la -W i; tiiO f C3 y.o^ MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MADRAS • MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO DALLAS ■ SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO THE TRIBES AND CASTES OF THE CENTRAL PROVINCES OF INDIA BY R. V. RUSSELL OF THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE SUPERINTKNUENT OF ETHNOGRAPHY, CENTRAL PROVINCES ASSISTED BY RAI BAHADUR HlRA LAL EXTRA ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER PUBLISHED UNDER THE ORDERS OF THE CENTRAL PROVINCES ADMINISTRATION IN FOUR VOLUMES VOL. II MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON I 9 1 6 COPYRIGHT CONTENTS OF VOLUME II Articles on Castes and Trip.es of the Central Provinces in Alphabetical Order The articles wJiich are considered to be of most getieral interest are shown in capitals PAGE Agaria {Iron-worker) . 3 Agharia {Cultivator') . 8 Aghori {Religious ine72di cant) . 13 AhIr {Herdsmaii a7id niilknmn) 18 Andh {Tribe, now cultivators) . 38 Arakh {Hunter) 40 Atari {Scent-seller) 42 Audhelia {Labourer) . 45 Badhak {Robber) 49 Bahna {Cotton-cleaner) 69 Baiga {Forest tribe) n Bairagi {Religious inetidicants) 93 Balahi {Labourer and v llage watchman) 105 Balija {Cultivator) 108 Bania {Merchant and moneylender) 1 1 1 SUBCASTES OF BANIA Agarwala. Gahoi. Mahesh ri. Agrahari. Golapurab. Nema. Ajudhiabasi. Kasarwani. Oswal. Asathi. Kasauiidhan. Parwar Charnagri. Khandelwal. Srimali Dhusar. Lad. Umre. Dosar. Lingayat. vi CONTENTS Baxj.\ra {Pack-carrier) Barai {Betel-vi/ie groivcr and seller) Barhai {Carpe7iter) Bari {Maker of leaf-plates) Basdewa {Cattle-dealer and religious mendica7it) Basor {Bamboo-iuorker) Bedar {Soldier and public service) Beldar {Digger and navvy) Beria ( Vagabond gipsy) Bhaina {Forest tribe) . Bhamta {Criminal tribe and labourers) Bharbhunja {Grain-parcher) Bharia {Forest tribe) . Bhat {Bard and genealogist) . Bhatra {Forest tribe) . BhIl (Forest tribe) Bhilala {Landotuner arid cultiimtor) Bhishti ( IVater-man) . Bhoyar {Cultivator) Bhuiya {Forest tribe) . Bhulia ( IVeaver) Bhunjia {Forest tribe) . Binjhwar {Cultivator) . Bishnoi {Cultivator) Bohra {Trader) Brahman {Priest) SUBCASTES OF BRAHMAN Ahivasi. Maharashtra. Jijhotia. Maithil. Kanaujia, Kanyakubja. Mahvi. Khedawal. Nagar. Chadar ( Village watcJanari and labourer-) Cha.U\k {Tanner ajui labourer) Chasa {Cultivator) Chauhan ( Village watchman and labourer) ChhTpa {Dyer and calico-printer) ChitAri {Painter) Naramdeo. Sanadhya. Sarwaria. Utkal. PAGE 162 199 202 204 208 212 215 220 225 234 238 242 251 271 278 293 298 301 305 319 322 329 337 345 351 400 403 424 427 429 432 CONTENTS vii \'m;v. Chitrakathi (/Vi//f/;r .v/z<9tt';/w;/) . . . . -438 CvLic\\\ {'Trader a?id sliopkcepcr) . . . .440 Vits\\\vx {Village ivatchviaii and labourer) . . . 444 Daharia {Culth'ator) . . . . ■ -453 Vil\\\. ITT .'I ,1 gious and m every household. On the Haraiti day or the commence- ^^^^^^ ment of the agricultural year they worship the implements customs. 12 AGHARIA PART of cultivation, and at Dasahra the sword if they have one. They have a great reverence for cows and feed them sump- tuously at festivals. Every Agharia has a giwu or spiritual guide who whispers the mantra or sacred verse into his ear and is occasionally consulted. The dead are usually burnt, but children and persons dying of cholera or smallpox are buried, males being placed on the pyre or in the grave on their faces and females on their backs, with the feet pointing to the south. On the third day the ashes are thrown into a river and the bones of each part of the body are collected and placed under the pipal tree, while a pot is slung over them, through which water trickles continually for a week, and a lighted lamp, cooked food, a leaf-cup and a tooth-stick are placed beside them daily for the use of the deceased during the same period. Mourning ends on the tenth day, and the usual purification ceremonies are then performed. Children are mourned for a shorter period. Well -to -do members of the caste feed a Brahman daily for a year after a death, believing that food so given passes to the spirit of the deceased. On the anniversary of the death the caste- fellows are feasted, and after that the deceased becomes a purkha or ancestor and participates in devotions paid at the shrddhh ceremony. When the head of a joint family dies, his successor is given a turban and betel-leaves, and his forehead is marked by the priest and other relations with sandalwood. After a birth the mother is impure for twenty- one days. A feast is given on the twelfth day, and sometimes the child is named then, but often children are not named until they are six years old. The names of men usually end in Ram, Ndth or Singh, and those of women in Kunwa^-. Women do not name their husbands, their elderly relations, nor the sons of their husband's eldest brother. A man does not name his wife, as he thinks that to do so would tend to shorten his life in accordance with the Sanskrit saying, ' He who is desirous of long life should not name himself, his guru, a miser, his eldest son, or his wife.' The Agharias do not admit outsiders into the caste. They will not take cooked food from any caste, and water only from a Gaur or Rawat. They refuse to take water from an Uriya Brahman, probably in retaliation for the refusal of Uriya Brahmans to accept II Acr/ORr 13 water from an Ajrharfa, thoui;h taking it from a Kolta. Both the Uriya Brahmans and Agharias are of somewhat doubtful origin, and both are therefore probably the more concerned to maintain the social position to which they lay claim. But Kewats, Rawats, Telis and other castes eat cooked food from Agharias, and the caste therefore is admitted to a fairly high rank in the Uriya country. The Agharias do not drink liquor or eat any food which a Rajput would refuse. As cultivators they are considered to be proficient. In 5. Occupa- the census of 1901 nearly a quarter of the whole caste were ''°"' shown as malguzars or village proprietors and lessees. They wear a coarse cloth of homespun yarn which they get woven for them by Gandas ; probably in consequence of this the Agharias do not consider the touch of the Ganda to pollute them, as other castes do. They will not grow turmeric, onions, garlic, i-- ii. Fiaieralj-ites. Bringing back hiras. the soul. 3. A/ur dialects. 12. Religion. Kj-ishna and other 4. Tlie Yddavas and Kjishna. deified cowherds. 5. TJie modern Ahlrs an occitpa- 13. Caste deities. tional caste. 1 4. Other deities. 6. Subcastes. 15. The Diivdli festival. 7. The Dauwa or ivet-77urse 16. Omens. Ahirs. Fosterage. 17. Social customs. 8. Exogamy. 18. Or7taments. g. Marriage customs. 19. Occupation. 20. Preparations of milk. Ahir,^ Gaoli, Guala, Golkar, Gaolan, Rawat, Gahra, Mahakul. — The caste of cowherds, milkmen and cattle- breeders. In 191 I the Ahlrs numbered nearly 750,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar, being the sixth caste in point of numbers. This figure, however, excludes 150,000 Gowaris or graziers of the IMaratha Districts, and if these were added the Ahlrs would out- number the Telis and rank fifth. The name Ahir is derived from Abhlra, a tribe mentioned several times in inscriptions and the Hindu sacred books. Goala, a cowherd, from Gopala,'*^ a protector of cows, is the Bengali name for the caste, and Gaoli, with the same signification, is now used in the Central Provinces to signify a dairyman as opposed to a grazier. The Gaolans appear to be an inferior class of Gaolis in Berar. The Golkars of Chanda may be derived from the Telugu Golars or graziers, with a probable ' The information about birth Nandgaon State, customs in this article is from a paper " Go, gau or gai, an ox or cow, by Mr. Kalika Prasad, Tahsildar, Riij- and pat 01 fdlai, guardian. 18 PT. II FORMER DOMINANCE OF TJIE AllHIRAS 19 admixture of Goncl blood. They are described as wild- looking people scattered about in the most thickly forested tracts of the District, where they graze and tend cattle. Rawat, a corruption of Rajputra or a princeling, is the name borne by the Ahir caste in Chhattlsgarh ; while Gahra is their designation in the Uriya country. The Mahakul Ahirs are a small group found in the Jashpur State, and said to belong to the Nandvansi division. The name means ' Great family.' The Abhlras appear to have been one of the immigrant 2. Former tribes from Central Asia who entered India shortly before or '^°™"a"ce about the commencement of the Christian era. In the Puranas Abhiras. and Mahilbharata they are spoken of as Dasyu or robbers, and Mlechchhas or foreigners, in the story which says that Arjuna, after he had burned the dead bodies of Krishna and Balaram at Dwiirka, was proceeding with the widows of the Yadava princes to Mathura through the Punjab when he was waylaid by the Abhlras and deprived of his treasures and beautiful women. ^ An inscription of the Saka era 102, or A.D. 180, speaks of a grant made by the Senapati or commander-in-chief of the state, who is called an Abhlra, the locality being Sunda in Kathiawar. Another inscription found in Nasik and assigned by Mr. Enthoven to the fourth century speaks of an Abhlra king, and the Puranas say that after the Andhrabhrityas the Deccan was held by the Abhlras, the west coast tract from the Tapti to Deogarh being called by their name.^ In the time of Samudragupta in the middle of the fourth century the Abhiras were settled in Eastern Rajputana and Malwa.^ When the Kathis arrived in Gujarat in the eighth century, they found the greater part of the country in the possession of the Ahlrs.^ In the Mirzapur District of the United Provinces a tract known as Ahraura is considered to be named after the tribe ; and near Jhansi another piece of country is called Ahlrwar.^ Elliot states that AhIrs were also Rajas of Nepal about the com- mencement of our era.^ In Khandesh, Mr. Enthoven states, ^ Ind. Ant. (Jan. 1911), 'Foreign ^ Early History of India, 3rd ed. Elements in the Hindu Population,' by p. 286. Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar. •* Elliot, ibide?>!. ^ Elliot, Supplemental Glossary, s.v. ^ Bombay Monograph on Ahir. Ahir. 6 Elliot, ibidem. 20 AHIR PART the settlements of the Ahirs were important. In many castes there is a separate division of AhIrs, such as the Ahir Sunars, Sutars, Lohars, Shimpis, Sails, Guraos and Kolis. The fort of Asirgarh in Nimar bordering on Khandesh is supposed to have been founded by one Asa AhIr, who lived in the beginning of the fifteenth century. It is said that his ancestors had held land here for seven hundred years, and he had io,ooo cattle, 20,000 sheep and 1000 mares, with 2000 followers ; but was still known to the people, to whom his benevolence had endeared him, by the simple name of Asa. This derivation of Asirgarh is clearly erroneous, as it was known as Asir or Asirgarh, and held by the Tak and Chauhan Rajputs from the eleventh century. But the story need not on that account, Mr. Grant says,^ be set down as wholly a fable. Firishta, who records it, has usually a good credit, and more probably the real existence of a line of Ahir chieftains in the Tapti valley suggested a convenient ethnology for the fortress. Other traditions of the past domination of the pastoral tribes remain in the Central Provinces. Deogarh on the Chhindwara plateau was, according to the legend, the last seat of Gaoli power prior to its subversion by the Gonds in the sixteenth century. Jatba, the founder of the Deogarh Gond dynasty, is said to have entered the service of the Gaoli rulers, Mansur and Gansur, and subsequently with the aid of the goddess Devi to have slain them and usurped their kingdom. But a Gaoli chief still retained possession of the fort of Narnfda for a few years longer, when he also was slain by the Muhammadans. Similarly the fort of Gawilgarh on the southern crest of the Satpuras is said to be named after a Gaoli chief who founded it. The Saugor traditions bring down the Gaoli supremacy to a much later date, as the tracts of Etawa and Khurai are held to have been governed by their chieftains till the close of the seventeenth century. Certain dialects called after the Abhiras or AhIrs still remain. One, known as Ahlrwati, is spoken in the Rohtak and Gurgaon Districts of the Punjab and round Delhi. This is akin to Mewati, one of the forms of Rajasthani or the ^ Central Provinces Gazetteer (1S71), Introduction. THE YADAVAS AND KRISHNA 21 lancjuac^c of Rajputfina. The Malwi dialect of Rajasthani is also known as Ahiri ; and that curious form of Gujarati, which is half a l>hil dialect, and is generally known as Khandeshi, also bears the name of Ahlrani.^ The above linguistic facts seem to prove only that the Abhiras, or their occupational successors, the Ahlrs, were strongly settled in the Delhi country of the Punjab, Malwa and Khandesh. They do not seem to throw much light on the origin of the Abhiras or Ahlrs, and necessarily refer only to a small section of the existing Ahir caste, the great bulk of whom speak the Aryan language current where they dwell. Another authority states, however, that the Ahlrs of Gujarat still retain a dialect of their own, and concludes that this and the other Ahir dialects are the remains of the distinct Abhlra language. It cannot necessarily be assumed that all the above 4. The traditions relate to the Abhlra tribe proper, of which the ^^"^'^^^^ modern Ahir caste are scarcely more than the nominal Krishna. representatives. Nevertheless, it may fairly be concluded from them that the Abhiras were widely spread over India and dominated considerable tracts of country. They are held to have entered India about the same time as the Sakas, who settled in Gujarat, among other places, and, as seen above, the earliest records of the Abhiras show them in Nasik and Kathiawar, and afterwards widely spread in Khandesh, that is, in the close neighbourhood of the Sakas. It has been suggested in the article on Rajput that the Yadava and other lunar clans of Rajputs may be the representatives of the Sakas and other nomad tribes who invaded India shortly before and after the Christian era. The god Krishna is held to have been the leader of the Yadavas, and to have founded with them the sacred city of Dwarka in Gujarat. The modern Ahlrs have a subdivision called Jaduvansi or Yaduvansi, that is, of the race of the Yadavas, and they hold that Krishna was of the Ahir tribe. Since the Abhiras were also settled in Gujarat it is possible that they may have been connected with the Yadavas, and that this may be the foundation for their claim that Krishna was of their tribe. The Dyashraya-Kavya of Hemachandra speaks of a Chordasama prince reigning near Junagarh as ^ Linguistic Survey of India, vol. ix. part ii. p. 50. 22 AHIR PART an Abhira and a Yadava. But this is no doubt very con- jectural, and the simple fact that Krishna was a herdsman would be a sufficient reason for the Ahirs to claim connection with him. It is pointed out that the names of Abhira chieftains given in the early inscriptions are derived from the god Siva, and this would not have been the case if they had at that epoch derived their origin from Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu. "If the Abhiras had really been the descendants of the cowherds (Gopas) whose hero was Krishna, the name of the rival god Siva would never have formed components of the names of the Abhiras, whom we find mentioned in inscriptions. Hence the conclusion may safely be drawn that the Abhiras were by no means connected 'with Krishna and his cowherds even as late as about A.D. 300, to which date the first of the two inscriptions mentioned above is to be assigned. Precisely the same conclusion is .pointed to by the contents of the Harivansha and Bhagwat Purana. The upbringing of Krishna among the cowherds and his flirtations with the milkmaids are again and again mentioned in these works, but the word Abhira does not occur even once in this connection. The only words we find used are Gopa, Gopi and Vraja. This is indeed remarkable. For the descriptions of the removal of Krishna as an infant to Nanda, the cowherd's hut, of his childhood passed in playing with the cowherd boys, and of his youth spent in amorous sports with the milkmaids are set forth at great length, but the word Abhira is not once met with. From this only one conclusion is possible, that is, that the yVbhiras did not originally represent the Gopas of Krishna. The word Abhira occurs for the first time in connection with the Krishna legend about A.D. 550, from which it follows that the Abhiras came to be identified with the Gopas shortly before that date." ^ This argument is interesting as showing that Abhira was not originally an occupational term for a herdsman, nor a caste name, but belonged to an immigrant tribe. Owing apparently to the fact that the Abhiras, like the Gujars, devoted them- selves to a pastoral mode of life in India, whereas the previous Aryan immigrants had settled down to cultivation, ' Bombay Ethnographic Stcfvey. II THE VADAVAS ANn KRISHNA 23 they fravc their name to the i^rcat occujjational caste of herdsmen which was subsequently develo[)ed, and of which they may originally have constituted the nucleus. The Gujars, who came to India at a later period, form a parallel case ; although the Giljar caste, which is derived from them, is far less important than the Ahlr, the Gujars have also been the parents of several Rajpiit clans. The reason why the early Mathura legends of Krishna make no mention of the Ahirs may be that the deity Krishna is probably com- pounded of at least two if not more distinct personalities. One is the hero chief of the Yadavas, who fought in the battle of the Pandavas and Kauravas, migrated to Gujarat and was killed there. As he was chief of the Yadavas this Krishna must stand for the actual or mythical personality of some leader of the immigrant nomad tribes. The other Krishna, the boy cowherd, who grazed cattle and sported writh the milkmaids of Brindaban, may very probably be some hero of the indigenous non-Aryan tribes, who, then as now, lived in the forests and were shepherds and herdsmen. His lowly birth from a labouring cowherd, and the fact that his name means black and he is represented in sculpture as being of a dark colour, lend support to this view. The cult of Krishna, Mr. Crooke points out, was comparatively late, and probably connected with the development of the worship of the cow after the decay of Buddhism. This latter Krishna, who is worshipped with his mother as a child-god, was especially attractive to women, both actual and pro- spective mothers. It is quite probable therefore that as his worship became very popular in Hindustan in connection with that of the cow, he was given a more illustrious origin by identification with the Yadava hero, whose first home was apparently in Gujarat. In this connection it may also be noted that the episodes connected with Krishna in the Mahabharata have been considered late interpolations. But though the Ahir caste takes its name and is perhaps 5. The partly descended from the Abhlra tribe, there is no doubt "hirsTn that it is now and has been for centuries a purely occupa- occupa- tional caste, largely recruited from the indigenous tribes. ^^^^^^_ Thus in Bengal Colonel Dalton remarks that the features of the Mathuravasi Goalas are high, sharp and delicate, and 24 AHIR PART they are of light-brown complexion. Those of the Magadha subcaste, on the other hand, are undefined and coarse. They are dark-complexioned, and have large hands and feet. " Seeing the latter standing in a group with some Singhbhum Kols, there is no distinguishing one from the other. There has doubtless been much mixture of blood." ^ Similarly in the Central Provinces the Ahirs are largely recruited from the Gonds and other tribes. In Chanda the Gowaris are admittedly descended from the unions of Gonds and Ahirs, and one of their subcastes, the Gond- Gowaris, are often classed as Gonds. Again, the Kaonra Ahirs of Mandla are descended from the unions of Ahirs either with the Gonds or Kawars, and many of them are probably pure Gonds. They have Gond sept-names and eat pork. Members of one of their subdivisions, the Gond-Kaonra, will take water from Gonds, and rank below the other Kaonras, from whom they will accept food and water. As cattle have to go into the thick jungles to graze in the hot weather, the graziers attending them become intimate with the forest tribes who live there, and these latter are also often employed to graze the cattle, and are perhaps after a time admitted to the Ahir caste. Many Ahirs in Mandla are scarcely considered to be Hindus, living as they do in Gond villages in sole company with the Gonds. The principal subcastes of the Ahirs in northern India are the Jaduvansi, Nandvansi and Gowalvansi. The Jadu- vansi claimed to be descended from the Yadavas, who now form the Yadu and Jadon-Bhatti clans of Rajputs. The probability of a historical connection between the Abhiras and Yadavas has already been noticed. The Nandvansi consider their first ancestor to have been Nand, the cowherd, the foster-father of Krishna ; while the name of the Gowal- vansi is simply Gofda or Gauli, a milkman, a common synonym for the caste. The Kaonra Ahirs of Mandla and the Kamarias of Jubbulpore are considered to belong to the Nandvansi group. Other subcastes in the northern Districts are the Jijhotia, who, like the Jijhotia Brahmans, take their name from Jajhoti, the classical term for Bundelkhand ; the Bharotia ; and the Narwaria from Narwar. The Rawats * Quoted in Tribes ajtd Castes of Bengal, art. Goala. II THE DAUWA OR WET-NURSE AIItRS 25 of Chhattisi^arh arc divided into the Jliadia, Kosaria and Kanaujia groups. Of these the Jhadia or 'jungly,' and Kosaria from Kosala, the ancient name of the Chhattlsgarh country, arc the oldest settlers, while the Kanaujia are largely employed as personal servants in Chhattlsgarh, and all castes will take water from their hands. The superior class of them, however, refuse to clean household cooking vessels, and are hence known as Thethwar, or exact or pure, as distinguished from the other Rawats, who will perform this somewhat derogatory work. The Dauwa or wet-nurse Ahirs are descended from the 7- The illegitimate offspring of Bundela Rajput fathers by Ahir weunur°e mothers who were employed in this capacity in their families. Ahirs. An AhIr woman kept by a Bundela was known as Pardwarin, or one coming from another house. This is not considered a disgraceful origin ; though the Dauwa Ahirs are not re- cognised by the Ahirs proper, they form a separate section of the caste, and Brahmans will take water from them. The children of such mothers stood in the relation of foster- brothers to the Rajputs, whom their mothers had nursed. The giving of milk, in accordance with the common primitive belief in the virtue attaching to an action in itself, was held to constitute a relation of quasi-maternity between the nurse and infant, and hence of fraternity between her own children and her foster-children. The former were called Dhai-bhais or foster-brothers by the Rajputs ; they were often given permanent grants of land and employed on confidential missions, as for the arrangement of marriages. The minister of a Raja of Karauli was his Dauwa or foster-father, the husband of his nurse. Similarly, Colonel Tod says that the Dhai-bhai or foster-brother of the Raja of Boondi, com- mandant of the fortress of Tanagarh, was, like all his class, devotion personified.^ A parallel instance of the tie of foster-kinship occurs in the case of the foster-brothers of Conachar or Hector in The Fair Maid of Perth. Thus the position of foster-brother of a Rajput was an honourable one, even though the child might be illegitimate. Ahir women were often employed as wet-nurses, because domestic service was a profession in which they commonly engaged. Owing ^ Rajasthtui, ii. p. 639. 26 AHIR PART to the comparatively humble origin of a large proportion of them they did not object to menial service, while the purity of their caste made it possible to use them for the supply of water and food. In Bengal the Uriya Ahlrs were a common class of servants in European houses. The Gaolis or milkmen appear to form a distinct branch of the caste with subcastes of their own. Among them are the Nandvans, comm.on to the Ahlrs, the Malwi from Malwa and the Raghuvansi, called after the Rajput clan of that name. The Ranyas take their designation from rdn^ forest, like the Jhadia Rawats. The caste have exogamous sections, which are of the usual low-caste type, with titular or totemistic names. Those of the Chhattlsgarhi Rawats are generally named after animals. A curious name among the Mahakul Ahirs is Mathankata, or one who bit his mother's nipples. The marriage of persons belonging to the same section and of first cousins is prohibited. A man may marry his wife's younger sister while his wife is living, but not her elder sister. The practice of exchanging girls between families is permissible. As a rule, girls may be married before or after puberty, but the Golkars of Chanda insist on infant marriage, and fine the parents if an unmarried girl becomes adolescent. On the other hand, the Kaonra Ahlrs of Mandla make a practice of not getting a girl married till the signs of puberty have appeared. It is said that in Mandla if an unmarried girl becomes pregnant by a man of the caste the paiicJidyat give her to him and fine him Rs. 2 or 30, which they appro- priate themselves, giving nothing to the father. If an Ahir girl is seduced by an outsider, she is made over to him, and a fine of Rs. 40 or 50 is exacted from him if possible. This is paid to the girl's father, who has to spend it on a penalty feast to the caste. Generally, sexual offences within the community are leniently regarded. The wedding ceremony is of the type prevalent in the locality. The proposal comes from the boy's family, and a price is usually given for the bride. The Kaonra Ahlrs of Mandla and the Jharia and Kosaria Rawats of Chhattlsgarh employ a Brfdiman only to write the lagun or paper fi.xing the date of the wedding, and the ceremony is conducted by the sazvdsins or relatives of customs. II TURTfJ CUSTOMS 27 the parties. In Chhatti.s o when the autumn crops ripen. All classes observe this feast by illuminating their houses with many small saucer- lamps and letting off crackers and fireworks, and they generally gamble with money to bring them good luck during the coming year. The AhIrs make a mound of earth, which is called Govardhan, that is the mountain in Mathura which Krishna held upside down on his finger for seven days and nights, so that all the people might gather under it and be protected from the devastating storms of rain sent by Indra. After dancing round the mound they drive their cattle over it and make them trample it to pieces. At this time a festival called Marhai is held, at which much liquor is drunk and all classes disport themselves. In Damoh on this day the Ahirs go to the standing-place for village cattle, and after worshipping the god, frighten the cattle by waving leaves of the basil-plant at them, and then put on fantastic dresses, decorating themselves with cowries, and go round the village, singing and dancing. Elsewhere at the time of the Marhai they dance round a pole with peacock feathers tied to the top, and sometimes wear peacock feathers themselves, as well as aprons sewn all over with cowries. It is said that Krishna and Balaram used to wear peacock feathers when they danced in the jungles of Mathura, but this rite has probably some connection with 11 77//:" niU'Al.I FESTIVAL 33 the worship of the peacock. This bird niij^ht be venerated by the Ahirs as one of the prominent denizens of the jungle. In Raipur they tie a white cock to the top of the pole and dance round it. In Mandla, Khila Mutha, the god of the threshing-floor, is worshipped at this time, with offerings of a fowl and a goat. They also perform the rite oi jagdna or waking him up. They tie branches of a small shrub to a stick and pour milk over the stone which is his emblem, and sing, ' Wake up, Khila Mutha, this is the night of Amawas ' (the new moon). Then they go to the cattle-shed and wake up the cattle, crying, ' Poraiya, god of the door, watchman of the window, open the door, Nand Gowal is coming.' Then they drive out the cattle and chase them with the branches tied to their sticks as far as their grazing- ground. Nand Gowal was the foster-father of Krishna, and is now said to signify a man who has a lakh (100,000) of cows. This custom of frightening the cattle and making them run is called dhor jagdna or bichkdna, that is, to wake up or terrify the cattle. Its meaning is obscure, but it is said to preserve the cattle from disease during the year. In Raipur the women make an image of a parrot in clay at the Diwali and place it on a pole and go round to the different houses, singing and dancing round the pole, and receiving presents of rice and money. They praise the parrot