List Group 2

Bahna - Bahrot - Bahurupia - Bahurupias - Baidya - Baiga - Bairâgi - Bajania - Bajgi - Bakarwal - Bâlasantósha - Balija - Bandar - Bangâli (Bengâli) - Banjâra (Wanjâri, Labhâna, Mukeri) - Bansohor - Bânsphor - Barwâr

Bahna: -Pinjâra, Dhunia.[1]- The occupational caste of cotton-cleaners. The Bahnas numbered 48,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berâr in 1911. The large increase in the number of ginning-factories has ruined the Bahna's trade of cleaning hand-ginned cotton, and as there is no distinction to the name of Bahna it is possible that members of the caste who have taken to other occupations may have abandoned the name and represented themselves simply as Muhammadans. The three names Bahna, