Savar would not be recognised as a member
of the caste herself but her children would be Savars. A woman going
wrong with an outsider of low caste is permanently excommunicated.
Sonjhara
List of Paragraphs
1. _Origin and constitution of the caste_.
2. _Totemism_.
3. _Marriage_.
4. _Customs at birth_
5. _Funeral rites_.
6. _Religion._
7. _Social customs_.
8. _Occupation_.
1. Origin and constitution of the caste
_Sonjhara, Jhara, Jhora, Jhira._--A small occupational caste who
wash for gold in river-beds, belonging to the Sambalpur, Mandla,
Balaghat and Chanda Districts and the Chota Nagpur Feudatory States. In
1911 they numbered about 1500 persons. The name probably comes from
_sona_, gold, and _jharna_, to sweep or wash, though, when the term
Jhara only is used, some derive it from _jhori_ a streamlet. Colonel
Dalton surmised that the Sonjharas were an offshoot of the Gonds,
and this appears to be demonstrated by the fact that the names of
their exogamous septs are identical with Gond names as Marabi, Tekam,
Netam, Dhurwa and Madao. The Sonjharas of Bilaspur say that their
ancestors were Gonds who dwelt at Lanji in Balaghat. The caste relate
the tradition that they were condemned by Mahadeo to perpetual poverty
because their first ancestor stole a little gold from Parvatis crown
when it fell into the river Jamuna (in Chota Nagpur) and he was sent
to fetch it out. The metal which is found in the river sands they
hold to be the remains of a shower of gold which fell for two and
a half days while the Banaphar heroes Alha and Udal were fighting
their great battle with Prithvi Raj, king of Delhi. The caste is
partly occupational, and recruited from different sources. This is
shown by the fact that in Chanda members of different septs will not
eat together, though they are obliged to intermarry. In Sambalpur the
Behra, Patar, Naik and Padhan septs eat together and intermarry. Two
other septs, the Kanar and Peltrai who eat fowls and drink liquor,
occupy a lower position, and members of the first four will not take
food from them nor give daughters to them in marriage, though they
will take daughters from these lower groups for their sons. Here
they have three subcastes, the Laria or residents of Chhattisgarh,
the Uriya belonging to the Uriya country, and the Bhuinhar, who may
be an offshoot from the Bhuiya tribe.
2. Totemism
They have one recorded instance of totemism, which is of some
interest. Members of the sept named after a tree called _kausa_ revere
the tree and explain it by saying that their ancestor, when flying
from some danger, sought protection from this tree, which thereupon
opened and enfolded him in its trunk. No member of the sept will
touch the tree without first bathing, and on auspicious occasions,
such as births and weddings, they will dig up a little earth from the
roots of the tree and taking this home worship it in the house. If
any member of the sept finds that he has cut off a branch or other
part of this tree unwittingly he will take and consign it to a stream,
observing ceremonies of mourning. Women of the Nag or cobra sept will
not mention the name of this snake aloud, just as they refrain from
speaking the names of male relatives.
3. Marriage
Marriage within the sept is forbidden, and they permit the
intermarriage of the children of a brother and sister, but not of
those of two sisters, though their husbands may be of different
septs. Marriage is usually adult except in Sambalpur, where a girl
must be provided with a husband before reaching maturity in accordance
with the general rule among the Uriya castes. In Chhindwara it is
said that the Sonjharas revere the crocodile and that the presence
of this animal is essential at their weddings. They do not, however,
kill and eat it at a sacrificial feast as the Singrore Dhimars are
reported to do, but catch and keep it alive, and when the ceremony is
concluded take it back again and deposit it in a river. After a girl
has been married neither her father nor any of her own near relatives
will ever take food again in the house of her husband's family, saying
that they would rather starve. Each married couple also becomes a
separate commensal group and will not eat with the parents of either of
them. This is a common custom among low castes of mixed origin where
every man is doubtful of his neighbour's parentage. Divorce and the
remarriage of widows are permitted, and a woman may be divorced merely
on the ground of incompetence in household management or because she
does not please her husband's parents.
4. Customs at birth
At child-birth they make a little separate hut for the mother near the
river where they are encamped, and she remains in it for two days and a
half. During this time her husband does no work; he stays a few paces
distant from his wife's hut and prepares her food but does not go to
the hut or touch her, and he kindles a fire between them. During the
first two days the woman gets three handfuls of rice boiled thin in
water, and on the third day she receives nothing until the evening,
when the Sendia or head of the sept takes a little cowdung, gold and
silver in his hand, and pouring water over this gives her of it to
drink as many times as the number of gods worshipped by her family
up to seven. Then she is pure. On this day the father sacrifices a
chicken and gives a meal with liquor to the caste and names the child,
calling it after one of his ancestors who is dead. Then an old woman
beats on a brass plate and calls out the name which has been given in
a loud voice to the whole camp so that they may all know the child's
name. In Bilaspur the Sonjharas observe the custom of the Couvade,
and for six days after the birth of a child the husband lies prone
in his house, while the wife gets up and goes to work, coming home to
give suck to the child when necessary. The man takes no food for three
days and on the fourth is given ginger and raw sugar, thus undergoing
the ordinary treatment of a woman after childbirth. This is supposed
by them to be a sort of compensation for the labours sustained by
the woman in bearing the child. The custom obtains among some other
primitive races, but is now rapidly being abandoned by the Sonjharas.
5. Funeral rites
The bodies of the old are cremated as a special honour, and those
of other persons are buried. No one other than a member of the dead
man's family may touch his corpse under a penalty of five rupees. A
relative will remove the body and bury it with the feet pointing to
the river or burn it by the water's edge. They mourn a child for one
day and an adult for four days, and at the end the mourner is shaved
and provides liquor for the community. If there be no relative, since
no other man can touch the corpse, they fire the hut over it and burn
it as it is lying or bury hut and body under a high mound of sand.
6. Religion
Their principal deities are Dulha Deo, the boy bridegroom, Nira
his servant, and Kauria a form of Devi. Nira lives under an _umar_
[633] tree and he and Dulha Deo his master are worshipped every third
year in the month of Magh (January). Kauria is also worshipped once
in three years on a Sunday in the month of Magh with an offering of
a cocoanut, and in her honour they never sit on a cot nor sleep on
a stool because they think that the goddess has her seat on these
articles. The real reason, however, is probably that the Sonjharas
consider the use of such furniture an indication of a settled life and
permanent residence, and therefore abjure it as being wanderers. Some
analogous customs have been recorded of the Banjaras. They also revere
the spirit of one of their female ancestors who became a Sati. They
sacrifice a goat to the _genius loci_ or spirit haunting the spot
where they decide to start work; and they will leave it for fear of
angering this spirit, which is said to appear in the form of a tiger,
should they make a particularly good find. [634] They never keep
dogs, and it is said that they are defiled by the touch of a dog
and will throw away their food if one comes near them during their
meal. The same rule applies to a cat, and they will throw away an
earthen vessel touched by either of these animals. On the Diwali day
they wash their implements, and setting them up near the huts worship
them with offerings of a cocoanut and vermilion.
7. Social customs
Their rule is always to camp outside a village at a distance of not
less than a mile. In the rains they make huts with a roof of bamboos
sloping from a central ridge and walls of matting. The huts are built
in one line and do not touch each other, at least a cubit's distance
being left between each. Each hut has one door facing the east. As a
rule they avoid the water of village wells and tanks, though it is not
absolutely forbidden. Each man digs a shallow well in the sand behind
his hut and drinks the water from it, and no man may drink the water
of his neighbour's well; if he should do so or if any water from his
well gets into his neighbour's, the latter is abandoned and a fresh one
made. If the ground is too swampy for wells they collect the water in
their wooden washing-tray and fill their vessels from it. In the cold
weather they make little leaf-huts on the sand or simply camp out in
the open, but they must never sleep under a tree. When living in the
open each family makes two fires and sleeps together between them. Some
of them have their stomachs burned and blackened from sleeping too near
the fire. The Sonjharas will not take cooked food from the hands of
any other caste, but their social status is very low, about equivalent
to that of the parent Gond tribe. They have no fear of wild animals,
not even the children. Perhaps they think that as fellow-denizens of
the jungle these animals are kin to them and will not injure them.
8. Occupation
The traditional occupation of the caste is to wash gold from the
sandy beds of streams, while they formerly also washed for diamonds at
Hirakud on the Mahanadi near Sambalpur and at Wairagarh in Chanda. The
industry is decaying, and in 1901 only a quarter of the total number
of Sonjharas were still employed In it. Some have become cultivators
and fishermen, while others earn their livelihood by sweeping up
the refuse dirt of the workshops of goldsmiths and brass-workers;
they wash out the particles of metal from this and sell it back to
the Sunars. The Mahanadi and Jonk rivers in Sambalpur, the Banjar In
Mandla, the Son and other rivers in Balaghat, and the Wainganga and
the eastern streams of Chanda contain minute particles of gold. The
washers earn a miserable and uncertain livelihood, and indeed appear
not to desire anything beyond a bare subsistence. In Bhandara [635] it
is said that they avoid any spot where they have previously been lucky,
while in Chanda they have a superstition that a person making a good
find of gold will be childless, and hence many dread the search. [636]
When they set out to look for gold they wash three small trayfuls at
three places about five cubits apart. If they find no appreciable
quantity of gold they go on for one or two hundred yards and wash
three more trayfuls, and proceed thus until they find a profitable
place where they will halt for two or three days. A spot [637]
in the dry river-bed is usually selected at the outside of a bend,
where the finer sediment is likely to be found; after removing the
stones and pebbles from above, the sand below is washed several times
in circular wooden cradles, shaped like the top of an umbrella, of
diminishing sizes, until all the clay is removed and fine particles of
sand mixed with gold are visible. A large wooden spoon is used to stir
up the sediment, which is washed and rubbed by hand to separate the
gold more completely from the sand, and a blackish residue is left,
containing particles of gold and mercury coloured black with oxide
of iron. Mercury is used to pick up the gold with which it forms
an amalgam. This is evaporated in a clay cupel called a _ghariya_
by which the mercury is got rid of and the gold left behind.
Sudh
_Sudh, [638] Sudha, Sudho, Suda_.--A cultivating caste in the
Uriya country. Since the transfer of Sambalpur to Bengal only a
few Sudhs remain in the Central Provinces. They are divided into
four subcastes--the Bada or high Sudhs, the Dehri or worshippers,
the Kabat-konia or those holding the corners of the gate, and the
Butka. These last are the most primitive and think that Rairakhol is
their first home. They relate that they were born of the Pandava hero
Bhimsen and the female demon Hedembiki, and were originally occupied in
supplying leaves for the funeral ceremonies of the Pandava brothers,
from which business they obtained their name of Butka or 'one who
brings leaves.' They are practically a forest tribe and carry on
shifting cultivation like the Khonds. According to their own story
the ancestors of the Butka Sudhs once ruled In Rairakhol and reclaimed
the land from the forest, that is so far as it has been reclaimed. The
following story connects them with the ruling family of Rairakhol. In
former times there was constant war between Bamra and Rairakhol, and
on one occasion the whole of the Rairakhol royal family was destroyed
with the exception of one boy who was hidden by a Butka Sudh woman. She
placed him in a cradle supported on four uprights, and when the Bamra
Raja's soldiers came to seek for him the Sudhs swore, "If we have kept
him either in heaven or earth may our god destroy us." The Bamra people
were satisfied with this reply and the child was saved, and on coming
to manhood he won back his kingdom. He received the name of Janamani
or 'Jewel among men,' which the family still bear. In consequence
of this incident, the Butka Sudhs are considered by the Rairakhol
house as relations on their mother's side; they have several villages
allotted to them and perform sacrifices for the ruling family. In some
of these villages nobody may sleep on a cot or sit on a high chair,
so as to be between heaven and earth in the position in which the
child was saved. The Bada Sudhs are the most numerous subdivision and
have generally adopted Hindu customs, so that the higher castes will
take water from their hands. They neither drink liquor nor eat fowls,
but the other subcastes do both. The Sudhs have totemistic _gotras_
as Bhalluka (bear), Bagh (tiger), Ulluka (owl), and others. They also
have _bargas_ or family names as Thakur (lord), Danaik, Amayat and
Bishi. The Thakur clan say that they used to hold the Baud kings in
their lap for their coronation, and the Danaik used to tie the king's
turban. The Bishi were so named because of their skill in arms, and
the Amayat collected materials for the worship of the Panch Khanda or
five swords. The _bargas_ are much more numerous than the totemistic
septs, and marriage either within the _barga_ or within the sept is
forbidden. Girls must be married before adolescence; and in the absence
of a suitable husband, the girl is married to an old man who divorces
her immediately afterwards, and she may then take a second husband
at any time by the form for widow-remarriage. A betrothal is sealed
by tying an areca-nut in a knot made from the clothes of a relative
of each party and pounding it seven times with a pestle. After the
marriage a silver ring is placed in a pot of water, over the mouth of
which a leaf-plate is bound. The bridegroom pierces the leaf-plate with
a knife, and the bride then thrusts her hand through the hole, picks
out the ring and puts it on. The couple then go inside the house and
sit down to a meal. The bridegroom, after eating part of his food,
throws the leavings on to the bride's plate. She stops eating in
displeasure, whereupon the bridegroom promises her some ornaments,
and she relents and eats his leavings. It is customary for a Hindu wife
to eat the leavings of food of her husband as a mark of her veneration
for him. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. The Sudhs
worship the Panch Khanda or five swords, and in the Central Provinces
they say that these are a representation of the five Pandava brothers,
in whose service their first ancestors were engaged. Their tutelary
goddess is Khambeshwari, represented by a wooden peg (_khamba_). She
dwells in the wilds of the Baud State and is supposed to fulfil
all the desires of the Sudhs. Liquor, goats, buffaloes, vermilion
and swallow-wort flowers are offered to her, the last two being in
representation of blood. The Dehri Sudhs worship a goddess called
Kandrapat who dwells always on the summits of hills. It is believed
that whenever worship is concluded the roar of her tiger is heard,
and the worshippers then leave the place and allow the tiger to come
and take the offerings. The goddess would therefore appear to be the
deified tiger. The Bada Sudhs rank with the cultivating castes of
Sambalpur, but the other three subcastes have a lower position.
Sunar
List of Paragraphs
1. _General notice of the caste_.
2. _Internal structure_.
3. _Marriage and other customs_.
4. _Religion_.
5. _Social position_.
6. _Manufacture of ornaments_.
7. _The sanctity of gold_.
8. _Ornaments. The marriage ornaments_.
9. _Beads and other ornaments_.
10. _Ear-piercing._
11. _Origin of ear-piercing._
12. _Ornaments worn as amulets_.
13. _Audhia Sunars_.
14. _The Sunar as money-changer._
15. _Malpractices of lower-class Sunars_.
1. General notice of the caste
Sunar, [639] Sonar, Soni, Hon-Potdar, Saraf.--The occupational caste
of goldsmiths and silversmiths. The name is derived from the Sanskrit
_Suvarna kar_, a worker in gold. In 1911 the Sunars numbered 96,000
persons in the Central Provinces and 30,000 in Berar. They live all
over the Province and are most numerous in the large towns. The caste
appears to be a functional one of comparatively recent formation,
and there is nothing on record as to its origin, except a collection
of Brahmanical legends of the usual type. The most interesting of
these as related by Sir H. Risley is as follows: [640]
"In the beginning of time, when the goddess Devi was busy with the
construction of mankind, a giant called Sonwa-Daitya, whose body
consisted entirely of gold, devoured her creations as fast as she
made them. To baffle this monster the goddess created a goldsmith,
furnished him with the tools of his art, and instructed him how to
proceed. When the giant proposed to eat him, the goldsmith suggested
to him that if his body were polished his appearance would be vastly
improved, and asked to be allowed to undertake the job. With the
characteristic stupidity of his tribe the giant fell into the trap,
and having had one finger polished was so pleased with the result that
he agreed to be polished all over. For this purpose, like Aetes in the
Greek legend of Medea, he had to be melted down, and the goldsmith,
who was to get the body as his perquisite, giving the head only to
Devi, took care not to put him together again. The goldsmith, however,
overreached himself. Not content with his legitimate earnings, he
must needs steal a part of the head, and being detected in this by
Devi, he and his descendants were condemned to be for ever poor." The
Sunars also have a story that they are the descendants of one of two
Rajput brothers, who were saved as boys by a Saraswat Brahman from
the wrath of Parasurama when he was destroying the Kshatriyas. The
descendants of the other brother were the Khatris. This is the same
story as is told by the Khatris of their own origin, but they do not
acknowledge the connection with Sunars, nor can the Sunars allege that
Saraswat Brahmans eat with them as they do with Khatris. In Gujarat
they have a similar legend connecting them with Banias. In Bombay
they also claim to be Brahmans, and in the Central Provinces a caste
of goldsmiths akin to the Sunars call themselves Vishwa Brahmans. On
the other hand, before and during the time of the Peshwas, Sunars
were not allowed to wear the sacred thread, and they were forbidden to
hold their marriages in public, as it was considered unlucky to see a
Sunar bridegroom. Sunar bridegrooms were not allowed to see the state
umbrella or to ride in a palanquin, and had to be married at night and
in secluded places, being subject to restrictions and annoyances from
which even Mahars were free. [641] Their _raison d'être_ may possibly
be found in the fact that the Brahmans, all-powerful in the Poona
state, were jealous of the pretensions of the Sunars, and devised
these rules as a means of suppressing them. It may be suggested that
the Sunars, being workers at an important urban industry, profitable
in itself and sanctified by its association with the sacred metal
gold, aspired to rank above the other artisans, and put forward the
pretensions already mentioned, because they felt that their position
was not commensurate with their deserts. But the Sunar is included
in Grant-Duff's list of the twenty-four village menials of a Maratha
village, and consequently he would in past times have ranked below
the cultivators, from whom he must have accepted the annual presents
of grain.
2. Internal structure
The caste have a number of subdivisions, nearly all of which are of
the territorial class and indicate the various localities from which
it has been recruited in these Provinces. The most important subcastes
are the Audhia from Ajodhia or Oudh; the Purania or old settlers;
the Bundelkhandi from Bundelkhand; the Malwi from Malwa; the Lad from
Lat, the old name for the southern portion of Gujarat; and the Mair,
who appear to have been the first immigrants from Upper India and are
named after Mair, the original ancestor, who melted down the golden
demon. Other small groups are the Patkars, so called because they allow
_pat_ or widow-marriage, though, as a matter of fact, it is permitted
by the great majority of the caste; the Pandhare or 'White Sunars';
and the Ahir Sunars, whose ancestors must presumably have belonged to
the caste whose name they bear. The caste have also numerous _bainks_
or exogamous septs, which differ entirely from the long lists given
for Bengal and the United Provinces, and show, as Mr. Crooke remarks,
the extreme fertility with which sections of this kind spring up. In
the Central Provinces the names are of a titular or territorial
nature. Examples of the former kind, that is, a title or nickname
supposed to have been borne by the sept's founder, are: Dantele, one
who has projecting teeth; Kale, black; Munde, bald; Kolhimare, a killer
of jackals; and Ladaiya, a jackal or a quarrelsome person. Among the
territorial names are Narwaria from Narwar; Bhilsainyan from Bhilsa;
Kanaujia from Kanauj; Dilliwal from Delhi; Kalpiwal from Kalpi. Besides
the _bainks_ or septs by which marriage is regulated, they have adopted
the Brahmanical eponymous _gotra_-names as Kashyap, Garg, Sandilya,
and so on. These are employed on ceremonial occasions as when a gift
is made for the purpose of obtaining religious merit, and the _gotra-_
name of the owner is recorded, but they do not influence marriage. The
use of them is a harmless vanity analogous to the assumption of
distinguished surnames by people who were not born to them.
3. Marriage and other customs
Marriage is forbidden within the sept. In some localities persons
descended from a common ancestor may not intermarry for five
generations, but in others a brother's daughter may be wedded to a
sister's son. A man is forbidden to marry two sisters while both are
alive, and after his wife's death he may espouse her younger sister,
but not her elder one. Girls are usually wedded at a tender age,
but some Sunars have hitherto had a rule that neither a girl nor a
boy should be married until they had had smallpox, the idea being
that there can be no satisfactory basis for a contract of marriage
while either party is still exposed to such a danger to life and
personal appearance; just as it might be considered more prudent not
to buy a young dog until it had had distemper. But with the spread of
vaccination the Sunars are giving up this custom. The marriage ceremony
follows the Hindustani or Maratha ritual according to locality. [642]
In Betul the mother of the bride ties the mother of the bridegroom to
a pole with the ropes used for tethering buffaloes and beats her with
a piece of twisted cloth, until the bridegroom's mother gives her a
present of money or cloth and is released. The ceremony may be designed
to express the annoyance of the bride's mother at being deprived
of her daughter. Polygamy is permitted, but people will not give
their daughter to a married man if they can find a bachelor husband
for her. Well-to-do Sunars who desire increased social distinction
prohibit the marriage of widows, but the caste generally allow it.
4. Religion
The caste venerate the ordinary Hindu deities, and many of them have
sects and return themselves as Vaishnavas, Saivas or Saktas. In some
places they are said to make a daily offering to their melting-furnace
so that it may bring them in a profit. When a child has been born
they make a sacrifice of a goat to Dulha Deo, the marriage-god, on the
following Dasahra festival, and the body of this must be eaten by the
family only, no outsider being allowed to participate. In Hoshangabad
it is stated that on the night before the Dasahra festival all the
Sunars assemble beside a river and hold a feast. Each of them is
then believed to take an oath that he will not during the coming
year disclose the amount of the alloy which a fellow-craftsman may
mix with the precious metals. Any Sunar who violates this agreement
is put out of caste. On the 15th day of Jeth (May) the village Sunar
stops work for five days and worships his implements after washing
them. He draws pictures of the goddess Devi on a piece of paper and
goes round the village to affix them to the doors of his clients,
receiving in return a small present.
The caste usually burn their dead and take the ashes to the Nerbudda
or Ganges; those living to the south of the Nerbudda always stop
at this river, because they think that if they crossed it to go to
the Ganges, the Nerbudda would be offended at their not considering
it good enough. If a man meets with a violent death and his body is
lost, they construct a small image of him and burn this with all the
proper ceremonies. Mourning is observed for ten or thirteen days, and
the _shraddh_ ceremony is performed on the anniversary of a death,
while the usual oblations are offered to the ancestors during the
fortnight of Pitr Paksh in Kunwar (September).
5. Social position
The more ambitious members of the caste abjure all flesh and liquor,
and wear the sacred thread. These will not take cooked food even from
a Brahman. Others do not observe these restrictions. Brahmans will
usually take water from Sunars, especially from those who wear the
sacred thread. Owing to their association with the sacred metal gold,
and the fact that they generally live in towns or large villages, and
many of their members are well-to-do, the Sunars occupy a fairly high
position, ranking equal with, or above the cultivating castes. But,
as already stated, the goldsmith was a village menial in the Maratha
villages, and Sir D. Ibbetson thinks that the Jat really considers
the Sunar to be distinctly inferior to himself.
6. Manufacture of ornaments
The Sunar makes all kinds of ornaments of gold and silver, being
usually supplied with the metal by his customers. He is paid according
to the weight of metal used, the rate varying from four annas to
two rupees with an average of a rupee per tola weight of metal for
gold, and from one to two annas per tola weight of silver. [643]
The lowness of these rates is astonishing when compared with those
charged by European jewellers, being less than 10 per cent on the
value of the metal for quite delicate ornaments. The reason is
partly that ornaments are widely regarded as a means for the safe
keeping of money, and to spend a large sum on the goldsmith's labour
would defeat this end, as it would be lost on the reconversion of
the ornaments into cash. Articles of elaborate workmanship are also
easily injured when worn by women who have to labour in the fields or
at home. These considerations have probably retarded the development
of the goldsmith's art, except in a few isolated localities where it
may have had the patronage of native courts, and they account for the
often clumsy form and workmanship of his ornaments. The value set
on the products of skilled artisans in early times is nevertheless
shown by the statement in M'Crindle's _Ancient India_ that any one
who caused an artisan to lose the use of an eye or a hand was put to
death. [644] In England the jeweller's profit on his wares is from 33
to 50 per cent or more, in which, of course, allowance is made for the
large amount of capital locked up in them and the time they may remain
on his hands. But the difference in rates is nevertheless striking,
and allowance must be made for it in considering the bad reputation
which the Sunar has for mixing alloy with the metal. Gold ornaments
are simply hammered or punched into shape or rudely engraved, and are
practically never cast or moulded. They are often made hollow from
thin plate or leaf, the interior being filled up with lac. Silver ones
are commonly cast in Saugor and Jubbulpore, but rarely elsewhere. The
Sunar's trade appears now to be fairly prosperous, but during the
famines it was greatly depressed and many members of the caste took
to other occupations. Many Sunars make small articles of brass, such
as chains, bells and little boxes. Others have become cultivators
and drive the plough themselves, a practice which has the effect of
spoiling their hands, and also prevents them from giving their sons
a proper training. To be a good Sunar the hands must be trained from
early youth to acquire the necessary delicacy of touch. The Sunar's
son sits all day with his father watching him work and handling the
ornaments. Formerly the Sunar never touched a plough. Like the Pekin
ivory painter--
From early dawn he works;
And all day long, and when night comes the lamp
Lights up his studious forehead and thin hands.
7. The sanctity of gold
As already stated, the Sunar obtains some social distinction from
working in gold, which is a very sacred metal with the Hindus. Gold
ornaments must not on this account be worn below the waist, as to do
so would be considered an indignity to the holy material. Maratha and
Khedawal Brahman women will not have ornaments for the head and arms
of any baser metal than gold. If they cannot afford gold bracelets
they wear only glass ones. Other castes should, if they can afford it,
wear only gold on the head. And at any rate the nose-ring and small
earrings in the upper ear should be of gold if worn at all. When a
man is at the point of death, a little gold, Ganges water, and a leaf
of the _tulsi_ or basil plant are placed in his mouth, so that these
sacred articles may accompany him to the other world. So valuable
as a means of securing a pure death is the presence of gold in the
mouth that some castes have small pieces inserted into a couple of
their upper teeth, in order that wherever and whenever they may die,
the gold may be present to purify them. [645] A similar idea was
prevalent in Europe. _Aurum potabile_ [646] or drinkable gold was
a favourite nostrum of the Middle Ages, because gold being perfect
should produce perfect health; and patients when _in extremis_ were
commonly given water in which gold had been washed. And the belief
is referred to by Shakespeare:
Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold:
Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,
Preserving life in medicine potable. [647]
The metals which are used for currency, gold, silver and copper, are
all held sacred by the Hindus, and this is easily explained on the
grounds of their intrinsic value and their potency when employed as
coin. It may be noted that when the nickel anna coinage was introduced,
it was held in some localities that the coins could not be presented
at temples as this metal was not sacred.
8. Ornaments. The marriage ornaments
It can scarcely also be doubted in view of this feeling that the
wearing of both gold and silver in ornaments is considered to have
a protective magical effect, like that attributed to charms and
amulets. And the suggestion has been made that this was the object
with which all ornaments were originally worn. Professor Robertson
Smith remarks: [648] "Jewels, too, such as women wore in the sanctuary,
had a sacred character; the Syriac word for an earring is _c' dasha_,
'the holy thing,' and generally speaking, jewels serve as amulets. As
such they are mainly worn to protect the chief organs of action (the
hands and feet), but especially the orifices of the body, as earrings;
nose-rings hanging over the mouth; jewels on the forehead hanging down
and protecting the eyes." The precious metals, as has been seen, are
usually sacred among primitive people, and when made into ornaments
they have the same sanctity and protective virtue as jewels. The
subject has been treated [649] with great fullness of detail by
Sir J. Campbell, and the different ornaments worn by Hindu women of
the Central Provinces point to the same conclusion. The _bindia_ or
head ornament of a Maratha Brahman woman consists of two chains of
silver or gold and in the centre an image of a cobra erect. This is
Shesh-Nag, the sacred snake, who spreads his hood over all the _lingas_
of Mahadeo and is placed on the woman's head to guard her in the same
way. The Kurmis and other castes do not have Shesh-Nag, but instead
the centre of the _bindia_ consists of an ornament known as _bija_,
which represents the custard-apple, the sacred fruit of Sita. The
_nathni_ or nose-ring, which was formerly confined to high-caste
women, represents the sun and moon. The large hoop circle is the
sun, and underneath in the part below the nose is a small segment,
which is the crescent moon and is hidden when the ornament is in
wear. On the front side of this are red stones, representing the
sun, and on the underside white ones for the moon. The _nathni_
has some mysterious connection with a woman's virtue, and to take
off her nose-ring--_nathni utdarna_--signifies to dishonour a woman
(Platts). In northern India women wear the nose-ring very large and
sometimes cover it with a piece of cloth to guard it from view or keep
it in _parda_. It is possible that the practice of Hindu husbands of
cutting off the nose of a wife detected in adultery has some similar
association, and is partly intended to prevent her from again wearing a
nose-ring. The toe ornament of a high-caste woman is called _bichhia_
and it represents a scorpion (_bichhu_). A ring on the big toe stands
for the scorpion's head, a silver chain across the foot ending in
another ring on the little toe is his body, and three rings with
high projecting knobs on the middle toes are the joints of his tail
folded back. It is of course supposed that the ornament protects the
feet from scorpion bites. These three ornaments, the _bindia_, the
_nathni_ and the _bichhia_, must form part of the Sohag or wedding
dowry of every high-caste Hindu girl in the northern Districts,
and she cannot be married without them. But if the family is poor
a _laong_ or gold stud to be worn in the nose may be substituted
for the nose-ring. This stud, as its name indicates, is in the form
of a clove, which is sacred food and is eaten on fast-days. Burning
cloves are often used to brand children for cold; a fresh one being
employed for each mark. A widow may not wear any of these ornaments;
she is always impure, being perpetually haunted by the ghost of her
dead husband, and they could thus be of no advantage to her; while,
on the other hand, her wearing them would probably be considered a
kind of sacrilege or pollution of the holy ornaments.
9. Beads and other ornaments
In the Maratha Districts an essential feature of a wedding is the
hanging of the _mangal-sutram_ or necklace of black beads round
the bride's neck. All beads which shine and reflect the light are
considered to be efficacious in averting the evil eye, and a peculiar
virtue, Sir J. Campbell states, attaches to black beads. A woman
wears the _mangalsutram_ or marriage string of beads all her life,
and considers that her husband's life is to some extent bound up in
it. If she breaks the thread she will not say 'my thread is broken,'
but 'my thread has increased'; and she will not let her husband see
her until she has got a new thread, as she thinks that to do so would
cause his death. The many necklaces of beads worn by the primitive
tribes and the strings of blue beads tied round the necks of oxen
and ponies have the same end in view. A similar belief was probably
partly responsible for the value set on precious stones as ornaments,
and especially on diamonds, which sparkle most of all. The pearl is
very sacred among the Hindus, and Madrasis put a pearl into the mouth
at the time of death instead of gold. Partly at least for this purpose
pearls are worn set in a ring of gold in the ear, so that they may
be available at need. Coral is also highly esteemed as an amulet,
largely because it is supposed to change colour. The coral given to
babies to suck may have been intended to render the soft and swollen
gums at teething hard like the hard red stone. Another favourite
shape for beads of gold is that of grains of rice, rice being a sacred
grain. The gold ornament called _kantha_ worn on the neck has carvings
of the flowers of the _singara_ or water-nut This is a holy plant,
the eating of which on fast-days gives purity. Hence women think that
water thrown over the carved flowers of the ornament when bathing will
have greater virtue to purify their bodies. Another favourite ornament
is the _hamel_ or necklace of rupees. The sanctity of coined metal
would probably be increased by the royal image and superscription and
also by its virtue as currency. Mr. Nunn states that gold mohur coins
are still made solely for the purpose of ornament, being commonly
engraved with the formula of belief of Islam and worn by Muhammadans
as a charm. Suspended to the _hamel_ or necklace of rupees in front
is a silver pendant in the shape of a betel-leaf, this leaf being
very efficacious in magic; and on this is carved either the image of
Hanuman, the god of strength, or a peacock's feather as a symbol of
Kartikeya, the god of war. The silver bar necklet known as _hasli_
is intended to resemble the collar-bone. Children carried in their
mother's cloth are liable to be jarred and shaken against her body,
so that the collar-bone is bruised and becomes painful. It is thought
that the wearing of a silver collar-bone will prevent this, just as
silver eyes are offered in smallpox to protect the sufferer's eyes and
a silver wire to save his throat from being choked. Little children
sometimes have round the waist a band of silver beads which is called
_bora_; these beads are meant to resemble the smallpox pustules and the
_bora_ protects the wearer from smallpox. There are usually 84 beads,
this number being lucky among the Hindus. At her wedding a Hindu bride
must wear a wristlet of nine little cones of silver like the _kalas_
or pinnacle of a temple. This is called _nau-graha_ or _nau-giri_ and
represents the nine planets which are worshipped at weddings--that is,
the sun, moon and the five planets, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and
Saturn, which were known to the ancients and gave their names to the
days of the week in many of the Aryan languages; while the remaining
two are said to have been Rahu and Ketu, the nodes of the moon and
the demons which cause eclipses. The _bonhta_ or _bankra_, the rigid
circular bangle on the upper arm, is supposed to make a woman's arm
stronger by the pressure exercised on the veins and muscles. Circular
ornaments worn on the legs similarly strengthen them and prevent a
woman from getting stiffness or pins and needles in her legs after
long squatting on the ground. The _chutka_, a large silver ring worn
by men on the big toe, is believed to attract to itself the ends of
all the veins and ligaments from the navel downwards, and hold them
all braced in their proper position, thus preventing rupture.
On their feet children and young girls wear the _paijan_ or hollow
anklet with tinkling balls inside. But when a married woman has had
two or three children she leaves off the _paijan_ and wears a solid
anklet like the _tora_ or _kasa_. It is now said that the reason why
girls wear sounding anklets is that their whereabouts may be known and
they may be prevented from getting into mischief in dark corners. But
the real reason was probably that they served as spirit scarers,
which they would do in effect by frightening away snakes, scorpions
and noxious insects; for it is clear that the bites of such reptiles
and insects, which often escape unseen, must be largely responsible
for the vast imaginative fabric of the belief in evil spirits, just
as Professor Robertson Smith demonstrates that the _jins_ or _genii_
of Arabia were really wild animals. [650] In India, owing to the
early age of marriage and the superstitious maltreatment of women at
child-birth, the mortality among girls at this period is very high;
and the Hindus, ignorant of the true causes, probably consider them
especially susceptible to the attacks of evil spirits.
10. Ear-piercing
Before treating of ear-ornaments it will be convenient to mention
briefly the custom of ear-piercing. This is universal among Hindus and
Muhammadans, both male and female, and the operation is often performed
by the Sunar. The lower Hindu castes and the Gonds consider piercing
the ears to be the mark of admission to the caste community. It
is done when the child is four or five years old, and till then
he or she is not considered to be a member of the caste and may
consequently take food from anybody. The Raj-Gonds will not have the
ears of their children pierced by any one but a Sunar; and for this
they give him _sidha_ or a seer [651] of wheat, a seer of rice and
an anna. Hindus employ a Sunar when one is available, but if not,
an old man of the family may act. After the piercing a peacock's
feather or some stalks of grass or straw are put in to keep the hole
open and enlarge it. A Hindu girl has her ear pierced in five places,
three being in the upper ear, one in the lobe and one in the small
flap over the orifice. Muhammadans make a large number of holes all
down the ear and in each of these they place a gold or silver ring,
so that the ears are dragged down by the weight. Similarly their women
will have ten or fifteen bangles on the legs. The Hindus also have
this custom in Bhopal, but if they do it in the Central Provinces
they are chaffed with having become Muhammadans. In the upper ear
Hindu women have an ornament in the shape of the _genda_ or marigold,
a sacred flower which is offered to all the deities. The holes in the
upper and middle ear are only large enough to contain a small ring,
but that in the lobe is greatly distended among the lower castes. The
_tarkhi_ or Gond ear-ornament consists of a glass plate fixed on to
a stem of _ambari_ fibre nearly an inch thick, which passes through
the lobe. As a consequence the lower rim is a thin pendulous strip
of flesh, very liable to get torn. But to have the hole torn open is
one of the worst social mishaps which can happen to a woman. She is
immediately put out of caste for a long period, and only readmitted
after severe penalties, equivalent to those inflicted for getting
vermin in a wound. When a woman gets her ear torn she sits weeping in
her house and refuses to be comforted. At the ceremony of readmission
a Sunar is sometimes called in who stitches up the ear with silver
thread. [652] Low-caste Hindu and Gond women often wear a large
circular embossed silver ornament over the ear which is known as
_dhara_ or shield and is in the shape of an Indian shield. This is
secured by chains to the hair and apparently affords some support to
the lower part of the ear, which it also covers. Its object seems to
be to shield and protect the lobe, which is so vulnerable in a woman,
and hence the name. A similar ornament worn in Bengal is known as
_dhenri_ and consists of a shield-shaped disk of gold, worn on the
lobe of the ear, sometimes with and sometimes without a pendant. [653]
11. Origin of ear-piercing
The character of the special significance which apparently attaches
to the custom of ear-piercing is obscure. Dr. Jevons considers
that it is merely a relic of the practice of shedding the blood
of different parts of the body as an offering to the deity, and
analogous to the various methods of self-mutilation, flagellation
and gashing of the flesh, whose common origin is ascribed to the
same custom. "To commend themselves and their prayers the Quiches
pierced their ears and gashed their arms and offered the sacrifice
of their blood to their gods. The practice of drawing blood from
the ears is said by Bastian to be common in the Orient; and Lippert
conjectures that the marks left in the ears were valued as visible and
permanent indications that the person possessing them was under the
protection of the god with whom the worshipper had united himself by
his blood offering. In that case earrings were originally designed,
not for ornament, but to keep open and therefore permanently visible
the marks of former worship. The marks or scars left on legs or arms
from which blood had been drawn were probably the origin of tattooing,
as has occurred to various anthropologists." [654] This explanation,
while it may account for the general custom of ear-piercing, does
not explain the special guilt imputed by the Hindus to getting the
lobe of the ear torn. Apparently the penalty is not imposed for the
tearing of the upper part of the ear, and it is not known whether men
are held liable as well as women; but as large holes are not made in
the upper ear at all, nor by men in the lobe, such cases would very
seldom occur. The suggestion may be made as a speculation that the
continuous distension of the lobe of the ear by women and the large
hole produced is supposed to have some sympathetic effect in opening
the womb and making child-birth more easy. The tearing of the ear might
then be considered to render, the women incapable of bearing a child,
and the penalties attached to it would be sufficiently explained.
12. Ornaments worn as amulets
The above account of the ornaments of a Hindu woman is sufficient to
show that her profuse display of them is not to be attributed, as
is often supposed, to the mere desire for adornment. Each ornament
originally played its part in protecting some limb or feature from
various dangers of the seen or unseen world. And though the reasons
which led to their adoption have now been to a large extent forgotten
and the ornaments are valued for themselves, the shape and character
remain to show their real significance. Women as being weaker and
less accustomed to mix in society are naturally more superstitious and
fearful of the machinations of spirits. And the same argument applies
in greater degree to children. The Hindus have probably recognised
that children are very delicate and succumb easily to disease, and
they could scarcely fail to have done so when statistics show that
about a quarter of all the babies born in India die in the first year
of age. But they do not attribute the mortality to its real causes
of congenital weakness arising from the immaturity of the parents,
insanitary treatment at and after birth, unsuitable food, and the
general frailty of the undeveloped organism. They ascribe the loss
of their offspring solely to the machinations of jealous deities and
evil spirits, and the envy and admiration of other people, especially
childless women and witches, who cast the evil eye upon them. And
in order to guard against these dangers their bodies are decorated
with amulets and ornaments as a means of protection. But the result
is quite other than that intended, and the ornaments which are meant
to protect the children from the imaginary terrors of the evil eye,
in reality merely serve as a whet to illicit cupidity, and expose them
a rich, defenceless prey to the violence of the murderer and the thief.
13. Audhia Sunars
The Audhia Sunars usually work in bell-metal, an alloy of copper or tin
and pewter. When used for ornaments the proportion of tin or pewter
is increased so as to make them of a light colour, resembling silver
as far as may be. Women of the higher castes may wear bell-metal
ornaments only on their ankles and feet, and Maratha and Khedawal
Brahmans may not wear them at all. In consequence of having adopted
this derogatory occupation, as it is considered, the Audhia Sunars
are looked down on by the rest of the caste. They travel about to
the different village markets carrying their wares on ponies; among
these, perhaps, the favourite ornament is the _kara_ or curved bar
anklets, which the Audhia works on to the purchaser's feet for her,
forcing them over the heels with a piece of iron like a shoe-horn. The
process takes time and is often painful, the skin being rasped by the
iron. The woman is supported by a friend as her foot is held up behind,
and is sometimes reduced to cries and tears. High-caste women do not
much affect the _kara_ as they object to having their foot grasped
by the Sunar. They wear instead a chain anklet which they can work on
themselves. The Sunars set precious stones in ornaments, and this is
also done by a class of persons called Jadia, who do not appear to
be a caste. Another body of persons accessory to the trade are the
Niarias, who take the ashes and sweepings from the goldsmith's shop,
paying a sum of ten or twenty rupees annually for them. [655] They
wash away the refuse and separate the grains of gold and silver,
which they sell back to the Sunars. Niaria also appears to be an
occupational term, and not a caste.
14. The Sunar as money-changer
Formerly Sunars were employed for counting and testing money in the
public treasuries, and in this capacity they were designated as Potdar
and Saraf or Shroff. Before the introduction of the standard English
coinage the money-changer's business was important and profitable,
as the rupee varied over different parts of the country exactly
as grain measures do now. Thus the Pondicherry rupee was worth 26
annas, while the Gujarat rupee would not fetch 12 1/2 annas in the
bazar. In Bengal, [656] at the beginning of the nineteenth century,
people who wished to make purchases had first to exchange their
rupees for cowries. The Potdar carried his cowries to market in
the morning on a bullock, and gave 5760 cowries for a new _kaldar_
or English rupee, while he took 5920 cowries in exchange for a rupee
when his customers wanted silver back in the evening to take away with
them. The profit on the _kaldar_ rupee was thus one thirty-sixth on
the two transactions, while all old rupees, and every kind of rupee
but the _kaldar_, paid various rates of exchange or _batta_, according
to the will of the money-changers, who made a higher profit on all
other kinds of money than the _kaldar_. They therefore resisted the
general introduction of these rupees as long as possible, and when
this failed they hit on a device of marking the rupees with a stamp,
under pretext of ascertaining whether they were true or false; after
which the rupee was not exchangeable without paying an additional
_batta_, and became as valuable to the money-changers as if it were
foreign coin. As justification for their action they pretended to
the people that the marks would enable those who had received the
rupees to have them changed should any other dealer refuse them, and
the necessities of the poor compelled them to agree to any _batta_
or exchange rather than suffer delay. This was apparently the origin
of the 'Shroff-marked rupees,' familiar to readers of the _Treasury
Manual_; and the line in a Bhat song, 'The English have made current
the _kaldar_ (milled) rupee,' is thus seen to be no empty praise.
15. Malpractices of lower-class Sumars
As the bulk of the capital of the poorer classes is hoarded in the
shape of gold and silver ornaments, these are regularly pledged when
ready money is needed, and the Sunar often acts as a pawnbroker. In
this capacity he too often degenerates into a receiver of stolen
property, and Mr. Nunn suggested that his proceedings should be
supervised by license. Generally, the Sunar is suspected of making
an illicit profit by mixing alloy with the metal entrusted to him by
his customers, and some bitter sayings are current about him. One of
his customs is to filch a little gold from his mother and sister on
the last day of Shrawan (July) and make it into a luck-penny. [657]
This has given rise to the saying, 'The Sunar will not respect even
his mother's gold'; but the implication appears to be unjust. Another
saying is: _'Sona Sunar ka, abharan sansar ka,'_ or, 'The ornament
is the customer's, but the gold remains with the Sunar.' [658] Gold
is usually melted in the employer's presence, who, to guard against
fraud, keeps a small piece of the metal called _chasni_ or _maslo_,
that is a sample, and when the ornament is ready sends it with the
sample to an assayer or _Chokshi_ who, by rubbing them on a touchstone,
tells whether the gold in the sample and the ornament is of the same
quality. Further, the employer either himself sits near the Sunar while
the ornament is being made or sends one of his family to watch. In
spite of these precautions the Sunar seldom fails to filch some of the
gold while the spy's attention is distracted by the prattling of the
parrot, by the coquetting of a handsomely dressed young woman of the
family or by some organised mishap in the inner rooms among the women
of the house. [659] One of his favourite practices is to substitute
copper for gold in the interior, and this he has the best chance of
doing with the marriage ornaments, as many people consider it unlucky
to weigh or test the quality of these. [660] The account must, however,
be taken to apply only to the small artisans, and well-to-do reputable
Sunars would be above such practices.
The goldsmith's industry has hitherto not been affected to any serious
extent by the competition of imported goods, and except during periods
of agricultural depression the Sunar continues to prosper.
A Persian couplet said by a lover to his mistress is, 'Gold has no
scent and in the scent of flowers there is no gold; but thou both
art gold and hast scent.'
_Sundi, Sundhi, Sunri or Sondhi._ [661]--The liquor-distilling
caste of the Uriya country. The transfer of Sambalpur and the Uriya
States to Bihar and Orissa has reduced their strength in the Central
Provinces to about 5000, found in the Raipur District and the Bastar
and Chota Nagpur Feudatory States. The caste is an important one
in Bengal, numbering more than six lakhs of persons and being found
in western Bengal and Bihar as well as in Orissa. The word Sundi is
derived from the Sanskrit Shaundik, a spirit-seller. The caste has
various genealogies of differing degrees of respectability, tracing
their origin to cross unions between other castes born of Brahmans,
Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas. The following story is told of them in
Madras. [662] In ancient times a certain Brahman was famous for his
magical attainments. The king of the country sent for him one day
and asked him to cause the water in a tank to burn. The Brahman saw
no way of doing this, and returned homewards uneasy in his mind. On
the way he met a distiller who asked him to explain what troubled
him. When the Brahman told his story the distiller promised to cause
the water to burn on condition that the Brahman gave him his daughter
in marriage. This the Brahman agreed to do, and the distiller, after
surreptitiously pouring large quantities of liquor into the tank,
set fire to it in the presence of the king. In accordance with the
agreement he married the daughter of the Brahman and the pair became
the ancestors of the Sundi caste. In confirmation of the story it is
alleged that up to the present day the women of the caste maintain the
recollection of their Brahman ancestors by refusing to eat fowls or
the remains of their husbands' meals. Nor will they take food from the
hands of any other caste. Sir H. Risley relates the following stories
current about the caste in Bengal, where its status is very low:
"According to Hindu ideas, distillers and sellers of strong drink
rank among the most degraded castes, and a curious story in the
Vaivarta Purana keeps alive the memory of their degradation. It is
said that when Sani, the Hindu Saturn, failed to adapt an elephant's
head to the mutilated trunk of Ganesh who had been accidentally
slain by Siva, Viswakarma, the celestial artificer, was sent for,
and by careful dissection and manipulation he fitted the incongruous
parts together, and made a man called Kedara Sena from the slices
cut off in fashioning his work. This Kedara Sena was ordered to
fetch a drink of water for Bhagavati, weary and athirst. Finding
on the river's bank a shell full of water he presented it to her,
without noticing that a few grains of rice left in it by a parrot had
fermented and formed an intoxicating liquid. Bhagavati, as soon as
she had drunk, became aware of the fact, and in her anger condemned
the offender to the vile and servile occupation of making spirituous
liquors for mankind." Like other castes in Sambalpur the Sundis have
two subcastes, the Jharua and the Utkal or Uriya, of whom the Jharuas
probably immigrated from Orissa at an earlier period and adopted some
of the customs of the indigenous tribes; for this reason they are
looked down on by the more orthodox Utkalis. The caste say that they
belong to the Nagas or snake gotra, because they consider themselves
to be descended from Basuki, the serpent with a thousand heads who
formed a canopy for Vishnu. They also have _bargas_ or family titles,
but these at present exercise no influence on marriage. The Sundis
have in fact outgrown the system of exogamy and regulate their
marriages by a table of prohibited degrees in the ordinary manner,
the unions of _sapindas_ or persons who observe mourning together at
a death being prohibited. The prohibition does not extend to cognatic
relationship, but a man must not marry into the family of his paternal
aunt. The fact that the old _bargas_ or exogamous groups are still in
existence is interesting, and an intermediate step in the process of
their abandonment may be recognised in the fact that some of them are
subdivided. Thus the Sahu (lord) group has split into the Gaj Sahu
(lord of the elephant), Dhavila Sahu (white lord), and Amila Sahu
sub-groups, and it need not be doubted that this was a convenient
method adopted for splitting up the Sahu group when it became so large
as to include persons so distantly connected with each other that the
prohibition of marriage between them was obviously ridiculous. As
the number of Sundis in the Central Provinces is now insignificant
no detailed description of their customs need be given, but one or
two interesting points may be noted. Their method of observing the
_pitripaksh_ or worship of ancestors is as follows: A human figure
is made of _kusha_ grass and placed under a miniature straw hut. A
lamp is kept burning before it for ten days, and every day a twig for
cleaning the teeth is placed before it, and it is supplied with fried
rice in the morning and rice, pulse and vegetables in the evening. On
the tenth day the priest comes, and after bathing the figure seven
times, places boiled rice before it for the last meal, and then sets
fire to the hut and burns it, while repeating sacred verses. On the
eleventh day after a death, when presents for the use of the deceased
are made to a priest as his representative, the priest lies down in
the new bed which is given to him, and the members of the family rub
his feet and attend on him as if he were the dead man. He is also
given a present sufficient to purchase food for him for a year. The
Sundis worship Suradevi or the goddess of wine, whom they consider
as their mother, and they refuse to drink liquor, saying that this
would be to enjoy their own mother. They worship the still and all
articles used in distillation at the rice-harvest and when the new
mango crop appears. Large numbers of them have taken to cultivation.
Tamera
1. The Tamera and Kasar
_Tamera, Tambatkar_. [663]--The professional caste of coppersmiths,
the name being derived from _tamba_, copper. The Tameras, however,
like the Kasars or brass-workers, use copper, brass and bell-metal
indifferently, and in the northern Districts the castes are not
really distinguished, Tamera and Kasar being almost interchangeable
terms. In the Maratha country, however, and other localities they
are considered as distinct castes. Copper is a sacred metal, and the
copper-smith's calling would be considered somewhat more respectable
than that of the worker in brass or bell-metal, just as the Sunar
or goldsmith ranks above both; and probably, therefore, the Tameras
may consider themselves a little better than the Kasars. As brass
is an alloy made from copper and zinc, it seems likely that vessels
were made from copper before they were made from brass. But copper
being a comparatively rare and expensive metal, utensils made from
it could scarcely have ever been generally used, and it is therefore
not necessary to suppose that either the Tamera or Kasar caste came
into being before the adoption of brass as a convenient material for
the household pots and pans.
2. Social traditions and customs
In 1911 the Tameras numbered about 5000 persons in the Central
Provinces and Berar. They tell the same story of their origin which has
already been related in the article on the Kasar caste, and trace their
descent from the Haihaya Rajput dynasty of Ratanpur. They say that
when the king Dharampal, the first ancestor of the caste, was married,
a bevy of 119 girls were sent with his bride in accordance with the
practice still occasionally obtaining among royal Hindu families,
and these, as usual, became the concubines of the husband or, as the
Tameras say, his wives: and from the bride and her companions the 120
exogamous sections of the caste are sprung. As a fact, however, many
of the sections are named after villages or natural objects. A man is
not permitted to marry any one belonging to his own section or that
of his mother, the union of first cousins being thus prohibited. The
caste also do not favour _Anta santa_ or the practice of exchanging
girls between families, the reason alleged being that after the bride's
father has acknowledged the superiority of the bridegroom's father by
washing his feet, it is absurd to require the latter to do the same,
that is, to wash the feet of his inferior. So they may not take a
girl from a family to which they have given one of their own. The real
reason for the rule lies possibly in an extension of the principle of
exogamy, whether based on a real fear of carrying too far the practice
of intermarriage between families or an unfounded superstition that
intermarriage between families already connected may have the same
evil results on the offspring as the union of blood-relations. When
the wedding procession is about to start, after the bridegroom has
been bathed and before he puts on the _kankan_ or iron wristlet which
is to protect him from evil spirits, he is seated on a stool while
all the male members of the household come up with their _choti_ or
scalp-lock untied and rub it against that of the bridegroom. Again,
after the wedding ceremonies are over and the bridegroom has, according
to rule, untied one of the fastenings of the marriage-shed, he also
turns over a tile of the roof of the house. The meaning of the latter
ceremony is not clear; the significance attaching to the _choti_
has been discussed in the article on Nai.
3. Disposal of the dead
The caste burn their dead except children, who can be buried, and
observe mourning for ten days in the case of an adult and for three
days for a child. A cake of flour containing two pice (farthings)
is buried or burnt with the corpse. When a death takes place among
the community all the members of it stop making vessels for that day,
though they will transact retail sales. When mourning is over, a feast
is given to the caste-fellows and to seven members of the menial and
serving castes. These are known as the 'Sattiho Jat' or Seven Castes,
and it may be conjectured that in former times they were the menials of
the village and were given a meal in much the same spirit as prompts
an English landlord to give his tenants a dinner on occasions of
ceremony. Instances of a similar custom are noted among the Kunbis
and other castes. Before food is served to the guests a leaf-plate
containing a portion for the deceased is placed outside the house with
a pot of water, and a burning lamp to guide his spirit to the food.
4. Religion
The caste worship the goddess Singhbahani. or Devi riding on a
tiger. They make an image of her in the most expensive metal they can
afford, and worship it daily. They will on no account swear by this
goddess. They worship their trade implements on the day of the new
moon in Chait (March) and Bhadon (August). A trident, as a symbol of
Devi, is then drawn with powdered rice and vermilion on the furnace
for casting metal. A lamp is waved over the furnace and a cocoanut is
broken and distributed to the caste-fellows, no outsider being allowed
to be present. They quench their furnace on the new moon day of every
month, the Ramnaomi and Durgapuja or nine days' fasts in the months
of Chait and Kunwar, and for the two days following the Diwali and
Holi festivals. On these days they will not prepare any new vessels,
but will sell those which they have ready. The Tameras have Kanaujia
Brahmans for their priests, and the Brahmans will take food from
them which has been cooked without water and salt. On this account
other Kanaujia Brahmans require a heavy payment before they will
marry with the priests of the Tameras. The caste abstain from liquor,
and some of them have abjured all flesh food while others partake of
it. They usually wear the sacred thread. Brahmans will take water
from their hands, and the menial castes will eat food which they
have touched. They work in brass, copper and bell-metal in exactly
the same manner as the Kasars, and have an equivalent social position.
Taonla
_Taonla_.--A small non-Aryan caste of the Uriya States. They reside
principally in Bamra and Sonpur, and numbered about 2000 persons in
1901, but since the transfer of these States to Bengal are not found
in the Central Provinces. The name is said to be derived from Talmul,
a village in the Angul District of Orissa, and they came to Bamra
and Sonpur during the Orissa famine of 1866. The Taonlas appear to
be a low occupational caste of mixed origin, but derived principally
from the Khond tribe. Formerly their profession was military service,
and it is probable that like the Khandaits and Paiks they formed the
levies of some of the Uriya Rajas, and gradually became a caste. They
have three subdivisions, of which the first consists of the Taonlas
whose ancestors were soldiers. These consider themselves superior to
the others, and their family names as Naik (leader), Padhan (chief),
Khandait (swordsman), and Behra (master of the kitchen) indicate
their ancestral profession. The other subcastes are called Dangua and
Khond; the Danguas, who are hill-dwellers, are more primitive than the
military Taonlas, and the Khonds are apparently members of that tribe
of comparatively pure descent who marry among themselves and not with
other Taonlas. In Orissa Dr. Hunter says that the Taonlas are allied
to the Savaras, and that they will admit a member of any caste, from
whose hands they can take water, into the community. This is also the
case in Bamra. The candidate has simply to worship Kalapat, the god
of the Taonlas, and after drinking some water in which basil leaves
have been dipped, to touch the food prepared for a caste feast, and
his initiation is complete. As usual among the mixed castes, female
morality is very lax, and a Taonla woman may have a _liaison_ with a
man of her own or any other caste from whom a Taonla can take water
without incurring any penalty whatsoever. A man committing a similar
offence must give a feast to the caste. In Sonpur the Taonlas admit a
close connection with Chasas, and say that some of their families are
descended from the union of Chasa men and Taonla women. They will eat
the leavings of Chasas. The custom may be accounted for by the fact
that the Taonlas are now generally farmservants and field-labourers,
and the Chasas, as cultivators, would be their employers. A similar
close connection is observable among other castes standing in the
same position towards each other as the Panwars and Gonds and the
Rajbhars and Lodhis.
The Taonlas have no exogamous divisions as they all belong to the
same _gotra_, that of the Nag or cobra. Their marriages are therefore
regulated by relationship in the ordinary manner. If two families
find that they have no common ancestor up to the third generation they
consider it lawful to intermarry. The marriage ritual is of the usual
Uriya form. After the marriage the bride and the bridegroom have a
ceremony of throwing a mahua branch into a river together. Divorce and
widow remarriage are permitted. When a woman is divorced she returns
her bangles to her husband, and receives from him a _chhor-chitthi_ or
letter severing connection. Then she goes before the caste _panchayat_
and pronounces her husband's name aloud. This shows that she is no
longer his wife, since so long as she continued to be so, she would
never mention his name.
The tutelary deity of the caste is Kalapat, who resides at Talmul in
Angul District. They offer him a goat at the festival of Nawakhai
when the new rice is first eaten. On this day they also worship a
cattle-goad as the symbol of their vocation. They revere the cobra,
and will not wear wooden sandals because they think that the marks on
a cobra's head are in the form of a sandal. They believe in re-birth,
and when a child is born they proceed to ascertain what ancestor has
become reincarnate by dropping rice grains coloured with turmeric
into a pot of water. As each one is dropped they repeat the name of
an ancestor, and when the first grain floats conclude that the one
named has been born again. The dead are both buried and burnt. At
the head of a grave they plant a bough of the _jamun_ tree (_Eugenia
jambolana_) so that the departed spirit may dwell under this cool
and shady tree in the other world or in his next birth. They have
also a ceremony for bringing back the soul. An earthen pot is placed
upside down on four legs outside the village, and on the eleventh day
after a death they proceed to the place, ringing a bell suspended to
an iron rod. A cloth is spread before the spot on which the spirit
of the deceased is supposed to be sitting, and they wait till an
insect alights on it. This is taken to be the soul of the dead
person, and it is carefully wrapped up in the cloth and carried to
the house. There the cloth is unfolded and the insect allowed to go,
while they proceed to inspect some rice-flour which has been spread
on the ground under another pot in the house. If any mark is found
on the surface of the flour they think that the dead man's spirit
has returned to the house. The carrying back of the insect is thus
an act calculated to assist their belief, by the simple performance
of which they are able to suppose more easily that the invisible
spirit has returned to the house. As already stated, the Taonlas are
now generally farmservants and labourers, and their social position
is low, though they rank above the impure castes and the forest tribes.
Teli
List of Paragraphs
1. _Strength and distribution of the caste._
2. _Origin and traditions._
3. _Endogamous subcastes._
4. _Exogamous divisions._
5. _Marriage customs._
6. _Widow-remarriage._
7. _Religion. Caste deities._
8. _Driving out evil._
9. _Customs at birth and death._
10. _Social status._
11. _Social customs and caste penalties._
12. _The Rathor Telis._
13. _Gujarati Telis of Nimar._
14. _The Teli an unlucky caste._
15. _Occupation. Oil-pressing._
16. _Trade and agriculture._
17. _Teli beneficence._
1. Strength and distribution of the caste
_Teli._ [664]--The occupational caste of oil-pressers and sellers. The
Telis numbered nearly 900,000 persons in 1911, being the fifth caste
in the Province in point of population. They are numerous in the
Chhattisgarh and Nagpur Divisions, nearly 400,000 belonging to the
former and 200,000 to the latter tract; while in Berar and the north
of the Province they are sparsely represented. The reason for such
a distribution of the caste is somewhat obscure. Vegetable oil is
more largely used for food in the south and east than in the north,
but while this custom might explain the preponderance of Telis in
Nagpur and Chhattisgarh it gives no reason to account for their small
numbers in Berar. In Chhattisgarh again nearly all the Telis are
cultivators, and it may be supposed that, like the Chamars, they have
found opportunity here to get possession of the land owing to its not
being already taken up by the cultivating castes proper; but in the
Nagpur Division, with the exception of part of Wardha, the Telis have
had no such opening and are not large landholders. Their distribution
thus remains a somewhat curious problem. But all over the Province the
Telis have generally abandoned their hereditary trade of pressing oil,
and have taken to trade and agriculture, the number of those returned
as oil-pressers being only about seven per cent of the total strength
of the caste. The name comes from the Sanskrit _tailika_ or _taila_,
oil, and this word, is derived from the _tilli_ or sesamum plant.
2. Origin and traditions
The caste have few traditions of origin. Their usual story is that
during Siva's absence the goddess Parvati felt nervous because she
had no doorkeeper to her palace, and therefore she made the god
Ganesh from the sweat of her body and set him to guard the southern
gate. But when Siva returned Ganesh did not know him and refused to
let him enter; on which Siva was so enraged that he cut off the head
of Ganesh with a stroke of his sword. He then entered the palace,
and Parvati, observing the blood on his sword, asked him what had
happened, and reproached him bitterly for having slain her son. Siva
was distressed, but said that he could not replace the head as it
was already reduced to ashes. But he said that if any animal could
be found looking towards the south he could put its head on Ganesh
and bring him to life. As it happened a trader was then resting
outside the palace and had with him an elephant, which was seated
with its head to the south. So Siva quickly struck off the head of
the elephant and placed it on the body of Ganesh and brought him to
life again, and thus Ganesh got his elephant's head. But the trader
made loud lamentation about the loss of his elephant, so to pacify
him Siva made a pestle and mortar, utensils till then unknown, and
showed him how to pound oil-seeds in them and express the oil, and
enjoined him to earn a livelihood in future by this calling, and his
descendants after him; and so the merchant became the first Teli. And
the pestle was considered to be Siva and the mortar Parvati. This
last statement affords some support to Mr. Marten's suggestion [665]
that a certain veneration attaching to the pestle and mortar and their
use in marriage ceremonies may be due to the idea of their typifying
the male and female organs. The fact that Ganesh was set to guard the
southern gate, and that the animal whose head could be placed on his
body must be looking to the south, probably hinges in some way on the
south being the abode of Yama, the god of death, but the connection has
been forgotten by the teller of the story; it may also be noted that if
the palace was in the Himalayas, the site of Kailas or Siva's heaven,
the whole of India would be to the south. Another story related by
Mr. Crooke [666] from Mirzapur is that a certain man had three sons
and owned fifty-two mahua [667] trees. When he became aged and infirm
he told his sons to divide the trees, but after some discussion they
decided to divide not the trees themselves but their produce. One of
them fell to picking up the leaves, and he was the ancestor of the
Bharbhunjas or grain-parchers, who still use leaves in their ovens;
the second collected the flowers and corollas, and having distilled
liquor from them became a Kalar; while the third took the kernels
or fruit and crushed the oil out of them, and was the founder of the
Teli caste. The country spirit generally drunk is distilled from the
flowers of the mahua tree, and a cheap vegetable oil in common use
is obtained from its seeds. The Telis and Kalars are also castes of
about the same status and have other points of resemblance; and the
legend connecting them is therefore of some interest Some groups
of Telis who have become landed proprietors or prospered in trade
have stories giving them a more exalted origin. Thus the landholding
Rathor Telis of Mandla say that they were Rathor Rajputs who fled from
the Muhammadans and threw away their swords and sacred threads; and
the Telis of Nimar, several of whom are wealthy merchants, give out
that their ancestors were Modh Banias from Gujarat who had to take to
oil-pressing for a livelihood under Muhammadan rule. But these legends
may perhaps be considered a natural result of their rise in the world.
3. Endogamous subcastes
The caste has a large number of subdivisions. The principal groups
in Chhattisgarh are the Halia, Jharia and Ekbahia Telis. The Halias,
who perhaps take their name from _hal_, a plough, are considered to
be the best cultivators, and are said to have immigrated from Mandla
some generations ago. Probably the bulk of the Hindu population of
Chhattisgarh came from this direction. The name Jharia means jungly
or savage, and is commonly applied to the oldest residents, but the
Jharia Telis are the highest local subcaste. They require the presence
of a Brahman at their weddings, and abstain generally from liquor,
fowls and pork, to which the Halias are not averse. They also bathe
the corpse before it is burnt or buried, an observance omitted by
the Halias. The Jharias yoke only one bullock to the oil-press,
and the Halias two, a distinction which is elsewhere sufficient
of itself to produce separate subcastes. The Ekbahia (one-armed)
Telis are so called because their women wear glass bangles only
on the right hand and metal ones on the left. This is a custom of
several castes whose women do manual labour, and the reason appears
to be one of convenience, as glass bangles on the working arm would
be continually getting broken. Among the Ekbahia Telis it is said
that a woman considers it a point of honour to have these metal
bangles as numerous and heavy as her arm can bear; and at a wedding a
present of three bracelets from the bridegroom to the bride is held
to be indispensable. The Madpotwa are a small subcaste living near
the hills, who in former times distilled liquor; they keep pigs and
poultry, and rank below the others. Other groups are the Kosarias,
who are called after Kosala, the old name of Chhattisgarh, and the
Chhote or Little Telis, who are of illegitimate descent. Children
born out of wedlock are relegated to this group.
In the Nagpur country the principal subdivisions are the Ekbaile and
Dobaile, so called because they yoke one and two bullocks respectively
to the oil-press; the distinction is still maintained, the Dobaile
being also known as Tarane. This seems a trivial reason for barring
intermarriage, but it must be remembered that the yoking of the
bullock to the oil-press, coupled as it is with the necessity of
blindfolding the animal, is considered a great sin on the Teli's part
and a degrading incident of his profession; the Teli's worst fear is
that after death his soul will pass into one of his own bullocks. The
Yerande Telis are so called because they formerly pressed only the
_erandi_ or castor-oil seed, but the rule is no longer maintained. The
Yerande women leave off wearing the _choli_ or breast-cloth after they
have had one child, and have nothing under the _sari_ or body-cloth,
but they wear this folded double. The Ruthia group are said to be so
called from the noise _rut, rut_ made by the oil-mill in turning. They
say they are descended from the Nag or cobra. They salute the snake
when they see it and refrain from killing it, and they will not make
any drawing or sign having the semblance of a snake or use any article
which may be supposed to be like it. The Sao Telis are the highest
group in Wardha, and have eschewed the pressing of oil. The word Sao or
Sahu is the title of a moneylender, but they are usually cultivators
or village proprietors. A Brahman will enter a Sao Teli's house, but
not the houses of any other subcaste. Their women wear silver bangles
on the right hand and glass ones on the left. The Batri subcaste are
said to be so called from their growing the _batar_, a kind of pea,
and the Hardia from raising the _haldi_ or turmeric. The Teli-Kalars
appear to be a mixed group of Kalars who have taken to the oilman's
profession, and the Teli-Banias are Telis who have become shopkeepers,
and may be expected in the course of time to develop either into a
plebeian group of Banias or an aristocratic one of Telis. In Nimar
the Gujarati Telis, who have now grown wealthy and prosperous, claim,
as already seen, to be Modh Banias, and the same pretension is put
forward by their fellow-castemen in Gujarat itself. "The large class of
oilmen known in Gujarat as Modh-Ghanelis were originally Modh Banias,
who by taking to making and selling oil lost their position as Banias";
[668] it seems doubtful, however, whether the reverse process has not
really taken place. The Umre Telis also have the name of a subcaste
of Banias. The landholding Rathor Telis of Mandla, who now claim to
be Rathor Rajputs, will be more fully noticed later. There are also
several local subcastes, as the Mattha or Maratha Telis, who say
they came from Patan in Gujarat, the Sirwas from the ancient city of
Sravasti in Gonda District, and the Kanaujia from Oudh.
4. Exogamous divisions
Each subcaste is divided into a number of exogamous groups for the
regulation of marriages. The names of the groups appear to be taken
either from villages or titles or nicknames. Most of them cannot be
recognised, but the following are a few: Baghmare, a tiger-killer;
Deshmukh, a village officer; Vaidya, a physician; Bawankule,
the fifty-two septs; Badwaik, the great ones; Satpute, seven sons;
Bhajikhaya, an eater of vegetables; Satapaise, seven pice; Ghoremadia,
a horse-killer; Chaudhri, a caste headman; Ardona, a kind of gram;
Malghati, a valley; Chandan-malagar, one who presented sandalwood;
and Sanichara, born on Saturday. Three septs, Dhurwa, Besram, a hawk,
and Sonwani, gold-water, belong to the Gonds or other tribes. The clans
of the Rathor Telis of Mandla are said to be named after villages in
Jubbulpore and Maihar State.
5. Marriage customs
The marriage of persons of the same sept and of first cousins is
usually forbidden. A man may marry his wife's younger sister while
she herself is alive, but never her elder sister. An unmarried girl
becoming pregnant by a man of the caste is married to him by the
ceremony used for a widow, and she may be readmitted even after a
_liaison_ with an outsider among most Telis. In Chanda the parents of
a girl who is not married before puberty are fined. The proposal comes
from the boy's side and a bride-price is usually paid, though not of
large amount. The Halia Telis of Chhattisgarh, like other agricultural
castes, sometimes betroth their children when they are five or six
months old, but as a rule no penalty attaches to the breaking of the
betrothal. The betrothal is celebrated by the distribution of one or
two rupees' worth of liquor to the neighbours of the caste. As among
other low castes, on the day before the wedding procession starts,
the bridegroom goes round to all the houses in the village and his
sister dances round him with her head bent, and all the people give
him presents. This is known as the Binaiki or Farewell, and the bride
does the same in her village. Among the Jharia Telis the women go
and worship the marriage-post at the carpenter's house while it is
being made. In this subcaste the bridegroom goes to the wedding in
a cart and not on horseback or in a litter as among some castes. The
rule may perhaps be a recognition of their humble station. The Halia
subcaste can dispense with the presence of a Brahman at the wedding,
but not the Jharias. In Wardha the bridegroom's head is covered with
a blanket, over which is placed the marriage-crown. On the arrival of
the bridegroom's party they are regaled with _sherbet_ or sugar and
water by the bride's relatives, and sometimes red pepper is mixed with
this by way of a joke. At a wedding of the Gujarati Tells in Nimar
the caste-priest carries the tutelary goddess Kali in procession,
and in front of her a pot filled with burning cotton-seeds and oil. A
cloth is held over the pot, and it is believed that the power of the
goddess prevents the cloth from taking fire. If this should happen
some great calamity would be portended. Rathor Teli girls, whether
married or unmarried, go with their heads bare, and a woman draws
her cloth over her head for the first time when she begins to live
in her husband's house.
6. Widow-remarriage
Divorce and widow-marriage are permitted. In Chhattisgarh a widow
is always kept in the family if possible, and if her late husband's
brother be only a boy she is sometimes induced to put on the bangles
and wait for him. If a _barandi_ widow, that is one who has been
married but has not lived with her husband, desires to marry again
out of his family, the second husband must repay to them the amount
spent on her first marriage. In Chanda, on the other hand, some Telis
do not permit a widow to marry her late husband's younger brother
at all, and others only when he is a bachelor or a widower. Here
the minimum period for which a widow must remain single after her
husband's death is one month. The engagement with a widow is arranged
by the suitor's female relatives, and they pay her a rupee as earnest
money. On the day fixed she goes with one or two other widows to
the bridegroom's house, and from there to the bazar, where she buys
two pairs of bell-metal rings, to be worn on the second toe of each
foot, and some glass bangles. She remains sitting in the bazar till
well after dark, when some widow goes to fetch her on behalf of her
suitor. They bring her to his house, where the couple sit together, and
red powder is applied to their foreheads. They then bathe and present
their clothes to the washerman, putting on new clothes. The idea in
all this is clearly to sever the widow as completely as possible from
her old home and prevent her from being accompanied to the new one
by the first husband's spirit. In some localities when a Teli widow
remarries it is considered most unlucky for any one to see the face
of the bride or bridegroom for twenty-four hours, or as some say for
three days after the wedding. The ceremony is therefore held at night,
and for this period the couple either remain shut up in the house or
retire to the jungle.
7. Religion: Caste deities
The caste especially revere Mahadeo or Siva, who gave them the
oil-mill. In the Nagpur country they do not work the mill on Monday,
because it is Mahadeo's day, he having the moon on his forehead. They
revere the oil-mill, and when the trunk is brought to be set up in
the house, if there is difficulty in moving it they make offerings
to it of a goat or wheat-cakes or cocoanuts, after which it moves
easily. When a Teli first sets the trunk-socket of the oil-press in the
ground he buries beneath it five pieces of turmeric, some cowries and
an areca-nut In the northern Districts the Telis worship Masan Baba,
who is supposed to be the ghost of a Teli boy. He is a boy about three
feet in height, black-coloured, with a long black scalp-lock. Some
Telis have Masan Baba in their possession, and when they are turning
the oil-press they set him on top of it, and he makes the bullocks keep
on working, so that the master can go away and leave the press. But
in order to prevent him from getting into mischief a cake of flour
mixed with human hair must be placed in front of the press; he will
eat this, but will first pick out all the hairs one by one, and this
will occupy him the whole night; but if no cake is put for him he
will eat all the food in the house. A Teli who has not got Masan must
go to one who has and hire him for Rs. 1-4 a night. They then both
go to the owner's oil-press, and the hirer says, 'I have hired you
to-night,' and the owner says, 'Yes, I have let you for to-night';
and then the hirer goes away, and Masan Baba follows him and will turn
the oil-mill all night. A Teli who has not got Masan Baba puts a stone
on the oil-mill, and then the bullock thinks that his master Masan is
sitting on it, and will go on turning the press; but this is not so
good as having Masan Baba. Some say that he will repay his hirer the
sum of Rs. 1-4 by stealing something during the year and giving it to
him. Masan may perhaps be considered as a divine personification of
the oil-press, and as being the Teli's explanation of the fact that
the bullock goes on turning the press without being driven, which he
does not attribute simply to the animal's docility. In Chhattisgarh
Dulha Deo is the household god of the caste, and he is said not to
have any visible image or symbol, but is considered to reside in a
cupboard in the house. When any member of the family falls ill it
is thought that Dulha Deo is angry, and a goat is offered to appease
him. Like the other low castes the Telis of the Nagpur country make
the sacrifice of a pig to Narayan Deo or the Sun at intervals.
8. Driving out evil
Here on the third day after the Pola festival in the rains the women
of the caste bring the branches of a thorny creeper, with very small
leaves, and call it Marbod, and sweep out the whole house with it,
saying:
'Ira, pira, khatka, khatkira,
Khansi, kokhala, rai, rog,
Murkuto gheunja ga Marbod,'
or, 'Oh Marbod! sweep away all diseases, pains, coughs, bugs, flies
and mosquitoes.' And then they take the pot of sweepings and throw it
outside the village. Marbod is the deity represented by the branch of
the creeper. This rite takes place in the middle of the rainy season,
when all kinds of insects infest the house, and colds and fever are
prevalent Mr. H.R. Crosthwaite sends the following explanation given
by a Teli cultivator of an eclipse of the sun: "The Sun is indebted to
a sweeper. The sweeper has gone to collect the debt and the Sun has
refused to pay. The sweeper is in need of the money and is sitting
_dharna_ at the Sun's door; you can see his shadow across the Sun's
threshold. Presently the debt will be paid and the sweeper will go
away." The Telis of Nimar observe various Muhammadan practices. They
fast during the month of Ramazan, taking their food in the morning
before sunrise; and at Id they eat the vermicelli and dates which the
Muhammadans eat in memory of the time when their forefathers lived on
this food in the Arabian desert. Such customs are a relic of the long
period of Muhammadan dominance in Nimar, when the Hindus conformed
partly to the religion of their masters. Many Telis are also members
of the Swami-Narayan reforming sect, which may have attracted them
by its disregard of the distinctions of caste and of the low status
which attaches to them under Hinduism.
9. Customs at birth and death
In Patna State a pregnant woman must not cross a river nor eat any
fruit or vegetables of red colour, nor wear any black cloth. These
taboos preserve her health and that of her unborn child. After
the birth of a child a woman is impure for seven or nine days in
Chhattisgarh, and is then permitted to cook. The dead are either
buried or burnt, cremation being an honour reserved for the old. The
body is placed in both cases with the head to the north and face
downwards or upwards for a male or female respectively.
10. Social status
The social status of the Telis is low, in the group of castes
from which Brahmans will not take water, and below such menials as
the blacksmith and carpenter. Manu classes them with butchers and
liquor-vendors: "From a king not born in the military class let a
Brahman accept no gift nor from such as keep a slaughter-house,
or an oil-press, or put out a vintner's flag or subsist by the
gains of prostitutes." This is much about the position which the
Telis have occupied till recently. Brahmans will not usually enter
their houses, though they have begun to do so in the case of the
landholding subcastes. It is noticeable that the Teli has a much better
position in Bengal than elsewhere. Sir H. Risley says: "Their original
profession was probably oil-pressing, and the caste may be regarded
as a functional group recruited from the respectable middle class of
Hindu society. Oil is used by all Hindus for domestic and ceremonial
purposes, and its manufacture could only be carried on by men whose
social purity was beyond dispute." This is, however, quite exceptional,
and Mr. Crooke, Mr. Nesfield and Sir D. Ibbetson are agreed as to his
inferior, if not partly impure, status. This is only one of several
instances, such as those of the barber, the potter and the weaver,
of menial castes which in Bengal have now obtained a position above
the agricultural castes. It may be suggested in explanation that the
old fabric of Hindu society, that is the village community, has long
decayed in Bengal owing to Muhammadan dominance, the concentration
of estates in the hands of large proprietors and the weakening or
lapse of the customary rights of tenants. Coupled with this has been
the growth of an important urban population, in which the castes
mentioned have raised themselves from their menial position in the
villages and attained wealth and influence, just as the Gujarati Telis
are now doing in Burhanpur, while the agricultural castes of Bengal
have been comparatively depressed. Hence the urban industrial castes
have obtained a great rise in status. Sir H. Risley's emphasis of the
importance of oil in Hindu domestic ceremonial is no doubt quite true,
though it is perhaps little used in sacrifices, butter being generally
preferred as a product of the sacred cow. But the inference does not
seem necessarily to follow that the producer of any article shares
exactly in the estimation attaching to the thing itself. Turmeric,
for instance, is a sacred plant and indispensable at every wedding;
but those who grow turmeric always incur a certain stigma and loss in
social position. The reason for the impurity of the Teli's calling
seems somewhat doubtful. That generally given is his sinful conduct
in harnessing the sacred ox and blindfolding the animal's eyes to
make it work continuously on the tread-mill. The labour is said to be
very severe, and the bullocks often die after two or three years. As
already seen, the Teli fears that after death his soul may pass into
one of his own bullocks in retribution for his treatment of them during
life. Another reason which may be suggested is that the crushing of
oil-seeds must involve a large destruction of insect life, many of
the seeds being at times infested with insects. The Teli's occupation
would naturally rank with the other village industries, that is below
agriculture; and prior to the introduction of cash coinage he must have
received contributions of grain from the tenants for supplying them
with oil like the other village menials. He still takes his oil to the
fields at harvest-time and gets his sheaf of grain from each holding.
11. Social customs and caste penalties
The Telis will take cooked food from Kurmis and Kunbis, and in some
localities from a Lohar or Barhai. Dhimars are the highest caste which
will take food from them. In Mandla if a man does not attend the
meeting of the _panchayat_ when summoned for some special purpose,
he is fined. In Chanda a Teli beaten with a shoe by any other caste
has to have his head shaved and pay a rupee or two to the priest. In
Mandla the Telis have made it a rule that not less than four _puris_
or wheat-cakes fried in butter [669] must be given to each guest at
a caste-feast, besides rice and pulse. But if an offender is poor
only four or five men go to his feast, while if he is rich the whole
caste go.
12. The Rathor Telis
The Rathor Telis of Mandla hold a number of villages. They now call
themselves Rathor, and entirely disown the name of Teli. They say
that they came from the Maihar State near Panna, and that the title of
Mahto, from _mahat_, great, which is borne by the leading men of the
caste, was conferred on them by the Raja of Maihar. Another story is
that, as already related, they are debased Rathor Rajputs. Recently
they have given up eating fowls and drinking liquor. They are good
cultivators, borrowing among themselves at low interest and avoiding
debt, and their villages are generally prosperous.
13. Gujarati Telis of Nimar
Again, as has been seen, the Gujarati Telis of Burhanpur have taken to
trade, and some of them have become wealthy merchants and capitalists
from their dealings in cotton. The position of Telis in Burhanpur was
apparently one of peculiar degradation under Muhammadan rule. According
to local tradition they had to remove the corpses of dead elephants,
which no other caste would consent to do, and also to dig the graves
of Muhammadans. It is also said that even now a Hindu becomes impure
by passing under the eaves of a Teli's house, and that no dancing-girl
may dance before a Teli, and if she does so will incur a penalty of
Rs. 50 to her caste. The Telis, on the other hand, vigorously repudiate
these allegations, which no doubt are due partly to jealousy of their
present prosperity and consequent attempts to better their status. The
Telis allege that they were Modh Banias in Gujarat and when they came
to Burhanpur adopted the occupation of oil-pressing, which is also
countenanced by the Shastras for a Vaishya. They say that formerly
they did not permit widow-marriage, but when living under Muhammadan
rule they were constrained to get their widows married in the caste,
or the Muhammadans would have taken them. The Muhammadan practices
already noticed as prevalent among them are being severely repressed,
and they are believed to have made a caste rule that any Teli who goes
to the house of a Muhammadan will have his hair and beard shaved and be
fined Rs. 50. They are also supposed to have made offers to Brahmans of
sums of Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 to come and take their food in the verandas
of the Telis' houses, but hitherto these have not been accepted.
14. The Teli an unlucky caste
The Teli is considered a caste of bad omen. The proverb says,
'God protect me from a Teli, a Chamar and a Dhobi'; and the Teli is
considered the most unlucky of the three. He is also talkative: 'Where
there is a Teli there is sure to be contention.' The Teli is thought
to be very close-fisted, but occasionally his cunning overreaches
itself: 'The Teli counts every drop of oil as it issues from the
press, but sometimes he upsets the whole pot.' The reason given for
his being unlucky is his practice of harnessing and blindfolding
bullocks already mentioned, and also that he presses _urad_ [670]
a black-coloured pulse, the oil from which is offered to the unlucky
planet Saturn on Saturdays. '_Teli ka bail_,' or 'A Teli's bullock,'
is a proverbial expression for a man who has to slave very hard for
small pay. [671] The Teli is believed to have magical powers. A good
magician in search of an attendant spirit will, it is said, prefer
to raise the corpse of a Teli who died on a Tuesday. He proceeds
to the burning-_ghat_ with chickens, eggs, some vermilion and red
cloth. He seats himself near to where the corpse was burnt, and after
repeating some spells offers up the chickens and eggs and breaks the
cocoanut. Then it is believed that the corpse will gradually rise and
take shape and be at the magician's service so long as the latter may
desire. The following prescription is given for a love-charm: take
the skull of a Teli's wife and cook some rice in it under a _babul_
[672] tree on a Sunday. This if given to a girl to eat will make her
fall in love with him who gives it to her.
15. Occupation. Oil-pressing
The Teli's oil-press is a very primitive affair. It consists of
a hollowed tree-trunk in which a post is placed with rounded lower
end. The top of this projects perhaps three feet above the hollow trunk
and is secured by two pieces of wood to a horizontal bar, one end of
which presses against the trunk, while the bullock is harnessed to the
outer end. The yoke-bar hangs about a foot from the ground, the inner
end resting in a groove of the trunk, while the outer is supported by
the poles connecting it with the churning-post. From the top of this
latter a rope is also tied to the bullock's horn to keep the animal
in position. The press is usually set up inside a shed, and it is
said that if the bullock were not blindfolded it would quickly become
too giddy to work. The bullock drags the yoke-bar round the trunk
and this gives a circular movement to the top of the churning-post,
causing the lower end of the latter to move as on a pivot inside the
trunk. The friction thus produced crushes the oil-seed, and the oil
trickles out through a hole in the lower part of the trunk. The oil
of _ramtilli_ or _jagni_ is commonly burnt for lighting in villages,
and also that of the mahua-seed. Linseed-oil is generally exported, but
if used at home it is mainly as an illuminant. It is mixed with food
by the Maratha castes but not in northern India. All the vegetable
oils are rapidly being supplanted by kerosene, even in villages;
but the inferior quality generally purchased, burnt as it is in small
open saucers, gives out a great deal of smoke and is said to be very
injurious to the eyesight, and students especially sustain permanent
injury to the sight by working with these lamps. This want is, however,
being met, and cheap lamp-burners can be bought in Bombay for about
twelve annas. Owing to their having until recently supplied the only
means of illumination the Telis sometimes call themselves _Dipabans_,
or 'Sons of the lamp.' Tilli or sesamum is called sweet oil; it is
much eaten by Brahmans and others in the Maratha country, and is
always used for rubbing on the hair and body. On the festivals of
Diwali and Til Sankrant all Hindus rub sesamum oil on their bodies;
otherwise they put it on their hair once or twice a week, and on their
bodies if they get a chill, or as a protective against cold twice or
thrice a month in the winter. The Uriya castes rub oil on the body
if they can afford it every day after bathing and say that it keeps
off malaria. Castor-oil is used as a medicine, and by some people
even as ordinary food. It is also a good lubricant, being applied
to cart-wheels and machinery. Other oils mentioned by Mr. Crooke are
poppy-seed, mustard, cocoanut and safflower, and those prepared from
almond and the berries of the _nim_ [673] tree. The Teli's occupation
is a dirty one, his house being filled with the refuse of oil and
oil-seed, and Mr. Gordon notes that leprosy is very prevalent in the
caste. [674]
16. Trade and agriculture
The Telis are a very enterprising caste, and the great bulk of them
have abandoned their traditional occupation and taken to others which
are more profitable and respectable. In their trade, like that of
the Kalar, cash payment by barter must have been substituted for
customary annual contributions at an early period, and hence they
learnt to keep accounts when their customers were ignorant of this
accomplishment. The knowledge has stood them in good stead. Many of
them have become moneylenders in a small way, and by this means have
acquired villages. In the Raipur and Bilaspur Districts they own more
than 200 villages and 700 in the Central Provinces as a whole. They are
also shopkeepers and petty traders, travelling about with pack-bullocks
like the Banjaras. Mr. A. K. Smith notes that formerly the Teli hired
Banjaras to carry his goods through the jungle, as he would have
been killed by them if he had ventured to do so himself. But now he
travels with his own bullocks. Even in Mughal times Mr. Smith states
Telis occasionally rose to important positions; Kawaji Teli was sutler
to the Imperial army, and obtained from the Emperor Jahangir a grant
of Ashti in Wardha and an order that no one should plant betel-vine
gardens in Ashti without his permission. This rule is still observed
and any one wishing to have a betel-vine garden makes a present to
the patel. Krishna Kanta Nandi or Kanta Babu, the Banyan of Warren
Hastings, was a Teli by caste and did much to raise their position
among the Hindus. [675]
17. Teli beneficence
Colonel Tod gives instances in Udaipur of works of beneficence
executed by Telis. "The _Teli-ki-Sarai_ or oilman's caravanserai is
not conspicuous for magnitude; but it is remarkable not merely for
its utility but even for its elegance of design. The _Teli-ka-Pul_ or
Oilman's Bridge at Nurabad is a magnificent memorial of the trade and
deserves preservation. These Telis perambulate the country with skins
of oil on a bullock and from hard-earned pence erect the structures
which bear their name." [676] Similarly the temple of Vishnu at Rajim
is said to be named after one Rajan Telin, who discovered the image
lying abandoned by the roadside. She placed her skin of oil on it to
rest herself and on that day her oil never decreased, and when she
had finished selling in the market she had all her oil as well as
the money. Her husband suspected her of evil practices, but, when
next day her mother-in-law laid a skinful of oil on the image and
the same thing happened, it was seen that the god had made himself
manifest to her, and a temple was built and named after her and the
image enshrined in it. Similarly the image of Mahadeo at Pithampur in
Bilaspur was seen buried by a Teli in a dream, and he dug it up and
made a shrine to it and was cured of dysentery. So an annual fair is
held and many people go there to be healed of their diseases.
Thug
[This article is based almost entirely on Colonel (Sir William)
Sleeman's _Ramaseeana or Vocabulary of the Thugs_ (1835). A small
work, Hutton's _Thugs and Dacoits_, has been quoted for convenience,
but it is compiled entirely from Colonel Sleeman's Reports. Another
book by Colonel Sleeman, _Reports on the Depredations of the Thug
Gangs_, is mainly a series of accounts of the journeys of different
gangs and contains only a very brief general notice.]
List of Paragraphs
1. _Historical notice_.
2. _Thuggee depicted in the caves of Ellora_.
3. _Origin of the Thugs_.
4. _Methods of assassination_.
5. _Account of certain murders_.
6. _Special incidents (continued)_.
7. _Disguises of the Thugs_.
8. _Secrecy of their operations_.
9. _Support of landholders and villagers_.
10. _Murder of sepoys_.
11. _Callous nature of the Thugs_.
12. _Belief in divine support_.
13. _Theory of Thuggee as a religious sect_.
14. _Worship of Kali_.
15. _The sacred pickaxe_.
16. _The sacred gur (sugar)_.
17. _Worship of ancestors_.
18. _Fasting_.
19. _Initiation of a novice_.
20. _Prohibition of murder of women_.
21. _Other classes of persons not killed_.
22. _Belief in omens_.
23. _Omens and taboos_.
24. _Nature of the belief in omens_.
25. _Suppression of Thuggee_.
1. Historical notice
_Thug, Phansigar._--The famous community of murderers who were
accustomed to infest the high-roads and strangle travellers for
their property. The Thugs are, of course, now extinct, having been
finally suppressed by measures taken under the direction of Colonel
Sleeman between 1825 and 1850. The only existing traces of them are
a small number of persons known as Goranda or Goyanda in Jubbulpore,
the descendants of Thugs employed in the school of industry which
was established at that town. These work honestly for their living
and are believed to have no marked criminal tendencies. In the course
of his inquiries, however, Colonel Sleeman collected a considerable
mass of information about the Thugs, some of which is of ethnological
interest, and as the works in which this is contained are out of
print and not easily accessible, it seems desirable to record a
portion of it here. The word Thug signifies generically a cheat or
robber, while Phansigar, which was the name used in southern India,
is derived from _phansi_, a noose, and means a strangler. The form
of robbery and murder practised by these people was probably of
considerable antiquity, and is referred to as follows by a French
traveller, Thevenot, in the sixteenth century:
"Though the road I have been speaking of from Delhi to Agra be
tolerable yet it hath many inconveniences. One may meet with tigers,
panthers and lions upon it, and one can also best have a care of
robbers, and above all things not to suffer anybody to come near
one upon the road. The cunningest robbers in the world are in that
country. They use a certain slip with a running noose which they can
cast with so much sleight about a man's neck, when they are within
reach of him, that they never fail, so that they can strangle him
in a trice. They have another cunning trick also to catch travellers
with. They send out a handsome woman upon the road, who with her hair
dishevelled seems to be all in tears, sighing and complaining of some
misfortune which she pretends has befallen her. Now, as she takes the
same way that the traveller goes he falls easily into conversation
with her, and finding her beautiful, offers her his assistance,
which she accepts; but he hath no sooner taken her up behind him on
horseback, but she throws the snare about his neck and strangles him,
or at least stuns him until the robbers who lie hid come running to
her assistance and complete what she hath begun. But besides that,
there are men in those quarters so skilful in casting the snare,
that they succeed as well at a distance as near at hand; and if an
ox or any other beast belonging to a caravan run away, as sometimes
it happens, they fail not to catch it by the neck." [677]
This passage seems to demonstrate an antiquity of three centuries for
the Thugs down to 1850. But during the period over which Sir William
Sleeman's inquiries extended women never accompanied them on their
expeditions, and were frequently even, as a measure of precaution,
left in ignorance of the profession of their husbands.
2. Thuggees depicted in the caves of Ellora
The Thugs themselves believed that the operations of their trade were
depicted in the carvings of the Ellora caves, and a noted leader,
Feringia, and other Thugs spoke of these carvings as follows: "Every
one of the operations is to be seen there: in one place you see men
strangling; in another burying the bodies; in another carrying them
off to the graves. Whenever we passed near we used to go and see
these caves. Every man will there find his trade described and they
were all made in one night.
"Everybody there can see the secret operations of his trade; but he
does not tell others of them; and no other person can understand what
they mean. They are the works of God. No human hands were employed
on them. That everybody admits."
Another Thug: "I have seen there the Sotha (inveigler) sitting upon
the same carpet as the traveller, and in close conversation with
him, just as we are when we worm out their secrets. In another place
the strangler has got his _rumal_ (handkerchief) over his neck and
is strangling him; while another, the Chamochi, is holding him by
the legs." I do not think there is any reason to suppose that these
carvings really have anything to do with the Thugs.
3. Origin of the Thugs
The Thugs did not apparently ever constitute a distinct caste
like the Badhaks, but were recruited from different classes of the
population. In northern and southern India three-fourths or more, and
in Central India about a half, were Muhammadans, whether genuine or
the descendants of converted Hindus. The Muhammadan Thugs consisted
of seven clans, Bhais, Barsote, Kachuni, Hattar, Garru, Tandel and
Rathur: "And these, by the common consent of all Thugs throughout
India, whether Hindus or Muhammadans, are admitted to be the most
ancient and the great original trunk upon which all the others have
at different times and in different places been grafted." [678]
These names, however, are of Hindu and not of Muhammadan origin; and
it seems probable that many of the Thugs were originally Banjaras or
cattle-dealers and Kanjars or gipsies. One of the Muhammadan Thugs
told Colonel Sleeman that, "The Arcot gangs will never intermarry with
our families, saying that we once drove bullocks and were itinerant
tradesmen, and consequently of lower caste." [679] Another man said
[680] that at their marriages an old matron would sometimes repeat
as she threw down the _tulsi_ or basil, "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." These are the regular occupations of
the Kanjars and Berias, the gipsy castes who are probably derived
from the Doms. And it seems not unlikely that these people may have
been the true progenitors of the Thugs. There is at present a large
section of Muhammadan Kanjars who are recognised as members of the
caste by the Hindu section. Colonel Sleeman was of opinion that the
Kanjars also practised murder by strangling, but not as a regular
profession; for this would have been too dangerous, as they were
accustomed to wander about with their wives and all their belongings,
and the disappearance of many travellers in the locality of their camps
would naturally excite suspicion. Whereas the true Thugs resided in
villages and towns and many of them had other ostensible occupations,
their periodical excursions for robbery and murder being veiled under
the pretence of some necessary journey. But the Kanjars may have
changed their mode of life on taking to this profession, and their
adroitness in other forms of crime, such as killing and carrying
off cattle, would make them likely persons to have discovered the
advantages of a system of murder of travellers by strangulation. The
existing descendants of the Thugs at Jubbulpore appear to be mainly
Kanjars and Berias. For such a life it is clear that the profession
of the Muhammadan religion would be of much assistance in maintaining
the disguise; for it set a man free from many caste obligations and
ties and also from a host of irksome restrictions as to eating and
drinking with others. We may therefore conjecture, though without
certain knowledge, that many of the Thugs may originally have become
Muhammadans for convenience; and this is supported by the well-known
fact that the principal deity of all of them was the Hindu goddess
Kali. Many bodies of Thugs were also recruited from other Hindu
castes, of whom the Lodhas or Lodhis were perhaps the most numerous;
others of the fraternity were Rajputs, Brahmans, Tantis or weavers,
Goalas or cowherds, Multanis or Muhammadan Banjaras, as well as the
Sansias and Kanjars or criminal vagrants and gipsies. These seem
to have observed their caste rules and to have intermarried among
themselves; sometimes they obtained wives from other families who had
no connection with Thuggee and kept their wives in ignorance of their
nefarious trade; occasionally a girl would be spared from a murdered
party and married to a son of one of the Thugs; while boys were more
frequently saved and brought up to the business. The Thugs said [681]
that the fidelity of their wives was proverbial and they were not less
loving and dutiful than those of other men, while several instances are
recorded of the strong affection borne by fathers to their children.
4. Methods of assassination
As is well known the method of the Thugs was to attach themselves to
travellers, either single men or small parties, and at a convenient
opportunity to strangle them, bury the bodies and make off with the
property found on them. The gangs of Thugs usually contained from ten
to fifty men and were sometimes much larger; on one occasion as many
as three hundred and sixty Thugs accomplished the murder of a party
of forty persons in Bilaspur. [682] They pretended to be traders,
soldiers or cultivators and usually went without weapons in order
to disarm suspicion; and this practice also furnished them with an
excuse for seeking for permission to accompany parties travelling
with arms. There was nothing to excite alarm or suspicion in the
appearance of these murderers; but on the contrary they are described
as being mild and benevolent of aspect, and peculiarly courteous,
gentle and obliging. In their palmy days the leader of the gang
often travelled on horseback with a tent and passed for a person of
consequence or a wealthy merchant. They were accustomed to get into
conversation with travellers by doing them some service or asking
permission to unite their parties as a measure of precaution. They
would then journey on together, and strive to win the confidence of
their victims by a demeanour of warm friendship and feigned interest
in their affairs. Sometimes days would elapse before a favourable
opportunity occurred for the murder; an instance is mentioned of
a gang having accompanied a family of eleven persons for twenty
days during which they had traversed upwards of 200 miles and then
murdered the whole of them; and another gang accomplished 160 miles in
twelve days in company with a party of sixty men, women and children,
before they found a propitious occasion. [683] Their favourite time
for the murder was in the evening when the whole party would be
seated in the open, the Thugs mingled with their victims, talking,
smoking and singing. If their numbers were sufficient three Thugs
would be allotted to every victim, so that on the signal being given
two of them could lay hold of his hands and feet, while the Bhurtot
or strangler passed the _rumal_ over his head and tightened it round
his neck, forcing the victim backwards and not relaxing his hold till
life was extinct. The _rumal_ or 'handkerchief,' always employed for
throttling victims, was really a loin-cloth or turban, in which a
loop was made with a slip-knot. The Thugs called it their _sikka_ or
'ensign,' but it was not held sacred like the pickaxe. When the leader
of the gang cleared his throat violently it was a sign to prepare
for action, and he afterwards gave the _jhirni_ or signal for the
murder, by saying either '_Tamakhu kha lo_,' 'Begin chewing tobacco';
'_Bhanja ko pan do_,' 'Give betel to my nephew'; or '_Ayi ho to ghiri
chalo_,' 'If you are come, pray descend.' Their adroitness was such
that their victims seldom or never escaped nor even had a chance of
making a fight for their lives. But if several persons were to be
killed some men were detached to surround the camp and cut down any
one who tried to escape. The Thugs do not therefore appear to have had
any religious objection to the shedding of blood, but they preferred
murder by strangling as being safer. After the murder the bodies were
at once buried, being first cut about to prevent them from swelling
on decomposition, as this might raise the surface of the earth over
the grave and so attract attention. If the ground was too hard they
were thrown into a ravine or down one of the shallow irrigation wells
which abound in north India; and it was stated that the discovery
of a body in one of these wells was so common an occurrence that
the cultivators took no notice of it. If there were people in the
vicinity so that it was dangerous to dig the graves in the open air,
the Thugs did not scruple to inter the bodies of victims inside their
own tents and to eat their food sitting on the soil above. For the
attack of a horseman three men were always detailed, if practicable,
so that one could seize the bridle and the other two pull him out
of the saddle and strangle him; but if, as happened occasionally,
a single Thug managed to kill a man on horseback, he obtained a great
reputation, which even descended to his children. On the other hand,
if a strangler was unlucky or clumsy, so that the cloth fell on
the victim's head or face, or he got blood on his clothes or other
suspicious signs, and these accidents recurred, he was known as Bisul,
and was excluded from the office of strangler on account of presumed
unfitness for the duty. When it was necessary for some reason to murder
a party on the march, some _belhas_ or scouts were sent on ahead to
choose a _beil_ or suitable place for the business, and see that no
one was coming in the opposite direction; and when the leader said,
'Wash the cup,' it was a signal for the scouts to go forward for this
purpose. If a traveller had a dog with him the dog was also killed,
lest he might stay beside his master's grave and call attention to
it. Another device in case of difficulty was for one of the Thugs to
feign sickness. The Garru or man who did this fell down on a sudden
and pretended to be taken violently ill. Some of his friends raised
and supported him, while others brought water and felt his pulse;
and at last one of them pretended that a charm would restore him. All
were then requested to sit down, the pot of water being in the centre;
all were desired to take off their belts, if they had any, and uncover
their necks, and lastly to look up and see if they could count a
certain number of stars. While they were thus occupied intently gazing
at the sky to carry out the charm for the recovery of the sick man,
the cloths were passed round their necks and they were strangled.
5. Account of certain murders
The secrecy and adroitness with which the Thugs conducted their murders
are well illustrated by the narrative of the assassination of a native
official or pleader at Lakhnadon in Seoni as given by one of the gang:
[684] "We fell in with the Munshi and his family at Chhapara between
Nagpur and Jubbulpore; and they came on with us to Lakhnadon, where
we found that some companies of a native regiment under European
officers were expected the next morning. It was determined to put
them all to death that evening as the Munshi seemed likely to join
the soldiers. The encampment was near the village and the Munshi's
tent was pitched close to us. In the afternoon some of the officers'
tents came on in advance and were pitched on the other side, leaving us
between them and the village. The _khalasis_ were all busily occupied
in pitching them. Nur Khan and his son Sadi Khan and a few others went
as soon as it became dark to the Munshi's tent, and began to play and
sing upon a _sitar_ as they had been accustomed to do. During this
time some of them took up the Munshi's sword on pretence of wishing
to look at it. His wife and children were inside listening to the
music. The _jhirni_ or signal was given, but at this moment the Munshi
saw his danger, called out murder, and attempted to rush through,
but was seized and strangled. His wife hearing him ran out with the
infant in her arms, but was seized by Ghabbu Khan, who strangled
her and took the infant. The other daughter was strangled in the
tent. The _saises_ (grooms) were at the time cleaning their horses,
and one of them seeing his danger ran under the belly of his horse
and called murder; but he was soon seized and strangled as well as
all the rest. In order to prevent the party pitching the officers'
tents from hearing the disturbance, as soon as the signal was given
those of the gang who were idle began to play and sing as loud as they
could; and two vicious horses were let loose, and many ran after them
calling out as loud as they could; so that the calls of the Munshi and
his party were drowned." They thought at first of keeping the infant,
but decided that it was too risky, and threw it alive into the grave
in which the other bodies had been placed. It is surprising to realise
that in the above case about half a dozen people, awake and conscious,
were killed forcibly in broad daylight within a few paces of a number
of men occupied in pitching tents, without their noticing anything of
the matter; and this may certainly be characterised as an instance of
murder as a fine art to show the absolute callousness of the Thugs
towards their victims and the complete absence of any feelings of
compassion, the story of the following murder by the same gang may be
recorded. [685] The Thugs were travelling from Nagpur toward Jubbulpore
with a party consisting of Newal Singh, a Jemadar (petty officer)
in the Nizam's army, his brother, his two daughters, one thirteen and
the other eleven years old, his son about seven years old, two young
men who were to marry the daughters, and four servants. At Dhurna the
house in which the Thugs lodged took fire, and the greater number
of them were seized by the police, but were released at the urgent
request of Newal Singh and his two daughters, who had taken a great
fancy to Khimoli, the principal leader of the gang, and some of the
others. Newal Singh was related to a native officer of the British
detachment at Seoni and obtained his assistance for the release of
the Thugs. At this time the gang had with them two bags of silk, the
property of three carriers whom they had murdered in the great temple
of Kamptee, and if they had been searched by the police these must have
been discovered. On reaching Jubbulpore the Thugs found a lodging in
the town with Newal Singh and his family. But the merchants who were
expecting the silk from Nagpur and found that it had not arrived,
induced the Kotwal to search the lodging of the Thugs. Hearing of the
approach of the police, the leader Khimoli again availed himself of
the attachment of Newal Singh and his daughters, and the girls were
made to sit each upon one of the two bags of silk while the police
searched the place. Nothing was found and the party again set out;
and five days afterwards Newal Singh and his whole family were murdered
at Biseni by the Thugs whom they had twice preserved from arrest.
6. Special incidents (continued)
These murderers looked on all travellers as their legitimate prey,
as sportsmen regard game. On one occasion the noted Thug, Feringia,
[686] with his gang were cooking their dinners under some trees on
the road when five travellers came by, but could not be persuaded
to stop and partake of the meal, saying they wished to sleep at a
place called Hirora that night, and had yet eight miles to go. The
Thugs afterwards followed, but found no traces of the travellers at
Hirora. Feringia therefore concluded that they must have fallen into
the hands of another gang, and suddenly recollected having passed an
encampment of Banjaras (pack-carriers) not far from the town. On the
following morning he accordingly went back with a few of his comrades,
and at once recognised a horse and pony which he had observed in
the possession of the travellers. So he asked the Banjaras, "What
have you done with the five travellers, my good friends? You have
taken from us our _banij_ (merchandise)." They apologised for what
they had done, pleading ignorance of the lien of the other Thugs,
and offered to share the booty; but Feringia declined, as none of
his party had been present at the _loading._ They were accustomed to
distinguish their most important exploits by the number of persons
who were killed. Thus one murder in the Jubbulpore District was known
as the 'Sathrup,' or 'Sixty soul affair,' and another in Bilaspur
as the 'Chalisrup,' or 'Murder of forty.' At this time (1807) the
road between northern and southern India through the Nerbudda valley
had been rendered so unsafe by the incursions of the Pindaris that
travellers preferred to go through Chhattisgarh and Sambalpur to the
Ganges. This route, passing for long distances through dense forest,
offered great advantages to the Thugs, and was soon infested by
them. In 1806, owing to the success [687] of previous expeditions,
it was determined that all the Thugs of northern India should work on
this road; accordingly after the Dasahra festival six hundred of them,
under forty Jemadars or leaders of note, set out from their homes,
and having worshipped in the temple of Devi at Bindhyachal, met at
Ratanpur in Bilaspur. The gangs split up, and after several murders
sixty of them came to Lanji in Balaghat, and here in two days' time
fell in with a party of thirty-one men, seven women and two girls on
their way to the Ganges. The Jemadars soon became intimate with the
principal men of the party, pretended to be going to the same part of
India and won their confidence; and next day they all set out and in
four days reached Ratanpur, where they met 160 Thugs returning from
the murder of a wealthy widow and her escort. Shortly afterwards
another 200 men who had heard of the travellers near Nagpur also
came up, but all the different bodies pretended to be strangers to
each other. They detached sixty men to return to Nagpur, leaving 360
to deal with the forty travellers. From Ratanpur they all journeyed
to Chura (Chhuri?), and here scouts were sent on to select a proper
place for the murder. This was chosen in a long stretch of forest,
and two men were despatched to the village of Sutranja, farther on
the road, to see that no one was coming in the opposite direction,
while another picket remained behind to prevent interruption from
the rear. By the time they reached the appointed place, the Bhurtots
(stranglers) and Shamsias (holders) had all on some pretext or other
got close to the side of the persons whom they were appointed to kill;
and on reaching the spot the signal was given in several places at
the same time; and thirty-eight out of forty were immediately seized
and strangled. One of the girls was a very handsome young woman, and
Pancham, a Jemadar, wished to preserve her as a wife for his son. But
when she saw her father and mother strangled she screamed and beat
her head against the ground and tried to kill herself. Pancham tried
in vain to quiet her, and promised to take great care of her and
marry her to his own son, who would be a great chief; but all to no
effect. She continued to scream, and at last Pancham put the _rumal_
(handkerchief) round her neck and strangled her. One little girl
of three years old was preserved by another Jemadar and married to
his son, and when she grew up often heard the story of the affair
narrated. The bodies were buried in a ravine and the booty amounted
to Rs. 17,000. The Thugs then decided to return home, and arrived
without mishap, except that the Jemadar, Pancham, died on the way.
7. Disguises of the Thugs
They were not particular, however, to ascertain that their victims
carried valuable property before disposing of them. Eight annas
(8d.), one of them said, [688] was sufficient remuneration for
murdering a man. On another occasion two river Thugs killed two
old men and obtained only a rupee's worth of coppers, two brass
vessels and their body-cloths. But as a rule the gains were much
larger. It sometimes happened that the Thugs themselves were robbed
at night by ordinary thieves, though they usually set a watch. On one
occasion a band of more than a hundred Thugs fell in with a party of
twenty-seven dacoits who had with them stolen property of Rs. 13,000
in cash, with gold ornaments, gems and shawls. The Thugs asked to be
allowed to travel under their protection, and the dacoits carelessly
assenting were shortly afterwards all murdered. [689] As already
stated, the Thugs were accustomed to live in towns or villages and
many of them ostensibly followed respectable callings. The following
instance of this is given by Sir W. Sleeman: [690] "The first party
of Thug approvers whom I sent into the Deccan to aid Captain Reynolds
recognised in the person of one of the most respectable linen-drapers
of the cantonment of Hingoli, Hari Singh, the adopted son of Jawahir
Sukul, Subahdar of Thugs, who had been executed twenty years before. On
hearing that the Hari Singh of the list sent to him of noted Thugs
at large in the Deccan was the Hari Singh of the Sadar Bazar, Captain
Reynolds was quite astounded; so correct had he been in his deportment
and all his dealings that he had won the esteem of all the gentlemen
of the station, who used to assist him in procuring passports for
his goods on their way from Bombay; and yet he had, as he has since
himself shown, been carrying on his trade of murder up to the very
day of his arrest with gangs of Hindustan and the Deccan on all the
roads around and close to the cantonments of Hingoli; and leading
out his band of assassins while he pretended to be on his way to
Bombay for a supply of fresh linen and broad-cloth." Another case is
quoted by Mr. Oman from Taylor's _Thirty-eight Years in India_. [691]
"Dr. Cheek had a child's bearer who had charge of his children. The
man was a special favourite, remarkable for his kind and tender ways
with his little charges, gentle in manner and unexceptionable in all
his conduct. Every year he obtained leave from his master and mistress,
as he said, for the filial purpose of visiting his aged mother for one
month; and returning after the expiry of that time, with the utmost
punctuality, resumed with the accustomed affection and tenderness
the charge of his little darlings. This mild and exemplary being was
the missing Thug; kind, gentle, conscientious and regular at his post
for eleven months in the year he devoted the twelfth to strangulation."
8. Secrecy of their operations
Again, as regards the secrecy with which murders were perpetrated and
all traces of them hidden, Sir W. Sleeman writes: [692] "While I was
in civil charge of the District of Narsinghpur, in the valley of the
Nerbudda, in the years 1822-1824, no ordinary robbery or theft could
be committed without my becoming aware of it, nor was there a robber
or thief of the ordinary kind in the District with whose character I
had not become acquainted in the discharge of my duties as magistrate;
and if any man had then told me that a gang of assassins by profession
resided in the village of Kandeli, [693] not four hundred yards from
my court, and that the extensive groves of the village of Mundesur,
only one stage from me on the road to Saugor and Bhopal, were one
of the greatest _beles_ or places of murder in all India, and that
large gangs from Hindustan and the Deccan used to _rendezvous_ in
these groves, remain in them for many days every year, and carry
on their dreadful trade along all the lines of road that pass by
and branch off from them, with the knowledge and connivance of the
two landholders by whose ancestors these groves had been planted, I
should have thought him a fool or a madman; and yet nothing could have
been more true. The bodies of a hundred travellers lie buried in and
around the groves of Mundesur; and a gang of assassins lived in and
about the village of Kandeli while I was magistrate of the District,
and extended their depredations to the cities of Poona and Hyderabad."
9. Support of landholders and villagers
The system of Thuggee reached its zenith during the anarchic period
of the decline of the Mughal Empire, when only the strongest and most
influential could obtain any assistance from the State in recovering
property or exacting reparation for the deaths of murdered friends
and relatives. Nevertheless, the Thugs could hardly have escaped
considerable loss even from private vengeance had they been compelled
to rely on themselves for protection. But this was not the case, for,
like the Badhaks and other robbers, they enjoyed the countenance and
support of landholders and ruling chiefs in return for presenting
them with the choicest of their booty and taking holdings of land at
very high rents. Sir W. Sleeman wrote [694] that, "The zamindars and
landholders of every description have everywhere been found ready to
receive these people under their protection from the desire to share
in the fruits of their expeditions, and without the slightest feeling
of religious or moral responsibility for the murders which they know
must be perpetrated to secure these fruits. All that they require
from them is a promise that they will not commit murders within their
estates and thereby involve them in trouble." Sometimes the police
could also be conciliated by bribes, and on one occasion when a body
of Thugs who had killed twenty-five persons were being pursued by
the Thakur of Powai [695] they retired upon the village of Tigura,
and even the villagers came out to their support and defended them
against his attack. Another officer wrote: [696] "To conclude, there
seems no doubt but that this horrid crime has been fostered by all
classes in the community--the landholders, the native officers of
our courts, the police and village authorities--all, I think, have
been more or less guilty; my meaning is not, of course, that every
member of these classes, but that individuals varying in number in
each class were concerned. The subordinate police officials have in
many cases been _practising Thugs_, and the _chaukidars_ or village
watchmen frequently so."
10. Murder of sepoys
A favourite class of victims were sepoys proceeding to their homes
on furlough and carrying their small savings; such men would not be
quickly missed, as their relatives would think they had not started,
and the regimental authorities would ascribe their failure to return
to desertion. So many of these disappeared that a special Army Order
was issued warning them not to travel alone, and arranging for the
transmission of their money through the Government treasuries. [697]
In this order it is stated that the Thugs were accustomed first to
stupefy their victim by surreptitiously administering the common
narcotic _dhatura_, still a familiar method of highway robbery.
11. Callous nature of the Thugs
Like the Badhaks and other Indian robbers and the Italian banditti the
Thugs were of a very religious or superstitious turn of mind. There
was not one among them, Colonel Sleeman wrote, [698] who doubted the
divine origin of Thuggee: "Not one who doubts that he and all who have
followed the trade of murder, with the prescribed rites and observance,
were acting under the immediate orders and auspices of the goddess,
Devi, Durga, Kali or Bhawani, as she is indifferently called, and
consequently there is not one who feels the slightest remorse for
the murders which he may have perpetrated or abetted in the course of
his vocation. A Thug considers the persons murdered precisely in the
light of victims offered up to the goddess; and he remembers them
as a priest of Jupiter remembered the oxen and a priest of Saturn
the children sacrificed upon their altars. He meditates his murders
without any misgivings, he perpetrates them without any emotions
of pity, and he recalls them without any feeling of remorse. They
trouble not his dreams, nor does their recollection ever cause him
inquietude in darkness, in solitude or in the hour of death."
And again: "The most extraordinary trait in the characters of these
people is not this that they can look back upon all the murders
they have perpetrated without any feelings of remorse, but that they
can look forward indifferently to their children, whom they love as
tenderly as any man in the world, following the same trade of murder
or being united in marriage to men who follow the trade. When I have
asked them how they could cherish these children through infancy and
childhood under the determination to make them murderers or marry
them to murderers, the only observation they have ever made was that
formerly there was no danger of their ever being hung or transported,
but that now they would rather that their children should learn some
less dangerous trade."
12. Belief in divine support
They considered that all their victims were killed by the agency
of God and that they were merely irresponsible agents, appointed
to live by killing travellers as tigers by feeding on deer. If a
man committed a real murder they held that his family must become
extinct, and adduced the fact that this fate had not befallen them
as proof that their acts of killing were justifiable. Nay, they even
held that those who oppressed them were punished by the goddess:
[699] "Was not Nanha, the Raja of Jalon," said one of them, "made
leprous by Devi for putting to death Budhu and his brother Khumoli,
two of the most noted Thugs of their day? He had them trampled under
the feet of elephants, but the leprosy broke out on his body the very
next day. When Mudhaji Sindhia caused seventy Thugs to be executed at
Mathura was he not warned in a dream by Devi that he should release
them? And did he not the very day after their execution begin to
spit blood? And did he not die within three months?" Their subsequent
misfortunes and the success of the British officers against them they
attributed to their disobedience of the ordinances of Devi in slaying
women and other classes of prohibited persons and their disregard of
her omens. They also held that the spirits of all their victims went
straight to Paradise, and this was the reason why the Thugs were not
troubled by them as other murderers were.
13. Theory of Thuggee as a religious sect
The fact that the Thugs considered themselves to be directed by
the deity, reinforced by their numerous superstitious beliefs and
observances, has led to the suggestion by one writer that they were
originally a religious sect, whose principal tenet was the prohibition
of the shedding of blood. There is, however, no evidence in support
of this view in the accounts of Colonel Sleeman, incomparably the
best authority. Their method of strangulation was, as has been seen,
simply the safest and most convenient means of murder: it enabled
them to dispense with arms, by the sight of which the apprehensions
of their victims would have been aroused, and left no traces on the
site of the crime to be observed by other travellers. On occasion
also they did not scruple to employ weapons; as in the murder of seven
treasure-bearers near Hindoria in Damoh, who would not probably have
allowed the Thugs to approach them, and in consequence were openly
attacked and killed with swords. [700] Other instances are given in
Colonel Sleeman's narrative, and they were also accustomed to cut
and slash about the bodies of their victims after death. The belief
that they were guided by the divine will may probably have arisen as
a means of excusing their own misdeeds to themselves and allaying
their fear of such retribution as being haunted by the ghosts of
their victims. Similar instances of religious beliefs and practices
are given in the accounts of other criminals, such as the Badhaks and
Sansias. And the more strict and serious observances of the Thugs may
be accounted for by the more atrocious character of their crimes and
the more urgent necessity of finding some palliative.
The veneration paid to the pickaxe, which will shortly be described,
merely arises from the common animistic belief that tools and
implements generally achieve the results obtained from them by their
inherent virtue and of their own volition, and not from the human hand
which guides them and the human brain which fashioned them to serve
their ends. Members of practically all castes worship the implements
of their profession and thus afford evidence of the same belief,
the most familiar instance of which is perhaps, 'The pestilence
that walketh in the darkness and the arrow that flieth by noonday';
where the writer intended no metaphor but actually thought that the
pestilence walked and the arrow flew of their own volition.
14. Worship of Kali
Kali or Bhawani was the principal deity of the Thugs, as of most of
the criminal and lower castes; and those who were Muhammadans got
over the difficulty of her being a Hindu goddess by pretending that
Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, was an incarnation of her. In
former times they held that the goddess was accustomed to relieve
them of the trouble of destroying the dead bodies by devouring them
herself; but in order that they might not see her doing this she had
strictly enjoined on them never to look back on leaving the site of
a murder. On one occasion a novice of the fraternity disobeyed this
rule and, unguardedly looking behind him, saw the goddess in the
act of feasting upon a body with the half of it hanging out of her
mouth. Upon this she declared that she would no longer devour those
whom the Thugs slaughtered; but she agreed to present them with one
of her teeth for a pickaxe, a rib for a knife and the hem of her lower
garment for a noose, and ordered them for the future to cut about and
bury the bodies of those whom they destroyed. As there seems reason
to suppose that the goddess Kali represents the deified tiger, on
which she rides, she was eminently appropriate as the patroness of
the Thugs and in the capacity of the devourer of corpses.
15. The sacred pickaxe
When the sacred pickaxe used for burying corpses had to be made, the
leader of the gang, having ascertained a lucky day from the priest,
went to a blacksmith and after closing the door so that no other
person might enter, got him to make the axe in his presence without
touching any other work until it was completed. A day was then chosen
for the consecration of the pickaxe, either Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
or Friday; and the ceremony was performed inside a house or tent,
so that the shadow of no living thing might fall on and contaminate
the sacred implement. A pit was dug in the ground and over it the
pickaxe was washed successively with water, sugar and water, sour
milk, and alcoholic liquor, all of which were poured over it into
the pit. Finally it was marked seven times with vermilion. A burnt
offering was then made with all the usual ingredients for sacrifice
and the pickaxe was passed seven times through the flames. A cocoanut
was placed on the ground, and the priest, holding the pickaxe by the
point in his right hand, said, 'Shall I strike?' The others replied
yes, and striking the cocoanut with the butt end he broke it in
pieces, upon which all exclaimed, 'All hail, Devi, and prosper the
Thugs.' All then partook of the kernel of the cocoanut, and collecting
the fragments put them into the pit so that they might not afterwards
be contaminated by the touch of any man's foot. Here the cocoanut
may probably be considered as a substituted sacrifice for a human
being. Thereafter the pickaxe was called Kassi or Mahi instead of
_kudali_ the ordinary name, and was given to the shrewdest, cleanest
and most sober and careful man of the party, who carried it in his
waist-belt. While in camp he buried it in a secure place with its
point in the direction they intended to go; and they believed that
if another direction was better the point would be found changed
towards it. They said that formerly the pickaxe was thrown into a
well and would come up of itself when summoned with due ceremonies;
but since they disregarded the ordinances of Kali it had lost that
virtue. Many Thugs told Colonel Sleeman [701] that they had seen the
pickaxe rise out of the well in the morning of its own accord and
come to the hands of the man who carried it; and even the several
pickaxes of different gangs had been known to come up of themselves
from the same well and go to their respective bearers. The pickaxe
was also worshipped on every seventh day during an expedition,
and it was believed that the sound made by it in digging a grave
was never heard by any one but a Thug. The oath by the pickaxe was
in their esteem far more sacred than that by the Ganges water or the
Koran, and they believed that a man who perjured himself by this oath
would die or suffer some great calamity within six days. In prison,
when administering an oath to each other in cases of dispute, they
sometimes made an image of the pickaxe out of a piece of cloth and
consecrated it for the purpose. If the pickaxe at any time fell from
the hands of the carrier it was a dreadful omen and portended either
that he would be killed that year or that the gang would suffer some
grievous misfortune. He was deprived of his office and the gang either
returned home or chose a fresh route and consecrated the pickaxe anew.
16. The sacred _gur_ (sugar)
After each murder they had a sacrificial feast of _gur_ or unrefined
sugar. This was purchased to the value of Rs. 1-4, and the leader of
the gang and the other Bhurtotes (stranglers) sat on a blanket with
the rest of the gang round them. A little sugar was dropped into a
hole and the leader prayed to Devi to send them some rich victims. The
remainder of the sugar was divided among all present. One of them gave
the _jhirni_ or signal for strangling and they consumed the sugar in
solemn silence, no fragment of it being lost They believed that it was
this consecrated _gur_ which gave the desire for the trade of a Thug
and made them callous to the sufferings of their victims, and they
thought that if any outsider tasted it he would at once become a Thug
and continue so all his life. When Colonel Sleeman asked [702] a young
man who had strangled a beautiful young woman in opposition to their
rules, whether he felt no pity for her, the leader Feringia exclaimed:
"We all feel pity sometimes, but the _gur_ of the Tuponi (sacrifice)
changes our nature. It would change the nature of a horse. Let any man
once taste of that _gur_ and he will be a Thug, though he knows all the
trades and have all the wealth in the world. I never wanted food; my
mother's family was opulent, her relations high in office. I have been
high in office myself, and became so great a favourite wherever I went
that I was sure of promotion; yet I was always miserable while absent
from my gang and obliged to return to Thuggee. My father made me taste
of that fatal _gur_ when I was yet a mere boy; and if I were to live
a thousand years I should never be able to follow any other trade."
The eating of this _gur_ was clearly the sacrificial meal of the
Thugs. On the analogy of other races they should have partaken of the
body of an animal god at their sacrificial meal, and if the goddess
Kali is the deified tiger, they should have eaten tiger's flesh. This
custom, if it ever existed, had been abandoned, and the _gur_ would
in that case be a substitute; and as has been seen the eating of the
_gur_ was held to confer on them the same cruelty, callousness and
desire to kill which might be expected to follow from eating tiger's
flesh and thus assimilating the qualities of the animal. Since they
went unarmed as a rule, in order to avoid exciting the suspicions
of their victims, it would be quite impossible for them to obtain
tiger's flesh, except by the rarest accident; and the _gur_ might be
considered a suitable substitute, since its yellow colour would be
held to make it resemble the tiger.
17. Worship of ancestors
The Thugs also worshipped the spirits of their ancestors. One
of these was Dadu Dhira, an ancient Thug of the Barsote class,
who was invoked at certain religious ceremonies, when liquor was
drunk. Vows were made to offer libations of ardent spirits to him,
and if the prayer was answered the worshipper drank the liquor, or if
his caste precluded him from doing this, threw it on the ground with
an expression of thanks. Another deity was the spirit of Jhora Naik,
who was a Muhammadan. He and his servant killed a man who had jewels
and other articles laden on a mule to the value of more than a lakh
and a half. They brought home the booty, assembled all the members
of their fraternity within reach, and honestly divided the whole as
if all had been present The Thugs also said that Nizam-ud-din Aulia,
a well-known Muhammadan saint, famed for his generosity, whose shrine
is near Delhi, had been a Thug, at any rate in his younger days. He
distributed so much money in charity that he was supposed to be endowed
with a Dustul Ghib or supernatural purse; and they supposed that he
obtained it by the practice of Thuggee. Orthodox Muhammadans would,
however, no doubt indignantly repudiate this.
18. Fasting
Whenever they set out on a fresh expedition the first week was known
as Satha (seven). During this period the families of those who were
engaged in it would admit no visitors from the relatives of other
Thugs, lest the travellers destined for their own gang should go
over to these others; neither could they eat any food belonging
to the families of other Thugs. During the Satha period the Thugs
engaged in the expedition ate no animal food except fish and nothing
cooked with _ghi_ (melted butter). They did not shave or bathe or
have their clothes washed or indulge in sexual intercourse, or give
away anything in charity or throw any part of their food to dogs or
jackals. At one time they ate no salt or turmeric, but this rule was
afterwards abandoned. But if the Sourka or first murder took place
within the seven days they considered themselves relieved by it from
all these restraints.
19. Initiation of a novice
A Thug seldom attained to the office of Bhurtote or strangler
until he had been on several expeditions and acquired the requisite
courage or insensibility by slow degrees. At first they were almost
always shocked or frightened; but after a time they said they lost
all sympathy with the victims. They were first employed as scouts,
then as buriers of the dead, next as Shamsias or holders of hands,
and finally as stranglers. When a man felt that he had sufficient
courage and insensibility he begged the oldest and most renowned Thug
of the gang to make him his _chela_ or disciple. If his proposal was
accepted he awaited the arrival of a suitable victim of not too great
bodily strength. While the traveller was asleep with the gang at their
quarters the _guru_ or preceptor took his disciple into a neighbouring
field, followed by three or four old members of the gang. Here they
all faced in the direction in which the gang intended to move, and the
_guru_ said, "_Oh Kali, Kunkali, Bhudkali, [703] Oh Kali, Maha Kali,
Kalkatawali!_ If it seemeth to thee fit that the traveller now at
our lodging should die by the hands of this thy slave, vouchsafe, we
pray thee, the omen on the right." If they got this within a certain
interval the candidate was considered to be accepted, and if not some
other Thug put the traveller to death and he had to wait for another
chance. In the former case they returned to their quarters and the
_guru_ took a handkerchief and tied the slip-knot in one end of it
with a rupee inside it. The disciple received it respectfully in his
right hand and stood over the victim with the Shamsia or holder by
his side. The traveller was roused on some pretence or other and the
disciple passed the handkerchief over his neck and strangled him. He
then bowed down to his _guru_ and all his relations and friends in
gratitude for the honour he had obtained. He gave the rupee from the
knot with other money, if he had it, to the _guru_, and with this sugar
or sweetmeats were bought and the _gur_ sacrifice was celebrated,
the new strangler taking one of the seats of honour on the blanket
for the first time. The relation between a strangler and his _guru_
was considered most sacred, and a Thug would often rather betray
his father than the preceptor by whom he had been initiated. There
were certain classes of persons whom they were forbidden to kill,
and they considered that the rapid success of the English officers
in finally breaking up the gangs was to be attributed to the divine
wrath at breaches of these rules. The original rule [704] was that
the Sourka or first victim must not be a Brahman, nor a Saiyad,
nor any very poor man, nor any man with gold on his person, nor any
man who had a quadruped with him, nor a washerwoman, nor a sweeper,
nor a Teli (oilman), nor a Bhat (bard), nor a Kayasth (writer),
nor a leper, dancing-woman, pilgrim or devotee. The reason for
some of these exemptions is obvious: Brahmans, Muhammadan Saiyads,
bards, religious mendicants and devotees were excluded owing to their
sanctity; and sweepers, washermen and lepers owing to their impurity,
which would have the same evil and unlucky effect on their murderers
as the holiness of the first classes. A man wearing gold ornaments
would be protected by the sacred character of the metal; and the
killing of a poor man as the first victim would naturally presage a
lack of valuable booty during the remainder of the expedition. Telis
and Kayasths are often considered as unlucky castes, and even in
the capacity of victims might be held to bring an evil fortune on
their murderers.
20. Prohibition of murder of women
Another list is given of persons whom it was forbidden to kill at any
time, and of these the principal category was women. It was a rule
of all Thugs that women should not be murdered, but one which they
constantly broke, for few large parties consisted solely of men, and
to allow victims to escape from a party would have been a suicidal
policy. In all the important exploits related to Colonel Sleeman
the women who accompanied victims were regularly strangled, with the
occasional exception of young girls who might be saved and married to
the sons of Thug leaders. The breach of the rule as to the murder of
women was, however, that which they believed to be specially offensive
to their patroness Bhawani; and no Thug, Colonel Sleeman states,
was ever known to offer insult either in act or speech to the women
whom they were about to murder. No gang would ever dare to murder a
woman with whom one of its members should be suspected of having had
criminal intercourse. The murder of women was especially reprobated
by Hindus, and the Muhammadan Thugs were apparently responsible for
the disregard of this rule which ultimately became prevalent, as shown
by the dispute over the killing of a wealthy old lady, [705] narrated
by one of the Thugs as follows: "I remember the murder of Kali Bibi
well; I was at the time on an expedition to Baroda and not present,
but Punua must have been there. A dispute arose between the Musalmans
and Hindus before and after the murder. The Musalmans insisted upon
killing her as she had Rs. 4000 of property with her, but the Hindus
would not agree. She was killed, and the Hindus refused to take any
part of the booty; they came to blows, but at last the Hindus gave
in and consented to share in all but the clothes and ornaments which
the woman wore. Feringia's father, Parasram Brahman, was there, and
when they came home Parasram's brother, Rai Singh, refused to eat,
drink or smoke with his brother till he had purged himself from this
great sin; and he, with two other Thugs, a Rajput and a Brahman,
gave a feast which cost them a thousand rupees each. Four or five
thousand Brahmans were assembled at that feast. Had it rested here
we should have thrived; but in the affair of the sixty victims women
were again murdered; in the affair of the forty several women were
murdered; and from that time we may trace our decline."
21. Other classes of persons not killed
Another rule was that a man having a cow with him should not be
murdered, no doubt on account of the sanctity attaching to the
animal. But in one case of a murder of fourteen persons including
women and a man with a cow at Kotri in the Damoh District, the Thugs,
having made acquaintance with the party, pretended that they had
made a vow to offer a cow at a temple in Shahpur lying on their road
and persuaded the cow's owner to sell her to them for this sacred
purpose, and having duly made the offering and deprived him of the
protection afforded by the cow, they had no compunction in strangling
him with all the travellers. Travellers who had lost a limb were also
exempted from death, but this rule too was broken, as in the case of
the native officer with his two daughters who was murdered by the
Thugs he had befriended; for it is recorded that this man had lost
a leg. Pilgrims carrying Ganges water could not be killed if they
actually had the Ganges water with them; and others who should not be
murdered were washermen, sweepers, oil-vendors, dancers and musicians,
carpenters and blacksmiths, if found travelling together, and religious
mendicants. The reason for the exemption of carpenters and blacksmiths
only when travelling together may probably have been that the sacred
pickaxe was their joint handiwork, having a wooden handle and an iron
head; and this seems a more likely explanation than any other in view
of the deep veneration shown for the pickaxe. Maimed persons would
probably not be acceptable victims to the goddess, according to the
rule that the sacrifice must be without spot or blemish. The other
classes have already been discussed under the exemption of first
victims. Among the Deccan Thugs if a man strangled any victim of a
class whom it was forbidden to kill, he was expelled from the community
and never readmitted to it. This was considered a most dreadful crime.
22. Belief in omens
The Thugs believed that the wishes of the deity were constantly
indicated to them by the appearance or cries of a large number of wild
animals and birds from which they drew their omens; and indeed the
number of these was so extensive that they could never be at a loss
for an indication of the divine will, and difficulties could only
arise when the omens were conflicting. As a general rule the omen
varied according as it was heard on the left hand, known as Pilhao,
or the right, known as Thibao. On first opening an expedition an omen
must be heard on the left and be followed by one on the right, or no
start was made; it signified that the deity took them first by the left
hand and then by the right to lead them on. When they were preparing to
march or starting on a road, an omen heard on the left encouraged them
to go on, but if it came from the right they halted. When arriving
at their camping-place on the other hand the omen on the right was
auspicious and they stayed, but if it came from the left the projected
site was abandoned and the march continued. In the case of the calls
of a very few animals these rules were reversed, left and right being
transposed in each instance. The howl of the jackal was always bad if
heard during the day, and the gang immediately quitted the locality,
leaving untouched any victims whom they might have inveigled, however
wealthy. The jackal's cry at night followed the rule of right and
left. The jackal was probably revered by the Thugs as the devourer
of corpses. The sound made by the lizard was at all times and places
a very good omen; but if a lizard fell upon a Thug it was bad, and
any garment touched by it must be given away in charity. The call of
the _saras_ crane was a very important omen, and when heard first on
the left and then on the right or vice versa according to the rules
given above, they expected a great booty in jewels or money. The
call of the partridge followed the same rules but was not of so much
importance. That of the large crow was favourable if the bird was
sitting on a tree, especially when a tank or river could be seen;
but if the crow was perched on the back of a buffalo or pig or on
the skeleton of any animal, it was a bad omen. Tanks or rivers were
likely places for booty in the shape of resting travellers, whose
death the appearance of the crow might portend; whereas in the other
positions it might prognosticate a Thug's own death. The chirping of
the small owlet was considered to be a bad omen, whether made while
the bird was sitting or flying; It was known as _chiraiya_ and is a
low and melancholy sound seldom repeated. They considered it a very
bad omen to hear the hare squeaking; this, unless it was averted
by sacrifices, signified, they said, that they would perish in the
jungles, and the hare or some other animal of the forest would drink
water from their skulls. "We know that the hare was used in Brittany
as an animal of augury for foretelling the future; and all animals of
augury were once venerated." [706] The hare has still some remnant of
sanctity among the Hindus. Women will not eat its flesh, and men eat
the flesh of wild hares only, not of tame ones. It seems likely that
the hare may have been considered capable of foretelling the future
on account of its long ears. The omen of the donkey was considered
the most important of all, whether it threatened evil or promised
good. It was a maxim of augury that the ass was equal to a hundred
birds, and it was also more important than all other quadrupeds. If
they heard its bray on the left on the opening of an expedition and
it was soon after repeated on the right, they believed that nothing
on earth could prevent their success during that expedition though
it should last for years. The ass is the sacred animal of Sitala,
the goddess of smallpox, who is a form of Kali. The ears and also
the bray of the ass would give it importance.
The noise of two cats heard fighting was propitious only during the
first watch of the night; if heard later in the night it was known
as '_Kali ki mauj_' or 'Kali's temper,' and threatened evil, and if
during the daytime as '_Dhamoni [707] ki mauj_,' and was a prelude
of great misfortune; while if the cats fell from a height while
fighting it was worst of all. The above shows that the cat was also
the animal of Kali and is a point in favour of her derivation from
the tiger; and on this hypothesis the importance of the omen of the
cat is explained. If they obtained a good omen when in company with
travellers they believed that it was a direct order from heaven to
kill them, and that if they disobeyed the sign and let the travellers
go they would never obtain any more victims. [708]
23. Omens and taboos
If a mare dropped a foal in their camp while they were travelling,
they were all contaminated or came under the Itak; and the only remedy
for this was to return home and start the journey afresh. Various other
events [709] also produced the Itak, especially among the Deccan Thugs;
these were the birth of a child in a Thug family; the first courses
of a Thug's daughter; a marriage in a Thug's family; a death of any
member of his family except an infant at the breast; circumcision of
a boy; a buffalo or cow giving calf or dying; and a cat or dog giving
a litter or dying. If a party fell under the Itak or contamination
at a time when it was extremely inconvenient or impossible to return
home, they sometimes marched back for a few miles and slept the night,
making a fresh start in the morning, and this was considered equivalent
to beginning a new journey after getting rid of the contamination. If
any member of the party sneezed on setting out on an expedition or on
the day's march, it was a bad omen and required expiatory sacrifices;
and if they had travellers with them when this omen occurred, these
must be allowed to escape and could not be put to death. Omens were
also taken from the turban, without which no Thug, except perhaps in
Bengal, would travel. [710] If a turban caught fire a great evil was
portended, and the gang must, if near home, return and wait for seven
days. But if they had travelled for some distance an offering of _gur_
(sugar) was made, and the owner of the turban alone returned home. If a
man's turban fell off it was also considered a very bad omen, requiring
expiatory sacrifices. The turban is important as being the covering
of the head, which many primitive people consider to contain the life
or soul (_Golden Bough_). A shower of rain falling at any time except
during the monsoon period from June to September was also a bad omen
which must be averted by sacrifices. Prior to the commencement [711]
of an expedition a Brahman was employed to select a propitious day
and hour for the start and for the direction in which the gang should
proceed. After this the auspices were taken with great solemnity and,
if favourable omens were obtained, the party set out and made a few
steps in the direction indicated; after this they might turn to the
right or left as impediments or incentives presented themselves. If
they heard any one weeping for a death as they left the village,
it threatened great evil; and so, too, if they met the corpse of any
one belonging to their own village, but not that of a stranger. And
it was also a bad omen to meet an oil-vendor, a carpenter, a potter,
a dancing-master, a blind or lame man, a Fakir (beggar) with a brown
waistband or a Jogi (mendicant) with long matted hair. Most of these
were included in the class of persons who might not be killed.
24. Nature of the belief in omens
The custom of the Thugs, and in a less degree of ignorant and primitive
races generally, of being guided in their every action by the chance
indications afforded from the voices and movements of birds and animals
appears to the civilised mind extremely foolish. But its explanation
is not difficult when the character of early religious beliefs is
realised. It was held by savages generally that animals, birds and all
other living things, as well as trees and other inanimate objects,
had souls and exercised conscious volition like themselves. And
those animals, such as the tiger and cow, and other objects, such
as the sun and moon and high mountains or trees, which appeared most
imposing and terrible, or exercised the most influence on their lives,
were their principal deities, the spirits of which at a later period
developed into anthropomorphic gods. Even the lesser animals and
birds were revered and considered to be capable of affecting the
lives of men. Hence their appearance, their flight and their cries
were naturally taken to be direct indications afforded by the god to
his worshippers; and it was in the interpretation of these, the signs
given by the divine beings by whom man was surrounded, and whom at one
time he considered superior to himself, that the science of augury
consisted. "The priestesses of the oracle of Zeus at Dodona called
themselves doves, as those of Diana at Ephesus called themselves bees;
this proves that the oracles of the temples were formerly founded on
observations of the flight of doves and bees, and no doubt also that
the original cult consisted in the worship of these animals." [712]
Thus, as is seen here, when the deity was no longer an animal but had
developed into a god in human shape, the animal remained associated
with him and partook of his sanctity; and what could be more natural
than that he should convey the indications of his will through the
appearance, movements and cries of the sacred animal to his human
_protégés_. The pseudo-science of omens is thus seen to be a natural
corollary of the veneration of animals and inanimate objects.
25. Suppression of Thuggee
When the suppression of the Thugs was seriously taken in hand by the
Thuggee and Dacoity Department under the direction of Sir William
Sleeman, this abominable confraternity, which had for centuries
infested the main roads of India and made away with tens of thousands
of helpless travellers, never to be heard of again by their families
and friends, was destroyed with comparatively little difficulty. The
Thugs when arrested readily furnished the fullest information of
their murders and the names of their confederates in return for
the promise of their lives, and Colonel Sleeman started a separate
file or _dossier_ for every Thug whose name became known to him, in
which all information obtained about him from different informers
was collected. In this manner, as soon as a man was arrested and
identified, a mass of evidence was usually at once forthcoming to
secure his conviction. Between 1826 and 1835 about 2000 Thugs were
arrested and hanged, transported or kept under restraint; subsequently
to this a larger number of British officers were deputed to the work
of hunting down the Thugs, and by 1848 it was considered that this
form of crime had been practically stamped out. For the support of the
approver Thugs and the families of these and others a labour colony
was instituted at Jubbulpore, which subsequently developed into the
school of industry and was the parent of the existing Reformatory
School. Here these criminals were taught tent and carpet-making and
other trades, and in time grew to be ashamed of the murderous calling
in which they had once taken a pride.
Turi
List of Paragraphs
1. _Origin of the caste_.
2. _Subdivisions_.
3. _Marriage_.
4. _Funeral rites_.
5. _Occupation_.
6. _Social status_.
1. Origin of the caste
_Turi._--A non-Aryan caste of cultivators, workers in bamboo, and
basket-makers, belonging to the Chota Nagpur plateau. They number about
4000 persons in Raigarh, Sarangarh and the States recently transferred
from Bengal. The physical type of the Turis, Sir H. Risley states,
their language, and their religion place it beyond doubt that they are
a Hinduised offshoot of the Munda tribe. They still speak a dialect
derived from Mundari, and their principal deity is Singbonga or the
sun, the great god of the Mundas: "In Lohardaga, where the caste is
most numerous, it is divided into four subcastes--Turi or Kisan-Turi,
Or, Dom, and Domra--distinguished by the particular modes of basket
and bamboo-work which they practise. Thus the Turi or Kisan-Turi,
who are also cultivators and hold _bhuinhari_ land, make the _sup_,
a winnowing sieve made of _sirki_, the upper joint of _Saccharum
procerum_; the _tokri_ or _tokiya_, a large open basket of split
bamboo twigs woven up with the fibre of the leaves of the _tal_
palm; the _sair_ and _nadua_, used for catching fish. The Ors are
said to take their name from the _oriya_ basket used by the sower,
and made of split bamboo, sometimes helped out with _tal_ fibre. They
also make umbrellas, and the _chhota dali_ or _dala_, a flat basket
with vertical sides used for handling grain in small quantities. Doms
make the _harka_ and scale-pans (_taraju_). Domras make the _peti_
and fans. Turis frequently reckon in as a fifth subcaste the Birhors,
who cut bamboos and make the _sikas_ used for carrying loads slung on
a shoulder-yoke (_bhangi_), and a kind of basket called _phanda_. Doms
and Domras speak Hindi; Turis, Ors and Birhors use among themselves
a dialect of Mundari." [713]
2. Subdivisions
In Raigarh and Sarangarh of the Central Provinces the above subcastes
are not found, and there are no distinct endogamous groups; but
the more Hinduised members of the caste have begun to marry among
themselves and call themselves Turia, while they look down on the
others to whom they restrict the designation Turi. The names of
subcastes given by Sir H. Risley appear to indicate that the Turis
are an offshoot from the Mundas, with an admixture of Doms and other
low Uriya castes. Among themselves the caste is also known as Husil,
a term which signifies a worker in bamboo. The caste say that their
original ancestor was created by Singbonga, the sun, and had five sons,
one of whom found a wooden image of their deity in the Baranda forest,
near the Barpahari hill in Chota Nagpur. This image was adopted as
their family deity, and is revered to the present day as Barpahari
Deo. The deity is thus called after the hill, of which it is clear that
he is the personified representative. From the five sons are descended
the five main septs of the Turis. The eldest was called Mailuar, and
his descendants are the leaders or headmen of the caste. The group
sprung from the second son are known as Chardhagia, and it is their
business to purify and readmit offenders to caste intercourse. The
descendants of the third son conduct the ceremonial shaving of such
offenders, and are known as Surennar, while those of the fourth son
bring water for the ceremony and are called Tirkuar. The fifth group
is known as Hasdagia, and it is said that they are the offspring of
the youngest brother, who committed some offence, and the four other
brothers took the parts which are still played by their descendants in
his ceremony of purification. Traces of similar divisions appear to be
found in Bengal, as Sir H. Risley states that before a marriage can
be celebrated the consent of the heads of the Madalwar and Surinwar
sections, who are known respectively as Raja and Thakur, is obtained,
while the head of the Charchagiya section officiates as priest. The
above names are clearly only variants of those found in the Central
Provinces. But besides the above groups the Turis have a large number
of exogamous septs of a totemistic nature, some of which are identical
with those of the Mundas.
3. Marriage
Marriage is adult, and the bride and bridegroom are usually about
the same age; but girls are scarce in the caste, and betrothals are
usually effected at an early age, so that the fathers of boys may
obtain brides for their sons. A contract of betrothal, once made,
cannot be broken without incurring social disgrace, and compensation
in money is also exacted. A small bride-price of three or four rupees
and a piece of cloth is payable to the girl's father. As in the case
of some other Uriya castes the proposal for a marriage is couched in
poetic phraseology, the Turi bridegroom's ambassador announcing his
business with the phrase: 'I hear that a sweet-scented flower has
blossomed in your house and I have come to gather it'; to which the
bride's father, if the match be acceptable, replies: 'You may take
away my flower if you will not throw it away when its sweet scent
has gone.' The girl then appears, and the boy's father gives her
a piece of cloth and throws a little liquor over her feet. He then
takes her on his lap and gives her an anna to buy a ring for herself,
and sometimes kisses her and says, 'You will preserve my lineage.' He
washes the feet of her relatives, and the contract of betrothal
is thus completed, and its violation by either party is a serious
matter. The wedding is performed according to the ritual commonly
practised by the Uriya castes. The binding portion of it consists
in the perambulation of the sacred pole five or seven times. After
each circle the bridegroom takes hold of the bride's toe and makes
her kick away a small heap of rice on which a nut and a pice coin
are placed. After this a cloth is held over the couple and each rubs
vermilion on the other's forehead. At this moment the bride's brother
appears, and gives the bridegroom a blow on the back. This is probably
in token of his wrath at being deprived of his sister. A meal of rice
and fowls is set before the bridegroom, but he feigns displeasure,
and refuses to eat them. The bride's parents then present him with a
pickaxe and a crooked knife, saying that these are the implements of
their trade, and will suffice him for a livelihood. The bridegroom,
however, continues obdurate until they promise him a cow or a bullock,
when he consents to eat. The bride's family usually spend some twenty
or more rupees on her wedding, and the bridegroom's family about fifty
rupees. A widow is expected to marry her Dewar or deceased husband's
younger brother, and if she takes somebody else he must repay to the
Dewar the expenditure incurred by the latter's family on her first
marriage. Divorce is permitted for misconduct on the part of the wife
or for incompatibility of temper.
4. Funeral rites
The caste bury the dead, placing the head to the north. They make
libations to the spirits of their ancestors on the last day of Phagun
(February), and not during the fortnight of Pitripaksh in Kunwar
(September) like other Hindu castes. They believe that the spirits of
ancestors are reborn in children, and when a baby is born they put a
grain of rice into a pot of water and then five other grains in the
names of ancestors recently deceased. When one of these meets the
grain representing the child they hold that the ancestor in question
has been born again. The principal deity of the caste is Singbonga, the
sun, and according to one of their stories the sun is female. They say
that the sun and moon were two sisters, both of whom had children, but
when the sun gave out great heat the moon was afraid that her children
would be burnt up, so she hid them in a _handi_ or earthen pot. When
the sun missed her sister's children she asked her where they were,
and the moon replied that she had eaten them up; on which the sun
also ate up her own children. But when night came the moon took her
children out of the earthen pot and they spread out in the sky and
became the stars. And when the sun saw this she was greatly angered
and vowed that she would never look on the moon's face again. And it
is on this account that the moon is not seen in the daytime, and as
the sun ate up all her children there are no stars during the day.
5. Occupation
The caste make and sell all kinds of articles manufactured from the
wood of the bamboo, and the following list of their wares will give an
idea of the variety of purposes for which this product is utilised:
_Tukna_, an ordinary basket; _dauri_, a basket for washing rice
in a stream; _lodhar_, a large basket for carrying grain on carts;
_chuki_, a small basket for measuring grain; _garni_ and _sikosi_,
a small basket for holding betel-leaf and a box for carrying it in
the pocket; _dhitori_, a fish-basket; _dholi_, a large bamboo shed
for storing grain; _ghurki_ and _paili_, grain measures; _chhanni_,
a sieve; _taji_) a balance; _pankha_ and _bijna_, fans; _pelna_, a
triangular frame for a fishing-net; _choniya_, a cage for catching
fish; _chatai_) matting; _chhata_, an umbrella; _chhitori_, a leaf
hat for protecting the body from rain; _pinjra_, a cage; _khunkhuna_,
a rattle; and _guna_, a muzzle for bullocks.
Most of them are very poor, and they say that when Singbonga made
their ancestors he told them to fetch something in which to carry
away the grain which he would give them for their support; but the
Turis brought a bamboo sieve, and when Singbonga poured the grain
into the sieve nearly the whole of it ran out. So he reproved them
for their foolishness, and said, '_Khasar, khasar, tin pasar_,'
which meant that, however hard they should work, they would never
earn more than three handfuls of grain a day.
6. Social status
The social status of the Turis is very low, and their touch is regarded
as impure. They must live outside the village and may not draw water
from the common well; the village barber will not shave them nor
the washerman wash their clothes. They will eat all kinds of food,
including the flesh of rats and other vermin, but not beef. The
rules regarding social impurity are more strictly observed in the
Uriya country than elsewhere, owing to the predominant influence of
the Brahmans, and this is probably the reason why the Turis are so
severely ostracised. Their code of social morality is not strict, and
a girl who is seduced by a man of the caste is simply made over to him
as his wife, the ordinary bride-price being exacted from him. He must
also feed the caste-fellows, and any money which is received by the
girl's father is expended in the same manner. Members of Hindu castes
and Gonds may be admitted into the community, but not the Munda tribes,
such as the Mundas themselves and the Kharias and Korwas; and this,
though the Turis, as has been seen, are themselves an offshoot of the
Munda tribe. The fact indicates that in Chota Nagpur the tribes of the
Munda family occupy a lower social position than the Gonds and others
belonging to the Dravidian family. When an offender of either sex is
to be readmitted into caste after having been temporarily expelled for
some offence he or she is given water to drink and has a lock of hair
cut off. Their women are tattooed on the arms, breast and feet, and
say that this is the only ornament which they can carry to the grave.
Velama
1. Origin and social status
_Velama, Elama, Yelama._--A Telugu cultivating caste found in
large numbers in Vizagapatam and Ganjam, while in 1911 about 700
persons were returned from Chanda and other districts in the Central
Provinces. The caste frequently also call themselves by the honorific
titles of Naidu or Dora (lord). The Velamas are said formerly to
have been one with the Kamma caste, but to have separated on the
question of retaining the custom of _parda_ or _gosha_ which they had
borrowed from the Muhammadans. The Kammas abandoned _parda_, and,
signing a bond written on palm-leaf to this effect, obtained their
name from _kamma_, a leaf. The Velamas retained the custom, but a
further division has taken place on the subject, and one subcaste,
called the Adi or original Velamas, do not seclude their women. The
caste has at present a fairly high position, and several important
Madras chiefs are Velamas, as well as the zamindar of Sironcha in the
Central Provinces. They appear, however, to have improved their status,
and thus to have incurred the jealousy of their countrymen, as is
evidenced by some derogatory sayings current about the caste. Thus
the Balijas call them Guni Sakalvandlu or hunchbacked washermen,
because some of them print chintz and carry their goods in a bundle
on their backs. [714] According to another derivation _guna_ is
the large pot in which they dye their cloth. Another story is that
the name of the caste is Velimala, meaning those who are above or
better than the Dhers, and was a title conferred on them by the Raja
of Bastar in recognition of the bravery displayed by the Velamas in
his army. These stories are probably the outcome of the feeling of
jealousy which attaches to castes which have raised themselves in
the social scale. The customs of the Velamas do not indicate a very
high standard of ceremonial observance, as they eat fowls and pork
and drink liquor. They are said to take food from Bestas and Dhimars,
while Kunbis will take it from them. The men of the caste are tall and
strong, of a comparatively fair complexion and of a bold and arrogant
demeanour. It is said that a Velama will never do anything himself
which a servant can do for him, and a story is told of one of them who
was smoking when a spark fell on his moustache. He called his servant
to remove it, but by the time the man came, his master's moustache had
been burnt away. These stories and the customs of the Velamas appear
to indicate that they are a caste of comparatively low position, who
have gone up in the world, and are therefore tenacious in asserting
a social position which is not universally admitted. Their subcastes
show that a considerable difference in standing exists in the different
branches of the caste. Of these the Racha or royal Velamas, to whom
the chiefs and zamindars belong, are the highest. While others are the
Guna Velamas or those who use a dyer's pot, the Eku or 'Cotton-skein'
who are weavers and carders, and the Tellaku or white leaf Velamas,
the significance of this last name not being known. It is probable
that the Velamas were originally a branch of the great Kapu or Reddi
caste of cultivators, corresponding in the Telugu country to the Kurmis
and Kunbis, as many of their section names are the same as those of
the Kapus. The Velamas apparently took up the trades of weaving and
dyeing, and some of them engaged in military service and acquired
property. These are now landowners and cultivators and breed cattle,
while others dye and weave cloth. They will not engage themselves
as hired labourers, and they do not allow their women to work in
the fields.
2. Marriage and social customs
The caste are said to have 77 exogamous groups descended from the 77
followers or spearsmen who attended Raja Rudra Pratap of Bastar when
he was ousted from Warangal. These section names are eponymous,
territorial and totemistic, instances of the last kind being
Cherukunula from _cheruku_, sugarcane, and Pasapunula from _pasapu_,
turmeric, and _nula_, thread. Marriage within the section or _gotra_
is prohibited, but first cousins may intermarry. Marriage is usually
adult, and the binding portion of the ceremony consists in the tying
of the _mangal-sutram_ or happy thread by the bridegroom round the
bride's neck. At the end of the marriage the _kankans_ or bracelets
of the bridegroom and bride are taken off in signification that all
obstacles to complete freedom of intercourse and mutual confidence
between the married pair have been removed. In past years, when the
Guna Velamas had a marriage, they were bound to pay the marriage
expenses of a couple of the Palli or fisherman caste, in memory of
the fact that on one occasion when the Guna Velamas were in danger of
being exterminated by their enemies, the Pallis rescued them in their
boats and carried them to a place of safety. But now it is considered
sufficient to hang up a fishing-net in the house when a marriage
ceremony of the Guna Velamas is being celebrated. [715] The caste do
not permit the marriage of widows, and divorce is confined to cases
in which a wife is guilty of adultery. The Velamas usually employ
Vaishnava Brahmans as their priests. They burn the bodies of those
who die after marriage, and bury those dying before it. Children are
named on the twenty-first day after birth, the child being placed in
a swing, and the name selected by the parents being called out three
times by the oldest woman present. On this day the mother is taken
to a well and made to draw a bucket of water by way of declaration
that she is fit to do household work.
Vidur
List of Paragraphs
1. _Origin and traditions_.
2. _The Purads, Golaks and Borals_.
3. _Illegitimacy among Hindustani castes_.
4. _Legend of origin_.
5. _Marriage_.
6. _Social rules and occupation_.
1. Origin and traditions
_Vidur, [716] Bidur_.--A Maratha caste numbering 21,000 persons in
the Central Provinces in 1911, and found in the Nagpur Division and
Berar. They are also returned from Hyderabad and Bombay. Vidur means
a wise or intelligent man, and was the name of the younger brother
of Pandu, the father of the Pandava brothers. The Vidurs are a caste
of mixed descent, principally formed from the offspring of Brahman
fathers with women of other castes. But the descendants of Panchals,
Kunbis, Malis and others from women of lower caste are also known
as Vidurs and are considered as different subcastes. Each of these
groups follow the customs and usually adopt the occupation of the
castes to which their fathers belonged. They are known as Kharchi or
Khaltatya, meaning 'Below the plate' or 'Below the salt,' as they are
not admitted to dine with the proper Vidurs. But the rule varies in
different places, and sometimes after the death of their mother such
persons become full members of the caste, and with each succeeding
generation the status of their descendants improves. In Poona the
name Vidur is restricted to the descendants of Brahman fathers, and
they are also known as Brahmanja or 'Born from Brahmans.' Elsewhere
the Brahman Vidurs are designated especially as Krishnapakshi, which
means 'One born during the dark fortnight,' The term Krishnapakshi
is or was also used in Bengal, and Buchanan defined it as follows:
"Men of the Rajput, Khatri and Kayasth tribes, but no others, openly
keep women slaves of any pure tribe, and the children are of the
same caste with their father, but are called Krishnapakshis and can
only marry with each other." [717] In Bastar a considerable class
of persons of similar illegitimate descent also exist, being the
offspring of the unions of immigrant Hindus with women of the Gond,
Halba and other tribes. The name applied to them, however, is Dhakar,
and as their status and customs are quite different from those of
the Maratha Vidurs they are treated in a short separate article.
2. The Purads, Golaks and Borals
Another small group related to the Vidurs are the Purads of Nagpur;
they say that their ancestor was a Brahman who was carried away
in a flooded river and lost his sacred thread. He could not put on
a new thread afterwards because the sacred thread must be changed
without swallowing the spittle in the interval. Hence he was put out
of caste and his descendants are the Purads, the name being derived
from _pur_, a flood. These people are mainly shopkeepers. In Berar
two other groups are found, the Golaks and Borals. The Golaks are
the illegitimate offspring of a Brahman widow; if after her husband's
decease she did not shave her head, her illegitimate children are known
as Rand [718] Golaks; if her head was shaved, they are called Mund
(shaven) Golaks; and if their father be unknown, they are named Kund
Golaks. The Golaks are found in Malkapur and Balapur and number about
400 persons. A large proportion of them are beggars. A Boral is said
to be the child of a father of any caste and a mother of one of those
in which widows shave their heads. As a matter of fact widows, except
among Brahmans, rarely shave their heads in the Central Provinces,
and it would therefore appear, if Mr. Kitts' definition is correct,
that the Borals are the offspring of women by fathers of lower caste
than themselves; a most revolting union to Hindu ideas. As, however,
the Borals are mostly grocers and shopkeepers, it is possible that
they may be the same class as the Purads. In 1881 they numbered only
163 persons and were found in Darhwa, Mehkar and Chikhli taluks.
3. Illegitimacy among Hindustani castes
There is no caste corresponding to the Vidurs in the Hindi Districts
and the offspring of unions which transgress the caste marriage
rules are variously treated. Many castes both in the north and south
say that they have 12 1/2 subdivisions and that the half subcaste
comprises the descendants of illicit unions. Of course the twelve
subdivisions are as a rule mythical, the number of subcastes being
always liable to fluctuate as fresh endogamous groups are formed
by migration or slight changes in the caste calling. Other castes
have a Lohri Sen or degraded group which corresponds to the half
caste. In other cases the illegitimate branch has a special name;
thus the Niche Pat Bundelas of Saugor and Chhoti Tar Rajputs of Nimar
are the offspring of fathers of the Bundela and other Rajput tribes
with women of lower castes; both these terms have the same meaning as
Lohri Sen, that is a low-caste or bastard group. Similarly the Dauwa
(wet-nurse) Ahirs are the offspring of Bundela fathers and the Ahir
women who act as nurses in their households. In Saugor is found a class
of persons called Kunwar [719] who are descended from the offspring
of the Maratha Brahman rulers of Saugor and their kept women. They
now form a separate caste and Hindustani Brahmans will take water
from them. They refuse to accept _katcha_ food (cooked with water)
from Maratha Brahmans, which all other castes will do. Another class
of bastard children of Brahmans are called Dogle, and such people
commonly act as servants of Maratha Brahmans; as these Brahmans do
not take water to drink from the hands of any caste except their own,
they have much difficulty in procuring household servants and readily
accept a Dogle in this capacity without too close a scrutiny of his
antecedents. There is also a class of Dogle Kayasths of similar,
origin, who are admitted as members of the caste on an inferior
status and marry among themselves. After several generations such
groups tend to become legitimised; thus the origin of the distinction
between the Khare and Dusre Srivastab Kayasths and the Dasa and Bisa
Agarwala Banias was probably of this character, but now both groups
are reckoned as full members of the caste, one only ranking somewhat
below the other so that they do not take food together. The Parwar
Banias have four divisions of different social status known as the
Bare, Manjhile, Sanjhile and Lohri Seg or Sen, or first, second,
third and fourth class. A man and woman detected in a serious social
offence descend into the class next below their own, unless they can
pay the severe penalties prescribed for it. If either marries or forms
a connection with a man or woman of a lower class they descend into
that class. Similarly, one who marries a widow goes into the Lohri Seg
or lowest class. Other castes have a similar system of divisions. Among
the great body of Hindus cases of men living with women of different
caste are now very common, and the children of such unions sometimes
inherit their father's property. Though in such cases the man is
out of caste this does not mean that he is quite cut off from social
intercourse. He will be invited to the caste dinners, but must sit in
a different row from the orthodox members so as not to touch them. As
an instance of these mixed marriages the case of a private servant, a
Mali or gardener, may be quoted. He always called himself a Brahman,
and though thinking it somewhat curious that a Brahman should be
a gardener, I took no notice of it until he asked leave to attend
the funeral of his niece, whose father was a Government menial,
an Agarwala Bania. It was then discovered that he was the son of a
Brahman landowner by a mistress of the Kachhi caste of sugarcane and
vegetable growers, so that the profession of a private or ornamental
gardener, for which a special degree of intelligence is requisite,
was very suitable to him. His sister by the same parents was married
to this Agarwala Bania, who said his own family was legitimate and he
had been deceived about the girl. The marriage of one of this latter
couple's daughters was being arranged with the son of a Brahman, father
and Bania mother in Jubbulpore; while the gardener himself had never
been married, but was living with a girl of the Gadaria (shepherd)
caste who had been married in her caste but had never lived with her
husband. Inquiries made in a small town as to the status of seventy
families showed that ten were out of caste on account of irregular
matrimonial or sexual relations; and it may therefore be concluded
that a substantial proportion of Hindus have no real caste at present.
4. Legend of origin
The Vidurs say that they are the descendants of a son who was born
to a slave girl by the sage Vyas, the celebrated compiler of the
Mahabharata, to whom the girl was sent to provide an heir to the
kingdom of Hastinapur. This son was named Vidur and was remarkable
for his great wisdom, being one of the leading characters in the
Mahabharata and giving advice both to the Pandavas and the Kauravas.
5. Marriage
As already stated, the Vidurs who are sprung from fathers of different
castes form subcastes marrying among themselves. Among the Brahman
Vidurs also, a social difference exists between the older members
of the caste who are descended from Vidurs for several generations,
and the new ones who are admitted into it as being the offspring of
Brahman fathers from recent illicit unions, the former considering
themselves to be superior and avoiding intermarriage with the latter
as far as possible. The Brahman Vidurs, to whom this article chiefly
relates, have exogamous sections of different kinds, the names being
eponymous, territorial, titular and totemistic. Among the names of
their sections are Indurkar from Indore; Chaurikar, a whisk-maker;
Acharya and Pande, a priest; Menjokhe, a measurer of wax; Mine,
a fish; Dudhmande, one who makes wheaten cakes with milk; Goihe, a
lizard; Wadabhat, a ball of pulse and cooked rice; Diwale, bankrupt;
and Joshi, an astrologer. The Brahman Vidurs have the same sect groups
as the Maratha Brahmans, according to the Veda which they especially
revere. Marriage is forbidden within the section and in that of the
paternal and maternal uncles and aunts. In Chanda, when a boy of one
section marries a girl of another, all subsequent alliances between
members of the two sections must follow the same course, and a girl
of the first section must not marry a boy of the second. This rule
is probably in imitation of that by which their caste is formed,
that is from the union of a man of higher with a woman of lower
caste. As already stated, the reverse form of connection is considered
most disgraceful by the Hindus, and children born of it could not
be Vidurs. On the same analogy they probably object to taking both
husbands and wives from the same section. Marriage is usually infant,
and a second wife is taken only if the first be barren or if she is
sickly or quarrelsome. As a rule, no price is paid either for the
bride or bridegroom. Vidurs have the same marriage ceremony as Maratha
Brahmans, except that Puranic instead of Vedic _mantras_ or texts
are repeated at the service. As among the lower castes the father of
a boy seeks for a bride for his son, while with Brahmans it is the
girl's father who makes the proposal. When the bridegroom arrives he
is conducted to the inner room of the bride's house; Mr. Tucker states
that this is known as the _Gaurighar_ because it contains the shrine of
Gauri or Parvati, wife of Mahadeo; and here he is received by the bride
who has been occupied in worshipping the goddess. A curtain is held
between them and coloured rice is thrown over them and distributed,
and they then proceed to the marriage-shed, where an earthen mound or
platform, known as Bohala, has been erected. They first sit on this
on two stools and then fire is kindled on the platform and they walk
five times round it. The Bohala is thus a fire altar. The expenses of
marriage amount for the bridegroom's family to Rs. 300 on an average,
and for the bride's to a little more. Widows are allowed to remarry,
but the second union must not take place with any member of the family
of the late husband, whose property remains with his children or,
failing them, with his family. In the marriage of a widow the common
_pat_ ceremony of the Maratha Districts is used. A price is commonly
paid to the parents of a widow by her second husband. Divorce is
allowed on the instance of the husband by a written agreement, and
divorced women may marry again by the _pat_ ceremony. In Chanda it
is stated that when a widower marries again a silver or golden image
is made of the first wife and being placed with the household gods
is daily worshipped by the second wife.
6. Social rules and occupation
The Vidurs employ Maratha Brahmans for religious and ceremonial
purposes, while their _gurus_ are either Brahmans or Bairagis. They
have two names, one for ceremonial and the other for ordinary use. When
a child is to be named it is placed in a cradle and parties of women
sit on opposite sides of it. One of the women takes the child in her
arms and passes it across the cradle to another saying, 'Take the
child named Ramchandra' or whatever it may be. The other woman passes
the child back using the same phrase, and it is then placed in the
cradle and rocked, and boiled wheat and gram are distributed to the
party. The Vidurs burn the dead, and during the period of mourning
the well-to-do employ a Brahman to read the Garud Puran to them,
which tells how a sinner is punished in the next world and a virtuous
man is rewarded. This, it is said, occupies their minds and prevents
them from feeling their bereavement. They will take food only from
Maratha Brahmans and water from Rajputs and Kunbis. Brahmans will,
as a rule, not take anything from a Vidur's hand, but some of them
have begun to accept water and sweetmeats, especially in the case
of educated Vidurs. The Vidurs will not eat flesh of any kind nor
drink liquor. The Brahman Vidurs did not eat in kitchens in the
famine. Their dress resembles that of Maratha Brahmans. The men do not
usually wear the sacred thread, but some have adopted it. In Bombay,
however, boys are regularly invested with the sacred thread before
the age of ten. [720] In Nagpur it is stated that the Vidurs like
to be regarded as Brahmans. [721] They are now quite respectable
and hold land. Many of them are in Government service, some being
officers of the subordinate grades and others clerks, and they are
also agents to landowners, patwaris and shopkeepers. The Vidurs are
the best educated caste with the exception of Brahmans, Kayasths and
Banias, and this fact has enabled them to obtain a considerable rise
in social status. Their aptitude for learning may be attributed to
their Brahman parentage, while in some cases Vidurs have probably
been given an education by their Brahman relatives. Their correct
position should be a low one, distinctly beneath that of the good
cultivating castes. A saying has it, 'As the _amarbel_ creeper has no
roots, so the Vidur has no ancestry.' But owing to their education
and official position the higher classes of Vidurs have obtained a
social status not much below that of Kayasths. This rise in position
is assisted by their adherence in matters of dress, food and social
practice to the customs of Maratha Brahmans, so that many of them
are scarcely distinguishable from a Brahman. A story is told of a
Vidur Tahsildar or Naib-Tahsildar who was transferred to a District
at some distance from his home, and on his arrival there pretended to
be a Maratha Brahman. He was duly accepted by the other Brahmans, who
took food with him in his house and invited him to their own. After
an interval of some months the imposture was discovered, and it is
stated that this official was at a short subsequent period dismissed
from Government service on a charge of bribery. The Vidurs are also
considered to be clever at personation, and one or two stories are
told of frauds being carried out through a Vidur returning to some
family in the character of a long-lost relative.
Waghya
_Waghya,_ [722] _Vaghe, Murli._--An order of mendicant devotees of
the god Khandoba, an incarnation of Siva; they belong to the Maratha
Districts and Bombay where Khandoba is worshipped. The term Waghya
is derived from _vagh_, a tiger, and has been given to the order
on account of the small bag of tiger-skin, containing _bhandar_, or
powdered turmeric, which they carry round their necks. This has been
consecrated to Khandoba and they apply a pinch of it to the foreheads
of those who give them alms. Murli, signifying 'a flute' is the name
given to female devotees. Waghya is a somewhat indefinite term and
in the Central Provinces does not strictly denote a caste. The order
originated in the practice followed by childless mothers of vowing to
Khandoba that if they should bear a child, their first-born should be
devoted to his service. Such a child became a Waghya or Murli according
as it was a boy or a girl. But they were not necessarily severed from
their own caste and might remain members of it and marry in it. Thus
there are Waghya Telis in Wardha, who marry with other Telis. The child
might also be kept in the temple for a period and then withdrawn, and
nowadays this is always done. The children of rich parents sometimes
simply remain at home and worship Khandoba there. But they must beg
on every Sunday from at least five persons all their lives. Another
practice, formerly existing, was for the father and mother to vow that
if a child was born they would be swung. They were then suspended
from a wooden post on a rope by an iron hook inserted in the back
and swung round four or five times. The sacred turmeric was applied
to the wound and it quickly healed up. Others would take a Waghya
child to Mahadeo's cave in Pachmarhi and let it fall from the top of
a high tree. If it lived it was considered to be a Raja of Mahadeo,
and if it died happiness might confidently be anticipated for it in
the next birth. Besides the children who are dedicated to Khandoba,
a man may become a Waghya either for life or for a certain period in
fulfilment of a vow, and in the latter case will be an ordinary member
of his own caste again on its termination. The Waghyas and Murlis who
are permanent members of the order sometimes also live together and
have children who are brought up in it. The constitution of the order
is therefore in several respects indefinite, and it has not become a
self-contained caste, though there are Waghyas who have no other caste.
The following description of the dedication of children to Khandoba is
taken from the _Bombay Gazetteer_ [723]. When parents have to dedicate
a boy to Khandoba they go to his temple at Jejuri in Poona on any day
in the month of Chaitra (March-April). They stay at a Gurao's house and
tell him the object of their visit. The boy's father brings offerings
and they go in procession to Khandoba's temple. There the Gurao
marks the boy's brow with turmeric, throws turmeric over his head,
fastens round his neck a deer-or tiger-skin wallet hung from a black
woollen string and throws turmeric over the god, asking him to take
the boy. The Murlis or girls dedicated to the god are married to him
between one and twelve years of age. The girl is taken to the temple
by her parents accompanied by the Gurao priest and other Murlis. At
the temple she is bathed and her body rubbed with turmeric, with which
the feet of the idol are also anointed. She is dressed in a new robe
and bodice, and green glass bangles are put on her wrists. A turban
and sash are presented to the god, and the _guru_ taking a necklace
of nine cowries (shells) fastens it round the girl's neck. She then
stands before the god, a cloth being held between them as at a proper
wedding, and the priest repeats the marriage verses. Powdered turmeric
is thrown on the heads of the girl and of the idol, and from that day
she is considered to be the wife of Khandoba and cannot marry any other
man. When a Murli comes of age she sits by herself for four days. Then
she looks about for a patron, and when she succeeds in getting one she
calls a meeting of her brethren, the Waghyas, and in their presence
the patron says, 'I will fill the Murli's lap.' The Waghyas ask him
what he will pay and after some haggling a sum is agreed on, which
thirty years ago varied between twenty-five and a hundred rupees. If
it is more than Rs. 50 a half of the money goes to the community,
who spend it on a feast. With the balance the girl buys clothes for
herself. She lives with her patron for as long as he wishes to keep
her, and is then either attached to the temple or travels about as a
female mendicant. Sometimes a married woman will leave her home and
become a Murli, with the object as a rule of leading a vicious life.
