List Group 12

Kuruvikkaran - Kuruvikkaran.(Vagiri) - Lâpis - Laheris - Lakheras - Lambâdi - Langoli - Larhia - Lodhas - Lohar - Lohar.(Khati,Ghantra,Ghisari, - Panchal) - Lhârí - Lorha - Luniyas - Madâri. (Madariya) - Mahli. (Mahili) - Mahtams - Mailâri - Majhwâr. (Mânjhi, Mâjhia) - Mal - Mâl.(Mâle, Mâler, Mâl Pahâria) - Malaivedan - Malayan - Maleyave - Mâna - Mânbhao - Mandula - Mandula - Mâng Mangan - Manganiyar - Manihar

Concerning Nâyakas or Naikers and Kurumbas, Mr. F.W.F. Fletcher writes to me as follows from Nellakotta, Nílgiris: "It may be that in some parts of Wynad there are people known indifferently as Kurumbas and Shola Nâyakas; but I have no hesitation in saying that the Nâyakas in my employ are entirely distinct from the Kurumbas. The two classes do not intermarry; they do not live together; they will not eat together. Even their prejudices with regard to food are different, for a Kurumba will eat bison flesh, and a Nâyaka will not. The latter stoutly maintains that he is entirely distinct from, and far superior to, the Kurumba, and that the various religious ceremonies of the two tribes are also different. The Nâyakas have separate temples, and worship separate gods. The chief Kurumba temple in this part of the country is close to Pandalur, and here, especially at the Bishu feast, the Kurumbas gather in numbers. My Nâyakas do not recognise this temple, but have their place of worship in the heart of the jungle, where they make their puja (worship) under the direction of their own priest. The Nâyakas will not attend the funeral of a Kurumba; nor will they invite Kurumbas to the funeral of one of their own tribe. There is a marked variation in their modes of life. The Kurumba of this part lives in comparatively open country, in the belt of deciduous forest lying between the ghâts proper and the foot of the Nílgiri plateau. Here he has been brought into contact with European Planters, and is, comparatively speaking, civilised. The Nâyaka has his habitat in the dense jungle of the ghâts, and is essentially a forest nomad, living on honey, jungle fruits, and the tuberous roots of certain jungle creepers. By constant association with myself, my Nâyaka men have lost the fear of the white man, which they entertained when I first came into the district; but even now, if I visit the village of a colony who reside in the primaeval forest, the women and children will hide themselves in the jungle at sight of me. The superstitions of the two tribes are different. Some Nâyakas are credited with the power of changing themselves at will into a tiger, and of wreaking vengeance on their enemies in that guise. And the Kurumba holds the Nâyaka in as much awe as other castes hold the Kurumba. Lower down, on the flat below the ghâts I am opening a rubber estate, and here I have another Nâyaka colony, who differ in many respects from their congeners above, although the two colonies are within five miles as the crow flies. The low-country Nâyaka does his hair in a knot on one side of his head, Malayâlam fashion, and his speech is a patois of Malayâlam. The Nâyaka on the hills above has a mop of curly hair, and speaks a dialect of his own quite distinct from the Kurumba language, though both are derived from Kanarese. But that the low-country people are merely a sept of the Nâyaka tribe is evident from the fact that intermarriage is common amongst the two colonies, and that they meet at the same temple for their annual pîja. The priest of the hill colony is the pîjâri for both divisions of the Nâyakas, and the arbiter in all their disputes."

Kuruvikkaran.: -They are hunters and bird catchers.

Kuruvikkaran.: -The Vagiri are called Kuruvikkaran by Tamilians. See Vagiri.

Lâdis.: -The Lâdis are a Gypsy tribe [1], who sell betel-leaf, areca-nuts, tobacco, bhang, etc. The number of Lâdis returned at the last Census of 1911 was as follows:-

Bombay 11,781

Central Provinces and Berar 5,383

Baroda State 8,500

Hyderabad State 8,776

Elsewhere 1,132

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TOTAL 35,572

[1] See G.A. Grierson Linguistic Survey of India.

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It does not seem as if the Lâdis generally have a dialect of their own. During the preliminary operations of this Survey a dialect called Lâdí was reported to be spoken by 500 individuals in the Ellichpur District of Berar. A version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son has been forwarded as an illustration of this form of speech. The beginning of it shows that the Lâdí of Ellichpur is Eastern Râjasthâní, in most respects agreeing with Jaipurí.

Laheris.: -See Lakheras.

Lakheras.: -They live in Central India selling bangles and many items of lac resin. They wear many ornaments like the Bhils and Banjaras.

Lambâdi.: -The Lambâdis are also called Lambâni, Brinjâri or Banjâri, Boipari, Sugâli or Sukâli. By some Sugâli is said to be a corruption of supâri (betel nut), because they formerly traded largely therein.[1] "The Banjârâs," Mr. G.A. Grierson writes,[2] "are the well- known tribe of carriers who are found all over Western and Southern India. [3] One of their principal sub-castes is known under the name of Labhânî, and this name (or some related one) is often applied to the whole tribe. The two names appear each under many variations, such as Banjârî, Vanjârî, Brinjârî, Labhâni, Labânî, Labânâ, Lambâdi, and Lambâni. The name Banjâra and its congeners is probably derived from the Sanskrit Vanijyakârakas, a merchant, through the Prakrit Vânijjaârao, a trader. The derivation of Labhânî or Labânî, etc., is obscure. It has been suggested that it means salt carrier from the Sanskrit Lavanah, salt, because the tribe carried salt, but this explanation goes against several phonetic rules, and does not account for the forms of the word like Labhânî or Lambânî. Banjârî falls into two main dialects-- that of the Punjab and Gujarat, and that of elsewhere (of which we may take the Labhânî of Berar as the standard). All these different dialects are ultimately to be referred to the language of Western Rajputana. The Labhânî of Berar possesses the characteristics of an old form of speech, which has been preserved unchanged for some centuries. It may be said to be based partly on Mârwâri and partly on Northern Gujarâtiî.” It is noted by Mr. Grierson that the Banjârî dialect of Southern India is mixed with the surrounding Dravidian Languages. In the census Report, I901, Tanda (the name of the Lambâdi settlements or camps), and Vâli Sugrîva are given as synonyms for the tribal name. Vâli and Sugrîva were two monkey chiefs mentioned in the Râmâyana, from whom the Lambâdis claim to be descended. The legend, as given by Mr. F.S. Mullaly,[4] is that "there were two brothers, Mota and Mola, descendants of Sugrîva. Mola had no issue, so, being an adept in gymnastic feats, he went with his wife Radha, and exhibited his skill at 'Rathanatch' before three râjahs. They were so taken with Mola's skill, and the grace and beauty of Radha, and of her playing of the nagâra or drum, that they asked what they could do for them. Mola asked each of the râjahs for a boy, that he might adopt him as his son. This request was accorded, and Mola adopted three boys. Their names were Chavia, Lohia Panchar, and Ratâde. These three boys, in course of time, grew up and married.

[1] See Thurston. See also: Manual of the North Arcot district.

[2] Linguistic Survey of India, IX, 1907.

[3] From Kashmir to the Madras Presidency. 4 Notes on Criminal Classes of the Madras Presidency.

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From Bheekya, the eldest son of Ratâde, started the clan known as the Bhutyas, and from this clan three minor sub-divisions known as the Maigavuth, Kurumtoths, and Kholas. The Bhutyas form the principal class among the Lambâdis." According to another legend , [1] "one Châda left five sons, Müla, Mota, Nathâd, Jogdâ, and Bhîmdâ. Chavân (Chauhân), one of the three son of Müla, had six sons, each of whom founded a clan. In the remote past, a Brâhman from Ajmir, and a Marâta from Jotpur in the north of India, formed alliances with and settled among these people, the Marâta living with Rathol, a brother of Chavân. The Brâhman married a girl of the latter's family, and his offspring added a branch to the six distinct clans of Chavân. These clans still retain the names of their respective ancestors, and, by reason of cousinship, intermarriage between some of them is still prohibited. They do, however, intermarry with the Brâhman offshoot, which was distinguished by the name of Vadtyâ, from Chavnâ's family. Those belonging to the Vadtyâ clan still wear the sacred thread. The Marâta, who joined the Rathol family, likewise founded an additional branch under the name of Khamdat to the six clans of the latter, who intermarry with none but the former. It is said that from the Khamdat clan are recruited most of the Lambâdi dacoits. The clan descended from Mota, the second son of Châda, is not found in the Mysore country. The descendants of Nathâd, the third son, live by catching wild birds, and are known as Mirasikat, Paradi, or Vâgri (see Kuruvikkâran). The Jogdâs are people of the Jogi caste. Those belonging to the Bhîmdâ family are the peripatetic blacksmiths, called Bailu Kammâra. The Lambâni outcastes compose a sub-division called Thâlya, who, like the Holayas, are drum-beaters, and live in detached habitations."

As pointing to a distinction between Sukâlis and Banjâris, it is noted by the Rev. J. Cain [2] that "the Sukâlîlu do not travel in such large companies as the Banjârîlu, nor are their women dressed as gaudily as the Banjâri women. There is but little friendship between these two classes, and the Sukâli would regard it as anything but an honour to be called a Banjâri, and the Banjâri is not flattered when called a Sukâli." It is, however, noted in the Madras Census Report, 1891, that enquiries show that Lambâdis and Sugâlis are practically the same. And Mr. H.A. Stuart, writing concerning the inhabitants of the North Arcot district states that the names Sugâli, Lambâdi and Brinjâri "seem to be applied to one and the same class of people, though a distinction is made. The Sugâlis are those who have permanently settled in the district; the Lambâdis are those who commonly pass through from the coast to Mysore; and the Brinjâris appear to be those who come down from Hyderabad or the Central Provinces." It is noted by Mr. W. Francis [3] that, in the Bellary district, the Lambâdis do not recognise the name Sugâli.

Orme mentions the Lambâdis as having supplied the Comte de Bussy with store, cattle, and grain, when besieged by the Nizam's army at Hyderabad. In an account of the Brinjâris towards the close of the eighteenth century, Moor [4] writes that they "associate chiefly together, seldom or never mixing with other tribes. They seem to have no home, no character but that of merchants, in which capacity they travel great distances to whatever parts are most in want of merchandise, which is in the greatest part corn. In times of war they attend, and are of great assistance to armies, and, being neutral, it is a matter of indifference to them who purchases their goods. They marched and formed their own encampments apart, relying on their own courage for protection; for which purpose the men are all armed with swords or matchlocks. The women drive the cattle, and are the most robust we ever saw in India, undergoing a great deal of labour with apparent ease. Their dress is peculiar, and their ornaments are so singularly chosen that we have, we are confident, seen women who (not to mention a child at their backs) have had eight or ten pounds weight in metal or ivory round their arms and legs. The favourite ornaments appear to be rings of ivory from the wrist to the shoulder, regularly increasing in size, so that the ring near the shoulder will be immoderately large, sixteen or eighteen inches, or more perhaps in circumference.

[1] Mysore Census Report, I89I.

[2] Ind. Ant VIII, I879.

[3] Gazetteer of the Bellary district.

[4] Narrative of the Operations of Little's Detachment against Tippoo Sultan, I794.

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These rings are sometimes dyed red. Silver, lead, copper, or brass, in ponderous bars, encircle their shins, sometimes round, others in the form of festoons, and truly we have seen some so circumstanced that a criminal in irons would not have much more to incommode him than these damsels deem ornamental and agreeable trappings on a long march, for they are never dispensed with in the hottest weather. A kind of stomacher, with holes for the arms, and tied behind at the bottom, covers their breast, and has some strings of cowries [1] dangling at their backs. The stomacher is curiously studded with cowries, and their hair is also bedecked with them. They wear likewise ear-rings, necklaces, rings on the fingers and toes, and, we think, the nut or nose jewel. They pay little attention to cleanliness; their hair, once plaited, is not combed or opened perhaps for a month; their bodies or clothes are seldom washed; their arms are indeed so encased with ivory that it would be no easy matter to clean them. They are chaste and affable; any indecorum offered to a woman would be resented by the men, who have a high sense of honour on that head. Some are men of great property; it is said that droves of loaded bullocks, to the number of fifty or sixty thousand, have at different times followed the Bhow's army."

Occupation

The Lambâdis of Bellary "have a tradition among them of having first come to the Deccan from the north with Moghul camps as commissariat carriers. Captain J. Briggs, in writing about them in 1813, states that, as the Deccan is devoid of a single navigable river, and has no roads that admit wheeled traffic, the whole of the extensive intercourse is carried on by laden bullocks, the property of the Banjâris." [2] Concerning the Lambâdis of the same district, Mr. Francis writer that "they used to live by pack-bullock trade, and they still remember the names of some of the generals who employed their forefathers. When peace and the railways came and did away with these callings, they fell back for a time upon crime as a livelihood, but they have now mostly taken to agriculture and grazing." Some Lambâdis are, at the present time (1908), working in the Mysore manganese mines.

Writing in 1825, Bishop Heber noted [3] that "we passed a number of Brinjarees, who were carrying salt. They all had bows, arrows, sword and shield. Even the children had, many of them, bows and arrows suited to their strength, and I saw one young woman equipped in the same manner."

Of the Lambâdis in time of war, the Abbé Dubois inform us [4] that "they attach themselves to the army where discipline is least strict. They come swarming in from all parts, hoping, in the general disorder and confusion, to be able to thieve with impunity. They make themselves very useful by keeping the market well supplied with the provisions that they have stolen on the march. They hire themselves and their large herds of cattle to whichever contending party will pay them best, acting as carriers of the supplies and baggage of the army. They were thus employed, to the number of several thousands, by the English in their last war with the Sultan of Mysore. The English, however, had occasion to regret having taken these untrustworthy and ill-disciplined people into their service, when they saw them ravaging the country through which they passed, and causing more annoyance than the whole of the enemy's army."

It is noted by Wilks [5] that the travelling grain merchants, who furnished the English army under Cornwallis with grain during the Mysore war, were Brinjâris, and he adds, "they strenuously objected, first, that no capital execution should take place without the sanction of the regular judicial authority; second, that they should be punishable for murder.

[1] See Thurston. See also: Manual of the North Arcot district.

[2] Linguistic Survey of India, IX, 1907.

[3] From Kashmir to the Madras Presidency.

[4] Notes on Criminal Classes of the Madras Presidency.

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The executions to which they demanded assent, or the murders for which they were called to account, had their invariable origin in witchcraft, or the power of communication with evil spirits. If a child sickened, or a wife was inconstant, the sorcerer was to be discovered and punished." It is recorded by the Rev. J. Cain that many of the Lambâdis "confessed that, in former days, it was the custom among them before staring out on a journey to procure a little child, and bury it in the ground up to the shoulders, and then drive their loaded bullocks over the unfortunate victim, and, in proportion to their thoroughly trampling the child to death, so their belief in a successful journey increased. A Lambâdi was seen repeating a number of mantras (magical formulae) over his patients, and touching their heads at the same time with a book, which was a small edition of the Telugu translation of St. John's gospel. Neither the physician nor patient could read, and had no idea of the contents of the book." At the time when human (meriah) sacrifices prevailed in the Vizagapatam Agency tracts, it was the regular duty of Lambâdis to kidnap or purchase human beings in the plains, and sell them to the hill tribes for extravagant prices. A person, in order to be a fitting meriah, had to be purchased for a price.

It is recorded [1] that not long after the accession of Vinâyaka Deo to the throne of Jeypore, in the fifteenth century, some of his subjects rose against him, but he recovered his position with the help of a leader of Brinjâris. Ever since then, in grateful recognition, his descendants have appended to their signatures a wavy line (called valatradu), which represents the rope with which Brinjâris tether their cattle.

The common occupation of the Lambâdis of Mysore is said [2] to be "the transport of grain and other produce on pack bullocks, of which they keep large herds. They live in detached clusters of rude huts, called thandas, at some distance from established villages. Though some of them have taken of late to agriculture, they have as yet been only partially reclaimed from criminal habits." The thandas are said to be mostly pitched on high ground affording a vantage point for reconnaissance in predatory excursions. It is common for the Lambâdis of the Vizagapatam Agency, during their trade peregrinations, to clear a level piece of land, and camp for the night with fires lighted all round them. Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao informs me that they regard themselves as immune from the attacks of tigers, if they take certain precautions. Most of them have to pass through places infested with these beasts, and their favourite method of keeping them off is as follows. As soon as they encamp at a place, they level a square bit of ground, and light fires in the middle of it, round which they pass the night. It is their firm belief that the tiger will not enter the square, from fear lest it should become blind, and eventually be shot.

Settlements

In the Madras Census Reports the Lambâdis are described as a class of traders, herdsmen, cattle-breeders, and cattle lifters, found largely in the Deccan districts, in parts of which they have settled down as agriculturists. In the Cuddapah district they are said [3] to be found in most of the jungly tracts, living chiefly by collecting firewood and jungle produce. In the Vizagapatam district, Mr. G.F. Paddison informs me, the bullocks of the Lambâdis are ornamented with peacock's feathers and cowry shells, and generally a small mirror on the forehead. The bullocks of the Brinjâris (Boiparis) are described by the Rev. G. Gloyer [4] as having their horns, foreheads, and necks decorated with richly embroidered cloth, and carrying bells.

[1] Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district.

[2] Report on Public Instruction, Mysore, I90I-02; and Census Report, I89I.

[3] Manual of the Cuddapah district.

[4] eypur, Breklum, 1901.

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When on the march, the men always have their mouths covered, to avoid the awful dust which the hundreds of cattle kick up. Their huts are very temporary structures made of wattle. The whole village is moved about a furlong or so every two or three years--as early a stage of the change from nomadic to a settle life as can be found. The Lambâdi tents, or pâls, are said by Mr. Mullaly to be "made of stout coarse cloth fastened with ropes. In moving camp, these habitations are carried with their goods and chattels on pack bullocks." Concerning the Lambâdis of the Bellary district Mr. S. P. Rice writes to me as follows. "They are wood-cutters, carriers, and coolies, but some of them settle down and become cultivators. A Lambâdi hut generally consists of only one small room, with no aperture except the doorway. Here are huddled together the men, women, and children, the same room doing duty as kitchen, dining and bedroom. The cattle are generally tied up outside in any available spot of the village site, so that the whole village is a sort of cattle pen interspersed with huts, in whatsoever places may have seemed convenient to the particular individual. Dotted here and there are a few shrines of a modest description, where I was told that fires are lighted every night in honour of the deity. The roofs are generally sloping and made of thatch, unlike the majority of houses in the Deccan, which are almost always terraced or flat roofed. I have been into one or two houses rather larger than those described, where I found a buffalo or two, after the usual Canarese fashion. There is an air of encampment about the village, which suggests a gypsy life."

Lambâdi women

The present day costume and personal adornments of the Lambâdi females have been variously described by different writers. By one, the women are said to remind one of the Zingari of Wallachia and the Gitani of Spain. "Married women," Mr. H.A. Stuart writes,[1] "are distinguished from the unmarried in that they wear their bangles between the elbow and shoulder, while the unmarried have them between the elbow and wrist. Unmarried girls may wear black bead necklets, which are taken off at marriage, at which time they first assume the ravikkai or jacket. Matrons also use an earring called guriki to distinguish them from widows or unmarried girls." In the Mysore Census Report of 1901, it is noted that "the women wear a peculiar dress, consisting of a lunga or gown of stout coarse print, a tartan petticoat, and a mantle often elaborately embroidered, which also covers the head and upper part of the body. The hair is worn in ringlets or plaits hanging down each side of the face, and decorated with shells, and terminating in tassels. The arms are profusely covered with trinkets and rings made of bones, brass and other materials. The men's dress consists of a white or red turban, and a pair of white breeches or knicker-bockers, reaching a little below the knee, with a string of red silk tassels hanging by the right side from the waistband." "The men," Mr. F.S. Mullaly writes, "are fine muscular fellows, capable of enduring long and fatiguing marches. Their ordinary dress is the dhoty with short trousers, and frequently gaudy turbans and caps, in which they indulge on festive occasions. They also affect a considerable amount of jewellery. The women are, as a rule, comely, and above the average height of women of the country. Their costume is the laigna (langa) or gown of Karwar cloth, red or green, with a quantity of embroidery. The chola (choli) or bodice, with embroidery in the front and on the shoulders, covers the bosom, and is tied by variegated cords at the back, the ends of the cords being ornamented with cowries and beads. A covering cloth of Karwar cloth, with embroidery, is fastened in at the waist, and hangs at the side with a quantity of tassels and strings of cowries. Their jewels are very numerous, and include strings of beads of ten or twenty rows with a cowry as a pendant, called the cheed, threaded on horse-hair, and a silver hasali (necklace), a sign of marriage equivalent to the tâli. Brass or horn bracelets, ten to twelve in number, extending to the elbow on either arm, with a guzera or piece of embroidered silk, one inch wide, tied to the right wrist. Anklets of ivory (or bone) or horn are only worn by married women. They are removed on the death of the husband. Pachala or silk embroidery adorned with tassels and cowries is also worn as an anklet by women. Their other jewels are mukaram or nose ornament, a silver kania or pendant from the upper part of the ear attached to a silver chain which hangs to the shoulder, and profusion of silver, brass, and lead rings.

[1] Manual of the North Arcot district.

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Their hair is, in the case of unmarried women, unadorned, brought up and tied in a knot at the top of the head. With married women it is fastened, in like manner, with a cowry or a brass button, and heavy pendants or gujuris are fastened at the temples. This latter is an essential sign of marriage, and its absence is a sign of widowhood. Lambâdi women, when carrying water, are fastidious in the adornment of the pad, called gala, which is placed on their heads. They cover it with cowries, and attach to it an embroidered cloth, called phülia, ornamented with tassels and cowries." I gather that Lambâdi women of the Lavidia and Kimavath septs do not wear bracelets (chudo), because the man who went to bring them for the marriage of a remote ancestor died. In describing the dress of the Lambâdi women, the Rev. G.N. Thomssen writes that "the sâri is thrown over the head as a hood, with a frontlet of coins dangling over the forehead. This frontlet is removed in the case of widows. At the ends of the tufts of hair at the ears, heavy ornaments are tied or braided. Married women have a gold and silver coin at the ends of these tufts, while widows remove them. But the dearest possession of the women are large broad bracelets, made, some of wood, and the large number of bone or ivory. Almost the whole arm is covered with these ornaments. In case of the husband's death, the bracelets on the upper arm are removed. They are kept in place by a cotton bracelet, gorgeously made, the strings of which are ornamented with the inevitable cowries. On the wrist broad heavy brass bracelets with bells are worn, these being presents from the mother to her daughter."

Each thanda, Mr. Natesa Sastri writes, has "a headman called the Nâyaka, whose word is law, and whose office is hereditary. Each settlement has also a priest, whose office is likewise hereditary." According to Mr. H.A. Stuart, the thanda is named after the headman, and he adds, "the head of the gang appears to be regarded with great reverence, and credited with supernatural powers. He is believed to rule the gang most rigorously, and to have the power of life and death over its members."

Marriage

Concerning the marriage ceremonies of the Sugâlis of North Arcot, Mr. Stuart informs us that these "last for three days. On the first an intoxicating beverage compounded of bhang (Cannabis indica) leaves, jaggery (crude sugar), and other things, is mixed and drunk. When all are merry, the bridegroom's parents bring Rs. 35 and four bullocks to the bride, and, after presenting them, the bridegroom is allowed to tie a square silver bottu or tâli (marriage badge) to the bride's neck, and the marriage is complete; but the next two days must be spent in drinking and feasting. At the conclusion of the third day, the bride is arrayed in gay new clothes, and goes to the bridegroom's house, driving a bullock before her. Upon the birth of the first male child, a second silver bottu is tied to the mother's neck, and a third when a second son is born. When a third is added to the family, the three bottus are welded together, after which no additions are made." Of the Lambâdi marriage ceremony in the Bellary district, the following detailed account is given by Mr. Francis. "As acted before me by a number of both sexes of the caste, it runs as follows. The bridegroom arrives at night at the bride's house with a cloth covering his head, and an elaborately embroidered bag containing betel and nut slung from his shoulder. Outside the house, at the four corners of a square, are arranged four piles of earthen pots-five pots in each. Within this square two grain-pounding pestles are stuck upright in the ground. The bride is decked with the cloth peculiar to married women, and taken outside the house to meet the bridegroom. Both stand within the square of pots, and round their shoulders is tied a cloth, in which the officiating Brâhman knots a rupee. This Brâhman, it may be at once noted, has little more to do with the ceremony beyond ejaculating art intervals 'Shobhana! Shobhana!' or 'May it prosper!' Then the right hands of the couple are joined, and they walk seven times round each of the upright pestles, while the women chant the following song, one line being sung for each journey round the pestle:

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To yourself and myself marriage has taken place.

Together we will walk round the marriage pole.

Walk the third time; marriage has taken place.

You are mine by marriage.

Walk the fifth time; Marriage has taken place.

Walk the sixth time; marriage has taken place.

Walk the seventh time; marriage has taken place.

We have walked seven times; I am yours.

Walk the seventh time; you are mine.

"The couple then sit on a blanket on the ground near one of the pestles, and are completely covered with a cloth. The bride gives the groom seven little balls compounded of rice, ghee (clarified butter) and sugar, which he eats. He then gives her seven others, which she in turn eats. The process is repeated near the other pestle. The women keep on chanting all the while. Then the pair go into the house, and the cloth into which the rupee was knotted is untied, and the ceremonies for that night are over. Next day the couple are bathed separately, and feasting takes place. That evening the girl's mother or near female relations tie to the locks on each side of her temples the curious badges, called gugri, which distinguish a married from an unmarried woman, fasten a bunch of tassels to her back hair, and girdle her with a tasselled waistband, from which is suspended a little bag, into which the bridegroom puts five rupees. These last two are donned thereafter on great occasions, but are not worn every day. The next day the girl is taken home by her new husband." It is noted in the Mysore Census Report of 1891 that "one unique custom distinguishing the Lambâni marriage ceremonial, is that the officiating Brâhman priest is the only individual of the masculine persuasion who is permitted to be present. Immediately after the betrothal, the females surround and pinch the priest on all sides, repeating all the time songs in their mixed kutnî dialect. The vicarious punishment to which the solitary male Brâhman is thus subjected is said to be apt retribution for the cruel conduct, according to a mythological legend, of a Brâhman parent who heartlessly abandoned his two daughters in the jungle, as they had attained puberty before marriage. The pinching episode is notoriously a painful reality. It is said, however, that the Brâhman, willingly undergoes the operation in consideration of the rite." The treatment of the Brâhman as acted before me by Lambâdi women at Nandyâl, included an attempt to strip him stark naked. In the Census Report, it is stated that, at Lambâdi weddings, the women "weep and cry aloud, and the bride and bridegroom pour milk into an ant-hill, and offer the snake which lives therein coconuts, flowers, and so on. Brâhmans are sometimes engaged to celebrate weddings, and, failing a Brâhman, a youth of the tribe will put on the thread, and perform the ceremony."

The following variant of the marriage ceremonies was acted before me at Kadür in Mysore. A pandal (booth) is erected, and beneath it two pestles or ricepounders are set up. At the four corners, a row of five pots is placed, and the pots are covered with leafy twigs of Calotropis procera, which are tied with Calotropis fibre or cotton thread. Sometimes a pestle is set up near each row of pots. The bridal couple seat themselves near the pestles, and the ends of their cloths, with a silver coin in them, are tied together. They are then smeared with turmeric, and, after a wave-offering to ward off the evil eye, they go seven times round the pestles, while the women sing:

Oh! girl, walk along, walk.

You boasted that you would not marry.

Now you are married.

Walk, girl, walk on.

There is no good in your boasting.

You have eaten the pudding .

Walk, girl, walk.

Leave off boasting.

You sat on the plank with the bridegroom's thigh on yours.

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The bride and bridegroom take their seats on a plank, and the former throws a string round the neck of the latter, and ties seven knots in it. The bridegroom then does the same to the bride. The knots are untied. Cloths are then placed over the backs of the couple, and a swastika mark is drawn on them with turmeric paste. A Brâhman purohit is then brought to the pandal, and seats himself on a plank. A clean white cloth is placed on his head, and fastened tightly with string. Into this improvised turban, leafy twigs of mango and Cassia auriculata are stuck. Some of the Lambâdi women present, while chanting a rune, throw sticks of Ficus glomerata, Arintegrifolia, tocarpus and mango in front of the Brâhman, pour gingelly (Sesamum) oil over them, and set them on fire. The Brâhman is made a bridegroom, and he must give out the name of his bride. He is then slapped on the cheeks by the women, thrown down, and his clothing striped off. The Brâhman ceremonial concluded, a woman puts the badges of marriage on the bride. On the following day, she is dressed up, and made to stand on a bullock, and keep on crooning a mournful song, which makes her cry eventually. As she repeats the song, she waves her arms, and folds them over her head. The words of the song, the reproduction of which in my phonograph invariably made the women weep, are somewhat as follows:

Oh! father, you brought me up so carefully by spending much money.

All this was to no purpose.

Oh! mother, the time has come when I have to leave you.

Is it to send me away that you nourished me?

Oh! how can I live away from you,

My brothers and sisters?

Among the Lambâdis of Mysore, widow remarriage and polygamy are said [1] to freely prevail, "and it is customary for divorced women to marry again during the lifetime of the husband under the sîre udike (tying of a new cloth) form of remarriage, which also prevails among the Vakkaligas and others. In such cases, the second husband, under the award of the caste arbitration, is made to pay a certain sum (Tera) as amends to the first husband, accompanied by a caste dinner. The woman is then readmitted into society. But certain disabilities are attached to widow remarriage. Widows remarried are forbidden entry into a regular marriage party, whilst their offspring are disabled from legal marriage for three generations, although allowed to take wives from families similarly circumstanced." According to Mr. Stuart, the Sugâlis of the North Arcot district "do not allow the marriage of widows, but on payment of Rs. 15 and three buffaloes to her family, who take charge of her children, a widow may be taken by any man as a concubine, and her children are considered legitimate. Even during her husband's life, a woman may desert him for anyone else, the latter paying the husband the cost of the original marriage ceremony. The Sugâlis burn their married dead, but bury all others and have no ceremonies after death for the rest of the soul of the deceased." If the head of a burning corpse falls off the pyre, the Lambâdis pluck some grass or leaves, which they put in their mouths "like goats" and run home.

A custom called Valli Sukkeri is recorded by the Rev. C.N. Thomssen, according to which "if an elder brother marries and dies without offspring, the younger brother must marry the widow, and raise up children, such children being regarded as those of the deceased elder brother. If, however, the elder brother dies leaving offspring, and the younger brother wishes to marry the widow, he must give fifteen rupees and three oxen to his brother's children. Then he may marry the widow." The custom here referred to is said to be practiced because the Lambâdi's ancestor Sugrîva married his elder brother Vali's widow.

I am informed by Mr. F.A. Hamilton that, among the Lambâdis of Kollegal in the Coimbatore district, "if a widower remarries, he may go through the ordinary marriage ceremony, or the kuttuvali rite, in which all that is necessary is to declare his selection of a bride to four or five castemen, whom he feeds.

[1] Mysore Census Report 1901.

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A widow may remarry according to the same rite, her new husband paying the expenses of the feast."

Other customs

"The married dead are cremated. Unmarried, and those who have been married by the kuttuvali rite, are buried. When cremation is resorted to, the eldest son sets fire to the funeral pyre. On the third day he makes a heap of the ashes, on which he sprinkles milk. He and his relations then return home, and hold a feast. When a corpse is buried, no such ceremonies are performed. Both males and females are addicted to heavy drinking. Arrack is their favourite beverage, and a Lambâdi's boast is that he spent so much on drink on such and such an occasion. The women dance and sing songs in eulogy of their goddess. At bedtime they strip off all their clothes, and use them as a pillow."

The Lambâdis are said to purchase children from other castes, and bring them up as their own. Such children are not allowed to marry into the superior Lambâdi section called Thanda. The adopted children are classified as Koris, and a Kori may only marry a Lambâdi after several generations.

Religion

Concerning the religion of the Lambâdis, it is noted in the Mysore Census Report, 1891, that they are "Vishnuvaits, and their principal object of worship is Krishna. Bana Sankari, the goddess of forests, is also worshipped, and they pay homage to Basava on grounds dissimilar to those professed by the Lingayets. Basava is revered by the Lambâdis because Krishna had tended cattle in his incarnation. The writer interviewed the chief Lambâni priests domiciled in the Holalkere taluk. The priests belong to the same race, but are much less disreputable than the generality of their compatriots. It is said that they periodically offer sacrificial oblations in the agni or fire, at which a mantram is repeated, which may be paraphrased thus:

I adore Bharma (Bramha) in the roots;

Vishnu who is the trunk;

Rudra (Mahadev) pervading the branches;

And the Devâs in every leaf.

"The likening of the Creator's omnipotence to a tree among a people so far impervious to the traditions of Sanskrit lore may not appear very strange to those who will call to mind the Scandinavian tree of Igdrasil so graphically described by Carlyle, and the all-pervading Asvat'tha (pîpal) tree of the Bhagavargîta." It is added in the Mysore Census Report, 1901, that "the Lambânis use the Gosayis (Goswâmi) as their priests or gurus. These are the genealogists of the Lambânis, as the Halves are of the Sîvachars". Of the Sugâlis of Punganür and Palmaner in the North Arcot district Mr. Stuart writes that "all worship the Tirupati Swami, and also two Saktis called Kosa Sakti and Mâni Sakti. Some three hundred years ago, they saw that there was a feud between the Bukia and Müdu Sugâlis, and in a combat many were killed on both sides; but the widows of only two of the man who died were willing to perform sâti, in consequence of which they have been deified, and are now worshipped as saktis by all the divisions". It is said [1] that near Rolla in the Anantapur district, there is a small community of priests to the Lambâdis who call themselves Muhammadans, but cannot intermarry with others of the faith, and that in the south-west of Madakasîra taluk there is another sub-division, called the Mondu Talukar (who are usually stone-cutters and live in hamlets by themselves), who similarly cannot marry with other Musulmans. It is noted by the Rev. J. Cain [2] that in some places the Lambâdis "fasten small rags torn from some old garments to a bush in honour of Kampalamma (kampa, a thicket). On the side of one of the roads from Bastar are several large heaps of stones, which they have piled up in honour of the goddess Guttalamma.

[1] Gazetteer of the Anantapur district.

[2] Ind. Ant., VIII., 1879. IV-15 B

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Every Lambâdi who passes the heaps is bound to place one stone on the heap, and to make a salaam to it." The goddess of the Lambâdis of Kollegal is, according to Mr. Hamilton, Shatti. A silver image of a female, seated tailor-fashion, is kept by the head of the family, and is an heirloom. At times of festivals it is set up and worshipped. Cooked food is placed before it, and a feast, with much arrack drinking, singing, beating of the tomtom, and dancing through the small hours of the night, is held. Examples of the Lambâdi songs relating to incidents in the Ramayana, in honour of the goddesses Durga and Bhavâni, etc., have been published by Mr. F. Fawcett. [1]

The Brinijâris are described by the Rev. G. Gloyer as carrying their principal goddess "Bonjairini Mata", on the horns of their cattle (leitochsen).

It is noted by the Rev. G. N. Thomssen the that Lambâdis "worship the Supreme Being in a very pathetic manner. A stake, either a carved stick, or a peg, or a knife, is planted on the ground, and men and women form a circle round this, and a wild, weird chant is sung, while all bend very low to the earth. They all keep on circling about the stake, swinging their arms in despair, clasping them in prayer, and at last raising them in the air. Their whole cry is symbolic of the child crying in the night, the child crying for the light. If there are very many gathered for worship, the men form one circle, and the women another. Another peculiar custom is their sacrifice of a goat or a chicken in case of removal from one part of the jungle to another, or when sickness has come. They hope to escape death by leaving one camping ground for another. Halfway between the old and new grounds, a chicken or goat is buried alive, the head being allowed to be above ground. Then all the cattle are driven over the buried creature and the whole camp walk over the buried victim". In former days, the Lambâdis are reputed to have offered up human sacrifices. "When," the Abbé Dubois writes, "they wish to perform this horrible act, it is said that they secretly carry off the first person they meet. Having conducted the victim to some lonely spot, they dig a hole, in which they bury him up to the neck. While he is still alive, they make a sort of lump of dough made of flour, which they place on his head. Having done this, the men and women join hands and, forming a circle, dance round their victim, singing and making a great noise, till he expires." The interesting fact is recorded by Mr. Mullaly "that, before the Lambâdis proceed on a predatory excursion, a token, usually a leaf, is secreted in some hidden place before proceeding to invoke Durga. The Durgamma püjâri (priest), one of their own class, who wears the sacred thread, and is invested with his sacred office by reason of his powers of divination, lights a fire, and, calling on the goddess for aid, treads the fire out, and names the token hidden by the party. His word is considered an oracle, and the püjâri points out the direction the party is to take."

From a further note on the religion of the Lambâdis, I gather that they worship the following:

(1) Balaji, whose temple is at Tirupari. Offerings of money are made to this deity for the bestowal of children, etc. When their prayers are answered, the Lambâdis walk all the way to Tirupari, and will not travel thither by railway.

(2) Hanumân, the monkey god.

(3) Poleramma. To ward off devils and evil spirits.

(4) Mallalamma. To confer freedom to their cattle from attacks of tigers and other wild beasts.

(5) Ankalamma. To protect them from epidemic disease.

(6) Peddamma.

(7) Maremma.

The Lambâdis observe the Holi festival, for the celebration of which money is collected in towns and villages.

[1] Ind. Ant., XXX., 1901

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On the Holiday, the headman and his wife fast, and worship two images of mud, representing Kama (the Indian cupid) and his wife Rati. On the following morning, cooked food is offered to the images, which are then burn. Men and women sing and dance, in separate groups, round the burning fire. On the third day, they again sing and dance, and dress themselves in gala attire. The men snatch the food which has been prepared by the women, and run away amid protests from the women, who sometimes chastise them.

1 It is narrated by Moor [1] that "he passed a tree, on which were hanging several hundred bells. This was a superstitious sacrifice by the Bandjanahs, who, passing this tree, are in the habit of hanging a bell or bells upon it, which they take from the necks of their sick cattle, expecting to leave behind them the complaint also. Our servants particularly cautioned us against touching these diabolical bells; but, as a few were taken for our own cattle, several accidents that happened were imputed to the anger of the deity, to whom these offerings were made, who, they say, inflicts the same disorder on the unhappy bullock who carries a bell from this tree as he relieved the donor from."

There is a legend in connection with the matsya gundam (fish pool) close under the Yendrika hill in the Vizagapatam district. The fish therein are very tame, and are protected by the Mâdgole zamindars. "Once, goes the story, a Brinjâri caught one and turned it into curry, whereon the king of the fish solemnly cursed him, and he and all his pack-bullocks were 2 turned into rocks, which may be seen there to this day." [2]

Lambâdi women often have elaborate tattooed patterns on the backs of the hands, and a tattooed dot on the left side of the nose may be accepted as a distinguishing character of the tribe in some parts. My assistant once pointed out that, in a group of Lambâdis, some of the girls did not look like members of the tribe. This roused the anger of an old woman, who said "You can see the tattoo marks on the nose, so they must be Lambâdis." Lambâdi women will not drink water from running streams or big tanks. In the Mysore Province, there is class of people called Thambüri, who dress like Lambâdis, but do not intermarry with them. They are Muhammadans, and their children are circumcised. Their marriages are carried out according to the Muhammadan nikka rite, but they also go through the Lambâdi form of marriage, except that marriage pots are not placed in the pandal (wedding booth). The Lambâdis apparently pay some respect to them, money at marriages or on other occasions. They seem to be bards and panegyrists of the Lambâdis, in the same way that other classes have their Nokkans, Vîramushtis, Bhatrâzus etc. It is 3 noted by Mr. Stuart that the Lambâdis have priests called Bhats, to whom it is probable that the Thambüris correspond in Mysore. The methods of the criminal Lambâdis are dealt with at length by Mr. Mullaly. And it must suffice for the present purpose to note that they commit dacoities and have their receivers of stolen property, and that the Naik or headman of the gang takes an active share in the commission of crime.

Langoli.: -A sub-section of the Pardhis. See also Advichincher.

Larhia.:-See Od.

[1] Narrative of Little's Detachment, 1784.

[2] Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district.

[3] Madras Census Report, 1891.

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Lodhas.: -They live in and near Jungles, they are nomadic and food gathering group. They were listed as a criminal tribe. They are now becoming cultivators since the jungles are being privatized or destroyed.

Lohar.: -(Sanskrit lauha-kara,)[1] "a worker in iron," the blacksmith caste. As Professor Schrader [2] has shown, the Indo-Germanic names for the smith have a threefold origin. They are derived either from words designating metal or metals collectively, such as the Hindi Lohar and the Greek Chalkeus or Sidereus: or, secondly, from verbals which mean "hewing"; or, thirdly, substantives with the general meaning of "worker," "artificer," are specialised down to the narrower meaning of "smith." Such is the Sanskrit Karmakara, "a blacksmith," which really means "workman" par excellence. It has been suggested that the Lohar is ethnically connected with the Dravidian Agariya, or iron smelter, who has been separately described; and the evidence from Bengal to some extent corroborates this view. [3] But the Mirzapur Agariya does no blacksmith's work; all he does is to smelt the iron axe heads and agricultural implements by the Lohar, who is admittedly a recent immigrant into the hill country, and utterly repudiates any connection with the iron-smelter of the jungles. The internal organization of the caste suggests that it is formed of many different elements, and is, in the main, of occupational origin.

Legendary Origin.

Practically all Lohars trace their origin to Visvakarma, who is the later representative of the Vedic Twashtri, the architect and handicraftsman of the gods, "the fashioner of all ornaments, the most eminent of artizans, who formed the celestial chariots of the deities, on whose craft men subsist, and whom as a great immortal god they continually worship." [4] One tradition tells that Visvakarma was a Brahman and married the daughter of an Ahir, who was in her previous birth a dancing-girl of the gods. By her he had nine sons, who became the ancestors of various artizan castes, such as the Lohar, Barhai, Sunar, Kasera, etc. By another tradition they are the offspring of a Brahman from a Sudra woman. Many of the Western Lohars fix their original home at Mithila, whence they say they emigrated to Mathura with Sri Krishna. At the last Census, 18,805 persons, chiefly Barhais and Lohars, recorded themselves as worshippers of Biskarma or Visvakarma.

The Wandering Blacksmiths.

Occasional camps of these interesting people are to be met with in the districts of the Meerut Division. They wander about with small carts and pack animals and, being more expert than the ordinary village Lohar, their services are in demand for the making of tools for carpenters, weavers, and other craftsmen. They are known in the Panjab as Gadiya or those "who have carts" (gadi, gari). Mr. Ibbetson says that they come up from Rajputana and the North-Western Provinces, but their real country is the Dakkhin. In the Panjab they travel about with their families and implements in carts from village to village, doing the finer kinds of iron-work which are beyond the capacity of the village artizan. Of the same people Mr. Balfour [5] writes that they are called Ghisari in Dakkhini, Lohar in Marhatti, but call themselves Taremuk. They worship Khandoba. Their marriages are conducted in the Hindu manner, but intoxicating drinks are largely used.

[1] See Crooke. Based on enquiries made at Mirzapur and notes by M. Basdeo Sahay, Head Master, High School, Farrukhabad ; the Deputy Commissioner, Sultanpur : the Deputy Inspector of School, Dehra Dun.

[2] Prehistoric Antiquities, 154

[3] Risley, Tribes and Castes, 11,22.

[4] Dowson, Classical Dictionary, s.v.

[5] Journal, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. Xlll, No. 145.

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They have earned a great name for gallantry, and it is very usual to hear of the rough Taremuk levanting with another man's wife. On the occasion of a birth they sacrifice in the name of Satvai. They burn the bodies of the married people and lay the ashes by a river's side; but the unmarried dead are buried, and for three days after the funeral food is carried to the grave, though they draw no augury of the state of the soul of the deceased from any animal eating the food. In the Dakkhin [1] this class of wandering blacksmiths are called Saiqalgar or knife grinders or Ghisara or grinders (Hindi ghisana, "to rub"). They wander about grinding knives and tools. "They are wiry men with black skins, high cheek bones, and thick lips. Latterly they have taken to shaving the head, but some keep the Hindu top-knot. Since their conversion to Islam most men wear the beard. The women dress their hair rather oddly, plaiting each tress in a separate band." They make nails and togs, and the women blow the bellows, and collect scraps of iron in towns as materials for their husbands' anvils. Though never pressed for food, they lead a hand-to-mouth life, always ready to spend what they earn in food and drink. They say they are sprung from Visvakarma, [2] the framer of the universe, who brought out of fire, the anvil, the bellows, the sledge, and the small hammer. He taught them how to forge the war chariot. When these were prepared and approved by their master, the caste came to be called Ghisadi, and were told to make various tools and weapons of war. They are strong, dark, dirty, drunken, hot-tempered, and hardworking.

Domestic customs

In Ahmadnagar [3] 'early marriage, polygamy, and widow marriage are allowed and practised, and polyandry is unknown. The women mark their brows with sandal paste when they bathe. On the fifth day after the birth of a child, an image of Satvai is worshipped in Kunbi fashion, and the child is named and cradled on the seventh and ninth by female friends and relations, who are asked to dine at the house. The mother keeps to her room and is held impure for forty days. On the day before the marriage the "god pleasing" (derkarya) is performed, when their marriage guardian (derak), the leaves of the mango, ficus glomerata, syzigium Jamolanum, Prosopis spicigera, and Calatropis gigantea, are laid in a dining dish with a sword on them and taken to the temple of the village Maruti, with music, and a band of friends, by two married pairs-- one from the bride's and the other from the bridegroom's-- whose skirts are tied together. They are then again brought back and laid before the house gods until the ceremony is ended. The family gods are worshipped with the customary is offerings, a goat or a sheep is slain in their name, and the caste people are feasted. All the rites connected with marriage, before and after the guardian worship, are the same as among local Kunbis, and the caste people are treated to a dinner at the house of the pair, or uncooked food is sent to their houses.

When a girl comes of age, she sits apart for four days, and is bathed on the fifth, when her female friends and relations meet at the house, dress her in a new bodice, and fill her lap with rice and a cocoanut. They mourn their dead twelve days, burying the unmarried and burning the married after the Kunbi custom. The son, or chief mourner, gets his face clean shaven, except the eye-brows, on the tenth or twelfth, without requiring the services of a Brahman priest, and, on the tenth, treats the caste people to a dinner of stuffed cakes and rice with split pulse. The death day is marked by a "Mind rite" (sraddha), and the dead are remembered in all Souls' fortnight in the dark half of Bhadon, on the day which corresponds with the death day. They are bound together by a strong caste feeling of rules are punished by fines, which generally take the form of caste feasts, and a free pardon is granted to those who submit." It has seemed worth while to collect so much information about these people, because they probably represent the most primitive form of workers in iron, and are thus closely allied in function, if not in race, to the European Gypsy, whose chief occupation is that of the farrier and tinker.

[1] Bombay Gazetteer, XVl, 52.

[2] Bombay Gazetteer, X.X, 101.

[3] Ibid, XVll, 98.

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The Lohars Of The North Western Provinces Oudh. Internal Organization.

The Lohars of these Provinces include both a Hindu and a Muhammadan branch, of which the former is far more numerous than the latter. At the last Census the Hindu Lohars were divided into nine main sub-castes: Ajudhyabasi, or "residents of Ajudhya;" Visvakarma, who take their name from their eponymous ancestor; Dhaman; Kanaujiya, from Kanauj; Lahauri, from Lahore; Mahul; Mathuriya, "Ojha, or those professing a Brahmanical origin, the word being probably derived from the Sanskrit Upadhyaya, "a teacher;" and Rawat, which comes from the Sanskrit Rajduta, "royal messenger." But this does not exhaust the catalogue of sub-castes. Thus, we find at Mirzapur, besides the Kanaujiya, the Mauliha or Mauliya, who are said to derive their name from the country of Malwa, and to be identical with the Mahauliya of Benares and the Mahul of the Census lists. Mr. Sherring names in addition the Sribastava, who take their name from the old city of Sravasti: the Malik; the Banarasiya, "those of Benares;" the Chaurasiya who are perhaps called after Tappa Chaurasi in the Mirzapur District; Purabiya or "Eastern;" Maghaiya or Magahiya, those of Magadh; Sinar and Mathuriya who derive their name from Mathura. In the Central Daub their divisions are Tumariya, who assert some connection with Tomar Rajputs; Jholiya or "wearers of the wallet" (jholi); Gurhabadi; Logvarsha or Laungbarsa; and Siyahmaliya, or "workers in black iron." Akin to these are the Palauta of Bijnor and the Kachhlohiya, or "workers in unpurified iron," of Moradabad. The complete Census returns show 736 sub-divisions of the Hindu and 114 of the Musalman branch. Of these those locally most important are the Deswali of Saharanpur: the Lote of Muzaffarnagar and Meerut; the Sengar of Jhansi: the Gotiya of Lalitpur, the Byahut, Gore and Uttaraha of Ballia; the Basdiha, Byahut, Dakkhinaha, Malik, Uttaraha of Gorakhpur; the Dakkhinaha of Basti: and the Gamela of Sitapur.

The Ojha Lohar or Barhai.

One sub-caste known almost indifferently as Ojha Barhai or Lohar is almost entirely confined to the Central Duab. They often call themselves Maithal or Mathuriya Ojha. The word Ojha, as has been already remarked, is probably a corruption of the Sanskrit Upadhyaya "a teacher." They allege that they were brought to Mathura by Sri Krishna from Mithila. They claim to be of Brahman descent and have provided themselves with a number of the ordinary Brahmanical gotras: Bharadwaja; Vasishtha; Gautam; Kasyapa; Sandiya; Vatsa, etc. These are all derived from the names of various Rishis from whom they claim descent. In Farrukhabad and its suburbs they are divided into some twenty-four groups (thok) each of which has a headman (chaudhari) of its own, to whom all social questions are referred. If the matter is not very particular, he calls a meeting of his group and settles it according to the opinion of the majority. In weightier cases members of the other groups are also invited to attend. Their rule of exogamy is in an uncertain. Properly speaking no man should marry in his own gotra according to the usual Brahmanical formula; but as a matter of fact, few of them know to which gotra they belong and they simply use the ordinary rule which prohibits intermarriage between blood relations on the paternal and maternal sides. Polygamy is allowed, polyandry prohibited. Girls are married between five and fourteen years of age. A man may expel his wife for proved immorality, but this is no ground for a woman leaving her husband. Divorced wives and widows may re-marry by the dharauna form. In widow marriage there is no regular ceremony; but the man who takes a widow to live with him has to undergo some sort of expiation, such as bathing in the Ganges, feeding the brotherhood and distribution alms to Brahmans. The levirate is allowed under the usual restrictions, but is not compulsory.

No ceremonies are performed during pregnancy. On an auspicious day, generally on the third day after her confinement, the ceremony of latadhoba is performed when one lock of her hair is washed. This is followed by the bahar nikalno when she leaves the confinement room for the first time. As a safeguard against demoniacal influences when she brings out the baby in her arms, an arrow is held in its hand by its maternal uncle who, as in other castes of the same social grade, bears an important part in these domestic ceremonies, probably a survival of the matriarchate.

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On the sixth day (chhathi) the mother and child are bathed again. On this occasion of the Sanskrit Vidhi, "Fate," is worshipped as the protector of the child. As soon as the child is born she is installed in the house and a representation of her is made on the wall with ghi. On the sixth day she is dismissed after being duly honoured with an offering of cakes, flowers, etc. As she is regarded as influencing the destiny of the child, on the day of her worship the baby is dressed in its clothes so as to ensure it a prosperous life. Then the whole house is purified; a fire sacrifice is made; the family gods are worshipped; the child is named and food is distributed to Brahmans. When they adopt, a regular deed of distribution of cocoanuts and sweets.

Marriage in the regular form is solemnised according to the standard Brahmanical form; poor people, however, marry by dola, when the bridegroom's father goes to the house of the girl, brings her home and goes through the ceremonies at his own house. There is in the ceremony a survival of marriage by capture. A representation of a fish is made of flour and is hung by a string which the bride holds in her hand. She will not enter the house until the boy succeeds in piercing it with an arrow, which the bride tries to prevent by moving it about as he aims at it.

Beliefs

The death ceremonies are of the normal type and the usual Sraddha is performed. The birth pollution lasts for ten days; that of menstruation for seven days; that after a death for thirteen days. Their tribal deity is Durga. They also in the month of Magh make pilgrimages to the shrine of Shah Madar. The offerings, consisting of sweetmeats (repari) flowers and pice are taken by the guardians (khadim) of the tomb. Shaikh Saddu is the guardian of women and children. When a birth or marriage occurs in a family he is worshipped and a Mujawar is sent for; a sacred square (chauka) is made with cow-dung and offerings consisting of a he-goat, cakes, curry and rice are made. The Mujawar pronounces the Fatiha and takes away the offerings. A local godling known as Deota is also worshipped. Pilgrimages to his temple are undertaken in the month of Magh. The offerings to him consist of a cocoanut, a loin cloth and some pice. The marriage ceremonies commence with ancestor worship. Figures representing them are made on a wall with yellow clay and a lamp placed on a sieve laid on an earthen pot is kept burning near the place. Sweetmeats and other dainties prepared for the marriage feast are first offered to the sainted dead, and every important ceremony commences with an offering to them. This ancestor worship is confined to women. Snakes are also worshipped by women on the feast of the Nagpanchami; if this worship be neglected, it is believed that some member of the family will be bitten. The bargad tree (ficus Indica) is also worshipped on the fifteenth of the month of Chait. Women whose husbands are alive fast up to noon and do not eat any salt that day. When they go to a bargad tree they make offerings of some grain, flowers and a lighted lamp and then go round it seven times holding in their hands a thread of cotton which thus becomes wound round the trunk. The Sun is worshipped on Sunday, a fast is kept and the offerings are made at non. On this occasion no salt is eaten. The Moon is worshipped on the festival of the Ganesa Chaturthi or Ganesa's fourth. Rice and curds are given to the family priest, offerings are made to the Moon and then the worshipper breaks his fast. Offerings are made daily when the family take their meals.

They believe in the Evil Eye which is obviated by burning in the presence of the person affected a strip of cloth his exact height which has been soaked in oil; or a blue thread of the same length is tied round a stone and thrown into the fire; or pepper pods, wheat bran and salt are passed round his head and burnt.

They eat meat, goat flesh and mutton, fowls and fish. They use all the ordinary intoxicants; but excess is reprobated. They will eat pakki from the hands of Agarwala Banyas, and kachchi from Kanaujiya Brahmans. They will drink water from these two castes but will smoke a hookah of none but a member of their own caste. Gaur Brahmans will eat their pakki; none but members of the caste and the lowest menials will eat their kachchi.

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Ordinary Lohars.

Besides these Lohars who claim a Brahmanical origin, there are large bodies of them which make no such pretensions. In the Hills many of them appear to be members of the great Dom race and from Pargana Jaunsar in Dehra Dun it is reported that the fraternal or family from of polyandry prevails amongst them and that a woman may have as many as five so-called husbands at a time. This custom, it is hardly necessary to say, does not prevail among those residing in the plains. To the East of the Province they marry their daughters at the age of eleven or twelve; there is, however, an increasing tendency in favour of infant marriage and the richer a man is the earlier he is expected to marry his daughter. Prenuptial infidelity is not seriously regarded, provided that it be inter-tribal, and is punished by a fine payable to the tribal council and a certain amount of feasting of the brethren. A man can marry as many wives as he pleases, or can afford to support; but few marry more than one wife unless the first be barren or hopelessly diseased. Widows may marry in the sagai or kaj form and the levirate, though permitted, is not compulsory on the widow and is restricted by the usual rule, that it is only the younger man who can marry the widow of his elder brother. The children of such unions rank equally with the offspring of virgin brides for purposes of inheritance. Adultery is not severely dealt with, provided it be not habitual or become an open scandal: for the first offence the erring wife is admonished by the council. A repetition of the offence leads to her formal repudiation and such a divorced woman may re-marry in the tribe by the sagai form, provided her paramour has not been a member of a menial caste. In Oudh there is an apparent survival of marriage by capture in the custom by which the women of the bride's household throw packets of betel and handfuls of barley at the bridegroom as he enters the house. They have also a sort of ordeal to ascertain the prospects of married life. A necklace is thrown into a bowl of water and the married pair scramble for it; whichever succeeds in holding it rules the other.

Religion.

They profess to be Vaishnavas, but few of them are regularly initiated. To the East their clan deities are Mahabir and the Panchon Pir, with the tribal founder Visvekanms worshipped on a Sunday or Wednesday in the months of Sawan, Kuar, Baisakh or Jeth, with an offering of rice milk (khir), cakes (puri) and garlands of flowers. They worship Mahabir in the same months on a Tuesday or Saturday with an offering of sweetmeats (laddn) and sweet bread (rol). They are ministered in their religious ceremonies by a low class of Sarwariya Brahmans. They worship their implements as fetishes, the seat represents Mahadeva and the anvil Devi. At this worship of the anvil they invite the clansmen on an auspicious day and then wash the anvil and offer before it what is called agiyari by burning sweet-scented wood before it. This is done only when the anvil is first made, the ceremony ends with a distribution of sweetmeats among the guests. In Dehra Dun they worship Kali, Aghor Nath, and Narasinha Deo. The worshippers of Narasinha, the man lion avatara of Vishnu, numbered at the last Census 164,555 throughout the Province. They are specially worshipped when epidemic disease prevails with sacrifices of goats and pouring a little spirits near the shrine. In Farrukhabad they have a household godling named Kurehna, who is worshipped at marriages child-birth and death. The worship is a purely household one.

Occupation And Social Status.

The occupation of the blacksmith is no doubt very ancient in India. He is mentioned in the Rig Veda, [1] but though Indian steel was prized even among the ancient Greeks, "in literary monuments iron can not be traced with certainty before the end of the Vedic period when the oldest names of the metal occur." The country Lohar is a true village menial. He makes and repairs the agricultural implements of his constituents and receives contributions of grain at harvest time. Thus in Bareilly he gets from 7,5 to 12 sers of rice or kodon millet in the autumn and barley or oats in spring per plough.

[1] Wilson, Rig Veda Intro., X L.

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He also gets 2,5 sers of new grain per plough at each harvest as niboni and one sheaf per plough which is known as phiri. He also gets two for each sugar mill, two sers of coarse sugar per field of sugarcane, and his share of the thirteenth jar of cane juice which is divided among the workmen. In Sultanpur he receives one and a half panseri or measures of five village sers at the autumn, and sheaves representing 2,5 sers of grain in the spring harvest. In the cities they have greatly improved their position and rank as nistri or "master" workmen. They make carriages and other articles of European style, shoes for horses and keep ironmongers' shops, selling cooking utensils (tawa, karahi), axes knives, chains, nails, screws and the like. Such a trader is often known as Luhiya or Lohiya. In these Provinces the Lohar appears to enjoy a social position rather superior to that of his brethren in the Panjab. There, according to Mr. Ibbetson "his social position is low even for a menial, and he is classed as an impure caste, in so far that Jats and others of similar standing will have no social communion with him, though not as outcaste like the scavenger. His impurity, like that of the barber, washerman, and dyer, springs solely from the nature of his employment; perhaps because it is a dirty one, but more probably, because black is a colour of evil omen, though on the other hand iron has powerful virtue as a charm against the Evil Eye. It is not improbable that the necessity under which he labours of using bellows made of cow hide may have something to do with his impurity." This feeling of contempt for the blacksmith is not modern. In the Puranas the Karmakara or smith is classed as one of the polluted tribes, and according to Manu [1] iron is one of the commodities which a Brahman or Kshatriya, obliged to subsist by the acts of a Vaisya, must avoid. It is at least possible that some of the disrepute attaching to the smith may be connected with his association with the vagrant, gypsytribes of which evidence has already been given. This felling of impurity is not so much felt in the East of the Province. In Bihar [2] they are said to rank with Koiris and Kurmis, and Brahmans take water from their hands. In the Eastern Districts their women are reported to be chaste. There they drink spirits and eat the flesh of goats, sheep and deer, as well as fish. They do not eat meat of other kinds. They will take pakki from Brahmans, Rajputs and members of the trading castes, except Telis and Kalwars. They eat kachchi cooked by their own castemen or by their religious teachers and spiritual guides. They smoke only with their own tribe. Rajputs of the inferior septs, traders, and all menials will eat pakki cooked by them. Baris, Chamars and other low castes eat kachchi cooked by them. They are, on the whole, quiet, respectable, and little given to crime, except that they will occasionally make the chisel (sabari) used by the professional burglar.

Lohar.: -Risley says that they are a large and heterogeneous aggregate comprising members of several different tribes and castes who in different parts of the country took up the profession of working in iron. The local names give some hint of their mixed origin, e.g., the Lohar Manjhi, Danda Manjhi and Bagdi Lohar of Manbhum, the Sad Lohar, Manjhal Turiyas (cf. Turi) and the Munda Lohars of Ranchi District. As is to be expected customs vary from locality to locality, but as a general rule follow rather closely those of their more primitive neighbours. So with their religion, some are orthodox Hindus, while others, e.g., in Ranchi, are merely animists approximating to the Munda type. Their occupation is iron working, but very large numbers work as agricultural labourers, as they consider this improves their status. They emigrate freely for the sake of improving their position and those from Ranchi frequently pose as Mundas or Oraons as they speak Mundari and Kurukh. They make excellent labour, though addicted somewhat to the consumption of lal pani.

[1] Institutes X. 83.

[2] Risley, loo cit, ll, 24 591

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Lohar.: -a sub-caste of Barhis in Behar who work only in iron [1]. They are, however, distinct from, and do not intermarry with, the Lohar caste. The latter are probably of Dravidian descent, while the former appear to be an occupational group. Lohar, a synonym for Kamar in Behar; a mul or section of the Naomulia or Majraut sub-caste of Goalas in Behar; a section of Kamis in Darjiling.

Tradition Of Origin.

Lohar, the blacksmith caste of Behar, Chota Nagpur, and Western Bengal. The Lohars are a large and heterogeneous aggregate, comprising of members of several different tribes and castes, who in different parts of the country took up the profession of working in iron. Of the various sub-castes, the Kanaujia claim to be the highest in rank, and they alone have a well-marked set of exogamous sections. They regard Viswamitra as their legendary ancestor, and worship him as the tutelary deity of their craft. The Kokas Lohars seem to be a branch of the Barhis, who have taken to working in iron and separated from the parent group for that reason. The Maghaiya seems to be the indigenous Lohars of Behar, as opposed to the Kanaujia and Mathuriya, who profess to have come in from the North-West Provinces. Kamar-Kalla Lohars may perhaps be a degraded offshoot from the Sonar caste. The Muhur or Mahulia say they came from the North-Western Provinees, and the fact that all Hindus can take water from their hands renders it likely that they may have broken off from some comparatively respectable caste.

Internal Structure.

Their traditions, however, are net definite enough to enable this conjecture to be verified. The Kamia Lohars found in Champaran have immigrated from Nepal, and are regarded as ceremonially unclean. Many of them have became Mahomedans. In the Parganas, a sort of ethnic border land between Bengal and Behar, we find three sub-castes of Lohars,-Birbhumia, from the neighbouring district of Birbhum; Govindpuria, from the subdivision of Govindpur, in Northern Manghum; and Shergarhia, from the pargana of that name in Bardwan. The names give no clue to the tribal affinities of these three groups, but the fact that they have the totemistic section Sal-machh shows-them to be of non-Aryan descent, probably Bauris or Bagdis, who took to iron-working and called themselves Lohars. Of the four sub-castes into which the Lohars of Bankura are divided, two bear the names Gobra and Jhetia, which occur among the sub-castes of the Bauris. Two others-- Angaria and Pansili-- I am unable to trace. The Manbhum Lohars acknowledge three sub-castes: Lohar-Manjhi, Danda-Manjhi, and Bagdi-Lohar, names which suggest a connexion with the Bagdi caste. Lastly, in Lohar-daga we have the Sad-Lohars, claiming to be immigrant Hindus; the Manjhal-Turiyas, who may well be a branch of the Turi caste; and the Munda-Lohars, who are certainly Mundas. The great number of the sub castes, coupled with the fact that in some cases we can determine with approximate certainty the tribes of which they once formed part, seem to point to the conclusion, not merely that the aggregate termed the Lohar caste is made up of drafts locally levied from whatever groups were available for employment in a comparatively menial occupation, but that all castes whose functions are concerned with the primary needs of social life are the result of a similar process.

Marriage.

Further indication of the different elements from which the caste has been formed may be traced in its social customs. The Lohars of Chota Nagpur and Western Bengal practise adult as well as infant-marriage, a price is paid for the bride, and the marriage ceremony is substantially identical with that in use among the Bagdis. Polygamy they allow without imposing any limit on the number of wives a man may have, and they recognize the extreme license of divorce characteristic of the aboriginal races. In Behar, on the other hand, infant-. marriage is the rule and adult-marriage the rare exception.

[1] See Risley

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The ceremony is modelled on the orthodox type. A bridegroom-price is paid, and polygamy is lawful only on failure of issue by the first wife. As to divorce, some diversity of practice seams to prevail. Kanaujias profess to prohibit it altogether, while other sub-castes admit it only with the permission of the panchayat, and regard the remarriage of divorced wives with disfavour. Widow-marriage is recognised both in Behar and elsewhere; but this is by no means a distinctively Dravidian usage, but rather a survival of early Aryan custom, which has fallen into disuse among the higher castes under the influence of Brahmanical prejudice.

Religion.

Equally characteristic differences may be observed in the religious usages of the main branches of the caste. Kanaujia Lohars and all the Behar sub-castes, except the Nepalese Kamias, pose as orthodox Hindus, employ Maithil Brahmans, and worship the standard gods. In Chota Nagpur and Western Bengal, though some profession of Hinduism is made, this is little more than a superficial veneer laid on at a very recent date, and the real worship of the caste is addressed to Manasa, Ram Thakur, Baranda Thakur, Phulai Gosain, Dalli Gorai, Bhadu, and Mohan Giri. In the latter we may perhaps recognize the mountain god (Marang Buru) of the Mundas and Santals To him goats are sacrificed on Mondays or Tuesdays in the months of Magh, Ashar, and Agrahayan, the flesh being afterwards eaten by the worshippers. The Lohars of Bankura and the Santal Parganas have taken to employing low Brahmans, but in Lohardaga the aboriginal priest (pahan) and the local sorcerer (mati, ojha, or sokha) minister to their spiritual needs. The Sad-Lohars alone show an advance in the direction of orthodoxy, in that they employ the village barber to act as priest in the marriage ceremony.

Occupation.

In Behar the caste work as blacksmiths and carpenters, while many have taken to cultivation. They buy their material in the form of pigs or bars of iron. Iron-smelting is confined to the Lohars of Chota Nagpur, and is supposed to be a much less respectable form of industry than working up iron which other people have smelted. In the Santal Parganas Lohars often cultivate themselves, while the women of the household labour at the forge. None of the Western Bengal Lohars combine carpentry with working in iron.

Social Status.

In Behar Lohars rank with Koiris and Kurmis, and Brahmans take water from their hands. The status of the caste in Western Bengal is far lower, and they are associated in matters of food and drink with Bauris, Bagdis, and Mals.

Lohar.: -Khati, Ghantra, Ghisari, Panchal.[1] -- The occupational caste of blacksmiths. The name is derived from the Sanskrit Lauha-kara, a worker in iron. In the Central Provinces the Lohar has in the past frequently combined the occupations of carpenter and blacksmith, and in such a capacity he is known as Khati. The honorific designations applied to the caste are Karigar, which means skilful, and Mistri, a corruption of the English 'Master' or 'Mister.' In 1911 the Lohars numbered about 180,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar. The Lohar is indispensable to the village economy, and the caste is found over the whole rural area of the Province. "Practically all the Lohars," Mr. Crooke writes,[2] "trace their origin to Visvakarma, who is the later representative of the Vedic Twashtri, the architect and handicraftsman of the gods, 'the fashioner of all ornaments, the most eminent of artisans, who formed the celestial chariots of the deities, on whose craft men subsist, and whom, a great and immortal god, they 1continually worship.'

[1] See Russell.

[2] Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P. and Oudh, art. Lohar

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One [1] tradition tells of an Ahir, who in her previous birth had been a dancing-girl of the gods. By her he had nine sons, who become the ancestors of various artisan castes, such as the Lohar, Barhai, Sunar, and Kasera." The Lohars of the Uriya country in the Central Provinces tell a similar story, according to which Kamar, the celestial architect, had twelve sons. The eldest son was accustomed to propitiate the family god with wine, and one day he drank some of the wine, thinking that it could not be sinful to do so as it was offered to the deity. But for this act his other brothers refused to live with him and left their home, adopting various professions; but the eldest brother became a worker in iron and laid a curse upon the others that they should not be able to practise their calling except with the implements which he had made. The second brother thus became a woodcutter (Barhai), the third a painter (Maharana), the fourth learnt the science of vaccination and medicine and became a vaccinator (Suthiar), the fifth a goldsmith, the sixth a brass-smith, the seventh a coppersmith, and the eight a carpenter, while the ninth brother was weak in the head and descendants are known as Ghantra. [2] The Ghantras are an inferior class of blacksmiths, probably an offshoot from some of the forest tribes, who are looked down on by the others. It is said that even to the present day the Ghantra Lohars have no objection to eating the leavings of food of their wives, whom they regard as their eldest sisters.

Social Position Of The Lohar.

The above story is noticeable as indicating that the social position of the Lohar is somewhat below that of the other artisan castes, or at least of those who work in metals. This fact has been recorded in other localities, and has been explained by some stigma arising from his occupation, as in the following passage: "His social position is low even for a menial, and he is classed as an impure caste, in so far that Jats and others of similar standing will have no social communion with him, thought not as an outcast like the scavenger. His impurity, like that of the barber, washerman and dyer, springs solely from the nature of his employment; perhaps because it is a dirty one, but more probably because black is a colour of evil omen. It is not improbable that the necessity under which he labours of using bellows made of cowhide may have something to do with his impurity." [3]

Mr. Nesfield also says: "It is owing to the ubiquitous industry of the Lohar that the stone knives, arrow-heads and hatchets of indigenous tribes of Upper India have been so entirely superseded by iron-ores. The memory of the stone age has not survived even in tradition. In consequence of the evil associations which Hinduism has attached to the colour of black, the caste of Lohar has not been able to raise itself to the same social level as the three metallurgic castes which follow." The following saying also indicates that the Lohar is of evil omen:

Ar, Dhar, Chuchkar.

In tinon se bachawe Kartar.

Here Ar means an iron goad and signifies the Lohar; Dhar represents the should of the oil falling from the press and means a Teli or oilman; Chuchkar is an imitation of the sound of cloths being beaten against a stone and denotes the Dhobi or washerman; and the phrase thus runs, 'My Friend, beware of the Lohar, Teli, and Dhobi, for they are of evil omen.' It is not quite clear why this disrepute should attach to the Lohar, because iron itself is lucky, though its colour, black, may be of bad omen. But the low status of the Lohar may partly arise from the fact of his being a village menial and a servant of the cultivators; whereas the trades of the goldsmith, brass-smith and carpenter are of later origin than the blacksmith's, and are urban rather than rural industries; and thus these artisans do not commonly occupy the position of village menials. Another important consideration is that the iron industry is associated with the primitive tribes, who furnished the whole supply of the metal prior to its important from Europe: and it is hence probable that the Lohar caste was originally constituted from these and would thus naturally be looked down upon by the Hindus.

[1] Dowson, Classical Dictionary , s.v.

[2] In Uriya the term Ghantrabela means a person who has illicit intercourse with another. The Ghantra Lohars are

thus probably of bastard origin, like the groups known as half-castes and others which are frequently found.

[3] Punjab Census Report (18810, para 624. ( Ibbetson.)

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In Bengal, where few or no traces of the village community remain, the Lohar ranks as the equal of Koiris and Kurmis, and Brahmans will take water from his hands,[1] and this somewhat favours the argument that his lower status elsewhere is not due to incidents of his occupation.

Caste Subdivisions.

The constitution of the Lohar caste is of a heterogeneous nature. In some localities Gonds who work as blacksmiths are considered to belong to the caste and are known as Gondi Lohars. But Hindus who work in Gond villages also sometimes bear this designation. Another subdivision returned consists of the Agarias, also an offshoot of the Gonds, who collect and smelt iron-ore in the Vindhyan and Satpura hills. The Panchals are a class of itinerant smiths in Berar. The Ghantras or inferior blacksmiths of the Uriya country have already been noticed. The Ghisaris are a similar low class of smiths in the southern Districts who do rough work only, but sometimes claim Rajput origin. Other subcastes are of the usual local or territorial type, as Mahulia, from Mahul in Berar; Jhade or Jhadia, those living in the jungles; Ojha, or those professing a Brahmanical origin; Maratha, Kanaujia, Mathuria, and so on.

Marriage And Other Customs.

Infant-marriage is the custom of the caste, and the ceremony is that prevalent among the agricultural castes of the locality. The remarriage of widows is permitted, and they have the privilege of selecting their own husbands, or at least of refusing to accept any proposed suitor. A widow is always married from her father's house, and never from that of her deceased husband. The first husband's property is taken by his relatives, if there be any, and they also assume the custody of his children as soon as they are old enough to dispense with a mother's care. The dead are both buried and burnt, and in the eastern Districts some water and a toothpick are daily placed at a cross-road for the use of the departed spirit during the customary period of mourning, which extends to ten days. On the eleventh day the relatives go and bathe, and the chief mourner puts on a new loin-cloth. Some rice is taken and seven persons pass it from hand to hand. They then pound the rice, and making from it a figure to represent a human being, they place some grain its mouth and say to it, 'go and become incarnate in some human being,' and throw the image into the water. After this the impurity caused by the death is removed, and they go home and feast with their friends. In the evening they make cakes of rice, and place them seven times on the shoulder of each person who has carried the corpse to the cemetery or pyre, to remove the impurity contracted from touching it. It is also said that if this be not done the shoulder will feel the weight of the coffin for a period of six months. The caste endeavour to ascertain whether the spirit of the dead person returns to join in the funeral feast, and in what shape it will be born again. For this purpose rice-flour is spread on the floor or the cooking-room and covered with a brass plate. The women retire and sit in an adjoining room while the chief mourner with a few companions goes outside the village, and sprinkles some more rice-flour on the ground. They call to the deceased person by name, saying, 'Come, come,' and then wait patiently till some worm or insect crawls on to the floor. Some dough is then applied to this and it is carried home and let loose in the house. the flour under the brass plate is examined, and it is said that they usually see the footprints of a person or animal, indicating the corporeal entity in which the deceased soul has found a resting-place. During the period of mourning members of the bereaved family do not follow their ordinary business, nor eat flesh, sweets or other delicate food. They may not make offerings to their deities nor touch any persons outside the family, nor wear head-cloths or shoes. In the eastern Districts the principal deities of the Lohars are Dulha Deo and Somlai or Devi, the former being represented by a knife set in the ground inside the house, and the latter by the painting of a woman on the wall. Both deities are kept in the cooking-room, and here the head of the family offers to them rice soaked in milk, with sandal-paste, flowers, vermilion and lamp-black.

[1] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Lohar.

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He burns some melted butter in . an earthen lamp. If a man has been affected by the evil eye an exorcist will place some salt on his hand and burn it, muttering spells, and the evil influence is removed. They believe that a spell can be cast on a man by giving him to eat the bones of an owl, upon which he will become an idiot.

Occupation.

In the rural area of the Province the Lohar is still a village menial, making and mending the iron implements of agriculture, such as the ploughare, axe, sickle, goad and other articles. For doing this he is paid in Saugor a yearly contribution of twenty pounds of grain per plough of land [1]held by each cultivator, together with a handful of grain at sowing-time and a sheaf at harvest from both the autumn and spring crops. In Wardha he gets fifty pounds of grain per plough of four bullocks or forty acres. For making new implements the Lohar is sometimes paid separately and is always supplied with the iron and charcoal. The handsmelting iron industry has practically died out in the Province and the imported metal is used for nearly all purposed. The village Lohars are usually very poor, their income seldom exceeding that of an unskilled labourer. In the towns, owing to the rapid extension of milling and factory industries, blacksmiths readily find employment and some of them earn very high wages. In the manufacture of cutlery, nails and other articles the capital is often found by a Bhatia or Bohra merchant, who acts as the capitalist and employs the Lohars as his workmen. The women help their husbands by blowing the bellows and dragging the hot iron from the furnace, while the men wield the hammer. The Panchals of Berar are described as a wandering caste of smiths, living in grass mat-huts and using as fuel the roots of thorn bushes, which they batter out of the ground with the back of a short-handled axe peculiar to themselves. They move from place to place with buffaloes, donkeys and ponies to carry their kit. [2] Another class of wandering smiths, the Ghisaris, are described by Mr. Crooke as follows: "Occasional camps of these most interesting people are to be met with in the Districts of the Meerut Division. They wander about with small carts and pack-animals, and, being more expert than the ordinary village Lohar, their services are in demand for the making of tools for carpenters, weavers and other craftsmen. They are known in the Punjab as Gadiya or those who have carts (gadi, gari). Sir D. Ibbetson [3] says that they come up from Rajputana and the North-Western Provinces, but their real country is the Deccan. In the Punjab they travel about with families and implements in carts from village to village to village, doing the finer kinds of iron-work, which are beyond the capacity of the village artisan. In the Deccan [4]this class of wandering blacksmiths are called Saiqalgar, knife-grinders, or Ghisara, grinders (Hindi, ghisana, 'to rub'). They wander about grinding knives and tools."

Lhârí.: -Or Myânwâlé Languages-- The word Myânwâlâ means a scabbard-maker.[5] No information is available about the people who bear the name. Specimens of their dialect been forwarded from the Belgaum District. The names given to this form of speech is Myânwâlé or Lhârí. Myânwâlé is simply the plural from of Myâanwâlâ. Lhârí probably represents a rapid pronunciation of Lóhâri, the language of Lóhârs. At the last Census of 1911, 817 Lóhârs were enumerated in Belgaum. It is not, however, probable that the so-called Myânwâlé is the language of all the Lóhârs; it is probably only spoken by a small section. The base of Myânwâlé is Dakhaní Hindóstâní and Râjasthâní-Gujarâtí. Thus, strong masculine bases end in ó in the singular as in the latter, and in é in the plural as in the former. The distinction between singular and plural forms is, to judge from the conjugation, of little importance; compare lótungó, he will beat, they will beat.

[1] About 15 acres.

[2] Berar Census Report, 1881 (Kitts).

[3] Punjab Ethnography, para. 624.

[4] Bombay Gazetteer, xvi. 82

[5] G. A. Grierson, Linguistic Survey Of India.

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Forms such as hitwâdyâ, they went, show that the termination é is not the only one in the plural of strong bases; the Râjasthâní-Gujarâtí termination â must be used as well. Of case terminations we may note dative kî as in Mâlví and Dakhaní Hindóstâní, genitive kó as in Mâlví or kâ as in Hindótâní; and locative mé as in Mâlví and Hindóstaní. There does not appear to exist a separate case of the agent, the nominative being used to denote the subject even if the verb is the past tense of a transitive. "I" is mé as in Bundélí, and "we" is hamé, cf. Gujarâtí amé.

In the conjugation of verbs we find forms such as hû for all persons and numbers of the present tense of the verb substantive and lótî for the corresponding forms of lót-nâ, to beat. Forms such as lug-naló, dying go, I die; rhóké, thou art; hóbré, is, show that the present tense is formed like the old present in Mâlví. The past tense ends in ó or yó; thus, chólwâdyó, said; lótó, struck. The future is formed as in Hindóstaní but with the singular ending in gó as in Eastern Râjasthâní; thus, rhaungó, I shall be; hóbrangé, we shall become.

Other forms mainly agree with Hindóstaní and Râjasthâní-Gujarâtí. Note the relative participle in só, as in dutósó, eaten; hóbrésó, being; the use of karke, karkó, having done, corresponding to the Sanskrit iti; the negative jin in chulâvé jin, do not call; for the last, compare Kanaují and Eastern Hindí.

Myânwâlé is an artificial argot built up on this base. There are some peculiar words such as barawâd, come; bét, take; chhégé, preparation; chhuman, see; chigí†, run; chêyi, water; chundadí, ring; damóló, man; dâmí, woman; dut, eat; géló, gepló, boy; jukélâ, dog; kíchí, fire; khích, give; khók, house; lugânâ, to break; lugí†, die; lót, strike; nând, village; níró, good; nókadó, name; rhâkó, brother. Some of these such as the base bara, to come; nând, village (Kanarese nâdu), seem to be Dravidian. Others are comparable with similar words in other argots.

Ordinary Aryan words are, moreover, disguised in various ways so as to make them unintelligible to outsiders. Sometimes a vowel is changed or an aspirated consonant de-aspirated; compare pésó = pâs, near; nuchó = pîchhâ, asked; ripché = píchhé, behind. More commonly an initial is changed or a consonant prefixed.

K is substituted in hurnâ, swine; compare sîâr.

Kh has been prefixed in words such as ¡khâdmí, man; khagâdí, before; khâpnó, own; khutné-mé, in the meantime; khék, one; khidéw, god; khirand, harlot. In khulke, having said, it has replaced an old b, and so on.

A g has been substituted for other initials in gipadâ = kaprâ, clothes; and perhaps in géló, boy, cf. bé†â.

As in similar argots ch and chh are often substituted for labials. Compare chaddó = barâ, big; chónd =bândh, tying; chhil = bhar, filling; chhuk = bhîkh, hunger; chhurgâ= murghâ, cock.

Dh is prefixed as in similar argots; compare dhâkó = kâkâ, uncle; dhimlé = milâ, was got; dhunabí = kunbí, a cultivator; dhélyâ, compare bhérâ, a kid.

N is a very common substitute. It replaces a guttural in nusâl, marry; naríbí, poverty; nusâ, angry; a palatal in nâkar, servant; nîk, sin; a dental in nós, friend; a labial in nad-ke, falling; nâp, sin; nir-ku, again; nirâw, put on; nirâdé (firyâdí), complainant; narâbar, immediately; nât, state; naras, year; nítar, inside; nan, mind; an ÷ in nakhíkat, facts. It has been substituted for an s in nabao, all; compare sab and sagla.

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Instead of s, however, we more commonly find nh; thus, nhanka†, difficulty; nhun-ke, hearing; nhuriyâ, sun. Nh is used as a substitute for aspirated consonants in nhét, field; nhîs, chaff; nhóknó, small.

B has been substituted for l in bétó, took; and for s in bunakke, to be heard (note the Dravidian termination). A b has been replaced by an m in mâwutó, father, probably under the influence of mâwutí, mother.

R is also a common substitute, especially for labials; thus, rikan, ear; râ†ó, share; râ, hair; ripché = píchhé, behind; rhâkó = bhâí, brother; rhâr, outside. Rhâkó, brother, is, however, perhaps connected with the European Gypsyword râkló, boy

Another device of disguising words is by means of various additions at the end, which then often replace an old final.

Thus a k is added in rhóké, art; niskó, head; and a kn in nhóknó = chhó†â, small. If rhâkó, brother, is derived from bhâí, a k has been added.

An additional g occurs in words such as chóg, four; dîg, far; dóg, two, and so on. A ch is used in a similar way in words such as kíchó, did; ghódchó, horse.

An addition í† is used in some intransitive verbs; thus, chigí†, run; nukí†ó, lost; barító, came; lugí†ó, dead. A d is added in khagâdí, before . I may here add the suffixes ód and wâd in verbal forms such as natód, dividing; rakhód, keeping; ghalód, put; barawâdí, she came; rhókwâdó, stayed; hi†wâdâ, they passed.

A t has been added in words such as bét, take; mâwutó, father, etc. The p in gelpó = géló, boy must be a similar addition.

An l or is apparently added or substituted for another final in words such as géló = bé†â (?), boy; dhélyâ, kid; compare bhérâ, ram; chhil = bhar (?), filling; kó = kar, doing (compare Sêsí kî) ; gawanó, singing, and so on.

The bar in hóbar-ke, having been, and so on, is probably a similar addition.

Lorha.: -a caste of rope makers [1], shown only in the Sahâranpur District, where they aggregate 2,622 persons. They are probably from their occupation menials and allied to the gypsyKanjars or to the Doms and Dharkârs.

Luniyas.: -They used to work in the extraction of salt and as pick-pockets. Nowadays they also work the land.

Madâri.: -Madariya [2] --- One of the Beshara or unorthodox orders of Muhammadan Faqírs who take their name from the famous saint Zinda Shâh Madâr of Makanpur or Makhanpur in the Cawnpur District. There are, according to the usual computation, four sacred personages-- Châr Tan or Châr Pír, viz., Muhammad the Prophet; his friend Ali; Ali's eldest son Imâm Husain and Hasan Basari. Khwâja Hasan Basari had two disciples, Khwâja Habíb Ajami and Khwâja Abdul Wâhid Qâd. From these were sprung the fourteen Sîfi Khânwâdas or sections.

[1] See Crooke.

[2] See Crooke. Based on notes by M.Mahadeva Prasîd, Head master, Zilla School, Pilibhit: M. Hâji Rashid Khân, Mirzapur.

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Of these, nine groups were sprung from Khwâja Habí¡b Ajami, viz., the Habibiya, founded by two brothers Mubârak and Muhammad; Tafîriya, founded by Tafîr bin Isa, who is better known by his other name Bayazíd Bustâmi; the Kharkhiya, founded by Shaikh Marîf Khârkhi, Khârkh being a quarter (muhalla) of Bâghdâd; Siqtiya, founded by Khwâja Sri Siqti; the Junediya by Juned Bâghdâdi; the Gozrîniya, by Abu Ishâq of Gozrîn; the Tusiya by Alâ-ud-dín of Tîs; the Firdosiya by Shaikh Najm-ud-dín Kulera and the Sahrwardiya by Abu Najíb Sahrwardi. The remaining five sects of the Sîfis were by the disciples of Khwâja Abdul Wâhid Qâd, viz., the Zadiya, founded by the five sons of Abdulla bin Ouf; the Ayâziya by Khwâja Fazl-bin Ayây; the Hubariya by Shaikh Hubara Basari; the Adhaniya by Sultân Ibrahím bin Adhan, and the Chishtiya by Abu Ishâq of Chist, a village in Khurasân. [1]

As a matter of fact the Madâris of Northern India have no real connection with these genuine Sîfi sects, because their founder Shâh Badi-ud-dín Madâr neither had any disciples nor was he himself a disciple of any of the genuine Sîfi sects. The fact seems to be that the Indian Madâris were established in imitation of the Hindu Jogis and Sannyâsis and their professed division of fourteen sections is based on that of these Hindu ascetics. Like Hindu Faqírs they apply ashes (bhabhît) to their bodies, wear iron chains round the head and neck, and carry a black flag and turban. They seldom pray or keep fasts, and use bhang freely as a beverage.

The following account of Shâh Madâr was given by the present manager of the shrine at Makanpur. "Shâh Madâr had fourteen hundred assistants (Khalífa) but no daughter. He adopted Sayyid Abu Muhammad Khwâja, Irghawân, Sayyid Abu Turâb Khwâja Mansîr, and Sayyid Abul Hasan Khwâja Taipur. These persons were his nephews. He brought them from the town of Junâr in Province of Halab and settled at Makanpur in the Cawnpur District where he died and was buried. The descendants of Sayyid Abu Muhammad Khwâja Irghawân were always noted for their learning and piety. Besides those whom he adopted he also brought with him Sayyid Muhammad Jamâl-ud-dín Janman Janti, who is usually called Jamanjati and is buried at Hilsa near Azímâbâd. He also brought with him his younger brother Sayyid Ahmad from Bâghdâd. Both these were these the nephews of saint Ghaus-ul Azam and he made them his assistants. With Jamanjati came two other brothers Mír Shahâb-ul-dín and Mír Rukn-ud-dín, who were also nephews of Ghaus-ul-Azam. Their tombs are at Shaikhpur Dharmsâla in the Cawnpur District, about two miles north of Makhanpur. Jamanjati was also noted for his piety and learning and thousands of persons benefited by him. His followers are known as Díwâna; numbers of these are still in Hindustân and are called Malang. Among the assistants of Shâh Madâr, Qâzi Mahmîd, son Qâzi Hamid, whose tomb is at Kantut in Nawâbganj, Bârabanki, was a great worker of miracles, and his followers are called Talibân. Bâba Kapîr's name was Abdul Ghafîr. His tomb is in Gwalior, and he was an assistant of Qâzi Hamíd and Qâzi Mazhar Qala Sher. His tomb is at Mâwar in the Cawnpur District. Qâzi Shahâb-ud-dín Shamsumar was a famous learned man in the time of Sultan Ibrahím Sharq of Jaunpur. Another Khalífa of this family was known as Parkâl-i-âtish, and he was buried at Baragân. These four, viz., Abu Muhammad, Jamanjati, Qâzi Mazhar, Qâzi Mahmîd were the most distinguished of all the Khalífas in the time of Tâj Mahmîd. The greater part of the Dargâh at Makanpur was built in the time of Shahâb-ud-dín Shâhjahân, Emperor of Delhi. Finally, Sayyid Tamíz-ud-dín was a noted man in this family. The descendants of Sayyid Abu Turâb and Sayyid Abul Hasan are known as Khâdim. The family of Qâzi Mazhar are known as Ashiqân or "lovers." Other famous tombs of members of the sect are those of Mufti Sayyid Sada Jahân at Jaunpur; Maulâna Hisâmuddin at Jaunpur; Mír Muiz Husain at Bihâr; Shams Nabi at Lucknow; Abdul Malik at Bahrâich; Sayyid Ajmal at Allahâbâd; Shaikh Muhammad Jhanda at Budâun; Sayyid Ahmad at Khuluaban; Sayyid Muhammad at Kâlpi; Shâh Dâta Bareilly; Maulâna Sayyid Râji at Delhi. The date of the death of Shâh Madâr is 17 Jamâdi-ul-awwak 838 Hijri."

[1] Latâif Ashraji, Delhi Ed. 343: Dabistân ul Mazâhib, Ed 169.

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According to the best authorities [1] Shâh Madâr came to Makanpur during the reign of Ibrahím Shâh Sharqi of Jaunpur. But the local legends would bring him to the time of Prithivi Râja of Delhi. Many wonderful legends are told of him. He is said to have had an interview with Shâh Muín-ud-dín Chishti from whom he demanded a place to live. On this the Khwâja sent to the Shâh a cup of water full to the brim, by which he meant that there was no place available for his accommodation. The Shâh in reply placed a rose in the cup, implying that he would be a rose among the general body of Faqírs. On this the Khwâja appointed as his residence the site of Makanpur which was then occupied by a demon named Makna Deo. Him the Shâh expelled and the place was called by this name.

Another legend tells that he used to practise the art of keeping in his breath (habs dam) which is still common among various classes of ascetics. At last he was supposed to be dead and his disciples carried him to his burial. But he sat up and called out that he was alive in the words Dam dâram and they replied Dam madâr, "Do not breathe." Whereupon he really died and was buried; but he has since appeared from time to time in many places. By another story it was the Prophet Muhammad himself who gave him the power of retention of breath (habs dam) and hence arose his longevity, as the number of his respirations was diminished at pleasure. So he is said to have reached the age of 383 years when he died, and some say that he is still alive and so he is named Zinda Shâh Madâr. His devotees are said never to be scorched by fire and to be secure against the poison of venomous snakes and scorpions, the bites of which they have power to cure. Women who enter his shrine are said to be taken with violent pains as if they were being burnt alive, some of them leap into fire and trample it down with the cry Dam Madâr! Dam Madâr! Mrs. Mír Hasan Ali [2] tells a story of a party of drunken revellers who trespassed in his tomb, one of them became insensible and died. Dr. Herklots [3] describes the rite of Dhammâl Kîdna. They kindle a large heap of charcoal, and having sent for the Shâh Madâr Faqírs, offer them a present. The latter perform Fâtiha, sprinkle sandal on the fire, and the chief of the band first jumps into it, calling out Dam Madâr! when the rest of them follow him and calling out Dam Madâr! Dam Madar! tread out the fire. After that they have the sect of these Faqírs washed with milk and samdal, and on examination of the probable injury, find that not a hair has been singed; and that they are as they were at first. They then throw garlands of flowers around their necks, offer them sharbat, food, etc. Some, having vowed a black cow, sacrifice it in the name of Shâh Badi-ud-dín and distribute it in charity among Faqírs. In some places they set up a standard (alam) in the name of Zinda Shâh Madâr and erect a black flag and perform his festival (urs) and sit up and read his praises, have illuminations and perform religious vigils. This standard is left all the year in its original position and never removed as those of the Muharram are.

Some of the Madâris are family men (takyadâr) and lead a settled life; the Malangs lead a wandering life. Some have rentfree lands (mu'âfi) and cultivate or live by daily labour or by begging. Others, who are perhaps different from the true Madâris, go about with performing bears or monkeys or snakes and are jugglers and eaters of fire. They are wild looking people and rather resemble Nats and their vagrant brethren.

General Cunningham quotes one of the songs current at Makanpur, which is interesting in connection with what has been stated above.

Nahín Salon, Kâré, Hilsé,

Nahín Jât Bihâr, nahín jât Bukhâré,

Ajmeré, Muner Ko Kaun gané?

Ali aur hen Pir anek barâré.

Jot akhandit, Mangal mandit, Shin Pandit kavirâj pukâré.

Jâpar ríjhat hen kartâr,

So anat duâr, Madâr, tihâré.

[1] Cunningham, Archaeikiyical Reports, XVII, 102, sq.

[2] Observations on the Musalmâns of India, II, 321, sq.

[3] Qunîn i Islâm, 158.

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"Who goes to Salon (the tomb of Pír Muhammad), Karra (the tomb of Shaikh Karrak), or Hilsa (the tomb of Jaman 'Shâh Madâri)? Who goes to Bihâr (the tomb of Shâh Makhdîm) or Bukhâra? Who cares for Ajmer (the tomb of Muín-ud-dín Chishti) or Muner (the tomb of Sharf-ud-dín Muneri) when a greater saint is here? A brilliant light and a holy delight-- so says Siva Pandit the poet--for he whom the Maker chooses to favour comes to the shrine of Madâr."

Mahli.: -Mahili.[1] - A small caste of labourers, palanquin-bearers and workers in bamboo belonging to Chota Nâgpur. In 1911 about 300 Mahlis were teturned from the Feudatory States in this tract. They are divided into five subcastes: the Bânsphor-Mahli, who make baskets and do all kinds of bamboo-work; the Pâhar-Mahli, basket-markers and cultivators; the Sulunkhi, cultivators and labourers; the Tânti, who carry litters; and the Mahli-Munda, who belong to Lohardaga. Sir H. Risley states that a comparison of the totemistic sections of the Mahlis (given in the Appendix to his Tribes and Castes ) with those of the Santâls seems to warrant the conjecture that the main body of the caste are merely a branch of the Santâls. Four or five septs, Hansda a wild goose, Hemron, Murmu the nilgai, Saren or Sarihin, and perhaps Tudu or Turu are common to the two tribes. The Mahlis are also closely connected with the Mundas. Seven septs of the main body of the Mahlis, dumriâr the wild gig, Gundli a kind of grain, Kerketa a bird, Mahukal a bird (long-tail), Tirki, Tunduâr and Turu are also Munda septs; and the three septs given of the Mahli-Munda subcaste, Bhuktuâr, Lâng Chenre, and Sânga are all found among the Mundas; while four septs, Hansda a wild goose, Induâr a kind of eel, as well as Kerketa and Tirki, already mentioned, are common to the Mahlis and Turis, who are also recognised by Sir H. Risley as an offshoot of the Munda tribe with the same occupation as the Mahlis, of making baskets. [2] The Santâls and Mundas were no doubt originally one tribe, and it seems that the Mahlis are derived from both of them, and have become a separate caste owing to their having settled in villages more or less of the open country, and worked as labourers, palanquin-bearers and bamboo- workers much in the same manner as the Turis. Probably they work for Hindus, and hence their status may have fallen lower than that of the parent tribe, who remained in their own villages in the jungles. Colonel Dalton notes [3] that the gypsyBerias use Mânjhi and Mahali as titles, and it is possible that some of the Mahlis may have joined the Beria community.

Only a very few points from Sir H. Rishley's account of the caste need be recorded here, and for further details the reader may be referred to his article in the Tribes and Castes of Bengal. A bride-price of Rs. 5 is customary, but it varies according to the means of the parties. On the wedding day, before the usual procession starts to escort the bridegroom to the bride's house, he is formally married to a mango tree, while the bride goes through the same ceremony with a mahua. At the entrance to the bride's house the bridegroom, riding on the shoulders of some male relation and bearing on his head a vessel of water, is received by the bride's brother, equipped in similar fashion, and the two cavaliers sprinkle one another with water. At the wedding the bridegroom touches the bride's forehead five times with vermilion and presents her with an iron armlet. The remarriage of widows and divorce are permitted. When a man divorces his wife he gives her a rupee and takes away the iron armlet which was given her at her wedding. The Mahlis will admit members of any higher caste into the community. The candidate for admission must pay a small sum to the caste headman, and give a feast to the Mahlis of the neighbourhood, at which he must eat a little of the leavings of food left by each guest on his leaf-plate.

[1] See Russell. This article consists of extracts from Sir H. Risley's account of the Caste in the Tribes and Castes of Bengal.

[2] See lists of exogamous septs of Mahli, sandâl, Munda and Puri in Appendix to Tribes and Castes of Bengal.

[3] Ethnology of Bengal, p. 326.

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After this humiliating rite he could not, of course, be taken back into his own caste, and is bound to remain a Mahli.

Mahtams.: -A hunting caste of Rajasthan and Pakistan. In Punjab there are Mahtams that come from the East.

Mailâri.: -The Mailâris [1] are a class of beggars, who are said [2] to "call themselves a sub-division of the Balijas, and beg from Kómatis only. Their ancestors were servants of Kannyakammavâru (or Kannikâ Amma, the virgin goddess of the Kómatis), who burnt herself to avoid falling into the hands of Râja Vishnu Vardhana. On this account, they have the privilege of collecting certain fees from all the Kómatis. The fee, in the Kurnool district, is eight annas per house. When he demands the fee, a Mailâri appears in full dress (kâsi), which consists of brass human heads tied to his loins, and brass cups to his head; a looking-glass on the abdomen; a bell ringing from his girdle; a bangle on his forearm; and wooden shoes on his feet. In this dress he walks, holding an umbrella, through the streets, and demands his fee. If the fee is not paid, he again appears, in a more frightful form called Bhîthakâsi. He shaves his whiskers, and, almost naked, proceeds to the burning-ground, where he makes rati, or different kinds of coloured rice, and, going to the Kómatis, extorts his fee." I am informed that the Mailâris travel about with an image of Kannyakamma, which they exhibit, while they sing in Telugu the story of her life.

The Mailâris are stated, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, to be also called Bâla Jangam. Mailâri (washerman) is also an exogamous sept of the Mâlas.

Majhwâr.: -Mânjhi, Mâjhia.[3] - A small mixed tribe who have apparently originated from the Gonds, Mundas and Kawars. About 14,000 Majhwârs were returned in 1911 from the Raigarh, Sargîja and Udaipur States. The word Mânjhi means the headman of a tribal subdivision, being derived from the Sanskrit madhya, or 'he who is in the centre.' [4] In Bengal Mânjhi has the meaning of the steersman of a boat or a ferryman, and this may have been its original application, as the steersman might well be he who sat in the center, and a leader would naturally occupy the position of steersman, and hence it is easy to see how them term Mânjhi came to be applied to the leader or head of the clan and to be retained as a title for general use. Sir H. Risley gives it as a title of the Kewats or fishermen and many other castes and tribes in Bengal. But it is also the name for a village headman among the Santâls, and whether this meaning is derived from the prior signification of steersman of is of independent origin is uncertain. In Raigarh Mr. Híra Lâl states that the Mânjhis or Mâjhias are fishermen and are sometimes classed with the Kewats. They appear to be Kols who have taken to fishing and, being looked down on by the other Kols on this account, took the name of Mâjhia or Mânjhi, which they now derive from Machh, a fish. "The appearance of the Mâjhias whom I saw and examined was typically aboriginal and their language was a curious mixture of Mundâri, Santâl and Korwa, though they stoutly repudiated connection with any of these tribes. They could count only up to three in their own language, using the Santâl words mit, baria, pia. Most of their terms for parts of the body were derived from Mundâri, but they also used some Santâli and Korwa words. In their own language they called themselves Hor, which means a man, and is the tribal name of the Mundas."

[1] See Thurston.

[2] Manual of the Kurnool district.

[3] See Russell. This article is based on papers by Mr. Híra Lâl and Suraj Baksh Singh, Assistant Superintendent,

Udaipur state, with references to Mr. Crooke's exhaustive article on the Majhwârs in his Tribes and Cases.

[4] Crooke art. Majhwâr, para. l.

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The Mírzâpur Majhwârs Derived From The Gonds. On the other hand the Majhwârs of Mírzâpur, of whom Mr. Crooke gives a detailed and interesting account, clearly appear to be derived from the Gonds. They have five subdivisions, which they say are descended from the five sons of their first Gond ancestor. These are Poiya, Tekâm, Marai, Chika and Oiku. Four of these names are those of Gond clans, and each of the five subtribes is further divided into a number of exogamous septs, of which a large proportion bear typical Gond names, as Markâm, Netâm, Tekâm, Mashâm, Sindrâm, and so on. The Majhwârs of Mírzâpur also, like the Gonds, employ Pathâris or Pardhâns as their priests, and there can thus be no doubt that they are mainly derived from the Gonds. They would appear to have come to Mírzâpur from Sargîja and the Vindhyan and Satpîra hills, as they say that their ancestors ruled from the forts of Mandla, Garha in Jubbulpore, Sârangarh, Raigarh and other places in the Central provinces. [1]They worship a deified Ahír, whose legs were cut off in a fight with some Râja, from which time he has become a troublesome ghost. "He now lives on the Ahlor hill in Sargîja, where his petrified body may still be seen, and the Mânjhis go there to worship him. His wife lives on the Jhoba hill in Sargîja. Nobody but a Baiga dares to ascend the hill, and even the Râja of Sargîja when he visits the neighbourhood sacrifices a black goat. Mânjhis believe that if these two deities are duly propitiated they would receive anything they need." The story makes it probable that the ancestors of these Mânjhis dwelt in Sargîja. The Mânjhis of Mírzâpur are not boatman or fishermen and have no traditions of having ever been so. They are a backward tribe and practise shifting cultivation on burnt-out patches of forest. It is possible that they may have abandoned their former aquatic profession on leaving the neighbourhood of the rivers, or they may have simply adopted the name, especially since it has the Santâls and other castes and tribes. Similarly the term Munda, which at first meant the headman of a Kol village, is now the common name for the headman of a Kol tribe in Chota Nâgpur.

Connection With The Kawârs.

Again the Mânjhis appear to be connected with the Kawar tribe. Mr. Híra Lâl states that in Raigarh they will take food from Kewars, Gonds and Kawars and Râwats or Ahírs, but they will not eat rice and pulse, the most important and sacred food, with any outsiders except Kawars; and this they explain by the statement that their ancestors and those of the Kawars were connected. In Mírzâpur the Kaurai Ahírs are not improbably derived from the Kawars. [2] Here the Majhwârs also hold an oath taken when touching a broadsword as most binding, and the Kawars of the Central provinces worship a sword as one of their principal deities. [3] Not improbably the Mânjhis may include some Kewars, as this caste also use Mânjhi for a title; and Mânjhi is both a subcaste and title, of the Khairwârs. The general conclusion from the above evidence appears to be that the caste is a very heterogeneous group whose most important constituents come from the Gond, Munda, Santâl and Kawar tribes. Whether the original bond of connection among the various people who call themselves Mânjhi was the common occupation of boating and fishing is a doubtful point.

Exogamy And Totemism.

The Mânjhis of Sargîja, like those of Raigarh, appear to be of Munda and Santâl rather than of Gond origin. They have no subdivisions, but a number of totemistic septs. Those of the Bhainsa or Buffalo sept are split into the Lotan and Singhan subsepts, lotan meaning a place where buffaloes wallow and singh a horn. The Lotan Bhainsa sept say that their ancestor was born in a place where a buffalo had wallowed, and the Singhan Bhainsa that their ancestor was born while his mother was holding the horn of a buffalo. These septs consider the buffalo sacred and will not yoke it to a plough or cart, though they will drink its milk.

[1] Crooke, Tribes and Castes of Bengal , art. Mânjhi, para. 4.

[2] Crooke, Tribes and castes of Bengal , art. Mânjhi, para. 63.

[3] Ibidem , para. 54.

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They think that if one of them killed a buffalo their clan would become extinct. The Bâghani Majhwârs, named after the bâgh or tiger, think that a tiger will not attack any member of their sept unless he has committed an offence entailing temporary excommunication from caste. Until this offence has been expiated his relationship with the tiger as head of his sept is in abeyance and the tiger will eat him as he would any other stranger. If a tiger meets a member of the sept who is free from sin, he will run away. When the Bâghani sept hear that any Majhwâr has killed a tiger they purify their houses by washing them with cowdung and water. Members of the Khoba or peg sept will not make a peg or drive one into the ground. Those of the Dîmar [1] or fig-tree sept say that their first ancestor was born under this tree. They consider the tree to be sacred and never eat its fruit, and worship it once a year. Members of the sept named after the shiroti tree worship the tree every Sunday.

Marriage Customs.

Marriage within the sept is prohibited and for three generations between persons related through females. Marriage is adult, but matches are arranged by the parents of the parties. At betrothal the elders of the caste must be served cheora or parched rice and liquor. A bride-price of Rs. 10 is paid, but a suitor who cannot afford this may do service to his father-in-law for one or two years in lieu of it. At the wedding the bridegroom puts a copper ring on the bride's finger and marks her forehead with vermilion. The couple walk seven times round the sacred post, and seven little heaps of rice and pieces of turmeric are arranged so that they may touch one of them with their big toes at each round. The bride's mother and seven other women place some rice in the skirts of their cloths and the bridegroom throws this over his shoulder. After this he picks up the rice and distributes it to all the women present, and the bride goes through the same ceremony. The rice is no doubt an emblem of fertility, and its presentation to the women may perhaps be expected to render them fertile.

Birth And Funeral Rites.

On the birth of a child the umbilical cord is buried in front of the house. When a man is at the point of death they place a little cooked rice and curds in his mouth so that he may not go hungry to the other world, in view of the fact that he has probably eaten very little during his illness. Some cotton and rice are also placed near the head of the corpse in the grave so that he may have food and clothing in the next world. Mourning is observed for five days, and at the end of this period the mourners should have their hair cut, but if they cannot get it done on this day, the rite may be performed on the same day in the following year.

Religious Dance.

The tribe worship Dîlha Deo, the bridegroom god, and also make offerings to their ploughs at the time of eating the new rice and at the Holi and Dasahra festivals. They dance the karma dance in the months of Asârh and Kunwâr or at the beginning and end of the rains. When the time has come the Gaontia headman or the Baiga priest fetches a branch of the karma tree from the forest and sets in up in his yard as notice and invitation to the village. After sunset all the people men, women and children, assemble and dance round the tree, to the accompaniment of a drum known as Mândar. The dancing continues all night, and in the morning the host plucks up the branch of the karma tree and consigns it to a stream, at the same time feasting the dancers rice, pulse and a goat. This dance is a religious rite in honour of Karam Râja, and is believed to keep sickness from the village and bring it prosperity. The tribe eat flesh, but abstain from beef and pork. Girls are tattooed when they reach puberty with representations of the tulsi or basil, four arrow-heads in the form of a cross, and the foot-ornament known as pairi.

[1] Ficus glomerata.

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Mal.: -a Dravidian cultivating caste of Western and Central Bengal [1], many of whom are employed as chaukidârs or village watchmen and have gained an evil reputation for their thieving propensities. Beyond the vague statements current among the Mâls of Eastern Bengal that they were wrestlers (Malla, Mâla) at the court of the Dacca Nawâbs and gained their name from this profession, the caste appear to have no tradition, and their origin has formed the subject of much discussion, the general drift of which is stated by Mr. Beverley[2] as follows: In his late work on the Ancient Geography of India, General Cunningham quotes a passage from Pliny, in which the Malli are mentioned as this: "Gentes: Calingae proximi mari, et supra Mandei Malli, quorum mons Mallus finisque ejus tractus est Ganges." In another passage we have, "Ab is (Palibothris) in interiore silu Monedes et Suari, quorum mons Mallus"; and putting the two passages together, General Cunningham "thinks it highly probable that both names may be intended for the celebrated Mount Mandar, to the south of Bhagalpur, which is fabled to have been used by the gods and demons at the churning of the ocean." The Mondei general Cunningham identifies "with the inhabitants of the Mahanadi river, which is the Manada of Ptolemy." "The Malli or Malei would therefore be the same people as Ptolemy's Mandalae, who occupied the right bank of the Ganges to the south of Palibothra," the Mandalae having been already identified with the Monedes and the modern Munda Kols. "Or," adds General Cunningham, "they may be the people of the Rajmahal hills who are called Maler, which would appear to be derived from the Canarese Mate and the Tamil Malei, 'a hill.' It would therefore be equivalent to the Hindu pahâri or pârbatiya, a 'hillman.'" Putting this last suggestion aside for the present, it seems to me that there is some confusion in the attempt to identify both the Monedes and the Malli with the Mundas. If the Mandei and the Malli are distinct nations-- and it will be observed that both are mentioned in the same passage-- the former rather that the latter would seem to correspond with the Monedes or Mundas. The Malli would then correspond rather to the Suari, quorum mons Mallus-- the hills bounded by the Ganges at Rajmahal. They may therefore be the same as the Mals. In other words, the Mals-- the words Maler and Malhar seem to be merely a plural form-- may possibly be a branch of the great Sauriyan family to which the Rajmahal Pahâriâs, the Oraons, and the Sabars all belong, and which Colonel Dalton would describe as Dravidian. Fifteen hundred or two thousand years ago these people may have occupied the whole of Western Bengal. Pressed by other tribes, they have long since been driven into corners, not without, as it were, leaving traces of their individuality behind. In Mal-bhumi (Manbhum) instead of "the Country of the Wrestlers," as Dr. Hunter puts it, we seem to have the land of 'Mons Mallus' and the Mals. The Maldah district may also possibly owe its name to their having been settled there. As to the name, indeed it is quite possible that it means nothing more than highlanders; the word Mallus being simply the Indian vernacular for the Latin mons. If a native were asked the name of a hill in the present day, he would reply, as Pliny's informant probably replied years ago, that it was a 'hill;' and if asked the name of the people who lived there he would probably say they were 'hillmen.'

"These Mals appear to have been driven eastwards and to have spread over the whole of Bengal, where they have become merged in the mass of low-caste Hindus. This will account to some extent for what Colonel Dalton calls the Dravidian element in the composition of the Bengali race. Under the Hindu system the Mals, like other aboriginal tribes who came within the pale of Hinduising influences, appear to have formed one of the forty-five tribes of Chandals, the lowest or sweeper class among Hindus. Chandals are found in every district of Bengal, their aggregate number in the present day being over a million and half. In Mymensingh, where we find 20,000 Mals, we have 123,000 Chandals. In the south-eastern districts they seem to have lost their name in the generic term of Chandals, but in the eastern districts they still retain it.

[1] See Risley.

[2] Report of the Census of Bengal, 1872, by H. Beverley, p. 184.

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In Murshedabad there are 29,000 Mals against 22,000 who described themselves as Chandals. Most officers say the Mals are identically the same as the Chandals. Some say they are wrestlers, others attribute to them the same occupation as that of the Madaris or Sampheriyas, viz, that of snake-charmers. Others, again, say they are Musalmans, and identify them with Bediyas or Babajiyas; but in this explanation there seems to be some confusion, the two last tribes not being generally considered identical. The Badiyas, though an itinerant tribe like the Bediyas, are employed, like the stationary Pasaris, in selling drugs. The returns, however, show that some of the Mals are Musalmans.

Internal structure.

The most primitive specimens of the caste are met with in Bankura, where they have distinctly totemistic sections, and are divided into the following sub-castes: Dhaiiâ, Gobrâ or Gurâ, Khera, Râjbansi, and Sânâgânthâ. In Midnapur and Manbhum we find Dhunakâtâ, Râjbansi, Sâpuryâ or Bedya Mâl, and Tungâ; in Birbhum Khaturía, Mallik, and Râjbansi; in the Santâl Parganâs Deswar, Magahiyâ, Rajbansi or Râjâ Mâl, and Sindurâ; while in Murshedabad the sub-castes are the same as in Bankura, except that Dhaliâ is not known. The origin of these groups is extremely obscure, and I doubt whether any amount of inquiry would throw much light on the subject. Râjbansimay be of the Kochh tribe; but there is no reason to suppose that the Mâls are Kochh, and they might easily have acquired the name Râjbansi in the same manner as the Kochh have done by identifying themselves with the lineage of a local Râjâ, who may or may not have belonged to the same race. The simplest solution of the difficulty appears to be to assume that Mal is nothing more than a variant of Mâlé, 'man,' the name by which the Mâlé Pahâriâs describe themselves. It is possible, again, that the Râjbansi Mâls may be the same as Râja Mâls whom Buchanan noticed among the Mâl Pahâriâs at the beginning of the century. The monkey-catching Gobras bear the same name as one of the sub-castes of Bâgdis; and Khera is not far removed from Khairâ, whom some regard as a branch of the Doms. The Sânâgânthâ take their name from making sânâs, the uprights through which weavers pass their thread. The Dhunâkâtâ Mâls collect resin (dhuna) by tapping sâl trees; the Tungâ sub-caste are cultivators while the Sapuriâ or Bedya Mâls live by charming snakes, catching monkeys, hunting or conjuring, and roam about the county carrying with them small tents of coarse gunny-cloth. Although they catch snakes, Sâpuriâ Mâls hold the animal in the highest reverence, and will not kill it, or even pronounce its name, for which they use the synonym latâ, 'a creeper.'

Kinship with the Bediyâs.

The names of the last-mentioned group raise the probably insoluble question of the connexion of the Mâls with the Bediyâs. Dr. Wise treats both Mâl and Samperiâ or Sâpuriâ as subdivisions of the Bediyâs tribe; but it is equally possible that the Mâl may be the parent group, and that the Bediyâs may have separated from it reason of their adhering to a wandering mode of life when the rest of the tribe had taken to comparatively settled pursuits. There certainly seem to be reasons for suspecting some tolerably close affinity between the two groups. The Mâls of Dacca, for instance, are called Ponkwah, from their dexterity in extracting worms from the teeth, a characteristic accomplishment of the Bediyâs. They repudiate the suggestion of kinship with the latter tribe, but it is said that many can recollect the time when relationship was readily admitted. At present, however, in spite of some survival of roving habits, peculiar physiognomy, and distinctive figures, Mâls are with difficulty recognized. Many of them are small bankers (mahâjans), never dealing in pedlar's wares, but advancing small sums, rarely exceeding eight rupees, on good security. The rate of interest charged is usually about fifty per cent. per annum; but this demand, however exorbitant, is less than that exacted many money-lenders in the towns. The Dacca Mâls never keep snakes, and know nothing about the treatment of their bites. The women, however, pretend to possess a secret knowledge of samples and of wild plants. They are also employed for cupping, for relieving obscure abdominal paints by friction, and for treating uterine diseases, but never for tattooing.

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The Mâls of Eastern Bengal do not intermarry with Bediyâs, and even within the limits of their own group a sharp distinction used to be observed between settled Mâls and gypsyMâls; so that if one of the former sought to marry a girl of the latter class, he was required to leave his home, give up his cultivation, and adopt a wandering life. This custom has gradually given way to a keener sense of the advantages of settled life, but its general disuse is said to be still resented by the elders of the caste. Plausible as the conjecture may be which would trace some bond of kinship between the Bediyas and the Mâls, the evidence bearing on the point is not precise enough to enable us to identify the Sâpuriâ Mâls of Midnapur with the Sâmperiya Bediyâs of Eastern Bengal. Snake-charming is an occupation likely enough to be adopted by any caste of gipsy-like propensities, and there is no reason why both Mâls and Bediyâs should not have taken to it independently.

Exogamy.

The Mâls of Western and Central Bengal seem on the whole to be the most typical representatives of the original Mâl tribe. Among them the primitive rule of exogamy is in full force, and a man may not marry a woman who belongs to the same totem group as himself. Prohibited degrees are reckoned by the standard formula calculated in the descending line to five generations on the father's and three on the mother's side. Outsiders belonging to higher castes may be admitted into the Mâl community by giving a feast to the Mâls of the neighbourhood and drinking water in which the headman of the village (mânjhi) has dipped his toes. No instance of anyone undergoing this disagreeable ordeal has been quoted to me, and such cases must be very rare.

Marriage.

Girls may be married either as infants or after they have attained puberty, the tendency being towards the adoption of the former custom. The ceremony takes place just before daybreak in a sort of pavillion made of mahuâ and sidhâ branches in the courtyard. The couple are made to sit side facing the east. [1]Garlands of flowers are then exchanged, the clothes of the pair are knotted together, and if adult they retire into a separate room in order to consummate their union. On their reappearance they are greeted by the company as husband and wife. Polygamy is permitted, but most Mâls are too poor to maintain more than one wife. A widow may marry again,[2] but no special ritual is in use, except among the Râjâ Mâls of Birbhum, who exchange necklaces of beads or seeds of the tulsi (Ocynum sanctum); and such marriages, which are called sanga, are effected by paying a small fee to the headman (khâmid or mânjhi) and to the father of the widow. Divorce may be effected, with the sanction of the panchâyat, on the ground of adultery by the wife, and divorced women may marry again in the same manner as widows.

Religion.

Mâls profess to have completely adopted Hinduism, and no vestiges of any more primitive religion can now be traced among them. They seem to belong to whatever Hindu sect is popular in the locality where they are settled; and in different districts they describe themselves as Vaishnavas, Saivas, or Sâktas, as the case may be. The snake goddess Manasâ is believed to be their special patroness, and is worshipped by them in much the same fashion as by the Bâgdis. Sacrifices of rice, sweetmeats, and dried rice are also offered by the heads of families to the tutelary goddess of each village, who bears the name of the village itself with the termmation sini added; so that the goddess of the village Pâtharâ would be called Pâtharâsini. In most villages they do not have the dignity of employing Brahmans, but elders of the caste or headmen of villages serve them as priests (khâmid). In the Santâl Parganâs, however, the Brahmans of the Let sub-caste of Bâgdis officiate also for the Râjâ Mâls.

[1] According to some accounts Jalmâ, the goddess of water, must first be worshipped with gifts of flowers at a neighbouring tank, and water drawn from this tank must be used in the marriage in addition to water blessed by a Brahman.

[2] This is the general rule, but the Râjbansi Mâls of Midnapur have recently abandoned widow-marriage.

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Disposal of the dead.

The dead are burned, usually at the side of a stream, into which the ashes are thrown. A meagre imitation of the orthodox srâddh ceremony is performed on the eleventh day after death in ordinary cases, and on the third day for those who have died a violent death. On the night of the Kâli Pujâ in Kârtik (October-November) dried jute stems are lighted in honour of departed ancestors, and some even say that this is done to show their spirits the road to heaven. Libations of water are offered on the last day of Chait. Female children are buried facing downwards, and the bodies of very poor persons are often buried with the head to the north in the bed of a river.

Occupation and social.

Agriculture is supposed to be the original profession of the caste, and most Mâls, except those of distinctly gypsy habits, are now engaged in cultivation as occupancy or non-occupancy raiyats and landless day-labourers. None appear to have risen to the higher rank of zamindar or tenure-holder, except in Bankura, where one sardâr ghatwâl, one sadiâl, 56 tâbidârs, and 35 châkarân chaukidârs are Mâls. In Manbhum, on the other hand, which some believe to be the original home of the caste, no Mâls are found in possession of these ancient tenures, though some are employed as ordinary village chaukidârs. The women of the caste and some of the men often make a livelihood by fishing-- a fact which accounts for their bearing the title of Machhuâ. Their social status is very low, and is clearly defined by the fact that Bâgdis and Koras will not take water from their hands, while they take water and sweetmeats not only from those castes, but also from Bauris. Mâls pride themselves on abstaining from beef and pork, but eat fowls, all kinds of fish, field-rats, and the flesh of the gosâmp (Lacerta godica). The Râjâ Mâls, however, do not touch fowls.

Mâl.:-Mâle, Mâler, Mâl Pahâria.[1] - A tribe of the Râjmahal hills, who may be an isolated branch of the Savars. In 1911 about 1700 Mâls were returned from the Chota Nâgpur Feudatory States recently transferred to the Central Provinces. The customs of the Mâls resemble those of the other hill tribes of Chota Nâgpur. Sir. H. Risley states that the average stature is low, the complexion dark and the figure short and sturdy. The following particulars are reproduced from Colonel Dalton's account of the tribe:

"The hill lads and lasses are represented as forming very romantic attachments, exhibiting the spectacle of real lovers 'sighing like furnaces,' and the cockney expression of 'keeping company' is peculiarly applicable to their courtship. If separated only for an hour they are miserable, but there are apparently few obstacles to the enjoyment of each other's society, as they work together, go to market together, eat together, and sleep together! But if it be found that they have overstepped the prescribed limits of billing and cooing, the elders declare them to be out of the pale, and the blood of animals must be shed at their expense to wash away the indiscretion and obtain their readmission into society.

"On the day fixed for a marriage the bridegroom with his relations proceeds to the bride's father's house, where they are seated on cots and mats, and after a repast the bride's father takes his daughter's hand and places it in that of the bridegroom, and exhorts him to be loving and kind to the girl that he thus makes over to him. The groom then with little finger of his right hand marks the girl on the forehead with vermilion, and then linking the same finger with the little finger of her right hand, he leads her away to his own house. "The god of hunting is called Autga, and at the close of every successful expedition a thanks-offering is made to him.

[1] See Russell. Based entirely on Colonel Dalton's account in the Ethnology of Bengal, and Sir. H. Risley's in the Tribes and Castes of Bengal.

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This is the favourite pastime, and one of the chief occupations of the Mâlers, and they have their game laws, which are strictly enforced. If a man, losing an animal which he has killed or wounded, seeks for assistance to find it, those who aid are entitled to one-half of the animal when found. Another person accidentally coming on dead or wounded game and appropriating it, is subjected to a severe fine. The Mânjhi or headman of the village is entitled to a share of all game killed by any of his people. Anyone who kills a hunting dog is fined twelve rupees. Certain parts of an animal are taboo for females as food, and if they infringe this law Autga is offended and game becomes scarce. When the hunters are unsuccessful it is often assumed that this is the cause, and the augur never fails to point out the transgressing female, who must provide a propitiatory offering. The Mâlers use poisoned arrows, and when they kill game the flesh round the wound is cut off and thrown away as unfit for food. Cats are under the protection of the game laws, and a person found guilty of killing one is made to give a small quantity of salt to every child in the village.

"I nowhere find any description of the dances and songs of the Pahârias. Mr. Atkinson found the Mâlers extremely reticent on the subject, and with difficulty elicited that they had a dancing-place in every village, but it is only when under the influence of the god Bacchus that they indulge in the amusement. All accounts agree in ascribing to the Pahârias an immoderate devotion to strong drink, and Buchanan tells us that when they are dancing a person goes round with a pitcher of the home-brew and, without disarranging the performers, who are probably linked together by circling or entwining arms, pours into the mouth of each, male and female, a refreshing and invigorating draught. The beverage is the universal pachwai, that is, fermented grain. The grain, either maize, rice or janera (Holcus sorghum), is boiled and spread out on a mat to cool. It is then mixed with a ferment of vegetables called takar, and kept in a large earthen vessel for some days; warm water may at any time be mixed with it, and in a few hours it ferments and is ready for use."

When the attention of English officers was first drawn to them in 1770 the Mâles of the Râjmahal hills were a tribe of predatory freebooters, raiding and terrorising the plain country from the foot of the hills to the Ganges. It was Mr. Augustus Cleveland, Collector of Bhâgalpur, who reduced them to order by entering into engagements with the chiefs for the prevention and punishment of offences among their own tribesmen, confirming them in their estates and jurisdiction, and enrolling a corps of Mâles, which became the Bhâgalpur Hill Rangers, and was not disbanded till successfully demonstrated the correct method of dealing with the wild forest tribes, and the Governor-General in Council erected a tomb and inscription to his memory, which was the original of that described by Mr. Kipling in The Tomb of his Ancestors, though the character of the first John Chinn in the story was copied from Outram. [1]

Malaivedan.: -They live in Tamil Nadu. Their name means the Beda or Vedan of the Mala (hills). They are hunter-nomads. They probably came from Kerala at least in their last great migration.

Malayan.: -Concerning the Malayans [2]2, Mr. A.R. Loftus-Tottenham writes as follows. "The Malayans are a Makkathâyam caste, observing twelve days' pollution, found in North Malabar. Their name, signifying hill-men, points to their having been at one time a jungle tribe, but they have by no means the dark complexion and debased physiognomy characteristic of the classes which still occupy that position. They are divided into nine exogamous illams, five of which have the names Kótukudi, Velupâ, Chéni, Palânkudi, and Kalliath.

[1] See The Khândesh Bhíl Corps, by Mr. A.H.A. simcox, p. 62.

[2] See Thurston.

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The men do not shave their heads, but allow the hair to grow long, and either part it in the middle, or tie it into a knot behind, like the castes of the east coast, or tie it in a knot in front in the genuine Malayâli fashion. The principal occupation of the caste is exorcism, which they perform by various methods.

"If any one is considered to be possessed by demons, it is usual, after consulting the astrologer in order to ascertain what murti (form, i.e., demon) is causing the trouble, to call in the Malayan, who performs a ceremony known as tíyattam, in which they wear masks, and, so disguised, sing, dance, tom-tom, and play on a rude and strident pipe. Another ceremony, known as ucchavéli, has several forms, all of which seem to be either survivals, or at least imitations of human sacrifice. One of these consists of a mock living burial of the principal performer, who is placed in a pit, which is covered with planks, on the top of which a sacrifice is performed, with a fire kindled with jack wood (Artocarpus integrifolia) and a plant called erinna. In another variety, the Malayan cuts his left forearm, and smears his face with the blood thus drawn. Malayans also take part with Peruvannâns (big barbers) in various ceremonies at Badrakâli and other temples, in which the performer impersonates, in suitable costume, some of the minor deities or demons, fowls are sacrificed, and a Velicchapâd pronounces oracular statements."

As the profession of exorcists does not keep the Malayans fully occupied, they go about begging during the harvest season, in various disguises, of which that of a hobby-horse is a very common one. They further add to their income by singing songs, at which they are very expert. Like the Nalkes and Paravas of South Canara the Malayans exorcise various kinds of devils, with appropriate disguises. For Nenaveli (bloody sacrifice), the performer smears the upper part of his body and face with a paste made of rice-flour reddened with turmeric powder and chunam (lime) to indicate a bloody sacrifice. Before the paste dries, parched paddy (unhusked rice) grains, representing small-pox pustules, are sprinkled over it. Strips of young cocoanut leaves, strung together so as to form a petticoat, are tied round the waist, a ball of sacred ashes(vibhîthi) is fixed on the tip of the nose, and two strips of palmyra palm leaf are stuck in the mouth to represent fangs. If it is thought that a human sacrifice is necessary to propitiate the devil, the man representing Nenaveli puts round his neck a kind of framework made of plantain leaf sheaths; and, after he has danced with it on, it is removed, and placed on the ground in front of him. A number of lighted wicks are stuck in the middle of the framework, which is sprinkled with the blood of a fowl, and then beaten and crushed. Sometimes this is not regarded as sufficient, and the performer is made to lie down in a pit, which covered over by a plank, and a fire kindled. A Malayan, who acted the part of Nenaveli before me at Tellicherry, danced and gesticulated wildly, while a small boy, concealed behind him, sang songs in praise of the demon whom he represented, to the accompaniment of a drum. At the end of the performance, he feigned extreme exhaustion, and laid on the ground in a state of apparent collapse, while he was drenched with water brought in pots from a neighbouring well.

The disguise of Uchchaveli is also assumed for the propitiation of the demon, when a human sacrifice is considered necessary. The Malayan who is to take the part puts on a cap made of strips of cocoanut leaf, and strips of the same leaves tied to a bent bamboo stick round his waist. His face and chest are daubed with yellow paint, and designs are drawn thereon in red or black. Strings are tied tightly round the left arm near the elbow and wrist, and the swollen area is pierced with a knife. The blood spouts out, and the performer waves the arm, so that his face is covered with the blood. A fowl is waved before him, and decapitated. He puts the neck in his mouth, and sucks the blood.

The disguises are generally assumed at night. The exorcism consists in drawing complicated designs of squares, circles, and triangles, on the ground with white, black, and yellow flour. While the man who has assumed the disguise dances about to the accompaniment of drums, songs are sung by Malayan men and women.

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Maleyave.: -Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a small Canarese-1 speaking caste of beggars . In the south Canara Manual, it is stated that they are "classed as mendicants, as there is a small body of Malayâlam gypsies of that name. But there may have been some confusion with Malava and Malé Kudiya."

Mâna.: -Dravidian caste [2] of cultivators and labourers belonging to the Chânda District, from which they have spread to Nâgpur, Bhandâra and Bâlâhât. In 1911 they numbered nearly 50,000 persons, of whom 34,000 belonged to Chânda. The origin of the caste is obscure. In the Chânda Settlement Report of 1869 Major Lucie Smith wrote of them: "Tradition asserts that prior to the Gond conquest the Mânas reigned over the country, having their strongholds at Surajgarh in Ahiri and at Mânikgarh in the Mânikgarh hills, now of Hyderâbâd, and that after a troubled rule of two hundred years they fell before the Gonds. In appearance they are of the Gond type, and are strongly and stoutly made; while in character they are hardy, industrious and truthful. Many warlike traditions still linger among them, and doubtless in days gone by they did their duty as good soldiers, but they have long since hung up sword and shield and now rank among the best cultivators of rice in Chânda." Another local tradition states that a line of Mâna princes ruled at Wairâgarh. The names of three princes are remembered: Kurumpruhoda, the founder of the line; Surjât Badwâik, who fortified Surjâgarh; and Gahilu, who built Mânikgarh. As regards the name Mânikgarh, it may be mentioned that the tutelary deity of the Nâgvansi kings of Bastar, who ruled there before the accession of the present Râj-Gond dynasty in the fourteenth century, was Mânikya Devi, and it is possible that the chiefs of Wairâgarh were connected with the Bastar kings. Some of the Mânas say that they, as well as the Gowâris, are offshoots of the Gond tribe; and a local saying to the effect that 'The Gond, the Gowâri and the Mâna eat boiled juâri or beans on leaf-plates' shows that they are associated together in the popular mind. Hislop states that the Ojhas, or soothsayers and minstrels of the Gonds, have a subdivision of Mâna Ojhas, who lay claim to special sanctity, refusing to take food from any other caste. [3] The Gonds have a subdivision called Mannewâr, and as wâr is only a Telugu suffix for the plural, the proper name Manne closely resembles Mâna. It is shown in the article on the Parja tribe that the Parjas were a class of Gonds or a tribe akin to them, who were dominant in Bastar prior to the later immigration under the ancestors of the present Bastar dynasty. And the most plausible hypothesis as to the past history of the Mânas is that they were also the rulers of some tracts of Chânda, and were displaced like the Parjas by a Gond invasion from the south.

In Bhandâra, where the Mânas hold land, it is related that in former times a gigantic kite lived on the hill of Ghurkundi, near Sâkoli, and devoured the corps of the surrounding country by whole fields at a time. The king of Chânda proclaimed that whoever killed the kite would be granted the adjoining lands. A Mâna shot the kite with an arrow and its remains were taken to Chânda in eight carts, and as his reward he received the grant of a zamíndâri. In appearance the Mânas, or at least some of them, are rather fine men, nor do their complexion and features show more noticeable traces of aboriginal descent than those of the local Hindus. But their neighbours in Chânda and Bastar, the Mâria Gonds, are also taller and of a better physical type than the average Dravidian, so that their physical appearance need not contradict the above hypothesis. They retained their taste for fighting until within quite recent times, and in Kâtol and other towns below the Satpîra hills, Mânas were regularly enlisted as a town guard for repelling the Pindâri raids. Their descendants still retain the ancestral matchlocks, and several of them make good use of these as professional shikâris or hunters.

[1] See Thurston.

[2] See Russell. This article is based on papers by Mr. Hâra Lâl and G. Padaya Naida of the Gazetteer office.

[3] Papers on the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, p. 6.

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Many of them are employed as servants by landowners and moneylenders for the collection of debts or the protection of crops, and others are proprietors, cultivators and labourers, while a few even lend money on their own account. Mânas hold three Zamíndâri estates in Bhandâra and a few villages in Chânda; here they are considered to be good cultivators, but have the reputation as a caste of being very miserly, and though 1 possessed of plenty, living only on the poorest food.[1] The Mâna women are proverbial for the assistance which they render to their husbands in the work of cultivation.

Owing to their general adoption of Marâtha customs the Mânas are now commonly regarded as a caste and not a forest tribe, and this view may be accepted. They have two subcastes, the Badwâik Mânas, or soldiers, and the Khâd Mânas, who live in the plains and are considered to be of impure descent. Badwâik or 'The Great Ones' is a titular term applied to a person carrying arms, and assumed by certain Râjpîts and also by some of the lower castes. A third group of Mânas are now amalgamated with the Kunbis as a regular subdivision of that caste, though they are regarded as somewhat lower than the others. They have also a number of exogamous septs of the usual titular and totemistic types, the few recognisable names being Marâthi. It is worth noticing that several pairs of these septs, as Jamâre and Gazbe, Narnari and Chudri, Wâgh and Râwat, and others are prohibited from intermarriage. And this may be a relic of some wider scheme of division of the type common among the Australian aborigines. The social customs of the Mânas are the same as those of the other lower Marâtha castes, as described in the articles on Kunbi, Kohli and Mahâr. A bride-price of Rs. 2-8 is usually paid, and if the bridegroom's father has the money, he takes it with him on going to arrange for the match. Only one married woman of the bridegroom's family accompanies him to the wedding, and she throws rice over him five times. Four days in the year are appointed for the celebration of weddings, the festivals of Shivrâtri and of Akhâtij, and a day each in the months of Mâgh (January) and Phâgun (February). This rule, however, is not universal. Brâhmans do not usually officiate at their ceremonies, but they employ a Brâhman to prepare the rice which is thrown over the couples. Marriage within the sept is forbidden, as well as the union of the children of two sisters. But the practice of marrying a brother's daughter to a sister's son is a very favourite one, being known as Mâhunchâr, and in this respect the Mânas resemble the Gonds. When a widow is to be remarried, she stops on the way by the bank of a stream as she is proceeding to her new husband's house, and here her clothes are taken off and buried by an exorcist with a view to laying the first husband's spirit and preventing it from troubling the new household. If a woman goes wrong with a man of another caste she is not finally cast out, but if she has a child she must first dispose of it to somebody else after it is weaned. She may then be readmitted into caste by having her hair shaved off and giving three feasts; the first is prepared by the caste and eaten outside her house, the second is prepared by her relatives and eaten within her house, and at the third the caste reinstate her by partaking of food cooked by her. The dead are either buried or burnt; in the former case a feast is given immediately after the burial and no further mourning is observed; in the latter the period of mourning is three days. As among the Gonds, the dead are laid with feet to the north. A woman is impure for seven days after child-birth.

The Mânas have Bhâts or genealogists of their own caste, a separate one being appointed for each sept. The Bhât of any sept can only accept gifts from members of that sept, though he may take food from any one of the caste. The Bhâts are in the position of beggars, and the other Mânas will not take food from them. Every man must have a Bhât for his family under penalty of being temporarily put out of caste. It is said that the Bhâts formerly had books showing the pedigrees of the different families, but that once in a spirit of arrogance they placed their shoes upon the books; and the other Mânas, not brooking this insolence, burnt the books. The gravity of such an act may be realised when it is stated that if anybody even threatens to hit a Mâna with a shoe, the indignity put upon him is so great that he is temporarily excluded from caste and penalised for readmission.

[1] Rev. A. Wood in Chânda District Gazetteer, para. 96.

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Since this incident the Bhâts have to address the Mânas as 'Brahma,' to show their respect, with the Mâna replying 'Râm, Râm.' Their women wear short loincloths, exposing part of the thigh, like the Gonds. They eat pork and drink liquor, but will take cooked food only from Brâhmans.

Mânbhao.: -A religious sect [1] or order which has now come to the Provinces and to Berâr. Their total strength in India in 1911 was 10,000 persons, of whom the Central Provinces and Berâr contained 4000. The name would appear to have some such meaning as 'The reverend brothers.' The Mânbhaos are stated to be a Vaishnavite order founded in Berâr some two centuries ago. [2] They themselves say that their order is a thousand years old and that it was founded by one Arjun Bhat, who lived at Domegaon, near Ahmadnagar. He was a great Sanskrit scholar and a devotee of Krishna, and preached his doctrines to all except the impure castes. Ridhpur, in Berâr, is the present headquarters of the order, and contains a 3 monastery and three temples, dedicated to Krishna and Dattâtreya, [3] the only deities recognised by the Mânbhaos. Each temple is named after a village, and is presided over by a Mahant elected from the celibate Mânbhaos. There are other Mahants, also known after the names of villages or towns in which the monasteries over which they preside are located. Among these are Sheone, from the village near Chândur in Amraoti District; Akulne, a village near Ahmadnagar; Lâsorkar, from Lâsor, near Aurangâbâd; Mehkarkar, from Mehkar in Buldâna; and others. The order thus belongs to Berâr and the adjoining parts of India. Colonel Mackenzie describes Ridhpur as follows: "The name is said to be derived from ridh, meaning blood, a Râkshas or demon having been killed there by Para-surâma, and it owes its sanctity to the fact that the god lived there. Innumerable black stones scattered about the town show where the god's footsteps became visible. At Ridhpur Krishna is represented by an ever-open, sleeplessly watching eye, and some Mânbhaos carry about a small black stone disk with an eye painted on it as an amulet." Frequently their shrines contain no images, but are simply chabutras or platforms built over the place where Krishna or Dattâtreya left marks of their footprints. Over the platform is a small veranda, which the Mânbhaos kiss, calling upon the name of the god. Sukli, in Bhandâra, is also a headquarters of the caste, and contains many Mânbhao tombs. Here they burn camphor in honour of Dattâtreya and make offerings of cocoanuts. They make pilgrimages to the different shrines at the full moons of Chait (March) and Kârtik (October). They pay reverence to no deities except Krishna and Dattâtreya, and observe the festivals of Gokul Ashtami in August and Datta-Jayantri in December. They consider the month of Aghan (November) as holy, because Krishna called it so in the Bhâgavat-Gíta. This is their sacred book, and they reject the other Hindu scriptures. Their conception of Krishna is based on his description of himself to Arjun in the Bhâgavat-Gíta as follows: "'Behold things wonderful, never seen before, behold in this my body the whole world, animate and inanimate. But as thou art unable to see with these thy natural eyes, I will give thee a heavenly eye, with which behold my divine connection.' The son of Pandu then beheld within the body of the god of gods standing together the whole universe divided forth into its vast variety. He was overwhelmed with wonder and every hair was raised on end. 'But I am not to be seen as thou hast seen me even by the assistance of the Vedas, by mortification, by sacrifices, by charitable gifts: but I am to be seen, to be known in truth, and to be obtained by that worship which is offered up to me alone: and he goeth unto me whose works are done for me: who esteemeth me supreme: who is my servant only: who hath abandoned all consequences, and who liveth amongst all men without hatred.'"

[1] See Russell. This article is compiled from mites on the caste drawn up by Colonel mackenzie and contributed

to the Pioneer newspaper by Mrs. Hors-burgh ; Captain Mackintosh's Account of the Manbhaos (India Office

Tracts); and a paper by pyâre Lâl Misra Ethnographic clerk.

[2] Berâr Census Report (1881), p. 62

[3] Dattâtreya was a celebrated Sivite devotee who has been deified as an incarnation of Siva.

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Again: "He my servant is dear to me who is free from enmity, the friend of all nature, merciful, exempt from all pride and selfishness, the same in pain and in pleasure, patient of wrong, contented, constantly devout, of subdued passions and firm resolves, and whose mind and understanding are fixed on me alone."

Divisions Of The Order.

The Mânbhaos are now divided into three classes: the Brahmachâri; the Gharbâri; and the Bhope. The Brahmachâri are the ascetic members of the sect who subsist by begging and devote their lives to meditation, prayer and spiritual instruction. The Gharbâri are those who, while leading a mendicant life, wearing the distinctive black dress of the order and having their heads shaved, are permitted to get married with the permission of their Mahant or guru. The ceremony is performed in strict privacy inside a temple. A man sometimes signifies his choice of a spouse by putting his jholi or beggar's wallet upon hers; if she lets it remain there, the betrothal is complete. A woman may show her preference for a man by bringing a pair of garlands and placing one on his head and the other on that of the image of Krishna. The marriage is celebrated according to the custom of the Kunbis, but without feasting or music. Widows are permitted to marry again. Married women do not wear bangles nor toe-rings nor the customary necklace of beads; they put on no jewellery, and have no choli or bodice. The Bhope or Bhoall, the third division of the caste, are wholly secular and wear no distinctive dress, except sometimes a black head-cloth. They may engage in any occupation that pleases them, and sometimes act as servants in the temples of the caste. In Berâr they are divided into thirteen bas or orders, named after the disciples of Arjun Bhat, who founded the various shrines. The Mânbhaos are recruited by initiation of both men and women from any except the impure castes. Young children who have been vowed by their parents to a religious life or are left without relations, are taken into the order. Women usually join it either as children or late in life. The celibate members, male or female, live separately in companies like monks and nuns. They do not travel together, and hold services in their temples at different times. A woman admitted into the order is henceforward the disciple of the woman who initiated her by whispering the guru mantra or sacred verse into her ear. She addresses her preceptress as mother and the other women as sisters. The Mânbhaos are intelligent and generally literate, and they lead a simple and pure life. They are respectable and are respected by the people, and a guru or spiritual teacher is often taken from them in place of a Brâhman or Gosain. They often act as priests or gurus to the Mahârs, for whom Brâhmans will not perform these services. Their honesty and humility are proverbial among the Kunbis, and are in pleasing contrast to the character of many of the Hindu mendicant orders. They consider it essential that all their converts should be able to read the Bhâgavat-Gíta or a commentary on it, and for this purpose teach them to read and write during the rainy season when they are assembled at one of their monasteries.

Religious Observances And Customs.

One of the leading tenets of the Mânbhaos is a respect for all forms of animal and even vegetable life, much on a par with that of the Jains. They strain water through a cloth before drinking it, and then delicately wipe the cloth to preserve any insects that may be upon it. They should not drink water in, and hence cannot reside in, any village where animal sacrifices are offered to a deity. They will not cut down a tree nor break off a branch, or even a blade of grass, nor pluck a fruit or an ear of corn. Some, it is said, will not even bathe in tanks for fear of destroying insect-life. For this reason also they readily accept cooked food as alms, so that they may avoid the risk of the destruction of life involved in cooking. The Mânbhaos dislike the din and noise of towns, and live generally in secluded places, coming into the towns only to beg. Except in the rains they wander about from place to place. They beg in the morning, and then return home and, after bathing and taking their food, read their religious books. They must always worship Krishna before taking food, and for this purpose when travelling they carry and image of the deity about with them . They will take food and water from the higher castes, but they must not do so from persons of low caste on pain of temporary excommunication. They neither smoke nor chew tobacco.

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Both men and women shave on initiation by the village barber. But the sendhi or scalp-lock and moustaches of the novice must be cut off by his guru , this being the special mark of his renunciation of the world. The scalp-locks of the various candidates are preserved until a sufficient quantity of hair has been collected, when ropes are made of it, which they fasten round their loins. This may be because Hindus attach a special efficacy to the scalp-lock, perhaps as being the seat of man strength or power. The nuns also shave their heads, and generally eschew every kind of personal adornment. Both monks and nuns usually dress in black or ashen-grey clothes as a mark of humility, though some have discarded black in favour of the usual Hindu mendicant colour of red ochre. The black colour is in keeping with the complexion of Krishna, their chief god. They dye their cloths with lamp-black mixed with a little water and oil. They usually sleep on the ground, with the exception of those who are Mahants, and they sometimes have nometal vessels, but use bags made of strong cloth for holding food and water. Men's names have the suffix Boa , as Datto Boa, Kesho Boa, while those of boys end in da, as Manoda, Raojída, and those of women in Bai, as Gopa Bai, Som Bai. The dead are buried, not in the common burial-grounds, but in some waste place. The corpse is laid on its side, facing the east, with head to the north and feet to the south. A piece of silk or other valuable cloth is placed on it, on which salt is sprinkled, and the earth is then filled in and the ground levelled so as to leave no trace of the grave. No memorial is erected over a Mânbhao tomb, and no mourning nor ceremony of purification is observed, nor are oblations offered to the spirits of the dead. If the dead man leave any property, it is expended on feeding the brotherhood for ten days; and if not, the Mahant of his order usually does this in his name.

Hostility Between Mânbhaos And Brâhmans.

The Mânbhaos are dissenters from orthodox Hinduism, and have thus naturally incurred the hostility of the Brâhmans. Mr. Kitts remarks of them:[1] "The Brâhmans hate the Mânbhaos, who have not only thrown off the Brâhmanical yoke themselves, but do much to oppose the influence of Brâhmans among the agriculturists. The Brâhmans represent the Mânbhaos as descended from one Krishna Bhat, a Brâhman who was outcasted for keeping a beautiful Mâng woman as his mistress. His four sons were called the Mâng-bhaos or Mâng brothers." This is an excellent instance of the Brâhman talent for pressing etymology into their service as an argument, in which respect they resemble the Jesuits. By asserting that the Mânbhaos are descended from a Mâng woman, one of the most despised castes, they attempt to devise for their enemies an origin of being outcastes of a Brâhman hegemony without further ado.

Another story about their wearing black or ashen-coloured clothes related by Colonel Mackenzie is that Krishna Bhat's followers, refusing to believe the aspersions cast on them by the Brâhmans, but knowing that someone among them had been guilty of the sin imputed to him, determined to decide the matter by the ordeal of fire. Having made a fire, they cast into it their own clothes and those of their guru, each man having previously written his name on his garments. The sacred fire made short work of all the clothes except those of Krishna Bhat, which pointed to their revered guru as the sinner. In spite of the shock of thus discovering that their idol had feet of very human clay, they still continued to regard Krishna Bhat's precepts as good and worthy of being followed, only stipulating that for all time Mânbhaos should wear clothes the colour of ashes, in memory of the sacred fire which had disclosed to them their guru's sin.

Captain Mackintosh also relates that "About A.D. 1780, a Brâhman named Anand Rishi, an inhabitant of Paithan on the Godâvari, maltreated a Mânbhao, who came to ask for alms at his door.

[1] Berâr Census Report (1881), p. 62.

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This Mânbhao, after being beaten, proceeded to his friends in the vicinity, and they collected a large number of brethren and went to the Brâhman to demand satisfaction; Anand Rishi assembled a number of Gosains and his friends, and pursued and attacked the Mânbhaos, who fled and asked Ahalya Bai, Râni of Indore, to protect them; she endeavoured to pacify Anand Rishi by telling him that the Mânbhaos were her gurus; he said that they were Mângs, but declared that if they agreed to his proposals he would forgive them; one of them was that they were not to go to a Brâhman's house to ask for alms, and another that if any Brâhman repeated Anand Rishi's name and drew a line across the road when a Mânbhao was advancing, the Mânbhao, without saying a word, must return the road he came. Notwithstanding this attempt to prevent their approaching a Brâhman's house, they continue to ask alms of the Brâhmans, and some Brâhmans make a point of supplying them with provisions."

This story endeavours to explain a superstition still observed by the caste. This is that when a Mânbhao is proceeding along a road, if any one draws a line across the road with a stick in front of him the Mânbhao will wait without passing the line until some one else comes up and crosses it before him. In reality this is probably a primitive superstition similar to that which makes a man stop when a snake has crossed the road in front of him and efface its track before proceeding. It is said that the members of the order also carry their sticks upside down, and a saying is repeated about them;

Mânbhao hokar kâle kapre dârhi mîchi mundhâta hai,

Ulti lakri hâth men pakri woh kya Sâhib milta hai;

or, 'The Mânbhao wears black clothes, shaves his face and holds his stick upside down, and thinks he will find God that way.' This saying is attributed to Kabír.

Mandula.: -The Mandulas [1] (medicine men) are a wandering class, the members of which go about from village to village in the Telugu country, selling drugs (from mandu, medicine) and medical powders. some of their women act as midwives. Of these people an interesting account is given by Bishop Whitehead, [2] who writes as follows. "We found an encampment of five or six dirty-looking huts made of matting, each about five feet high, eight feet long and six feet wide, belonging to a body of Mandalavâru, whose head-quarters are at Masulipatam. They are medicine men by profession, and thieves and beggars by choice. The headman showed us his stock of medicines in a bag, and a quaint stock it was, consisting of a miscellaneous collection of stones which are ground to powder, and mixed up as a medicine with various ingredients. He had a piece of mica, a stone containing iron, and another which contained some other metal. There was also a peculiar wood used as an antidote against snake-bite, a piece being torn off and eaten by the person bitten. One common treatment for children is to give them tiles, ground to powder, to eat. In the headman's hut was a picturesque-looking woman sitting up with an infant three days old. It had an anklet, made of its mother's hair, tied round the right ankle, to keep off the evil eye. The mother, too, had a similar anklet round her own left ankle, which she put on before her confinement. She asked for some castor-oil to smear over the child. They had a good many donkeys, pigs, and fowls with them, and made, they said, about a rupee a day by begging. Some time ago, they all got drunk, and had a free fight, in which a woman got her head cut open. The police went to enquire into the matter, but the woman declared that she only fell against a bamboo by accident. The whole tribe meets once a year, at Masulipatam, at the Sivarâtri festival, and then sacrifice pigs and goats to their various deities. The goddess is represented by a plain uncarved stone, about four-and-a-half or five feet high, daubed with turmeric and kunkuma (red powder). The animals are killed on front of the stone, and the blood is allowed to flow on the ground. They believe that the goddess drinks it. They cook rice on the spot, and present some of it to the goddess. They then have a great feast of the rest of the rice and the flesh of the victims, get very drunk with arrack, and end up in a free fight.

[1] See Thurston.

[2] Madras Diocesan Magazine, 1906.

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We noted that one of the men had on an anklet of hair, like the woman's. He said he had been bitten by a snake some time ago, and had put on the anklet as a charm.' The Mandula is a very imposing person, as he sits in a conspicuous place, surrounded by paper packets piled up all round him. His method of advertising his medicines is to take the packets one by one, and, after opening them and folding them up, to make a fresh pile. As he does so, he may be heard repeating very rapidly, in a sing-song time. "Medicine for rheumatism," etc. Mandulas are sometimes to be seen close to the Moore Market in the city Madras, with their heaps of packets containing powders of various colours.

Mandula.: -In Andra Pradesh the sellers of herbal medicines are called Mandula. They mix scientific knowledge with magical remedies. Sometimes they take the opportunity of stealing.

Mâng.: -A low impure caste of the Marâtha Districts [1], who act as village musicians and castrate bullocks, while their women serve as midwives. The Mângs are also sometimes known as Vâjantri or musician. They numbered more than 90,000 persons in 1911, of whom 30,000 belonged to the Nâgpur and Nerbudda Divisions of the Central Provinces, and 60,000 to Berâr. The real origin of the Mângs is obscure, but they probably originated from the subject tribes and became a caste through the adoption of the menial services which constitute their profession. The business of the Mâng was to play on the flute and to make known the wishes on the Râja to his subjects by beating a drum. He was to live in the forest or outside the village, and was not to enter it except with the Râja's permission. He was to remove the dead bodies of strangers, to hang criminals, and to take away and appropriate the clothes and bedding of the dead. The Mângs themselves relate the following legend of their origin as given by Mr. Sâthe: Long ago, before cattle were used for ploughing, there was so terrible a famine upon the earth that all the grain was eaten up, and there was none left for seed. Mahâdeo took pity on the few men who were left alive, and gave them some grain for sowing. In those days men used to drag the plough through the earth themselves. But when a Kunbi, to whom Mahâdeo had given some seed, went to try and sow it, he and his family were so emaciated by hunger that they were unable, in spite of their united efforts, to get the plough through the ground. In this pitiable case the Kunbi besought Mahâdeo to give him some further assistance, and Mahâdeo then appeared, and, bringing with him the bull Nandi, upon which he rode, told the Kunbi to yoke it to the plough. This was done, and so long as Mahâdeo remained present, Nandi dragged the plough peaceably and successfully. But as soon as the god disappeared, the bull became restive and refused to work any longer. The Kunbi, being helpless, again complained to Mahâdeo, when the god appeared, and in his wrath at the conduct of the bull, great drops of perspiration stood upon his brow. One of these fell to the ground, and immediately a coal-black man sprang up and stood ready to do Mahâdeo's bidding. He was ordered to bring the bull to reason, and he went and castrated it, after which it worked well and quietly; and since then the Kunbis have always used bullocks for ploughing, and the descendants of the black man, who was the first Mâng, are employed in the office for which he was created. It is further related that Nandi, the bull, cursed the Mâng in his pain, saying that he and his descendants should never derive any profit from ploughing with cattle. And the Mângs say that to this day none of them prosper by taking to cultivation, and quote the following proverb: 'Keli kheti, Zhâli mati,' or, 'If a Mâng sows grain he will only reap dust.'

[1] See Russell. This article is based partly on a paper by Mr. Achyut Sitârâm Sâthe, Extra Assistant Commissioner.

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Subdivisions.

The caste is divided into the following subcastes: Dakhne, Khândeshe and Berârya, or those belonging to the Deccan, Khândesh and Berâr; Ghodke, those who tend horses; Dafle, tom- tom players; Uchle, pickpockets; Pindâri, descendants of the old freebooters; Kakarkâdhe, stone-diggers; Holer, hide-curers; and Garori. The Garoris [1] are a sept of vagrant snake-charmers and jugglers. Many are professional criminals.

Marriage.

The caste is divided into exogamous family groups named after animals or other objects or of a titular nature. One or two have the names of other castes. Members of the same group may not intermarry. Those who are well-to-do marry their daughters very young for the sake of social estimation, but there is no compulsion in this matter. In families which are particularly friendly, Mr. Sâthe remarks, children may be betrothed before birth if the two mothers are with child together. Betel is distributed, and a definite contract is made, on the supposition that a boy and girl will be born. Sometimes the abdomen of each woman is marked with red vermilion. A grown-up girl should not be allowed to see her husband's face before marriage. The wedding is held at the bride's house, but if it is more convenient that it should be in the bridegroom's village, a temporary house is found for the bride's party, and the marriage-shed is built in from of it. The bride must wear a yellow bodice and cloth, yellow and red being generally considered among Hindus as the auspicious colours for weddings. When she leaves for her husband's house she puts on another or going-away dress, which should be as fine as the family can afford, and thereafter she may wear any colour except white. The distinguishing marks of a married woman are the mangal-sîtram or holy thread, which her husband ties on her neck at marriage; the garsoli or string of block beads round the neck; the silver toe-rings and glass bangles. If any one of these is lost, it must be replaced at once, or she is likely soon to be a widow. The food served at the wedding-feast consists of rice and pulse, but more essential than these is an ample provision of liquor. It is a necessary feature of a Mâng wedding that the bride-groom should go to it riding on a horse. The Mahârs, another low caste of the Marâtha Districts, worship the horse, and between them and the Mângs there exists a long-standing feud, so that they do not, if they can help it, drink of the same well. The sight of a Mâng riding on a horse is thus gall and wormwood to the Mahârs, who consider it a terrible degradation to the noble animal, and this fact inflaming their natural enmity, formerly led to riots between the castes. Under native rule the Mângs were public executioners, and it was said to be the proudest moment of a Mâng's life when he could perform his office on a Mahâr. The bride proceeds to her husband's house for a short visit immediately after the marriage, and then goes home again. Thereafter, till such time as she finally goes to live with him, she makes brief visits for festivals or on other social occasions, or to help her mother-in-law, if her assistance is required. If the mother-in-law is ill and requires somebody to wait on her, if she is a shrew and wants some one to bully, or if she has ideas of discipline and wishes personally to conduct the bride's training for married life, she makes the girl come more frequently and stay longer.

Widow-marriage.

The remarriage of widows is permitted, and a widow may marry anyone except persons of her own family group or her husband's elder brother, who stands to her in the light of a father. She is permitted, but not obliged, to marry her husband's younger brother, but if he has performed the dead man's obsequies, she may not marry him, as this act has placed him in the relation of a son to her deceased husband. More usually the widow marries someone in another village, because the remarriage is always held in some slight disrepute, and she prefers to be at a distance from her first husband's family. Divorce is said to be permitted only for persistent misconduct on the part of the wife.

[1] See also separate article Mâng-Garori.

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Burial.

The caste always bury the dead and observe mourning only for three days. On returning from a burial they all get drunk, and then go to the house of the deceased and chew the bitter leaves of the ním tree (Melia indica). These they then spit out of their mouths to indicate their complete severance from the dead man.

Occupation.

The caste beat drums at village festivals, and castrate cattle, and they also make brooms and mats of date-palm and keep leeches for blood-letting. Some of them are village watchmen and their women act as midwives. As soon as a baby is born, the midwife blows into its mouth, ears and nose in order to clear them of any impediments. When a man is initiated by guru or spiritual preceptor, the latter blows into his ear, and the Mângs therefore say that on account of this act of the midwife they are the gurus of all Hindus. During an eclipse the Mângs beg, because the demons Râhu and Ketu, who are believed to swallow the sun and moon on such occasions, were both Mângs, and devout Hindus give alms to their fellow-castemen in order to appease them. Those of them who are thieves are said not to steal from the persons of woman, a bangle-seller, a Lingâyat Mâli or another Mâng.[1] In Marâtha villages they sometimes take the place of Chamârs, and work in leather, and one writer says of them: "The Mâng is a village menial in the Marâtha villages, making all leather ropes, thongs and whips, which are used by the cultivators; he frequently acts as watchman; he is by profession a thief and executioner; he readily hires himself as an assassin, and when he commits a robbery he also frequently murders.' In his menial capacity presents at seed-time and harvest, and it is said that the Kunbi will never send the Mâng empty away, because he represents the wrath of Mahâdeo, being created from the god's sweat when he was angry.

Religion and social status.

The caste especially venerate the goddess Devi. They apparently identify Devi with Sâraswati, the goddess of wisdom, and they have a story to the effect that once Brahma wished to ravish his daughter Sâraswati. She fled from him and went to all the gods, but not one of them would protect her for fear of Brahma. At last in despair she came to a Mâng's house, and the Mâng stood in the door and kept off Brahma with a wooden club. In return for this Sâraswati blessed him and said that he and his descendants should never lack for food. They also revere Mahâdeo, and on every Monday they worship the cow, placing vermilion on her forehead and washing her feet. The cat is regarded as a sacred animal, and a Mâng's most solemn oath is sworn on a cat. A house is defiled if a cat or a dog dies or a cat has kittens in it, and all the earthen pots must be broken. If a man accidentally kills a cat or a dog a heavy penance is exacted, and two feasts must be given to the caste. To kill as ass or a monkey is a sin only slightly less heinous. A man is also put out of caste if kicked or beaten with a shoe by any one of another caste, even a Brâhman, or if he is struck with the kathri or mattress made of rags which the villagers put on their sleeping-cots. Mr. Gayer remarks [2] that "The Mângs show great respect for the bamboo; and at a marriage the bridal couple are made to stand in a bamboo basket. They also reverence the ním tree, and the Mângs of Sholapur spread hariâli [3] grass and ním leaves on the spot where one of their caste dies." The social status of the Mângs is of the lowest. They usually live in a separate quarter of the village and have a well for their own use. They may not enter temples. It is recorded that under native rule the Mahârs and Mângs were not allowed within the gates of Poona between 3 P.M. and 9 A.M., because before nine and after three their bodies caste too long a shadow; and whenever their shadow fell upon a Brâhman it polluted him, so that the dare not taste or water until he had bathed and washed the impurity away .

[1] Berâr Census Report (1881), p. 147.

[2] Lectures on the Criminal Tribes of the Central Provinces, p. 79.

[3] Cynodon dactylon.

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So also no low-caste man was allowed to live in a walled town; cattle and dogs could freely enter and remain but not the Mahâr or Mâng. [1]

The caste will eat the flesh of pigs, rats, crocodiles and jackals and the leavings of others, and some of them will eat beef. Men may be distinguished by the senai flute which they carry and a large ring of gold or brass worn in the lobe of the ear. A Mâng's sign-manual is a representation of his bhall-singâra or castration-knife. Women are tattooed before marriage, with dots on the forehead, nose, cheeks and chin, and with figures of a date-palm on the forearm, a scorpion on the palm of the hand, and flies on the fingers. The caste do not bear a good character, and it is said of a cruel man, 'Mâng-Nirdayi,' or 'Hardhearted as a Mâng.'

Mangan.: -See Charan.

Manganiyar.: -They live in Rajasthan and they are genealogists, beggars and musicians.

Manihar.: -They live in Northern India. They make glass bangles, bracelets and whatever decorations which are necessary for wedding feasts.

[1] Dr. Murray Mitchell's Great Religions of India , p. 63.