as the bird who carries messages from a lover to his mistress, and as living on the mountains and among the green verdure, and sing : " Oh, parrot, where shall we sow gondla grass and where shall we sow rice ? " We will sow gondla in a pond and rice in the field. " With what shall we cvX gondla grass, and with what shall we cut rice ? " We shall cut gondla with an axe and rice with a sickle." It is probable that the parrot is revered as a spirit of the forest, and also perhaps because it is destructive to the corn. The parrot is not, so far as is known, associated with any god, but the Hindus do not kill it. In Bilaspur an ear of rice is put into the parrot's mouth, and it is said there that the object of the rite is to prevent the parrots from preying on the corn. VOL. II D 34 AHIR PART On the night of the full moon of Jesth (May) the Ahirs stay awake all night, and if the moon is covered with clouds they think that the rains will be good. If a cow's horns are not firmly fixed in the head and seem to shake slightly, it is called Maini, and such an animal is considered to be lucky. If a bullock sits down with three legs under him and the fourth stretched out in front it is a very good omen, and it is thought that his master's cattle will increase and multiply. When a buffalo-calf is born they cover it at once with a black cloth and remove it from the mother's sight, as they think that if she saw the calf and it then died her milk would dry up. The calf is fed by hand. Cow- calves, on the other hand, are usually left with the mother, and many people allow them to take all the milk, as they think it a sin to deprive them of it. The Ahirs will eat the flesh of goats and chickens, and most of them consume liquor freely. The Kaonra Ahirs of Mandla eat pork, and the Ravvats of Chhattlsgarh are said not to object to field-mice and rats, even when caught in the houses. The Kaonra Ahirs are also said not to con- sider a woman impure during the period of menstruation. Nevertheless the Ahirs enjoy a good social status, owing to their relations with the sacred cow. As remarked by Eha : " His family having been connected for many generations with the sacred animal he enjoys a certain consciousness of moral respectability, like a man whose uncles are deans or canons." ^ All castes will take water from the hands of an Ahir, and in Chhattlsgarh and the Uriya country the Rawats and Gahras, as the AhIr caste is known respectively in these localities, are the only caste from whom Brahmans and all other Hindus will take water. On this account, and because of their comparative purity, they are largely employed as personal servants. In Chhattlsgarh the ordinary Rawats will clean the cooking - vessels even of Muhammadans, but the Thethwar or pure Rawats refuse this menial work. In Mandla, when a man is to be brought back into caste after a serious offence, such as getting vermin in a wound, he is made to stand in the middle of a stream, while some elderly relative pours water over him. ' Behind the Bungalow. II ORNAMENTS -occur AT ION 35 lie then addresses tlie members of the caste /(^wc/^cy/^/ or committee, who are standing on the bank, saying- to them, ' Will you leave me in the mud or will you take me out ? ' Then they tell him to come out, and he has to give a feast. At this a member of the Meliha sept first eats food and puts some into the offender's mouth, thus taking the latter's sin upon himself The offender then addresses the pan- chdyat saying, ' Rajas of the Panch, eat.' Then the pan- chdyat and all the caste take food with him and he is readmitted. In Nandgaon State the head of the caste panchdyat is known as Thethwar, the title of the highest subcaste, and is appointed by the Raja, to whom he makes a present. In Jashpur, among the Mahakul Ahirs, when an offender is put out of caste he has on readmission to make an offering of Rs. 1-4 to Balaji, the tutelary deity of the State. These Mahakuls desire to be considered superior to ordinary Ahirs, and their social rules are hence very strict. A man is put out of caste if a dog, fowl or pig touches his water or cooking-pots, or if he touches a fowl. In the latter case he is obliged to make an offering of a fowl to the local god, and eight days are allowed for procuring it. A man is also put out of caste for beating his father. In Mandla, Ahirs commonly have the title of Patel or headman of a village, probably because in former times, when the country consisted almost entirely of forest and grass land, they were accustomed to hold large areas on contract for grazing. In Chhattlsgarh the Rawat women are especially fond of 18. Orna- wearing large churns or leg-ornaments of bell-metal. These "^^"'^• consist of a long cylinder which fits closely to the leg, being made in two halves which lock into each other, while at each end and in the centre circular plates project outwards horizontally. A pair of these churns may weigh 8 or 10 lbs., and cost from Rs. 3 to Rs. 9. It is probable that some important magical advantage was expected to come from the wearing of these heavy appendages, which must greatly impede free progression, but its nature is not known. Only about thirty per cent of the Ahirs are still occupied 19- Occu- in breeding cattle and dealing in milk and butter. About P^"°"- four per cent are domestic servants, and nearly all the remainder cultivators and labourers. In former times the 36 AHIR PART Ahirs had the exclusive right of milking the cow, so that on all occasions an Ahir must be hired for this purpose even by the lowest castes. Any one could, however, milk the buffalo, and also make curds and other preparations from cow's milk/ This rule is interesting as showing how the caste system was maintained and perpetuated by the custom of preserving to each caste a monopoly of its traditional occupation. The rule probably applied also to the bulk of the cultivating and the menial and artisan castes, and now that it has been entirely abrogated it would appear that the gradual decay and dissolution of the caste organisation must follow. The village cattle are usually entrusted jointly to one or more herdsmen for grazing purposes. The grazier is paid separately for each animal entrusted to his care, a common rate being one anna for a cow or bullock and two annas for a buffalo per month. When a calf is born he gets four annas for a cow-calf and eight annas for a she-buffalo, but except in the rice districts nothing for a male buffalo-calf, as these animals are considered useless outside the rice area. The reason is that buffaloes do not work steadily except in swampy or wet ground, where they can refresh themselves by frequent drinking. In the northern Districts male buffalo-calves are often neglected and allowed to die, but the cow-buffaloes are extremely valuable, because their milk is the principal source of supply of ghl or boiled butter. When a cow or buffalo is in milk the grazier often gets the milk one day out of four or five. When a calf is born the teats of the cow are first milked about twenty times on to the ground in the name of the local god of the Ahlrs. The remainder of the first day's milk is taken by the grazier, and for the next few days it is given to friends. The village grazier is often also expected to prepare the guest-house for Government officers and others visiting the village, fetch grass for their animals, and clean their cooking vessels. For this he sometimes receives a small plot of land and a present of a blanket annually from the village proprietor. Malguzars and large tenants have their private herdsmen. The pasturage afforded by the village waste lands and forest is, as a rule, only sufficient for the plough- ' Eastern India, ii. \>. 467. II PRRPA RATIONS OF MI I.K yj bullocks and more valuable milch-animals. The remainder arc taken away sometimes for lon^^ distances to the Govern- ment forest reserves, and here the herdsmen make stockades in the jungle and remain there with their animals for months together. The cattle which remain in the village are taken by the owners in the early morning to the kJiirkha or central standing-ground. Here the grazier takes them over and drives them out to pasture. He brings them back at ten or eleven, and perhaps lets them stand in some field which the owner wants manured. Then he separates the cows and milch-buffaloes and takes them to their masters' houses, where he milks them all. In the afternoon all the cattle are again collected and driven out to pasture. The cultivators are very much in the grazier's hands, as they cannot super- vise him, and if dishonest he may sell off a cow or calf to a friend in a distant village and tell the owner that it has been carried off by a tiger or panther. Unless the owner succeeds by a protracted search or by accident in finding the animal he cannot disprove the herdsman's statement, and the only remedy is to dispense with the latter's services if such losses become unduly frequent. On this account, accord- ing to the proverbs, the Ahir is held to be treacherous and false to his engagements. They are also regarded as stupid because they seldom get any education, retain their rustic and half-aboriginal dialect, and on account of their solitary life are dull and slow-witted in company. ' The barber's son learns to shave on the Ahir's head.' ' The cow is in league with the milkman and lets him milk water into the pail.' The Ahirs are also hot-tempered, and their propensity for drinking often results in affrays, when they break each other's head with their cattle-staffs. ' A Gaoli's quarrel : drunk at night and friends in the morning.' Hindus nearly always boil their milk before using it, as 20. Prepar- the taste of milk fresh from the cow is considered unpalat- ^l°j!^^ °*^ able. After boiling, the milk is put in a pot and a little old curds added, when the whole becomes dahi or sour curds. This is a favourite food, and appears to be exactly the same substance as the Bulgarian sour milk which is now con- sidered to have much medicinal value. Butter is also made by churning these curds or dahi. Butter is never used 38 ANDH PART without being boiled first, when it beconnes converted into a sort of oil ; this has the advantage of keeping much better than fresh butter, and may remain fit for use for as long as a year. This boiled butter is known as ght, and is the staple product of the dairy industry, the bulk of the surplus supply of milk being devoted to its manufacture. It is freely used by all classes who can afford it, and serves very well for cooking purposes. There is a comparatively small market for fresh milk among the Hindus, and as a rule only those drink milk who obtain it from their own animals. The acid residue after butter has been made from dahi (curds) or milk is known as viatJia or butter-milk, and is the only kind of milk drunk by the poorer classes. Milk boiled so long as to become solidified is known as kliir, and is used by confectioners for making sweets. When the milk is boiled and some sour milk added to it, so that it coagulates while hot, the preparation is called ckhana. The whey is expressed from this by squeezing it in a cloth, and a kind of cheese is obtained.^ The liquid which oozes out at the root of a cow's horns after death is known as gaolocJian and sells for a high price, as it is considered a valuable medicine for children's cough and lung diseases. Andh." — A low cultivating caste of Berar, who numbered 52,000 persons in 191 i, and belong to the Yeotmal, Akola and Buldana Districts. The Andhs appear to be a non- Aryan tribe of the Andhra or Tamil country, from which they derive their name. The territories of the Andhra dynasty extended across southern India from sea to sea in the early part of the Christian era. This designation may, however, have been given to them after migration, emigrants being not infrequently called in their new country by the name of the place from which they came, as Berari, Purdesi, Audhia (from Oudh), and so on. At present there seems to be no caste called Andh in Madras. Mr. Kitts ^ notes that they still come from Hyderabad across the Penganga river. ' Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. pp. paper by Mr. W. S. Slaney, E.A.C., 924, 943. Akola. ^ This article is mainly based on a ^ Berar Census Report (18S1). I AND II 39 The caste arc divided into two groups, Vartati or pure and Khaltfiti or illci,M'timatc, which take food together, but do not intermarry. They have a large number of exoga- mous septs, most of which appear to have Marathi names, either taken from villages or of a titular character. A few are called after animals or plants, as Majiria the cat, Ringni a kind of tree, Dumare from Dumar, an ant-hill, Dukare from Dukar, a pig, and Titawe from Titawa, a bird. Baghmare means tiger-killer or one killed by a tiger ; members of this sept revere the tiger. Two septs, Bhoyar and Wanjari, are named after other castes. Marriage between members of the same sept is pro- hibited, and also between first cousins, except that a sister's son may marry a brother's daughter. Until recently marriage has been adult, but girls are now wedded as children, and betrothals are sometimes arranged before they are born. The ceremony resembles that of the Kunbis. Betrothals are arranged between October and December, and the weddings take place three or four months later, from January to April. If the bride is mature she goes at once to her husband's house. Polygamy is allowed ; and as only a well-to-do man can afford to obtain more than one wife, those who have several are held to be wealthy, and treated with respect. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted, but the widow may not marry her husband's brother nor any member of his clan. If an unmarried girl becomes pregnant by a man of her own or a superior caste she is fined, and can then be married as a widow. Her feet are not washed nor besmeared with red powder at the wedding ceremony like those of other girls. In some localities Andh women detected in a criminal intimacy even with men of such im- pure castes as the Mahars and Mangs have been readmitted into the community. A substantial fine is imposed on a woman detected in adultery according to her means and spent on a feast to the caste. All the members thus have a personal interest in the detection and punishment of such offences. The dead are usually buried, and water and sugar are placed in a d}'ing man's mouth instead of the sacred objects used by Hindus ; nor are the dying urged to call on Rama. The dead are buried with the head to the south, 40 ARAKH PART in opposition to the Hindu custom. The Andhs will eat the flesh of fowls and pigs, and even cats, rats and snakes in some localities, though the more civilised have abjured these latter. They are very fond of pork, and drink liquor, and will take food from Kunbis, Malis and Kolis, but not from Gonds. They have a caste panchdyat or committee, with a headman called Mohtaria, and two officers known as Phopatia and Dukria. When a caste offence is committed the Dukria goes to call the offender, and is given the earthen pots used at the penalty-feast, while the Phopatia receives a new piece of cloth. The Mohtaria or headman goes from village to village to decide cases, and gets a share of the fine. The caste are shikaris or hunters, and culti- vators. • They catch antelope, hares, pig and nilgai in their nets, and kill them with sticks and stones, and they dam up streams and net fish. Birds are not caught. Generally, the customs of the Andhs clearly point to an aboriginal origin, but they are rapidly being Hinduised, and in some tracts can scarcely be distinguished from Kunbis. They have Marathi names ; and though only one name is given at birth, Mr. Slaney notes that this is frequently changed for some pet name, and as often as not a man goes regularly by some name other than his real one, Arakh. — A small caste of cultivators and labourers found principally in the Chanda District and Berar and scattered over other localities. The Arakhs are considered to be an offshoot of the Pasi or Bahelia caste of hunters and fowlers. Mr. Crooke ^ writes of them : " All their tradi- tions connect them with the Pasis and Parasurama, the sixth Avatara of Vishnu. One story runs that Parasurama was bathing in the sea, when a leech bit his foot and caused it to bleed. He divided the blood into two parts ; out of one part he made the first Pasi and out of the second the first Arakh. Another story is that the Pasis were made out of the sweat {paslna) of Parasurama. While Para- surama was away the Pasi shot some animals with his bow, and the deity was so enraged that he cursed the Pasi, and swore that his descendants should keep pigs. This accounts ^ Tribes and Castes, art. Arakh. II ARAKH 41 for the degradation of the Pfisis. Subsequently Parasurama sent for some Pfisis to help him in one of his wars ; but they ran away and hid in an arhar ' field and were hence called Arakhs." This connection with the Pasis is also recognised in the case of the Arakhs of Bcriir, of whom Mr. Kitts writes : " " The Arakhs found in Morsi are a race akin to the Bahelias. Their regular occupation is bird-catching and shikar (hunting). They do not follow Hindu customs in their marriages, but although they keep pigs, eat flesh and drink spirits, they will not touch a Chamar. They appear to be a branch of the Pasi tribe, and are described as a semi-Hinduised class of aborigines." In the Chanda District, however, the Arakhs are closely connected with the Gond tribe, as is evident from their system of exogamy. Thus they say that they are divided into the Matia, Tekam, Tesli, Godam, Madai, Sayam and Chorliu septs, worshipping respectively three, four, five, six, seven, eight and twelve gods ; and persons who worship the same number of gods cannot marry with one another. This system of divisions according to the different number of gods worshipped is found in the Central Provinces only among the Gonds and one or two other tribes like the Baigas, who have adopted it from them, and as some of the names given above are also Gondi words, no doubt need be entertained that the Arakhs of Chanda are largely of Gond descent. They are probably, in fact, the offspring of irregular connections between the Gonds and Pasis, who, being both frequenters of the forests, would naturally come much into contact with each other. And being disowned by the true Pasis on account of their defective pedigree, they have apparently set up as a separate caste and adopted the name of Arakh to hide the deficiencies of their ancestry. The social customs of the Arakhs resemble those of other low Hindu castes, and need not be given in detail. Their weddings are held near a temple of Maroti, or if there be none such, then at the place where the Holi fire was lit in the preceding year. A bride-price varying from Rs. 25 to Rs. 40 is usually paid. In the case of the ' Cajanus indiciis. '^ BerCir Census Report (1881), p. 157. 42 A TARI part marriage of a widow, the second husband goes to the house of the woman, where the couple are bathed and seated on two wooden boards, a branch of a cotton-plant being placed near them. The bridegroom then ties five strings of black glass beads round the woman's neck. The dead are mourned for one day only, and a funeral feast is given to the caste- fellows. The Arakhs are a very low caste, but their touch does not convey impurity. I. General notice. 2. Mar- riage customs. Atari/ Gandhi, Bukekari. — A small Muhammadan caste of retailers of scent, incense, tooth-powder and kunku or pink powder. Atari is derived from atar or itra, attar of roses, Gandhi comes from gandJi, a Sanskrit word for scent. Bukekari is a Marathi word meaning a seller of powder. The Ataris number about two hundred persons in Nagpur, Wardha and Berar. Both Hindus and Muham- madans follow the profession, but the Hindu Ataris are not a separate caste, and belong to the Teli, Gurao and Beldar castes. The Muhammadan Ataris, to whom this article refers, may marry with other Muhammadans, with the exception of low-class tradesmen like the Pinjaras, Kasais and Kunjras. One instance of an Atari marrying a Rangrez is known, but usually they decline to do so. But since they are not considered to be the equals of ordinary Muham- madans, they constitute more or less a distinct social group. They are of the same position as Muhammadan tin- workers, bangle-makers and pedlars, and sometimes intermarry with them. They admit Hindu converts into the community, but the women refuse to eat with them, and the better- class families will not intermarry with converts. A new convert must be circumcised, but if he is of advanced age, or if his foreskin is wanting, as sometimes happens, they take a rolled-up betel-leaf and cut it in two in substitution for the rite. It is essential that a girl should be married before adolescence, as it is said that when the signs of puberty appear in her before wedlock her parents commit a crime equivalent to the shedding of human blood. The father 1 Based on papers by Mr. Bijai Hinganghat, and Munslii Kanhya Lai Bahadur Royzada, Naib - Tahslldar of the Gazetteer office. II MARRIAGE CUSTOMS 43 of the boy looks for a bride, and after droppin;^ hints to the girl's family to see if his proposal is acceptable, he sends some female relatives or friends to discuss the marriage. Before the wedding the boy is presented with a clihiip or ring of gold or silver with a small cup-like attachment. A mehar or dowry must be given to the bride, the amount of which is not below Rs. 50 or above Rs. 250. The bride's parents give her cooking vessels, bedding and a bedstead. After the wedding, the couple are seated on a cot while the women sing songs, and they see each other's face reflected in a minor. The procession returns after a stay of four days, and is received by the women of the bridegroom's family with some humorous ceremonies bearing on the nature of marriage. A feast called Tamm Walima follows, and the couple are shut up together in an inner room, even though they may be under age. The marriage includes some Hindu customs, such as the erection of the pandal or shed, rubbing the couple with turmeric and oil, and the tying on of kankans or wrist-bands. A girl going wrong before marriage may be wedded with full rites so long as she has not conceived, but after conception until her child is born she cannot go through the ceremony at all. After the birth of the child she may be married simply with the rite for widows. She retains the child, but it has no claim to succeed to her husband's property. A widow may marry again after an interval of forty days from her first husband's death, and she may wed her younger brother- in-law. Divorce is permitted at the instance of either party, and for mere disagreement. A man usually divorces his wife by vowing in the presence of two witnesses that he will in future consider intercourse with her as incestuous in the same degree as with his mother. A divorced woman has a claim to her nieJiar or dowry if not already paid, but forfeits it if she marries again. A man can marry the daughter of his paternal uncle. The services of a Kazi at weddings are paid for with a fee of Rs. 1-4, and well-to-do persons also give him a pair of turbans. The Ataris are Muhammadans of the Sunni sect. They 3- Religion. revere the Muhammadan saints, and on the night of Shabrat they let off fireworks in honour of their ancestors and make 44 A TART part offerings of hnhva ^ to them and place lamps and scent on their tombs. They swear by the pig and abstain from eating its flesh. The dog is considered an unclean animal and its tail, ears and tongue are especially defiling. If the hair of a dog falls on the ground they cannot pray in that place because the souls of the prophets cannot come there. To see a dog flapping its ears is a bad omen, and a person start- ing on a journey should postpone his departure. They esteem the spider, because they say it spread its web over the mouth of the cave where Hasan and Husain lay concealed from their enemies and thus prevented it from being searched. Some of them have Pirs or spiritual preceptors, these being Muhammadan beggars, not necessarily celibate. The cere- mony of adhesion is that a man should drink sherbet from the cup from which his preceptor has drunk. They do not observe impurity after a death nor bathe on returning from a funeral. Liquor is of course prohibited to the Ataris as to other Muhammadans, but some of them drink it nevertheless. Some of them eat beef and others abstain. The blood of animals killed must flow before death according to the rite of haldl, but they say that fish are an exception, because when Abraham was offering up his son Ishmael and God sub- stituted a goat, the goat bleated before it was killed, and this offended Abraham, who threw his sacrificial knife into the sea : the knife struck and killed a fish, and on this account all fish are considered to be haldl or lawful food without any further rite. The Ataris observe the Hindu law of inheritance, and some of them worship Hindu deities, as Mata the goddess of smallpox. As a rule their women are not secluded. The Ataris make viissi or tooth- powder from myrobalans, cloves and cardamoms, and other constituents. This has the effect of blackening the teeth. They also sell the kunku or red powder which women rub on their foreheads, its constituents being turmeric, borax and the juice of limes. They sell scent and sometimes deal in tobacco. The scents most in demand are giildb-pdni or rose-water and pJmlel or essence of tilli or sesamum. Scents are usually sold by the tola of i 8 annas silver weight,^ and ' A preparation of raisins and other - The ordinary tola is a rupee weight fruits and rice. or two-fifths of an ounce. ir A UP up: LI A 45 a tola of attar may vary in price from 8 annas to Rs. 8o. Other scents are made from klias-kkas grass, the mango, henna and music, the bela flower,^ the champak " and cucumber. Scent is manufactured by distillation from the flowers boiled in water, and the drops of congealed vapour fall into sandal- wood oil, which they say is the basis of all scents. Fragrant oils are also sold for rubbing on the hair, made from orange flowers, jasmine, cotton-seed and the flowers of the aonla tree.^ Scent is sold in tiny circular glass bottles, and the oils in little bottles made from thin leather. The Ataris also retail the little black sticks of incense which are set up and burnt at the time of taking food and in temples, so that the smell and smoke may keep off evil spirits. When professional exorcists are called upon to clear any building, such as a hospital, supposed to be haunted by spirits or the ghosts of the dead, they commence operations by placing these sticks of incense at the entrance and setting them alight as in a temple. Audhelia (Audhalia). — A small hybrid caste found i. Origin. almost exclusively in the Bilaspur District, where they number about looo persons. The name is derived from the word Udharia, meaning a person with clandestine sexual intimacies. The Audhelias are a mixed caste and trace their origin from a Daharia Rajput ancestor, by one BhQri Bandi, a female slave of unknown caste. This couple is supposed to have resided in Ratanpur, the old capital of Chhattisgarh, and the female ancestors of the Audhelias are said to have been prostitutes until they developed into a caste and began to marry among themselves. Their proper avocation at present is the rearing of pigs, while some of them are also tenants and farm-labourers. Owing to the base descent and impure occupation of the caste they are held in very low esteem, and their touch is considered to convey pollution. The caste have at present no endogamous divisions and 2. Mar- still admit members of other castes with the exception of "^^^' the very lowest. But social gradations exist to a certain ' Jasrnimiin zainbac. " Michelia chanipaca. '^ Phyllanthus cinblica. 46 A UDHELIA part extent among the members according to the position of their male ancestors, a Daharia Audhelia, for instance, being rekictant to eat or intermarry with a Panka Audhelia. Under these circumstances it has become a rule among the Audhelias not to eat with their caste-fellows excepting their own relations. On the occasion of a caste feast, therefore, each guest prepares his own food, taking only uncooked grain from his host. At present seven gotras or exogamous divisions appear to have been formed in the caste with the names of Pachbhaiya, Chhahri, Kalkhor, Bachhawat, Dhanawat, Bhainsa and Limuan. The following story exists as to the origin of these gotras : There were formerly three brothers, Sahasman, Budha and Mangal, who were Sansis or robbers. One evening the three brothers halted in a forest and went to look for food. One brought back a buffalo-horn, another a peacock's feather and the youngest, Mangal, brought plums. The other brothers asked Mangal to let them share his plums, to which he agreed on condition that one of the brothers should give his daughter to him in marriage. As Mangal and his brothers were of one gotra or section, and the marriage would thus involve splitting up the gotra, the brothers were doubtful whether it could be performed. They sought about for some sign to determine this difficult question, and decided that if Mangal succeeded in breaking in pieces an iron image of a cat simply by blows of his naked fist, it would be a sufficient indication that they might split up "CaoAx gotra. Mangal was therefore put to the ordeal and succeeded in breaking the image, so the three brothers split up their gotra, the eldest assuming the gotra name of Bhainsa because he had found a buffalo-horn, the second that of Kalkhor, which is stated to mean peacock, and the third that of Chhahri, which at any rate does not mean a plum. The word Chhahri means either ' shadow,' or ' one who washes the clothes of a woman in confinement.' If we assume it to have the latter meaning, it may be due to the fact that Mangal had to wash the clothes of his own wife, not being able to induce a professional washerman to do so on account of the incestuous nature of the connection. As the eldest brother gave his daughter in an incestuous marriage he was also degraded, and became the ancestor II XTARRrAGE 47 of the Kanjars or prostitutes, who, it is said, to the present day do not solicit Audhelias in consideration of the con- sanguinity existinc^ between tlicm. The story itself suf- ficiently indicates the low and mixed descent of the Audhelias, and its real meaning may possibly be that when they first began to form a separate caste they per- mitted incestuous marriages on account of the paucity of their members. A curious point about the story is that the incestuous nature of the connection is not taken to be the most pressing objection to the marriage of Mangal with his own niece, but the violation of the caste rule prohibiting marriage within the same gotra. Bachhawat and Dhanawat are the names of sections of the Banjara caste, and the persons of these gotras among the Audhelias are probably the descendants of illicit connections among Banjaras. The word Pachbhaiya means ' five brothers,' and this name possibly commemorates a polyandrous connection of some Audhelia woman. Limuan means a tortoise, which is a section of many castes. Several of the section-names are thus totemistic, and, as in other castes, some reverence is paid to the animal from whom the name is derived. At present the Audhelias forbid marriage within the same gotra and also the union of first cousins. Girls are married between five and seven years of age as their numbers are scarce, and they are engaged as early as possible. Unless weddings are arranged by ex- changing girls between two families, a high bride-price, often amounting to as much as Rs. 60, is paid. No stigma is in- curred, however, if a girl should remain unmarried till she arrives at adolescence, but, on the contrary, a higher price is then obtained for her. Sexual licence either before or after marriage is considered a venial offence, but a woman detected in a liaison with a man of one of the lowest castes is turned out of caste. Widow marriage and divorce are freely allowed. The Audhelias venerate Dulha Deo and Devi, to whom 3. Religion, they usually offer pigs. Their principal festival is the Holi, ^lath^" at which their women were formerly engaged to perform as professional dancers. They usually burn their dead and remove the ashes on the third day, throwing them into the nearest stream. A few of the bones are picked up and 48 AUDHELIA part ii buried under a pipal tree, and a pitcher with a hole in the bottom is hung on the tree so that water may trickle down on to them. On the tenth day the caste-people assemble and are shaved and bathe and rub their bodies with oil under the tree. Unmarried men and persons dying of cholera are buried, the head being placed to the north. They consider that if they place the corpse in the reverse position it would be an insult to the Ganges equivalent to kicking the holy river, as the feet of the body would then be turned towards it. BADHAK LIST OF PARAGRAPHS 1. Introductory notice. 9, Religion. Offering;s to an- 2. The Badhak dacoits. cestors. 3. Instances of dacoities. 10. The woiuided haunted by 4. Further instances of dacoi- spirits. ties. II. Pious funeral observances. 5 . Disguise of religious iiiendi- 1 2 . Taking the omens. cants. 13. Suppressio7i of dacoity. 6. Countenance and support of 1 4. The Badhaks or Baoris at the landowners. present time. 7. Pride in their profession. 15. Lisard-hunting. 8. Caste rules a?id admission of 16. Social observances. outsiders. 17. Criminal practices. Badhak, Bagri, Baoria. — A famous tribe of dacoits i. intro- who flourished up to about 1850, and extended their depreda- ^^°l''^ tions over the whole of Northern and Central India. The Bagris and Baorias or Bawarias still exist and are well known to the police as inveterate criminals ; but their operations are now confined to ordinary burglary, theft and cheating, and their more interesting profession of armed gang-robbery on a large scale is a thing of the past. The first part of this article is entirely compiled from the Report on their suppression drawn up by Colonel Sleeman/ who may be regarded as the virtual founder of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department, Some mention of the existing Bagri and Baoria tribes is added at the end. The origin of the Badhaks is obscure, but they seem to 2. The have belonged to Gujarat, as their peculiar dialect, still in jj^coit^^ use, is a form of Gujarati. The most striking feature in it is the regular substitution of kh for s. They claimed to be ' Report on the Badhak or Bagri the Government of India for tlieir Dacoits and the Measjtres adopted by Suppression, printed in 1849. VOL. II 49 E 50 BADHAK part Rajputs and were divided into clans with the well-known Rajput names of Solanki, Panwar, Dhundhel, Chauhan, Rathor, Gahlot, Bhatti and Charan. Their ancestors were supposed to have fled from Chitor on one of the historical occasions on which it was assaulted and sacked. But as they spoke Gujarati it seems more probable that they be- longed to Gujarat, a fertile breeding-place of criminals, and they may have been descended from the alliances of Rajputs with the primitive tribes of this locality, the Bhils and Kolis. The existing Bagris are of short stature, one writer stating that none of them exceed five feet two inches in height ; and this seems to indicate that they have little Rajput blood. It may be surmised that the Badhaks rose into importance and found scope for their predatory instincts during the period of general disorder and absence of governing authority through which northern India passed after the decline of the Mughal Empire. And they lived and robbed with the connivance or open support of the petty chiefs and land- holders, to whom they gave a liberal share of their booty. The principal bands were located in the Oudh forests, but they belonged to the whole of northern India including the Central Provinces ; and as Colonel Sleeman's Report, though of much interest, is now practically unknown, I have thought it not out of place to compile an article by means of short extracts from his account of the tribe. In 1822 the operations of the Badhaks were being conducted on such a scale that an officer wrote : " No District between the Brahmaputra, the Nerbudda, the Satlej and the Himalayas is free from them ; and within this vast field hardly any wealthy merchant or manufacturer could feel himself secure for a single night from the depredations of Badhak dacoits. They had successfully attacked so many of the treasuries of our native Sub-Collectors that it was deemed necessary, all over the North-Western Provinces, to surround such buildings with extensive fortifications. In many cases they carried off our public treasure from strong parties of our regular troops and mounted police ; and none seemed to know whence they came or whither they fled with the booty acquired." ' ^ Sleeman, p. 10. INSTANCES OF I) A CO /TIES 51 Colonel Sleeman thus described a dacoity in the town of 3. in- Narsinghpur when he was in charge of that District: "In February 1822, in the dusk of the evening, a party of about thirty persons, with nothing seemingly but walking-sticks in their hands, passed the piquet of sepoys on the bank of the rivulet which separates the cantonment from the town of Narsinghpur. On being challenged by the sentries they said they were cowherds and that their cattle were following close behind. Tliey walked up the street ; and coming opposite the houses of the most wealthy merchants, they set their torches in a blaze by blowing suddenly on pots filled with combustibles, stabbed everybody who ventured to move or make the slightest noise, plundered the houses, and in ten minutes were away with their booty, leaving about twelve persons dead and wounded on the ground. No trace of them was discovered." Another well-known exploit of the Badhaks was the attack on the palace of the ex-Peshwa, Baji Rao, at Bithur near Cawnpore. This was accomplished by a gang of about eighty men, who proceeded to the locality in the disguise of carriers of Ganges water. Having purchased a boat and a few muskets to intimidate the guard they crossed the Ganges about six miles below Bithur, and reached the place at ten o'clock at night ; and after wounding eighteen persons who attempted resistance they possessed themselves of property, chiefly in gold, to the value of more than two and a half lakhs of rupees ; and retiring without loss made their way in safety to their homes in the Oudh forests. The residence of this gang was known to a British police officer in the King of Oudh's service, Mr. Orr, and after a long delay on the part of the court an expedition was sent which recovered a portion of the treasure and captured two or three hundred of the Badhaks. But none of the recovered property reached the hands of Baji Rao and the prisoners were soon afterwards released.^ Again in 1S39, a gang of about fifty men under a well-known leader, Gajraj, scaled the walls of Jhansi and plundered the Surafa or bankers' quarter of the town for two hours, obtaining booty to the value of Rs. 40,000, which they carried off without the loss of a man. The following ^ Sleeman, p. 10. 2 Sleeman, p. 57. stances of dacoities. 5- BADHAK account of this raid was obtained by Colonel Sleeman from one of the robbers : ^ " The spy {hirrowd) having returned and reported that he had found a merchant's house in Jhansi which contained a good deal of property, we proceeded to a grove where we took the auspices by the process of akut (counting of grains) and found the omens favourable. We then rested three days and settled the rates according to which the booty should be shared. Four or five men, who were considered too feeble for the enter- prise, were sent back, and the rest, well armed, strong and full of courage, went on. In the evening of the fourth day we reached a plain about a mile from the town, where we rested to take breath for an hour ; about nine o'clock we got to the wall and remained under it till midnight, pre- paring the ladders from materials which we had collected on the road. They were placed to the wall and we entered and passed through the town without opposition. A mar- riage procession was going on before us and the people thought we belonged to it. We found the bankers' shops closed. Thana and Saldewa, who carried the axes, soon broke them open, while Kulean lighted up his torch. Gajraj with twenty men entered, while the rest stood posted at the different avenues leading to the place. When all the pro- perty they could find had been collected, Gajraj hailed the god Hanuman and gave orders for the retreat. W^e got back safely to Mondegri in two days and a half, and then reposed for two or three days with the Raja of Narwar, with whom we left five or six of our stoutest men as a guard, and then returned home with our booty, consisting chiefly of diamonds, emeralds, gold and silver bullion, rupees and about sixty pounds of silver wire. None of our people were either killed or wounded, but whether any of the bankers' people were I know not." Colonel Sleeman writes elsewhere " of the leader of the above exploit : " This Gajraj had risen from the vocation of a bandarwdla (monkey showman) to be the Robin Hood of Gwalior and the adjacent States ; he was the governor- general of banditti in that country of banditti and kept the whole in awe ; he had made himself so formidable that ^ Sleeman, p. 95. 2 Sleeman, p. 231. II FURTHER INSTANCES OF DA CO [TIES 53 the Durbar ap[)ointcd him to keep the g/idts or ferries over the Chambal, which he did in a very profitable manner to them and to himself, and none entered or quitted the country without paying blackmail." A common practice of the Badhaks, when in need of a little ready money, was to lie in wait for money-changers on their return from the markets. These men take their bags of money with them to the important bazars at a distance from their residence and return home with them after dusk. The dacoits were accustomed to watch for them in the darkest and most retired places on the roads and fell them to the ground with their bludgeons. This device was often practised and usually succeeded.^ Of another Badhak chief, Meherban, it is stated " that he hired a discharged sepoy to instruct his followers in the European system of drill, that they might travel with him in the disguise of regular soldiers, well armed and accoutred. During the rains Meherban's spies (Jtirrowa) were sent to visit the great commercial towns and report any despatches of money or other valuables, which were to take place during the following open season. His own favourite disguise was that of a Hindu prince, while the remainder of the gang constituted his retinue and escort. On one occasion, assuming this character, he followed up a boat laden with Spanish dollars which was being sent from Calcutta to Benares ; and having attacked it at its moorings at Makrai, he killed one and wounded ten men of the guard and made off with 25,000 Spanish dollars and Rs. 2600 of the Company's coinage. A part of the band were sent direct to the rendezvous previously arranged, while Meher- ban returned to the grove where he had left his women and proceeded with them in a more leisurely fashion to the same place. Retaining the character of a native prince he halted here for two days to celebrate the Holi festival. Marching thence with his women conveyed in covered litters by hired bearers who were changed at intervals, he proceeded to his bivouac in the Oudh forests ; and at Seosagar, one of his halting-places, he gave a large sum of money to a gardener to plant a grove of mango trees near a tank for the benefit of travellers, in the name of Raja Meherban Singh of Gaur ^ Sleeman, p. 217. '^ Sleeman, p. 20. 54 BADHAK part in Oudh ; and promised him further alms on future occa- sions of pilgrimage if he found the work progressing well, saying that it was a great shame that travellers should be compelled as he had been to halt without shade for them- selves or their families during the heat of the day. He arrived safely at his quarters in the forest and was received in the customary fashion by a procession of women in their best attire, who conducted him with dancing and music, like a victorious Roman Proconsul, to his fort.^ 5. Disguise But naturally not all the Badhaks could do things in mendF°"^ the Style of Meherban Singh. The disguise which they cants. most often assumed in the north was that of carriers of Ganges water, while in Central India they often pretended to be Banjaras travelling with pack-bullocks, or pilgrims, or wedding -parties going to fetch the bride or bridegroom. Sometimes also they took the character of religious mendicants, the leader being the high priest and all the rest his followers and disciples. One such gang, described by Colonel Sleeman," had four or five tents of white and dyed cloth, two or three pairs of 7iakkdras or kettle-drums and trumpets, with a great number of buffaloes, cows, goats, sheep and ponies. Some were clothed, but the bodies of the greater part were covered with nothing but ashes, paint and a small cloth waistband. But they always provided themselves with five or six real Bairagis, whose services they purchased at a very high price. These men were put forward to answer questions in case of difficulty and to bully the landlords and peasantry ; and if the people demurred to the demands of the Badhaks, to intimidate them by tricks calculated to play upon the fears of the ignorant. They held in their hands a preparation of gun- powder resembling common ashes ; and when they found the people very stubborn they repeated their viafttras over this and threw it upon the thatch of the nearest house, to which it set fire. The explosion was caused by a kind of fusee held in the hand which the people could not see, and taking it for a miracle they paid all that was demanded. Another method was to pretend to be carrying the bones of dead relatives to the Ganges. The bones or ashes of ' Sleeman, p. 21. - Sleeman, p. 81. II COUNTENANCE AND S(/P/'0/CT OE LANDOWNERS 55 the deceased, says ' Colonel Slceman, are carried to the Ganges in bags, coloured red for females and white for males. These bags are considered holy, and are not allowed to touch the ground upon the way, and during halts in the journey are placed on poles or triangles. The carriers are regarded with respect as persons engaged upon a pious duty, and seldom questioned on the road. When a gang assumed this disguise they proceeded to their place of rendezvous in small parties, some with red and some with white bags, in which they carried the bones of animals most resembling those of the human frame. These were supported on triangles formed of the shafts on which the spear -heads would be fitted when they reached their destination and had prepared for action. It would have been impossible for the Badhaks to exist 6. Counte- and flourish as they did without the protection of the land- "l^lj'^sup. owners on whose estates they lived ; and this they received port of in full measure in return for a liberal share of their booty, o^wners. When the chief of Karauli was called upon to dislodge a gang witliin his territory, he expressed apprehension that the coercion of the Badhaks might cause a revolution in the State. He was not at all singular, says Colonel Sleeman, in his fear of exasperating this formidable tribe of robbers. It was common to all the smaller chiefs and the provincial governors of the larger ones. They everywhere protected and fostered the Badhaks, as did the landholders ; and the highest of them associated with the leaders of gangs on terms of equality and confidence. It was very common for a chief or the governor of a district in times of great difficulty and personal danger to require from one of the leaders of such gangs a night-guard or palmig ki chauki : and no less so to entertain large bodies of them in the attack and defence of forts and camps whenever unusual courage and skill were required. The son of the Raja of Charda exchanged turbans with a Badhak leader, Mangal Singh, as a mark of the most intimate friendship. This episode recalls an alliance of similar character in Lorna Doom ; and indeed it would not be difficult to find several points of resemblance between the careers of the more enterprising Badhak leaders and the ' Sleeman, p. 82. 56 BADHAK part Doones of Bagworthy ; but India produced no character on the model of John Ridd, and it was reserved for an Englishman, Colonel Sleeman, to achieve the suppression of the Badhaks as well as that of the Thugs. After the fortress and territory of Garhakota in Saugor had been taken by the Maharaja Sindhia, Zalim Singh, a cousin of the dispossessed Bundela chief, collected a force of Bundelas and Pindaris and ravaged the country round Garhakota in 1 8 1 3. In the course of his raid he sacked and burnt the town of Deori, and i 5,000 persons perished in the flames. Colonel Jean Baptiste, Sindhia's general, obtained a number of picked Badhaks from Rajputana and offered them a rich reward for the head of Zalim Singh ; and after watching his camp for three months they managed to come on him asleep in the tent of a dancing-girl, who was following his camp, and stabbed him to the heart. For this deed they received Rs. 20,000 from Baptiste with other valuable presents. Their reputa- tion was indeed such that they were frequently employed at this period both by chiefs who desired to take the lives of others and by those who were anxious for the preservation of their own. When it happened that a gang was caught after a robbery in a native State, the custom was not infre- quently to make them over to the merchant whose property they had taken, with permission to keep them in confinement until they should refund his money ; and in this manner by giving up the whole or a part of the proceeds of their robbery they were enabled to regain their liberty. Even if they were sent before the courts, justice was at that time so corrupt as to permit of easy avenues of escape for those who could afford to pay ; and Colonel Sleeman records the deposition of a Badhak describing their methods of briber}^ : " When police officers arrest Badhaks their old women get round them and give them large sums of money ; and they either release them or get their depositions so written that their release shall be ordered by the magistrates. If they are brought to court, their old women, dressed in rags, follow them at a distance of three or four miles with a thousand or two thousand rupees upon ponies ; and these rupees they distribute among the native officers of the court and get the Badhaks released. These old women first ascertain from the people of the villages II PRIDE IN TIIFJR PROFESSION 57 who are the Nazirs and Munshis of influence, and wait upon them at their houses and make their bargains. If the officials cannot effect their release, they take money from the old women and send them off to the Sadar Court, with letters of introduction to their friends, and advice as to the rate they shall pay to each according to his supposed influ- ence. This is the way that all our leaders get released, and hardly any but useless men are left in confinement." ^ It may be noticed that these robbers took the utmost 7. Pride in pleasure in their calling, and were most averse to the idea of profession. giving it up and taking to honest pursuits. " Some of the men with me," one magistrate wrote," " have been in jail for twenty, and one man for thirty years, and still do not appear to have any idea of abandoning their illegal vocation ; even now, indeed, they look on what we consider an honest means of livelihood with the most marked contempt ; and in relating their excursions talk of them with the greatest pleasure, much in the way an eager sportsman describes a boar-chase or fox-hunt. While talking of their excursions, which were to me really very interesting, their eyes gleamed with pleasure ; and beating their hands on their foreheads and breasts and muttering some ejaculation they bewailed the hardness of their lot, which now ensured their never again being able to participate in such a joyous occupation." Another Badhak, on being examined, said he could not recall a case of one of the community having ever given up the trade of dacoity. " None ever did, I am certain of it, " he continued.^ " After having been arrested, on our release we frequently take lands, to make it appear we have left off dacoity, but we never do so in reality ; it is only done as a feint and to enable our zamindars (landowners) to screen us." They sometimes paid rent for their land at the rate of thirty rupees an acre, in return for the countenance and protection afforded by the zamindars. " Our profession," another Badhak remarked,'* " has been a PadsJidhi Kdin (a king's trade) ; we have attacked and seized boldly the thousands and hundreds of thousands that we have freely 1 Sleeman, p. 152. Mr. Ramsay. ^ Sleeman, p. 127. This passage is -^ Sleeman, p. 129. from a letter written by a magistrate, ■* Sleeman, p. 112. 58 BADHAK part and nobly spent ; we have been all our lives wallowing in wealth and basking in freedom, and find it hard to manage with the few copper pice a day we get from you," At the time when captures were numerous, and the idea was enter- tained of inducing the dacoits to settle in villages and sup- porting them until they had been trained to labour, several of them, on being asked how much they would require to support themselves, replied that they could not manage on less than two rupees a day, having earned quite that sum by dacoity. This amount would be more than twenty times the wages of an ordinary labourer at the same period. Another witness put the amount at one to two rupees a day, remark- ing, ' We are great persons for eating and drinking, and we keep several wives according to our means.' Of some of them Colonel Sleeman had a high opinion, and he mentions the case of one man, Ajit Singh, who was drafted into the native army and rose to be commander of a company. " I have seldom seen a man," he wrote,^ " whom I would rather have with me in scenes of peril and difficulty." An attempt of the King of Oudh's, however, to form a regiment of Badhaks had ended in failure, as after a short time they mutinied, beat their commandant and other officers and turned them out of the regiment, giving as their reason that the officers had refused to perform the same duties as the men. And they visited with the same treatment all the other officers sent to them, until they were disbanded by the British on the province of Allahabad being made over to the Company. Colonel Sleeman notes that they were never known to offer any other violence or insult to females than to make them give up any gold ornaments that they might have about their persons. " In all my inquiries into the character, habits and conduct of these gangs, I have never found an instance of a female having been otherwise dis- graced or insulted by them. They are all Hindus, and this reverence for the sex pervades all Hindu society." " Accord- ing to their own account also they never committed murder ; if people opposed them they struck and killed like soldiers, but this was considered to be in fair fight. It may be noted, nevertheless, that they had little idea of clan loyalty, and ^ Sleeman, p. 124. 2 Sleem.an, p. 125. II CASTE RULES AND ADMISSION OF OUTSIDERS 59 informed very freely against their fellows when this course was to their advantage. They also stated that they could not settle in towns ; they had always been accustomed to live in the jungles and commit dacoitics upon the people of the towns as a kind of shikar (sport) ; they delighted in it, and they felt living in towns or among other men as a kind of prison, and got quite confused {ghabrdye), and their women even more than the men. The Badhaks had a regular caste organisation, and 8. Caste I H members of the different clans married with each other like I^'^^^ig^"^,, the Rajputs after whom they were named. They admitted ofout- freely into the community members of any respectable Hindu caste, but not the impure castes or Muhammadans. But at least one instance of the admission of a Muham- madan is given.^ The Badhaks were often known to the people as Siarkhavva or jackal-eaters, or Sabkhawa, those who eat everything. And the Muhammadan in question was given jackal's flesh to eat, and having partaken of it was considered to have become a member of the com- munity. This indicates that the Badhaks were probably accustomed to eat the flesh of the jackal at a sacrificial meal, and hence that they worshipped the jackal, revering it probably as the deity of the forests where they lived. Such a veneration would account for the importance attached to the jackal's cry as an omen. The fact of their eating jackals also points to the conclusion that the Badhaks were not Rajputs, but a low hunting caste like the Pardhis and Bahelias. The Pardhis have Rajput sept names as well as the Badhaks. No doubt a few outcaste Rajputs may have joined the gangs and become their leaders. Others, however, said that they abstained from the flesh of jackals, snakes, foxes and cows and buffaloes. Children were frequently adopted, being purchased in large numbers in time of famine, and also occasionally kidnapped. They were brought up to the trade of dacoity, and if they showed sufficient aptitude for it were taken out on expeditions, but otherwise left at home to manage the household affairs. They were married to other adopted children and were known as Ghulami or Slave Badhaks, like the Jangar ^ Sleeman, p. 147. 6o BADHAK part Banjaras ; and like them also, after some generations, when their real origin had been forgotten, they became full Badhaks. It was very advantageous to a Badhak to have a number of children, because all plunder obtained was divided in regularly apportioned shares among the whole community. Men who were too old to go on dacoity also received their share, and all children, even babies born during the absence of the expedition. The Badhaks said that this rule was enforced because they thought it an advantage to the community that families should be large and their numbers should increase ; from which statement it must be concluded that they seldom suffered any strin- gency from lack of spoil. They also stated that Badhak widows would go and find a second husband from among the regular population, and as a rule would sooner or later persuade him to join the Badhaks. 9. Reii- Like other Indian criminals the Badhaks were of a very ^!?".' . religious or superstitious disposition. They considered the offerings to •=• ^ ^ _ ■' _ ancestors, gods of the Hindu creed as favouring their undertakings so long as they were suitably propitiated by offering to their temples and priests, and the spirits of the most distinguished of their ancestors as exercising a vicarious authority under these deities in guiding them to their prey and warning them of danger.^ The following is an account of a Badhak sacrifice given to Colonel Sleeman by the Ajit Singh already mentioned. It was in celebration of a dacoity in which they had obtained Rs. 40,000, out of which Rs. 4500 were set aside for sacrifices to the gods and charity to the poor. AjTt Singh said : " For offerings to the gods we purchase goats, sweet cakes and spirits ; and having prepared a feast we throw a handful of the savoury food upon the fire in the name of the gods who have most assisted us ; but of the feast so consecrated no female but a virgin can partake. The offering is made through the man who has successfully invoked the god on that particular occasion ; and, as my god had guided us this time, I was employed to prepare the feast for him and to throw the offering upon the fire. The offering must be taken up before the feast is touched and put upon the ' Sleeman, p. 104. II Ol'FERINGS TO ANCESTORS 6i fire, and a little water must be sprinkled on it. The savoury smell of the food as it burns feaches the nostrils of the j^od and delights him. On this as on most occasions I invoked the spirit of Ganga Singh, my grandfather, and to him I made the offering. I considered him to be the greatest of all my ancestors as a robber, and him I invoked on this solemn occasion. He never failed me when I invoked him, and I had the greatest confidence in his aid. The spirits of our ancestors can easily see whether we shall succeed in what we are about to undertake ; and when we are to succeed they order us on, and when we are not they make signs to us to desist." Their mode ^ of ascertaining which of their ancestors interested himself most in their affairs was commonly this, that whenever a person talked inco- herently in a fever or an epileptic fit, the spirit of one or other of his ancestors was supposed to be upon him. If they were in doubt as to whose spirit it was, one of them threw down some grains of wheat or coloured glass beads, a pinch at a time, saying the name of the ancestor he supposed the most likely to be at work and calling odd or even as he pleased. If the number proved to be as he called it several times running while that name was repeated, they felt secure of their family god, and proceeded at once to sacrifice a goat or something else in his name. When they were being hunted down and arrested by Colonel Sleeman and his assistants, they ascribed their misfortunes to the anger of the goddess Kali, because they had infringed her rules and disregarded her signs, and said that their forefathers had often told them they would one day be punished for their disobedience." Whenever one of the gang was wounded and was taken lo. The with his wounds bleeding near a place haunted by a spirit, hTumed'^b they believed the spirit got angry and took hold of him,^ spirits. in the manner described by A jit Singh as follows: "The spirit comes upon him in all kinds of shapes, sometimes in that of a buffalo, at others in that of a woman, some- times in the air above and sometimes from the ground below ; but no one can see him except the wounded person 1 Sleeman, p. no. - Sleeman, p. 131. ^ Sleeman, p. 205. 62 BADHAK part he is angry with and wants to punish. Upon such a wounded person we always ^lace a naked sword or some other sharp steel instrument, as spirits are much afraid of weapons of this kind. If there be any good conjurer at hand to charm away the spirits from the person wounded he recovers, but nothing else can save him." In one case a dacoit named Ghlsa had been severely wounded in an encounter and was seized by the spirit of a banyan tree as he was being taken away : " We made a litter with our ropes and cloaks thrown over them and on this he was carried off by four of our party ; at half a mile distant the road passed under a large banyan tree and as the four men carried him along under the tree, the spirit of the place fell upon him and the four men who carried him fell down with the shock. They could not raise him again, so much were they frightened, and four other men were obliged to lift him and carry him off." The man died of his wounds soon after they reached the halting-place, and in commenting on this Ajit Singh continued : " When the spirit seized Ghisa under the tree we had unfortunately no conjurer, and he, poor fellow, died in consequence. It was evident that a spirit had got hold of him, for he could not keep his head upright ; it always fell down upon his right or left shoulder as often as we tried to put it right ; and he complained much of a pain in the region of the liver. We therefore concluded that the spirit had broken his neck and was consuming his liver." II. Pious Like pious Hindus as they were, the Badhaks w^ere funeral ob- accustomcd, whcncvcr it was possible, to preserve the bones servances. r ■> r of their dead after the body had been burnt and carry them to the Ganges, If this was not possible, however, and the exigencies of their profession obliged them to make away with the body without the performance of due funeral rites, they cut off two or three fingers and sent these to the Ganges to be deposited instead of the whole body.^ In one case a dacoit, Kundana, was killed in an affray, and the others carried off his body and thrust it into a porcupine's hole after cutting off three of the fingers. " We gave Kundana's fingers to his mother," Ajit Singh stated, " and she sent them ' Sleeman, p. io6. 11 TAKING THE OMENS 63 with due offerings and ceremonies to the Ganges by the hands of the family priest. She gave this priest money to purchase a cow, to be presented to the priests in the name of her deceased son, and to distribute in charity to the poor and to holy men. She got from us for these purposes eighty rupees over and above her son's share of the booty, while his widow and children continued to receive their usual share of the takings of the gang so long as they remained with us." Before setting out on an expedition it was their regular 12- Taking custom to take the omens, and the following account may be quoted of the preliminaries to an expedition of the great leader, Meherban Singh, who has already been mentioned : " In the latter end of that year, Meherban and his brother set out and assembled their friends on the bank of the Bisori river, where the rate at which each member of the party should share in the spoil was determined in order to secure to the dependants of any one who should fall in the enter- prise their due share, as well as to prevent inconvenient disputes during and after the expedition. The party assembled on this occasion, including women and children, amounted to two hundred, and when the shares had been determined the goats were sacrificed for the feast. Each leader and member of the gang dipped his finger in the blood and swore fidelity to his engagements and his asso- ciates under all circumstances. The v^hole feasted together and drank freely till the next evening, when Meherban advanced with about twenty of the principal persons to a spot chosen a little way from the camp on the road they proposed to take in the expedition, and lifting up his hands in supplication said aloud, ' If it be thy will, O God, and thine, Kali, to prosper our undertaking for the sake of the blind and the lame, tJie widoiv and tJie orpJian, who depend upon our exertions for subsistence, vouchsafe, we pray thee, the call of the female jackal.' All his followers held up their hands in the same manner and repeated these words after him. All then sat down and waited in silence for the reply or spoke only in whispers. At last the cry of the female jackal was heard three times on the left, and believing her to have been inspired by the deity for 64 BADHAK part their guidance they were all much rejoiced." The follow- ing was another more elaborate method of taking omens described by Ajit Singh : " When we speak of seeking omens from our gods or Devi Deota, we mean the spirits of those of our ancestors who performed great exploits in dacoity in their day, gained a great name and established lasting reputations. For instance, Mahajit, my grandfather, and Sahiba, his father, are called gods and admitted to be so by us all. We have all of us some such gods to be proud of among our ancestors ; we propitiate them and ask for favourable omens from them before we enter upon any enterprise. We sometimes propitiate the Suraj Deota (sun god) and seek good omens from him. We get tv/o or three goats or rams, and sometimes even ten or eleven, at the place where we determine to take the auspices, and having assembled the principal men of the gang we put water into the mouth of one of them and pray to the sun and to our ancestors thus : ' O thou Sun God ! And O all ye other Gods ! If we are to succeed in the enter- prise we are about to undertake we pray you to cause these goats to shake their bodies.' If they do not shake them after the gods have been thus duly invoked, the enter- prise must not be entered upon and the goats are not sacrificed. We then try the auspices with wheat. We burn frankincense and scented wood and blow a shell ; and taking out a pinch of wheat grains, put them on the cloth and count them. If they come up odd the omen is favour- able, and if even it is bad. After this, which we call the auspices of the Akut, we take that of the Siarni or female jackal. If it calls on the left it is good, but if on the right bad. If the omens turn out favourable in all three trials then we have no fear whatever, but if they are favour- able in only one trial out of the three the enterprise must be given up." 13. Sup- Between 1837 and 1849 the suppression of the regular dacoTt°" °^ practice of armed dacoity was practically achieved by Colonel Sleeman. A number of officers were placed under his orders, and with small bodies of military and police were set to hunt down different bands of dacoits, following them all over India when necessary. And special Acts were passed to II HA 1)11 A KS OR liAORlS AR TllJi J'RKSJiNI' 77/1//:' 65 enable the offence of dacoity, wherever committed, to be tried by a com[)ctent magistrate in any part of India as had been done in the case of the Thugs. Many of the Badhaks received conditional pardons, and were drafted into the police in different stations, and an agricultural labour colony was also formed, but does not seem to have been altogether successful. During these twelve years more than 1200 dacoits in all were brought to trial, while some were killed during the operations, and no doubt many others escaped and took to other avocations, or became ordinary criminals when their armed gangs were broken up. In 1825 it had been estimated that the Oudh forests alone contained from 4000 to 6000 dacoits, while the property stolen in 1 8 i i from known dacoities was valued at ten lakhs of rupees. The Badhaks still exist, and are well known as one m- The of the worst classes of criminals, practising ordinary o'rBaori's house-breaking and theft. The name Badhak is now less at the commonly used than those of Bagri and Baori or Bawaria, time!" both of which were borne by the original Badhaks. The word Bagri is derived from a tract of country in Malwa which is known as the Bagar or ' hedge of thorns,' because it is surrounded on all sides by wooded hills.^ There are Bagri Jats and Bagri Rajputs, many of whom are now highly respectable landholders. Bawaria or Baori is derived from bdnwar, a creeper, or the tendril of a vine, and hence a noose made originally from some fibrous plant and used for trapping animals, this being one of the primary occupa- tions of the tribe.^ The term Badhak signifies a hunter or fowler, hence a robber or murderer (Platts). The Bagris and Bawarias are sometimes considered to be separate communities, but it is doubtful whether there is any real distinction between them. In Bombay the Bagris are known as Vaghris by the common change of b into v. A good description of them is contained in Appendix C to Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam's volume Hindus of Gujarat in the Bombay Gazetteer. He divides them into the Chunaria or lime-burners, the Datonia or sellers of twig tooth-brushes, and two other groups, and states that, " They also keep ^ Malcolm's Memoir of Central ^ Ciooke's Tribes and Castes, art. India, ii. p. 479. Bawaria. VOL. II F hunting 66 BADHAK part fowls and sell eggs, catch birds and go as shikaris or hunters. They traffic in green parrots, which they buy from Bhils and sell for a profit." 