A man who takes a vow to become a Waghya must be initiated by a _guru_,
who is some elder member of the order. The initiation takes place
early on a Sunday morning, and after the disciple is shaved, bathed
and newly clad, the _guru_ places a string of cowries round his neck
and gives him the tiger-skin bag in which the turmeric is kept. He
always retains much reverence for his _guru_, and invokes him with the
exclamation, 'Jai Guru,' before starting out to beg in the morning. The
following articles are carried by the Waghyas when begging. The _dapdi_
a circular single drum of wood, covered with goat-skin, and suspended
to the shoulder. The _chouka_ consists of a single wire suspended from
a bar and passing inside a hollow wooden conical frame. The wire is
struck with a stick to produce the sound. The _ghati_ is an ordinary
temple bell; and the _kutumba_ is a metal saucer which serves for a
begging-bowl. This is considered sacred, and sandalwood is applied
to it before starting out in the morning. The Waghyas usually beg
in parties of four, each man carrying one of these articles. Two
of them walk in front and two behind, and they sing songs in praise
of Khandoba and play on the instruments. Every Waghya has also the
bag made of tiger-skin, or, if this cannot be had, of deer-skin,
and the cowrie necklace, and a _seli_ or string of goat-hair round
the neck. Alms, after being received in the _kutumba_ or saucer,
are carried in a bag, and before setting out in the morning they put
a little grain in this bag, as they think that it would be unlucky
to start with it empty. At the end of the day they set out their
takings on the ground and make a little offering of fire to them,
throwing a pinch of turmeric in the air in the name of Khandoba. The
four men then divide the takings and go home. Marathas, Murlis and
Telis are the castes who revere Khandoba, and they invite the Waghyas
to sing on the Dasahra and also at their marriages. In Bombay the
Waghyas force iron bars through their calves and pierce the palms of
their hands with needles. To the needle a strip of wood is attached,
and on this five lighted torches are set out, and the Waghya waves
them about on his hand before the god. [724] Once in three years each
Waghya makes a pilgrimage to Khandoba's chief temple at Jejuri near
Poona, and there are also local temples to this deity at Hinganghat
and Nagpur. The Waghyas eat flesh and drink liquor, and their social
and religious customs resemble those of the Marathas and Kunbis.
Yerukala
_Yerukala._--A vagrant gipsy tribe of Madras of whom a small number
are returned from the Chanda District. They live by thieving,
begging, fortune-telling and making baskets, and are usually
treated as identical with the Koravas or Kuravas, who have the same
occupations. Both speak a corrupt Tamil, and the Yerukalas are said to
call one another Kurru or Kura. It has been supposed that Korava was
the Tamil name which in the Telugu country became Yerukalavandlu or
fortune-teller. Mr. (Sir H.) Stewart thought there could be no doubt
of the identity of the two castes, [725] though Mr. Francis points out
differences between them. [726] The Yerukalas are expert thieves. They
frequent villages on the pretence of begging, and rob by day in regular
groups under a female leader, who is known as Jemadarin. Each gang
is provided with a bunch of keys and picklocks. They locate a locked
house in an unfrequented lane, and one of them stands in front as
if begging; the remainder are posted as watchers in the vicinity,
and the Jemadarin picks the lock and enters the house. When the
leader comes out with the booty she locks the door and they all
walk away. If any one comes up while the leader is in the house
the woman at the door engages him in conversation by some device,
such as producing a silver coin and asking if it is good. She then
begins to dispute, and laying hold of him calls out to her comrades
that the man has abused her or been taking liberties with her. The
others run up and jostle him away from the door, and while they are
all occupied with the quarrel the thief escapes. Or an old woman
goes from house to house pretending to be a fortune-teller. When
she finds a woman at home alone, she flatters and astonishes her by
relating the chief events in her life, how many children she has,
how many more are coming, and so on. When the woman of the house is
satisfied that the fortune-teller has supernatural powers, she allows
the witch to cover her face with her robe, and shuts her eyes while
the fortune-teller breathes on them, and blows into her ears and sits
muttering charms. Meanwhile one or two of the latter's friends who
have been lurking close by walk into the house and carry away whatever
they can lay their hands on. When they have left the house the woman's
face is uncovered and the fortune-teller takes her fee and departs,
leaving her dupe to find out that her house has been robbed. [727]
The conjugal morals of these people are equally low. They sell or
pledge their wives and unmarried daughters, and will take them back on
the redemption of the pledge with any children born in the interval,
as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. When a man is
sentenced to imprisonment his wife selects another partner for the
period of her husband's absence, going back to him on his release
with all her children, who are considered as his. Mr. Thurston gives
the following story of a gang of Koravas or Yerukalas in Tinnevelly:
"One morning, in Tinnevelly, while the butler in a missionary's
house was attending to his duties, an individual turned up with a
fine fowl for sale. The butler, finding that he could purchase it
for about half the real price, bought it, and showed it to his wife
with no small pride in his ability in making a bargain. But he was
distinctly crestfallen when his wife pointed out that it was his
own bird, which had been lost on the previous night. The seller was
a Korava." [728] In Madras they have also now developed into expert
railway thieves. They have few restrictions as to food, eating cats
and mice, though not dogs. [729] The Yerukalas practised the custom of
the Couvade as described by the Rev. John Cain, of Dumagudem: [730]
"Directly the woman feels the birth-pangs she informs her husband,
who immediately takes some of her clothes, puts them on, places on his
forehead the mark which the women usually place on theirs, retires
into a dark room where there is only a very dim lamp, and lies down
on the bed, covering himself up with a long cloth. When the child is
born it is washed and placed on the cot beside the father. Asafoetida,
jaggery and other articles are then given, not to the mother but to
the father. During the days of ceremonial impurity the man is treated
as other Hindus treat their women on such occasions. He is not allowed
to leave his bed, but has everything needful brought to him.
"The Yerukalas marry when quite young. At the birth of a daughter
the father of an unmarried little boy often brings a rupee and ties
it in the cloth of the father of a newly-born girl. When the girl is
grown up he can then claim her for his son."
NOTES
[1] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Kumhar.
[2] Gods and demons.
[3] _Hath_, hand and _garhna_ to make or mould.
[4] _Gora_, white or red, applied to Europeans.
[5] _History of the Marathas_, edition 1878, vol. i. p. 26.
[6] The above description is taken from the Central Provinces
_Monograph on Pottery and Glassware_ by Mr. Jowers, p. 4.
[7] _Golden Bough,_ ii. pp. 299, 301.
[8] _Rajasthan_, ii. p. 524.
[9] _Orphèus_, p. 152.
[10] The sacrifice is now falling into abeyance, as landowners refuse
to supply the buffalo.
[11] Dr. Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religion_, p. 368.
[12] _Vide_ article on Lakhera.
[13] _Rasmala_, i. p. 100.
[14] _Ibidem_, p. 241.
[15] _Khandesh Gazetteer_, p. 62.
[16] _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. i. part ii. p. 34.
[17] From _jihar_, a tree or shrub.
[18] _Acacia catechu_.
[19] _Dhan_ properly means wealth, _cf._ the two meanings of the word
stock in English.
[20] _Berar Census Report_ (1881), para. 180.
[21] _Ibidem_.
[22] _Bawan_ = fifty-two.
[23] _Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat_ p. 490, App. B, Gujar.
[24] _Eugenia jambolana_.
[25] _Ficus glomerata_.
[26] See the article entitled 'An Anthropoid.'
[27] _Bombay Gazetteer; Nasik_ p. 26.
[28] This is the rule in the Nagpur District.
[29] From a note by Mr. A. K. Smith, C.S.
[30] Circle Inspector Ganesh Prasad.
[31] _Semicarpus anacardium_.
[32] 'Oh, Lord Mahabir, give me a child, only one child.'
[33] _Beast and Man in India_, p. 44. But, according to the same
writer, the Hindus do say, 'Drunk as an owl' and also 'Stupid as
an owl.'
[34] _Crotalaria juncea_.
[35] The 3rd Baisakh (May) Sudi, the commencement of the agricultural
year. The name means, 'The day of immortality.'
[36] Furnished by Inspector Ganesh Prasad.
[37] _Dam_: breath or life.
[38] These paragraphs are largely based on a description of a Wardha
village by Mr. A.K. Smith, C.S.
[39] _Nagpur Settlement Report_, para. 45.
[40] The references to English farming in this paragraph are taken
from an article in the _Saturday Review_ of 22nd August 1908.
[41] _Report on the Territories of the Raja of Nagpur_.
[42] _Rasmala_, ii. 242.
[43] A freebooting tribe who gave their name to Kathiawar.
[44] This article is partly based on papers by Nanhe Khan,
Sub-Inspector of Police, Khurai, Saugor, and Kesho Rao, Headmaster,
Middle School, Seoni-Chhapara.
[45] Literally 'The Month of Separatica.' It is the eighth month
of the Muhammadan year and is said to be so called because in this
month the Arabs broke up their encampments and scattered in search of
water. On the night of Shab-i-Barat God registers all the actions of
men which they are to perform during the year; and all the children
of men who are to be born and die in the year are recorded. Though
properly a fast, it is generally observed with rejoicings and a
display of fireworks. Hughes' _Dictionary of Islam_, p. 570.
[46] _Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P.,_ art. Kunjra.
[47] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, _ibidem_.
[48] This article is compiled from notes taken by Mr. Hira Lal and
by Pyare Lal Misra, Ethnographic clerk.
[49] _North Arcot Manual_, vol. i. p. 220.
[50] Vol. i. p. 224.
[51] _Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies_.
[52] In this article some account of the houses, clothes and food
of the Hindus generally of the northern Districts has been inserted,
being mainly reproduced from the District Gazetteers.
[53] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Kurmi.
[54] _Indian Folk Tales_, p. 8.
[55] _Crotalaria juncea_. See article on Lorha for a discussion of
the Hindus' prejudice against this crop.
[56] There are several Chaurasis, a grant of an estate of this special
size being common under native rule.
[57] _Boswellia serrata_.
[58] _Eugenia Jambolana_.
[59] 2 lbs.
[60] Elliot, _Hoshangabad Settlement Report_, p. 115.
[61] The custom is pointed out by Mr. A. K. Smith, C.S.
[62] _Central Provinces Census Report_ (1911), p. 153.
[63] _C.P. Census Report_ (1911), p. 153.
[64] Or his big toe.
[65] _C.P. Census Report_ (1911), p. 158.
[66] In _Indian Folk Tales_.
[67] _Ficus R_.
[68] He is also known as Katia or Kattaha Brahman and as Mahapatra.
[69] _Indian Folk Tales_, p. 54.
[70] _Sorghum vulgare_, a large millet.
[71] Dr. Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religion_, p. 365.
[72] A measure of 400 lbs.
[73] _Butea frondosa_.
[74] A measure containing 9 lb. 2 oz. of rice.
[75] _Ficus glomerata_.
[76] From Ganga, or the Ganges, and _ala_ a pot.
[77] _Cajanus indicus_.
[78] _Phaseolus mungo_.
[79] _Phaseolus radiatus_.
[80] _Bombax malabaricum_.
[81] _Acacia arabica_.
[82] _Cassia tora_.
[83] _Punjab Census Report_ (1881), p. 340.
[84] _Schleichera trijuga_.
[85] _Hindus of Gujarat_, App., art. Vaghri, footnote.
[86] _Religion of the Semites_.
[87] Mackintosh, _Report on the Manbhaos._.
[88] See articles on Khairwar and Kewat.
[89] Colonel Ward's _Mandia Settlement Report_ p. 29.
[90] _Brief View of the Caste System_, p. 14.
[91] _Symplocos racemosa_.
[92] Raja Lachman Singh's _Bulandshahr Memo,_ p. 182, quoted in
Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Lodha.
[93] _Narsinghpur Settlement Report_ (1866), p. 28.
[94] _Nagpur Settlement Report_, p. 24.
[95] A small millet.
[96] Every twelfth year when the planet Jupiter is in conjunction
with the constellation Sinh (Leo).
[97] _Butea Frondosa_.
[98] This is known as _lodha_.
[99] The Rajjhars are a low caste of farmservants and labourers,
probably an offshoot of the Bhar tribe.
[100] _Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P. and Oudh_, art. Lohar.
[101] Dowson, _Classical Dictionary, s.v._
[102] In Uriya the term, _Ghantrabela_ means a person who has illicit
intercourse with another. The Ghantra Lohars are thus probably of
bastard origin, like the groups known as half-castes and others which
are frequently found.
[103] _Punjab Census Report_ (1881), para. 624. (Ibbetson.)
[104] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal,_ art. Lohar
[105] About 15 acres.
[106] _Berar Census Report_, 1881 (Kitts).
[107] _Punjab Ethnography_, para. 624.
[108] _Bombay Gazetteer_, xvi. 82.
[109] This article is partly based on papers by Mr. P.B. Telang,
Munsiff Seoni-Malwa, and Mr. Waman Rao Mandloi, naib-tahsildar, Harda.
[110] This derivation is also negatived by the fact that the name
Maharatta was known in the third century B.C., or long before the
Rastrakutas became prominent.
[111] _Bombay Gazetteer; Gujarat Hindus_, p. 338.
[112] Ibbetson, _Punjab Census Report_ (1881).
[113] _Bombay Gazetteer, l.c._ text and footnote by R. v. J. S. Taylor.
[114] Kitts' _Berar Census Report_ (1881), p. 143.
[115] See article on Panwar Rajput.
[116] _Berar Census Report_ (1881), p. 144.
[117] Kitts' _Berar Census Report_ p. 144.
[118] Described in the articles on Kurmi and Kunbi.
[119] _Loc. cit_.
[120] _Bombay Gazetteer, Gujarat Hindus, loc. cit._
[121] In Berar for ten days--Kitts' _Berar Census Report, l.c._
[122] 3rd Baisakh (April) Sudi, commencement of agricultural year.
[123] _Berar Census Report, l.c._
[124] _Berar Census Report, l.c._
[125] _Bombay Gazetteer, Gujarat Hindus_.
[126] It was formerly suggested that the fact of the Mahars being
the chief worshippers at the shrines of Sheikh Farid indicated that
the places themselves had been previously held sacred, and had been
annexed by the Muhammadan priests; and the legend of the giant, who
might represent the demonolatry of the aboriginal faith, being slain by
the saint might be a parable, so to say, expressing this process. But
in view of the way in which the Mehtars worship Musalman saints, it
seems quite likely that the Mahars might do so for the same reason,
that is, because Islam partly frees them from the utter degradation
imposed by Hinduism. Both views may have some truth. As regards the
legends themselves, it is highly improbable that Sheikh Farid, a
well-known saint of northern India, can ever have been within several
hundred miles of either of the places with which they connect him.
[127] From Mr. C. Brown's notes.
[128] _C.P. Police Gazette_.
[129] Kitts, _l.c._
[130] _Ibidem_.
[131] Stated by Mr. C. Brown.
[132] Vol. ii. p. 237.
[133] _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. xii. p. 175.
[134] Rev. A. Taylor in _Bombay Gazetteer, Gujarat Hindus_, p. 341 f.
[135] The following passage is taken from Forbes, _Rasmala_, i. p. 112.
[136] _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. xi p. 73.
[137] _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. xi. p. 73.
[138] Grant Duff; _History of the Marathas_, vol. i. p. 24.
[139] _Nagpur Settlement Report_ (1899), p. 29.
[140] This article consists of extracts from Sir H. Risley's account
of the caste in the _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_.
[141] See lists of exogamous septs of Mahli, Sandal, Munda and Puri
in Appendix to _Tribes and Castes cf Bengal_.
[142] _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 326.
[143] This article is based on papers by Mr. Hira Lal and Suraj Baksh
Singh, Assistant Superintendent, Udaipur State, with references
to Mr. Crooke's exhaustive article on the Majhwars in his _Tribes
and Castes_.
[144] Crooke, art Majhwar, para. 1.
[145] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Manjhi.
[146] Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Manjhi, para. 4.
[147] Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of Bengal,_ art. Manjhi, para. 63.
[148] _Ibidem,_ para. 54.
[149] _Ficus glomerata_.
[150] Based entirely on Colonel Dalton's account in the _Ethnology
of Bengal_, and Sir H. Risley's in the _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_.
[151] See _The Khandesh Bhil Corps_, by Mr. A. H. A. Simcox, p. 62.
[152] _Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies_, ed. 1897, pp. 25, 26.
[153] Page 130.
[154] _Hinduism_, in 'Religions Ancient and Modern' Series, p. 26.
[155] This article is based principally on Mr. Low's description of
the Marars in the _Balaghat District Gazetteer_ and on a paper by
Major Sutherland, I.M.S.
[156] _C.P. Census Report_ (1891), para. 180.
[157] Schröder, _Prehistoric Antiquities_, 121, quoted in Crooke's
_Tribes and Castes_, art. Mali.
[158] _Punjab Census Report_ (1881), para. 483.
[159] _Ibidem_, para. 484.
[160] _Balaghat District Gazetteer_, para. 59.
[161] Mr. Napier's _Bhandara Settlement Report_, quoted in article
on Kohli.
[162] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Mali.
[163] _Brief View of the Caste System_, p. 15.
[164] _La Cité antique_, 21st ed., p. 181.
[165] _The Antiquity of Oriental Carpets_, Sir G. Birdwood (Society
of Arts, 6th November 1908).
[166] The derivations of chaplet and rosary are taken from Ogilvy's
_Dictionary_.
[167] _Balaghat District Gazetteer_ (C.E. Low), para. 59.
[168] _Ibidem, loc. cit._
[169] _Balaghat District Gazetteer_, para. 59.
[170] _Hindu Castes_, vol. i. p. 327.
[171] _Balaghat District Gazetteer, loc. cit._
[172] This article is based on papers by Mr. Shyamacharan, B.A.,
B.L., Pleader, Narsinghpur, and Pyare Lal Misra, Ethnographic clerk.
[173] Crooke's _Tribes and Castes of the N. W. P. and Oudh_,
art. Mallah.
[174] This article is based on papers by Mr. Hira Lal and G. Padaya
Naidu of the Gazetteer Office.
[175] _Papers on the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces_, p. 6.
[176] Rev. A. Wood in _Chanda District Gazetteer_, para. 96.
[177] This article is compiled from notes on the caste drawn up
by Colonel Mackenzie and contributed to the _Pioneer_ newspaper by
Mrs. Horsburgh; Captain Mackintosh's _Account of the Manbhaos_ (India
Office Tracts); and a paper by Pyare Lal Misra, Ethnographic clerk.
[178] _Berar Census Report_ (1881), p. 62.
[179] Dattatreya was a celebrated Sivite devotee who has been deified
as an incarnation of Siva.
[180] _Berar Census Report_ (1881), p. 62.
[181] This article is based partly on a paper by Mr. Achyut Sitaram
Sathe, Extra Assistant Commissioner.
[182] P. 389.
[183] See also separate article Mang-Garori.
[184] _Berar Census Report_ (1881), p. 147.
[185] _Lectures on the Criminal Tribes of the Central Provinces_,
p. 79.
[186] _Cynodon dactylon_.
[187] Dr, Murray Mitchell's _Great Religions of India_, p. 63.
[188] From a note by Mr. Hira Lal.
[189] Times Press, Bombay, 1882.
[190] Kennedy, _Criminal Classes of the Bombay Presidency_, p. 122.
[191] _Lectures on some Criminal Tribes of India_.
[192] This passage is quoted by Mr. Gayer from the Supplement to the
Central Provinces Police Gazette of 24th January 1905.
[193] Hutton's _Thugs, Dacoits and Gang-robbers of India_ (1857),
pp. 164-168, quoting an account by Captain Barr.
[194] This article is based on papers by Rai Sahib Nanakchand, B.A.,
Headmaster, Saugor High School, and Munshi Pyare Lal Misra of the
Gazetteer office.
[195] _Brief View_, p. 30.
[196] The _tazias_ are ornamental representations of the tomb of
Hussain, which the Muhammadans make at the Muharram festival.
[197] This article is based on a note furnished by Mr. M. Aziz,
Officiating Naib-Tahsildar, Sironcha.
[198] From a glossary published by Mr. Gupta, Assistant Director of
Ethnology for India.
[199] Generally the paternal aunt's son.
[200] _Bassia latifolia_.
[201] Sir H. Risley's _India Census Report_ (1901), Ethnographic
Appendices, p. 93.
[202] P. 48, footnote.
[203] _Nasik Gazetteer_, _ibidem_. Elphinstone's _History_, p. 246.
[204] The proper spelling is Bhosle, but Bhonsla is adopted in
deference to established usage.
[205] _Bombay Census Report_ (1901), pp. 184-185.
[206] _Rajasthan_, i. 269.
[207] _Ibidem_, ii. 420.
[208] _Sholapur Gazetteer_, p. 87.
[209] _Satara Gazetteer_, p. 64.
[210] _Ibidem_, p. 75.
[211] _Bombay Census Report_ (1907), _ibidem_.
[212] _Letter on the Marathas_ (India Office Tracts).
[213] _Satara Gazetteer_, p. 75.
[214] Grant-Duff, 4th edition (1878), vol. i. pp. 70-72.
[215] Forsyth, _Nimar Settlement Report_.
[216] _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. xviii. part i. pp. 413-414.
[217] Elliott, _Hoshangabad Settlement Report_.
[218] The following description is taken from the Ethnographic
Appendices to Sir H.H. Risley's _India Census Report_ of 1901.
[219] Irvine's _Army of the Mughals_, p. 82.
[220] _Ibidem_, p. 232. Gopal is a name of Krishna.
[221] Lit. armour-bearers. Colonel Tone writes: "I apprehend from the
meaning of this term that it was formerly the custom of this nation,
as was the case in Europe, to appear in armour. I have frequently
seen a kind of coat-of-mail worn by the Maratha horsemen, known as a
_beuta_, which resembles our ancient hauberk; it is made of chain work,
interlinked throughout, fits close to the body and adapts itself to
all its motions."
[222] In order to obtain redress by Dharna the creditor or injured
person would sit starving himself outside his debtor's door, and if
he died the latter would be held to have committed a mortal sin and
would be haunted by his ghost; see also article on Bhat. The account
here given must be exaggerated.
[223] Elphinstone's _History_, 7th ed. p. 748.
[224] _Ibidem_, p. 753.
[225] Some information has been obtained from a paper by Mr. Harbans
Rai, Clerk of Court, Damoh.
[226] Rajendra Lal Mitra, quoted in art. on Beria.
[227] Greeven, op. cit. pp. 29, 33.
[228] Op. cit p. 334.
[229] Greeven, p. 66, quoting from _Echoes of Old Calcutta_.
[230] Crooke, _op. cit._
[231] Crooke, _op. cit._ para. 52.
[232] Ibbetson, _op. cit._ para. 227.
[233] Greeven, _op. cit._ p. 21.
[234] The fruit of the _achar_ (_Buchanamia latifolia_).
[235] _Acacia arabica_.
[236] _Acacia catechu_.
[237] Some writers consider that Balmik, the sweeper-saint, and
Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, are not identical.
[238] Page 38.
[239] Page 8.
[240] Page 54.
[241] _Punjab Census Report_ (1881), para. 599.
[242] Sir H. Risley, _l.c._, art. Dom.
[243] _Institutes_, x. 12-29-30.
[244] _Ibidem_, iv. 239, quoted by Mr. Crooke, art. Dom.
[245] Probably not within the house but in the veranda or courtyard.
[246] _Ibidem_.
[247] Crooke, _Tribes and Castes_, art. Dom, para. 34.
[248] _Bombay Gazetteer_, _l.c._
[249] _Ibidem_.
[250] _Punjab Census Report_ (1881), and _Bombay Gazetteer_, _l.c._
[251] _Hindu Tribes and Castes_, quoted by Sir H. Risley, art. Dom.
[252] _Bombay Gazetteer_, _l.c._
[253] Ibbetson, _l.c._ para. 596.
[254] _Ibidem_, para. 601.
[255] _L.c._ pp. 25, 26.
[256] _Rajputana Gazetteer_, vol. i. p. 165.
[257] A Muhammadan form of marriage.
[258] Elliott's _Hoshangabad Settlement Report_, p. 63.
[259] Cunningham's _Archaeological Survey Reports_, xx. p. 24.
[260] _Ibidem_.
[261] General Cunningham's enumeration of the _pals_ is as follows:
Five Jadon clans--Chhirkilta, Dalat, Dermot, Nai, Pundelot; five
Tuar clans--Balot, Darwar, Kalesa, Lundavat, Rattawat; one Kachhwaha
clan--Dingal; one Bargjuar clan--Singal. Besides these there is one
miscellaneous or half-blood clan, Palakra, making up the common total
of 12 1/2 clans.
[262] Ibbetson's _Punjab Census Report_, para. 582. Sir D. Ibbetson
considered it doubtful, however, whether the expression referred to
the Mina caste.
[263] Major Powlett, _Gazetteer of Alwar_.
[264] _Asiatic Studies_, vol. i. p. 162.
[265] Quoted in Dowson's _Elliott's History of India_, iii. p. 103.
[266] Dowson's _Elliott_, iv. pp. 60, 75, 283, quoted in Crooke's
_Tribes and Castes_.
[267] _Census Report_ (1881), para. 582.
[268] _Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P._ art. Meo.
[269] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 589.
[270] _Archaeological Reports_. vol. xx. p. 26.
[271] _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces_,
vol. iii. p. 496.
[272] Baden Powell's _Land Systems of British India_, vol. iii. p. 116.
[273] _Punjab Ethnography_, p. 289.
[274] _Brief View_, p. 43.
[275] Crooke, _loc. cit._
[276] This article is partly based on papers by Mr. Gopal Parmanand,
Deputy Inspector of Schools, Saugor, and Mr. Shamsuddin, Sub-Inspector,
City Police, Saugor.
[277] _Brief View_.
[278] _Bombay Ethnographic Survey Draft Monograph on Jingar_.
[279] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Mochi.
[280] _Eastern India_, vol. iii. p. 105.
[281] Rajendra Lal Mitra, _Indo-Aryans_, vol. i. pp. 222, 223.
[282] _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 326.
[283] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Bind.
[284] Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Bind.
[285] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, _loc. cit._
[286] The clever writer referred to in the preceding line.
[287] Breast-cloth.
[288] This article is mainly compiled from papers by Mr. Hira Lal
and Babu Gulab Singh, Superintendent of Land Records, Betul.
[289] _Berar Census Report_ (1881), p. 158.
[290] _Butea frondosa_.
[291] _Phyllanthus emiblica_.
[292] This article is compiled from papers by Mr. Chatterji, retired
E.A.C., Jubbulpore; Professor Sadashiva Jairam, M.A., Hislop College,
Nagpur; and Mr. C. Shrinivas Naidu, First Assistant Master, Sironcha,
Chanda; and from the Central Provinces District Gazetteers.
[293] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes,_ art. Nai.
[294] _Tribes and Castes_, art. Nai, para. 5.
[295] The following account is largely taken from Mr. Nesfield's
_Brief View of the Caste System_, pp. 42, 43.
[296] _Eighteenth Century Middle-Class Life_, by C.S. Torres, in the
_Nineteenth Century and After_, Sept. 1910.
[297] _Private Life of an Eastern King_, p. 17.
[298] _Ibidem_, p. 107.
[299] _Private Life of an Eastern King_, p. 330.
[300] In the _Balaghat District Gazetteer_.
[301] D.B. Pandian, _Indian Village Life_, under Barber.
[302] Quoted in Malcolm's _Sketch of the Sikhs, Asiatic Researches_,
vol. xi., 1810, p. 289.
[303] Quoted in Sir D. Ibbetson's account of the Sikhs in _Punjab
Census Report_ (1881).
[304] _Sketch of the Sikhs_, _ibidem_, pp. 284, 285.
[305] Professor Blümners, _Home Life of the Ancient Greeks_,
translation, p. 455.
[306] _Golden Bough_, 2nd ed. vol. iii. p. 370.
[307] Hendley, _Account of the Bhils_, _J.A.S.B._ vol. xxxiv., 1875,
p. 360.
[308] _Bombay Gazetteer_, _Hindus of Gujarat_, p. 528.
[309] S.C. Roy, _The Mundas and their Country_, p. 369.
[310] W. Kirkpatrick in _J.A.S.B._, July 1911, p. 438.
[311] _Golden Bough_, 3rd ed. vol. viii. p. 153.
[312] _G.B._, 3rd ed., _Balder the Beautiful_, vol. ii. p. 103.
[313] Dr. Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religion_, p. 45.
[314] _Golden Bough_, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 234.
[315] _Ibidem_, vol. i. p. 242.
[316] _Ibidem_, vol. i. pp. 368, 369.
[317] Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 270.
[318] _Bombay Gazetteer_, _Parsis of Gujarat_, p. 226.
[319] _Religion of the Semites_, note i. pp. 483, 484.
[320] _Bombay Gazetteer_, _Muhammadans of Gujarat_, p. 52.
[321] _Golden Bough_, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 368.
[322] Yule's ed. i. 50, quoted in _Bombay Gazetteer_, _Hindus of
Gujarat_, p. 470.
[323] Mr. V.A. Smith, _Early History of India_, 2nd ed. p. 128.
[324] _Religion of the Semites_, p. 33.
[325] Lev. xiv. 9 and Deut. xxi. 12.
[326] _Golden Bough_, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 371.
[327] _Ibidem_, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 370.
[328] _Ibidem_, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 371.
[329] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Sarwaria.
[330] _Occult Review_, October 1909.
[331] _Orpheus_, p. 99, and _Bombay Gazetteer_, _Parsis of Gujarat_;
p. 220.
[332] Hanuman is worshipped on this day in order to counteract the
evil influence of the planet Saturn, whose day it really is.
[333] Pots in which wheat-stalks are sown and tended for nine days,
corresponding to the Gardens of Adonis.
[334] _Religion of the Semites_ p. 324.
[335] _Golden Bough_, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 203.
[336] In 1911 the Naodas numbered 700 persons in the Central
Provinces. About 1000 were returned in Central India in 1891, but in
1901 they were amalgamated with the Mallahs or Kewats. This article
is based on a paper by Mr. P.R. Kaipitia, Forest Ranger.
[337] This article is partly compiled from notes furnished by
Mr. Aduram Chaudhri and Mr. Jagannath Prasad, Naib-Tahsildars.
[338] See art. Kanjar.
[339] _Punjab Census Report_ (1881), para. 588.
[340] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Beria.
[341] _Asiatic Researches_, vol. vii., 1803, by Captain Richardson.
[342] _Tribes and Castes_, art. Nat.
[343] Crooke, _l.c._, art. Nat.
[344] _Ibidem._
[345] Ibbetson, _Punjab Census Report_ (1886), para. 588.
[346] _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. xx. p. 186, quoted in Mr. Crooke's
article.
[347] Temple and Fallon's _Hindustani Proverbs_, p. 171.
[348] _As. Res._ vol. xvi., 1828, p. 213.
[349] _Melia indica_.
[350] _Bengali Festivals and Holidays_, by the Rev. Bihari Lal De,
_Calcutta Review_, vol. v. pp. 59, 60.
[351] Based on papers by Munshi Kanhya Lal of the Gazetteer Office,
and Mr. Mir Patcha, Tahsildar, Bilaspur.
[352] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Lunia.
[353] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Lunia.
[354] _Papers relating to the Aboriginal Tribes of the C.P._, p. 6.
[355] Note by Mr. Tawney as Deputy Commissioner of Chhindwara, quoted
in _Central Provinces Census Report_ of 1881 (Mr. Drysdale).
[356] Sir C.A. Elliott's _Hoshangabad Settlement Report_, p. 70.
[357] _Linguistic Survey_, vol. iv. p. 406.
[358] _Bengal Census Report_ (1901).
[359] _Ethnography_, p. 248.
[360] _Tribes and Castes_, vol. ii. p. 141.
[361] Panna Lal, Revenue Inspector.
[362] _Sorghum halepense_.
[363] _Shorea robusta_.
[364] In Bilaspur the men have an iron comb in the hair with a circular
end and two prongs like a fork. Women do not wear this.
[365] _Jungle Life in India_, p. 134.
[366] This article is compiled from papers by Pyare Lal Misra,
Ethnographic clerk, and Hazari Lal, Manager, Court of Wards, Chanda.
[367] The basil plant.
[368] _Bilaspur Settlement Report_ (1868), p. 49.
[369] From a note by Mr. Gauri Shankar, Manager, Court of Wards, Drug.
[370] With the exception of the historical notice, this article
is principally based on a paper by Mr. Muhammad Yusuf, reader to
Mr. C.E. Low, Deputy Commissioner of Balaghat.
[371] Tod's _Rajasthan_, ii. p. 407.
[372] Foreign elements in the Hindu population, _Ind. Ant._ (January
1911), vol. xl.
[373] _Early History of India_ (Oxford, Clarendon Press), 3rd ed.,
p. 303.
[374] _Ibidem_, 2nd ed., p. 288.
[375] _Ibidem_, p. 316.
[376] _Early History of India_ (Oxford, Clarendon Press), 3rd ed.,
p. 319.
[377] _Garret's Classical Dictionary of Hinduism_, _s.v._ Jamadagni
and Rama.
[378] The following extract is taken from Mr. V.A. Smith's _Early
History of India_, 3rd ed. pp. 395, 396. The passage has been somewhat
abridged in reproduction.
[379] Malcolm, i. p. 26.
[380] _Rajasthan_, ii. p. 215.
[381] A similar instance in Europe is related by Colonel Tod,
concerning the origin of the Madrid Restaurant in the Bois de Boulogne
at Paris. After Francis I had been captured by the Spaniards he was
allowed to return to his capital, on pledging his parole that he would
go back to Madrid. But the delights of liberty and Paris were too
much for honour; and while he wavered a hint was thrown out similar
to that of destroying the clay city. A mock Madrid arose in the Bois
de Boulogne, to which Francis retired. (_Rajasthan_, ii. p. 428.)
[382] _Rajasthan_, ii. pp. 264, 265.
[383] _Tribes and Castes_, art. Panwar.
[384] _Memoir of Central India_, i. 96.
[385] _Tribes and Castes_, art. Panwar.
[386] Blockmann, i. 252, quoted by Crooke.
[387] Ibbetson, P.C.R., para. 448.
[388] His name, Lakshma Deva, is given in a stone inscription dated
A.D. 1104-1105.
[389] The inscription is said to be in one of the temples in Winj
Basini, near Bhandak, in the Devanagri character in Marathi, and
to run as follows: "Consecration of Jagnarayan (the serpent of the
world). Dajíanashnaku, the son of Chogneka, he it was who consecrated
the god. The Panwar, the ruler of Dhar, was the third repairer of
the statue. The image was carved by Gopinath Pandit, inhabitant of
Lonar Mehkar. Let this shrine be the pride of all the citizens, and
let this religious act be notified to the chief and other officers."
[390] A few Panwar Rajputs are found in the Saugor District, but they
are quite distinct from those of the Maratha country, and marry with
the Bundelas. They are mentioned in the article on that clan.
[391] March.
[392] Rice boiled with milk and sugar.
[393] Village headman.
[394] Patwari or village accountant.
[395] _Introduction to the History of Religion_, p. 59.
[396] _Diospyros tomentosa_.
[397] Gamble, _Manual of Indian Timbers_, p. 461.
[398] _Balaghat District Gazetteer_.
[399] P. 62, quoting from Bringand, _Les Karens de la Birmanie,
Les Missions Catholiques_, xx. (1888), p. 208.
[400] _Tod's Rajasthan_, i. p. 165. But Johar is a common term of
salutation among the Hindus.
[401] _Seoni Settlement Report_ (1867), p. 43.
[402] From a collection of notes on Patharis by various police
officers. The passage is somewhat abridged in reproduction.
[403] _Ficus R._
[404] _Bassia latifolia_.
[405] _Ficus glomerata_.
[406] Note already quoted.
[407] This article is partly compiled from papers by Mr. Aduram
Chaudhri and Pandit Pyare Lal Misra of the Gazetteer Office,
and extracts from Mr. Kitts' _Berar Census Report_ (1881), and
Mr. Sewell's note on the caste quoted in Mr. Gayer's _Lectures on
the Criminal Tribes of the Central Provinces_.
[408] _Lectures on Criminal Tribes of the C.P._, p. 19.
[409] _Berar Census Report_ (1881), p. 135.
[410] _Bombay Ethnographic Survey_, art. Pardhi.
[411] _Jungle Life in India_, pp. 586-587.
[412] _Peasant Life in Bihar_, p. 80.
[413] See Jerdon's _Mammals of India_, p, 97. The account there given
is quoted in the _Chhindwara District Gazetteer_, pp. 16-17.
[414] _Private Life of an Eastern King_, p. 75.
[415] _Private Life of an Eastern King_, pp. 69, 71.
[416] _Private Life of an Eastern King_, pp. 39-40.
[417] _Bombay Ethnographic Survey_, _ibidem_.
[418] This article is based on papers by Mr. Panda Baijnath and other
officers of the Bastar State.
[419] By Dr. Cornish.
[420] _Linguistic Survey_; vol. ix, p. 554; vol. ii. part ii. pp. 434
ff.
[421] In the article on Gond it is suggested that the Gonds and
Khonds were originally one tribe, and the fact that the Parjas have
affinities with both of them appears to support this view.
[422] _Eugenia jambolana_.
[423] Hareli, _lit._ 'the season of greenness.'
[424] Nawakhani, _lit._ 'the new eating.'
[425] _Folklore as a Historical Science_ (G.L. Gomme), pp. 191, 192.
[426] Based principally on Mr. Crooke's article on the caste in his
_Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh_.
[427] Quoted in Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Bhar.
[428] Art. Pasi, para. 3.
[429] Art. Bhar, para. 4.
[430] A pulse of a black colour (_Phaseolus radiatus_).
[431] These sentences are taken from Dr. Grierson's _Peasant Life in
Behar_, p. 79.
[432] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Pasi.
[433] The following passage is taken from Mr. Crooke's article
on Pasi, and includes quotations from the _Sitapur_ and _Hardoi
Settlement Reports_.
[434] _Lectures on Criminal Tribes of the Central Provinces_.
[435] The word Rakshabandhan is said to mean literally, 'the bond
of protection.' Another suggested derivation, 'binding the devil,'
is perhaps incorrect.
[436] The historical account of the Pindaris is compiled from Malcolm's
_Memoir of Central India_, Grant-Duff's _History of the Marathas_,
and Prinsep's _Transactions in India_ (1825). Some notes on the modern
Pindaris have been furnished by Mr. Hira Lal, and Mr. Waman Rustom
Mandloi, Naib-Tahsildar, Harda.
[437] _Memoir of Central India_, i, p. 433.
[438] _Indian Antiquary_, 1900.
[439] _Transactions in India_, 1813-23, by H.T. Prinsep.
[440] _Maratha and Pindari Campaigns_.
[441] The above is compiled from the accounts given by Prinsep and
Malcolm.
[442] That is when Malcolm wrote his _Memoir_.
[443] This account is copied from Prinsep's _Transactions_.
[444] _Memoir_, ii. p. 177.
[445] _Rajasthan_, ii. p. 674.
[446] Malcolm, ii. p. 177.
[447] The Pindari's childhood is recalled here, _vide_ poem.
[448] Pamphlet published in connection with the Ethnographic Survey.
[449] _A Prabhu Marriage_, p. 3 _et seq._
[450] _A Prabhu Marriage_, pp. 26-27.
[451] _Bombay Ethnographic Survey_, art. Prabhu.
[452] _Bombay Gazetteer_, ix. p. 68, footnotes.
[453] _Hoshangabad Settlement Report_ (1807), p. 60.
[454] _Nagpur Settlement Report_.
[455] _Settlement Report_.
[456] Preserved butter.
[457] _Tribes and Castes_, art. Raghuvansi.
[458] Kitts' _Berar Census Report_ (1881), p. 157.
[459] About 400 lbs.
[460] _Early History of India_ (Oxford, Clarendon Press), 3rd edition,
p. 414.
[461] _Early History of India_, pp. 252, 254.
[462] _Ibidem_, p. 210.
[463] _Ibidem_, p. 227.
[464] Colonel Tod states that, the proper name of the caste was Jit
or Jat, and was changed to Jat by a section of them who also adopted
Muhammadanism. Colonel Tod also identifies the Jats or Jits with the
Yueh-chi as suggested in the text (_Rajasthan_, i. p. 97).
[465] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 42. Mr. Crooke points out that the Buddha
here referred to is probably the planet Mercury. But it is possible
that he may have been identified with the religious reformer as the
names seem to have a common origin.
[466] See also separate articles on Panwar, Rajput and Gujar.
[467] _J.A.S.B._, 1909, p. 167, _Guhilots_. See also annexed article
on Rajput Sesodia.
[468] _Ibidem_, i. p. 105.
[469] See also article Bhat.
[470] _Rajasthan_, i. pp. 231, 232.
[471] _Butea frondosa_. This powder is also used at the Holi festival
and has some sexual significance.
[472] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 159.
[473] _Melia indica_.
[474] _Ficus R._
[475] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 123.
[476] _Rajasthan_, i. pp. 267, 268.
[477] _Rasmala_, ii. p. 261.
[478] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 553.
[479] _Reminiscences of Lady Dorothy Nevill_, Nelson's edition, p. 367.
[480] _Rajasthan_, ii. p. 3.
[481] Mrs. Postans, _Cutch_, p. 35.
[482] Mrs. Postans, _Cutch_, p. 138.
[483] _Rajasthan_, i. pp. 543, 544.
[484] _Ibidem_, i. p. 125.
[485] _Ibidem_, ii. p. 52.
[486] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 552.
[487] Vol. ii. p. 227.
[488] A ceremony of smearing vermilion on the bride before a wedding,
which is believed to bring good fortune.
[489] The basil plant, sacred to Vishnu.
[490] A round black stone, considered to be a form of Vishnu.
[491] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 555.
[492] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_. art. Rajput.
[493] Quoted in Sir D. Ibbetson's _Punjab Census Report_ (1881),
para. 456.
[494] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Baghel.
[495] Vol. i. part i. p. 198.
[496] See also a history of the Baghels, called _Pratap Vinod_,
written by Khan Bahadur Rahmat Ali Khan, and translated by Thakur
Pratap Singh, Revenue Commissioner of Rewah.
[497] Article Baghel, quoting Forsyth's _Highlands of Central India_.
[498] _Memoir of Central India_, vol. ii. p. 479.
[499] _Punjab Census Report_ (1881), para. 445.
[500] This article consists entirely of extracts from Mr. Crooke's
article on the Bais Rajputs.
[501] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Banaphar.
[502] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 88, and _Supplementary Glossary_, _s.v._
[503] _Tribes and Castes_, _s.v._
[504] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Bundela.
[505] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 106.
[506] _Imperial Gazetteer_, articles Bundelkhand and Panna.
[507] _Early History of India_, 3rd edition, pp. 390-394.
[508] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Chandel.
[509] Sherring's _Castes and Tribes_, i. pp. 359, 360.
[510] _Supplemental Glossary_, art. Bhar.
[511] See art. Pasi.
[512] Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Chandel.
[513] _Ibidem_.
[514] _J.A.S.B._ vol. xlvi. (1877), p. 232.
[515] _Ibidem_, p. 233.
[516] _J.A.S.B._ vol. xlvi. (1877), p. 233.
[517] _Rajasthan_, i. pp. 86, 87.
[518] _Archaeological Reports_, ii. 255, quoted in Mr. Crooke's
art. Chauhan.
[519] _Imperial Gazetteer, India_, vol. ii, p. 312.
[520] _Early History of India_ and _Imperial Gazetteer, loc. cit._
[521] _Rajasthan_, ii. p. 419.
[522] The above particulars are taken from Mr. Crooke's article
Dhakara in his _Tribes and Castes_.
[523] _Early History of India_, 3rd edition, p. 391.
[524] _Early History of India_, 3rd edition, p. 385.
[525] _Tribes and Castes_, art. Gaharwar.
[526] _Tribes and Castes_, i. p. 75.
[527] _Supplementary Glossary_, p. 33.
[528] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 105.
[529] Quoted in Mr. Crooke's article on Gaharwar.
[530] See art. Rajput, Bundela.
[531] Quoted in Mr. Crooke's article Gaur Brahman.
[532] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 105.
[533] _Supplemental Glossary, s.v._
[534] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 36.
[535] The above notice of the Kalachuri or Haihaya dynasty of Tripura
is taken from the detailed account in the _Jubbulpore District
Gazetteer_, pp. 42-47, compiled by Mr. A.E. Nelson, C.S., and Rai
Bahadur Hira Lal.
[536] _Early History of India_, 3rd edition, p. 390. This, however,
does not only refer to the Jubbulpore branch, whose territories
did not probably include the south and east of the present Central
Provinces, but includes also the country over which the Ratanpur
kings subsequently extended their separate jurisdiction.
[537] _Bilaspur District Gazetteer_, chap. ii., in which a full and
interesting account of the Ratanpur kingdom is given by Mr. C.U. Wills,
C.S.
[538] _Ibidem_, p. 49.
[539] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Hayobans.
[540] The date is too early, as is usual in these traditions. Though
the Haihaivansis only founded Ratanpur about A.D. 1050, their own
legends put it ten centuries earlier.
[541] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 36.
[542] _Rajasthan_, ii. p. 319.
[543] _Early History of India_, 3rd edition, p. 381.
[544] The above information is taken from the new _Imperial Gazetteer_,
articles Jaipur and Alwar States.
[545] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Kachhwaha.
[546] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 94; Elliot's _Supplemental Glossary_,
art. Gaur Taga.
[547] See article on Kol.
[548] _Eastern India_, ii. 461, quoted in Mr. Crooke's art. Nagvansi.
[549] _Tribes and Castes_, vol. i. art. Nikumbh.
[550] _Rajasthan_, ii. p. 417.
[551] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Nikumbh.
[552] _Eastern India_, ii. p. 919.
[553] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 86.
[554] _Early History of India_, 3rd edition, p. 390.
[555] Ibidem, pp. 378, 379.
[556] _Rajasthan_, i. p. 91.
[557] Ibidem.
[558] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Parihar.
[559] _Early History of India_, 3rd edition, p. 389.
[560] _Ibidem_, p. 413.
[561] _Imperial Gazetteer_, art. Bali.
[562] _Rajasthan_, ii. pp. 16, 17.
[563] _Ibidem_, i. p. 81.
[564] _Ibidem_, ii. p. 37.
[565] _Ibidem_, ii. p. 35.
[566] _J.A.S.B._ (1909), vol. v. p. 167.
[567] _Imperial Gazetteer, loc. cit_.
[568] Bhandarkar, _loc. cit._ p. 180.
[569] The following extracts from the history of the clan are mainly
taken from the article on Udaipur State in the _Imperial Gazetteer_.
[570] _Rajasthan_, pp. 222, 223.
[571] Forbes, _Rasmala_ i. p. 400.
[572] _Rajasthan_ i. pp, 398, 399. The death of the young princess
was mainly the work of Amir Khan Pindari who brought pressure on the
Rana to consent to it in order to save his state.
[573] If the Chalukyas were in the Deccan in the fourth century they
could not have originated from the Hun and Gujar invaders of the
fifth and sixth centuries, but must have belonged to an earlier horde.
[574] _Some Problems of Ancient Indian History_, by Dr. Rudolf Hoernle,
_J.R.A.S._ (1905) pp. 1-14.
[575] _Tribes and Castes, s.v._
[576] _Ibidem_, art. Soiri.
[577] Mr Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Tomara.
[578] _Early History of India_, 3rd edition, p. 386.
[579] Elliot, _Supplemental Glossary, s.v._
[580] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes, and Castes,_ art. Tomara.
[581] See also article Jadum for a separate account of the local
caste in the Central Provinces.
[582] _Early History of India_, 3rd edition, p. 434.
[583] Based on the accounts of Sir H. Risley and Colonel Dalton and
a paper by Pandit G.L. Pathak, Superintendent, Korea State.
[584] _B. G. Poona_, Part I., p. 409.
[585] _An Account of the Origin and Present Condition of the Tribe
of Ramosis_ (Bombay, 1833; India Office Tracts. Also published in
the _Madras Journal of Literature and Science_.)
[586] This paragraph is mainly compiled from the _Nasik_ and _Poona_
volumes of the _Bombay Gazetteer_.
[587] _Ficus glomerata_.
[588] _Eugenia jambolana_.
[589] _Calotropis gigantea_.
[590] _Bauhinia racemosa_.
[591] _Poona Gazetteer_, part i. p. 425.
[592] _Tribes and Castes_, art. Rangrez.
[593] _Peasant Life in Bihar_, p. 101, footnote.
[594] Temple and Fallon's _Hindustani Proverbs_.
[595] Based on Sir H. Risley's account of the tribe in the _Tribes
and Castes of Bengal_, and on notes taken by Mr. Hira Lal at Raigarh.
[596] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, vol. ii. App. I.
[597] _Saccharum spontaneum_.
[598] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Rautia.
[599] This article is based principally on an account of the Sanaurhias
written by Mr. C.M. Seagrim, Inspector-General of Police, Indore,
and included in Mr. Kennedy's _Criminal Classes of Bombay_ (1908).
[600] Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Sanaurhia.
[601] _Criminal Classes of Bombay Presidency_, pp. 296, 297.
[602] Sleeman's _Reports on the Badhaks_, p. 327.
[603] Mr. Gayer's _Lectures on some Criminal Tribes_.
[604] _Report on the Badhak or Bagri Dacoits_ (1849), p. 328.
[605] J. Hutton, _A Popular Account of the Thugs and Dacoits and
Gang-robbers of India_ (London, 1857).
[606] This article is based almost entirely on a description of the
Sansias contained in Colonel Sleeman's _Report on the Badhak or Bagri
Dacoits_ (1849). Most of the material belongs to a report drawn up
at Nagpur by Mr. C. Ramsay, Assistant Resident, in 1845.
[607] Sleeman's _Report on the Badhaks_, p. 253.
[608] _Ibidem_, p. 254.
[609] Sir D. Ibbetson, _Punjab Census Report_ (1881), para. 577.
[610] P. 259.
[611] The description of a dacoity is combined from two accounts
given at pp. 257, 273 of Colonel Sleeman's _Report_.
[612] _Sorghum vulgare_.
[613] Made of the bark of the date-palm tied with strips of cloth
round some inflammable wood.
[614] Sleeman, p. 263.
[615] But it is unlucky for a snake to cross one's path in front.
[616] Sleeman, pp. 261, 262.
[617] Committee of five persons.
[618] _Ficus religiosa_.
[619] The seer = 2 lbs.
[620] _Criminal Classes in the Bombay Presidency_; Sansias and Berias.
[621] Mr. Gayer, _Central Provinces Police Lectures_; p. 68.
[622] This article is mainly based on a paper by Mr. Rama Prasad
Bohidar, Assistant Master, Sambalpur High School.
[623] See article Beldar for a notice of the different groups of
earth-workers.
[624] Said to be derived from their name Waddar.
[625] Story of Jasma Odni in Sati Charita Sangrah.
[626] This article is principally based on papers by Munshi
Gopinath, Naib-Tahsildar, Sonpur, Mr. Kaluram Pachore, Assistant
Settlement Officer, Sambalpur, and Mr. Hira Lal, Assistant Gazetteer
Superintendent.
[627] _Archaeological Reports_, vol. xvii. pp. 120, 122.
[628] _India Census Report_ (1901), p. 283.
[629] _Archaeological Reports_, vol. xvii. p. 113.
[630] Crooke's _Tribes and Castes of N.W.P._, art Savara.
[631] _Tribes and Castes of N.W.P._, art. Savara.
[632] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Savar.
[633] _F. glomerata_.
[634] _Balaghat Gazetteer_, C.E. Low, p. 207.
[635] _Bhandara Settlement Report_ (A.J. Lawrence), p. 49.
[636] Major Lucie Smith's _Chanda Settlement Report_ (1869), p. 105.
[637] The following account of the process of gold-washing is taken
from Mr. Low's _Balaghat Gazetteer_, p. 201.
[638] This article is compiled from a paper by Mr. Bhagirath Patnaik,
Diwan of Rairakhol, and from notes taken by Mr. Hira Lal at Rairakhol.
[639] This article is partly based on an article by Mr. Raghunath
Prasad, E.A.C., formerly Deputy Superintendent of Census, with extracts
from the late Mr. Nunn's Monograph on the Gold and Silver Industries,
and on information furnished by Krishna Rao, Revenue Inspector, Mandla.
[640] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Sunar.
[641] _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. xvii. p. 134.
[642] See articles on Kunbi and Kurmi.
[643] Monograph on the Gold and Silverware of the Central Provinces
(Mr. H. Nunn, I.C.S.), 1904. The tola is a rupee's weight, or
two-fifths of an ounce.
[644] _Journal of Indian Art_, July 1909, p. 172.
[645] From a monograph on rural customs in Saugor, by Major
W.D. Sutherland, I.M.S.
[646] Lang, _Myth, Ritual and Religion_, i. p. 98.
[647] _2 King Henry IV._ Act IV. Sc. 4.
[648] _Religion of the Semites_, note B., p. 453.
[649] _Bombay Gazetteer_, _Poona_, App. D., Ornaments.
[650] _Religion of the Semites_, Lecture III.
[651] 2 lbs.
[652] From a paper on Caste Panchayats, by the Rev. Failbus,
C.M.S. Mission, Mandla.
[653] Rajendra Lal Mitra, _Indo-Aryans_ vol. i. p. 231.
[654] _Introduction to the History of Religion_, 3rd ed. p. 172.
[655] Monograph, _loc. cit._
[656] This account is taken from Buchanan's _Eastern India_,
vol. ii. p. 100.
[657] _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. xii. p. 71.
[658] Temple and Fallon's _Hindustani Proverbs._
[659] _Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat,_ pp. 199, 200.
[660] Pandian's _Indian Village Folk_, p. 41.
[661] This article is compiled from a paper by Mr. D. Mitra, pleader,
Sambalpur.
[662] _Madras Census Report_, 1891, p. 301.
[663] This article is based on information: contributed by
Nand Kishore, Nazir of the Deputy Commissioner's Office, Damoh;
Mr. Tarachand Dube, Municipal Member, Bilaspur; and Mr. Aduram Chaudhri
of the Gazetteer Office.
[664] This article is based on papers by Mr. Prem Narayan, Extra
Assistant Commissioner, Chanda; Mr. Mir Pacha, Tahsildar, Seoni;
Mr. Chintaman Rao, Tahsildar, Chanda; and Mr. K.G. Vaidya, Chanda.
[665] _C.P. Census Report_ (1911), p. 147, referring to Professor
Karl Pearson's _Chances of Death_.
[666] _Tribes and Castes_, art. Teli.
[667] _Bassia latifolia._
[668] _Hindus of Gujarat_, p. 72.
[669] Weighing. 2 oz. each.
[670] _Phaseolus radiatas._
[671] Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Teli.
[672] _Acacia arabica_.
[673] _Melia indica_.
[674] _Indian Folk Tales_, p. 10.
[675] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Teli.
[676] _Rajasthan_, vol. ii. pp. 678, 679.
[677] Thevenot's _Travels_, Part III. p. 41, quoted in Dr. Sherwood's
account, _Ramaseeana_, p. 359.
[678] Sleeman, p. 11.
[679] P. 144.
[680] P. 162.
[681] P. 147.
[682] P. 205.
[683] Hutton's _Thugs and Dacoits_.
[684] Sleeman, p. 170.
[685] Sleeman, p. 168.
[686] He was called Feringia because he was born while his mother
was fleeing from an attack on her village by troops under European
officers (Feringis).
[687] Sleeman, p. 205.
[688] Hutton, p. 70.
[689] _Ibidem_, p. 71.
[690] Pp. 34, 35.
[691] See _Cults, Customs and Superstitions of India_, p. 249.
[692] Pp. 32, 33.
[693] Kandeli adjoins the headquarters station of Narsinghpur, the
two towns being divided only by a stream.
[694] P. 23.
[695] Near Bilehri in Jubbulpore.
[696] Captain Lowis in Sleeman's _Report on the Thug Gangs_ (1840).
[697] Pp. 15, 16.
[698] P. 7.
[699] P. 150.
[700] Sleeman's _Report on the Thug Gangs_, Introduction, p. vi.
[701] P. 142.
[702] P. 216.
[703] 'Oh Kali, Eater of Men, Oh great Kali of Calcutta.' The name
Calcutta signifies Kali-ghat or Kali-kota, that is Kali's ferry or
house. The story is that Job Charnock was exploring on the banks of
the Hoogly, when he found a widow about to be burnt as a sacrifice
to Kali. He rescued her, married her, and founded a settlement on
the site, which grew into the town of Calcutta.
[704] P. 133.
[705] P. 173.
[706] _Orphéus_, p. 170.
[707] Dhamoni is an old ruined fort and town in the north of Saugor
District, still a favourite haunt of tigers; and the Thugs may often
have lain there in concealment and heard the tigers quarrelling in
the jungle.
[708] Sleeman, p. 196.
[709] P. 91.
[710] P. 67.
[711] P. 100.
[712] _Orphéus_ (M. Salomon Reinach), p. 316.
[713] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Turi.
[714] _North Arcot Manual_, i. p. 216.
[715] _Indian Antiquary_ (1879), p. 216.
[716] This article is compiled from papers by Mr. W.A. Tucker,
Extra Assistant Commissioner, Bhandara, and Mr. B.M. Deshmukh,
Pleader, Chanda.
[717] Buchanan, _Eastern India_, i. p. 186.
[718] Rand = widow or prostitute.
[719] The term Kunwar is a title applied to the eldest son of a chief.
[720] _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. xviii. p. 185.
[721] _Nagpur Settlement Report_, p. 27.
[722] This article is partly based on a paper by Pandit Pyare Lal
Misra, ethnographic clerk.
[723] Vol. xx. pp. 189-190.
[724] _Bombay Gazetteer_; vol. xxii. p. 212.
[725] _Madras Census Report_ (1891).
[726] _Madras Census Report_ (1901).
[727] _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. xxi. pp. 170, 171.
[728] _Tribes and Castes of Southern India_, art. Korava.
[729] _North Arcot Manual_, p. 247.
[730] _Ind. Ant._ vol. iii., 1874, p. 157.
THE END
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