15. Lizard- Their strength and powers of endurance are great, the same writer states, and they consider that these qualities are obtained by the eating of the goh and sdndJia or iguana lizards, which a Vaghri prizes very highly. This is also the case with the Bawarias of the Punjab, who go out hunting lizards in the rains and may be seen returning with baskets full of live lizards, which exist for days without food and are killed and eaten fresh by degrees. Their metnod of hunting the lizard is described by Mr. Wilson as follows : ^ " The lizard lives on grass, cannot bite severely, and is sluggish in his movements, so that he is easily caught. He digs a hole for himself of no great depth, and the easiest way to take him is to look out for the scarcely perceptible airhole and dig him out ; but there are various ways of saving oneself this trouble. One, which I have seen, takes advantage of a habit the lizard has in cold weather (when he never comes out of his hole) of coming to the mouth for air and warmth. The Chuhra or other sportsman puts off his shoes and steals along the prairie till he sees signs of a lizard's hole. This he approaches on tiptoe, raising over his head with both hands a mallet with a round sharp point, and fixing his eyes intently upon the hole. When close enough he brings down his mallet with all his might on the ground just behind the mouth of the hole, and is often successful in breaking the lizard's back before he awakes to a sense of his danger. Another plan, which I have not seen, is to tie a wisp of grass to a long stick and move it over the hole so as to make a rustling noise. The lizard within thinks, * Oh here's a snake ! I may as well give in,' and comes to the mouth of the hole, putting out his tail first so that he may not see his executioner. The sportsman seizes his tail and snatches him out before he has time to learn his mistake." This common fondness for lizards is a point in favour of a connection between the Gujarat Vaghris and the Punjab Bawarias. In Sirsa the great mass of the Bawarias are not given to ^ Sirsa Settlement Report. II SOCIAL O USE RVA NCES—CRIM 1 NA I . I'NACl'lCliS 67 crime, and in Gujarat also they do not appear to have s[)ccial )'>. Suti.ii criminal tendencies. It is a curious point, however, that ''^^^l^' Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam emphasises the chastity of the women of the Gujarat Vagjhris.^ " When a family returns home after a money-making tour to Bombay or some other city, the women are taken before Vihat (Devi), and with the women is brought a buffalo or a sheep that is tethered in front of Vihat's shrine. They must confess all, even their slightest shortcomings, such as the following : ' Two weeks ago, when begging in Parsi Bazar-street, a drunken sailor caught me by the hand. Another day a Miyan or Musalmiin ogled me, and forgive me, Devi, my looks encouraged him.' If Devi is satisfied the sheep or buffalo shivers, and is then sacrificed and provides a feast for the caste. " "" On the other hand, Mr. Crooke states^ that in northern India, "The standard of morality is very low because in Muzaffarnagar it is extremely rare for a Bawaria woman to live with her husband. Almost invariably she lives with another man : but the official husband is responsible for the children." The great difference in the standard of morality is certainly surprising. In Gujarat"* the Vaghris have gurus or religious pre- ceptors of their own. These men take an eight-anna silver piece and whisper in the ear of their disciples " Be immortal." . . . "The Bhuvas or priest- mediums play an important part in many Vaghri ceremonies. A Bhuva is a male child born after the mother has made a vow to the goddess Vihat or Devi that if a son be granted to her she will devote him to the service of the goddess. No Bhuva may cut or shave his hair on pain of a fine of ten rupees, and no Bhuva may eat carrion or food cooked by a Muhammadan." The criminal Bagris still usually travel about in the 17- Crim- disguise of Gosains and Bairagis, and are very difficult of practices, detection except to real religious mendicants. Their house- breaking implement or jemmy is known as Gjdn, but in speaking of it they always add Das, so that it sounds like 1 It would appear that the Gujarat ^ Ajj-, Bawaria, quoting from North Vaghris are a distinct class from the Indian Notes and Queries, i. 5 1 . criminal section of the tribe. 2 Bombay Gazetteer, Gujarat Hin- •* Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of dtis, p. 514. Gujarat, p. 574. 68 BADHAK part the name of a Bairagi.^ They are usually very much afraid of the gydn being discovered on their persons, and are careful to bury it in the ground at each halting-place, while on the march it may be concealed in a pack-saddle. The means of identifying them, Mr. Kennedy remarks,'^ is by their family dco or god, which they carry about when wandering with their families. It consists of a brass or copper box contain- ing grains of wheat and the seeds of a creeper, both soaked in ghi (melted butter). The box with a peacock's feather and a bell is wrapped in two white and then in two red cloths, one of the white cloths having the print of a man's hand dipped in goat's blood upon it. The grains of wheat are used for taking the omens, a few being thrown up at sun- down and counted afterwards to see whether they are odd or even. When even, two grains are placed on the right hand of the omen -taker, and if this occurs three times running the auspices are considered to be favourable.^ Mr. Gayer ^ notes that the Badhaks have usually from one to three brands from a hot iron on the inside of their left wrist. Those of them who are hunters brand the muscles of the left wrist in order to steady the hand when firing their matchlocks. The customs of wearing a peculiar necklace of small wooden beads and a kind of gold pin fixed to the front teeth, which Mr. Crooke ^ records as having been prevalent some years ago, have apparently been since abandoned, as they are not mentioned in more recent accounts. The Dehliwal and Malpura Baorias have, Mr. Kennedy states,^ an interesting system of signs, which they mark on the walls of buildings at important corners, bridges and cross- roads and on the ground by the roadside with a stick, if no building is handy. The commonest is a loop, the straight line indicating the direction a gang or individual has taken : IIL ' Gunlhorpe's Criminal Tribes. ■* C. P. Police Lccliircs, art. Badhak. '^ Criminal Classes in ike Bombay ^ ^ ^ -,^- n J J' ^^[_ hawaria, i)aia. 12. Presidency, p. 151. ' ^ Gunthorpe's Criminal Tribes, art. " Criminal Classes in the Bombay Badhak. Presidency, p. 179. II HA I IN A 69 Tlic addition of a number of vertical strokes inside the loop sii^nifics the luiinber of males in a gang. If these strokes are enclosed by a circle it means that the gang is encamped in the vicinity ; while a square inside a circle and line as below means that property has been secured by friends who © have left in the direction pointed by the line. It is said that Baorias will follow one another up for fifty or even a hundred miles by means of these hieroglyphics. The signs are bold marks, sometimes even a foot or more in length, and are made where they will at once catch the eye. When the Murwari Baorias desire to indicate to others of their caste, who may follow in their footsteps, the route taken, a member of the gang, usually a woman, trails a stick in the dust as she walks along, leaving a spiral track on the ground. Another method of indicating the route taken is to place leaves under stones at intervals along the road.^ The form of crime most in favour among the ordinary Baoris is house- breaking by night. Their common practice is to make a hole in the wall beside the door through which the hand passes to raise the latch ; and only occasionally they dig a hole in the base of the wall to admit of the passage of a man, while another favoured alternative is to break in through a barred window, the bars being quickly and forcibly bent and drawn out.^ One class of Marwari Bagris are also expert coiners. Bahna, Pinjara, Dhunia.^ — The occupational caste of i. Nomen- cotton-cleaners. The Bahnas numbered 48,000 persons in |^,-,^eJ^^^i^" the Central Provinces and Berar in 191 1. The large stmciure. increase in the number of ginning-factories has ruined the Bahna's trade of cleaning hand-ginned cotton, and as no distinction attaches to the name of Bahna it is possible that members of the caste who have taken to other occu- pations may have abandoned it and returned themselves 1 Kennedy, loc. cit. p. 208. paper by Munshi Kanhya Lai of the '^ Kennedy, loc. cit. p. 185. Gazetteer office. ■^ This article is partly based on a JO BANNA TART simply as Muhammadans, The three names Bahna, Pinjara, Dhunia appear to be used indifferently for the caste in this Province, though in other parts of India they are dis- tinguished. Pinjara is derived from the word pinjan used for a cotton-bow, and Dhunia is from dJnmna, to card cotton. The caste is also known as Dhunak Pathani. Though professing the Muhammadan religion, they still have many Hindu customs and ceremonies, and in the matter of in- heritance our courts have held that they are subject to Hindu and not Muhammadan law.^ In Raipur a girl receives half the share of a boy in the division of inherited property. The caste appears to be a mixed occupational group, and is split into many territorial subcastes named after the different parts of the country from which its members have come, as Badharia from Badhas in Mirzapur, Sarsutia from the Saraswati river, Berari of Berar, Dakhni from the Deccan, Telangi from Madras, Pardeshi from northern India, and so on. Two groups are occupational, the Newaris of Saugor, who make the thick newdr tape used for the webbing of beds, and the Kanderas, who make fireworks and generally constitute a separate caste. There is considerable ground for supposing that the Bahnas are mainly derived from the caste of Telis or oil-pressers. In the Punjab Sir D. Ibbetson says ^ that the Penja or cotton- scutcher is an occupational name applied to Telis who follow this profession ; and that the Penja, Kasai and Teli are all of the same caste. Similarly in Nasik the Telis and Pinjaras are said to form one community, under the government of a single panchayat. In cases of dispute or misconduct the usual penalty is temporary excommunica- tion, which is known as the stopping of food and water.^ The Telis are an enterprising community of very low status, and would therefore be naturally inclined to take to other occupations ; many of them are shopkeepers, cultivators and landholders, and it is quite probable that in past times they took up the Bahna's profession and changed their religion with the hope of improving their social status. ' Sir \'>. Robertson's C.P. Census paras. 646, 647. /Report (1 89 1), p. 203. ^ Ni'isik Gazetteer, pp. 84, 85. '^ Punjab Census Rep07-l (1881), II MARRIAGE 71 The TcHs are generally considered to be quarrelsome and talkative, and the Bahnas or Dhunias have the same characteristics. If one man abusing another lapses into Billingsgate, the other will say to him, ' Hainko JuldJia Dhunia neJi Jdno,' or ' Don't talk to me as if I u^as a Juliiha or a Dhunia.' Some Bahnas have exogamous sections with Hindu 2. Mar- names, while others are without these, and simply regulate '^'^•^^' their marriages by rules of relationship. They have the primitive Hindu custom of allowing a sister's son to marry a brother's daughter, but not vice versa. A man cannot marry his wife's younger sister during her lifetime, nor her elder sister at any time. Children of the same foster- mother are also not allowed to marry. Their marriages are performed by a Kazi with an imitation of the Nikah rite. The bridegroom's party sit under the marriage-shed, and the bride with the women of her party inside the house. The Kazi selects two men, one from the bride's party, who is known as the Nikahi Bap or ' Marriage Father,' and the other from the bridegroom's, who is called the Gowah or ' Witness.' These two men go to the bride and ask her whether she accepts the bridegroom, whose name is stated, for her husband. She answers in the affirmative, and mentions the amount of the dowry which she is to receive. The bridegroom, who has hitherto had a veil {imck/ma) over his face, now takes it off, and the men go to him and ask him whether he accepts the bride. He replies that he does, and agrees to pay the dowry demanded by her. The Kazi reads some texts and the guests are given a meal of rice and sugar. Many of the preliminaries to a Hindu marriage are performed by the more backward members of the caste, and until recently they erected a sacred post in the marriage -shed, but now they merely hang the green branch of a mango tree to the roof The minimum amount of the vie/iar or dowry is said to be Rs. 125, but it is paid to the girl's parents as a bride- price and not to herself, as among the Muhammadans. A widow is expected, but not obliged, to marry her deceased husband's younger brother. Divorce is permitted by means of a written deed known as ' Farkhati.' 72 BAHNA The Bahnas venerate Muhammad, and also worship the tombs of Muhammadan saints or Pirs. A green sheet or cloth is spread over the tomb and a lamp is kept burning by it, while offerings of incense and flowers are made. When the new cotton crop has been gathered they lay some new cotton by their bow and mallet and make an offering of viallda or cakes of flour and sugar to it. They believe that two angels, one good and one bad, are perched continually on the shoulders of every man to record his good and evil deeds. And when an eclipse occurs they say that the sun and moon have gone behind a pinnacle or tower of the heavens. For exorcising evil spirits they write texts of the Koran on paper and burn them before the sufferer. The caste bury the dead with the feet point- ing to the south. On the way to the grave each one of the mourners places his shoulder under the bier for a time, partaking of the impurity communicated by it. Incense is burnt daily in the name of a deceased person for forty days after his death, with the object probably of preventing his ghost from returning to haunt the house. Muhammadan beggars are fed on the tenth day. Similarly, after the birth of a child a woman is unclean for forty days, and cannot cook for her husband during that period. A child's hair is cut for the first time on the tenth or twelfth day after birth, this being known as Jhalar. Some parents leave a lock of hair to grow on the head in the name of the famous saint Sheikh Farid, thinking that they will thus ensure a long life for the child. It is probably in reality a way of preserving the Hindu choti or scalp-lock. The hereditary calling ^ of the Bahna is the cleaning or scutching of cotton, which is done by subjecting it to the vibration of a bow-string. The seed has been previously separated by a hand-gin, but the ginned cotton still contains much dirt, leaf-fibre and other rubbish, and to remove this is the Bahna's task. The bow is somewhat in the shape of a harp, the wide end consisting of a broad piece of wood over which the string passes, being secured to a straight wooden bar at the back. At the narrow end the bar and string arc fixed to an iron ring. The string is made of the ' Cr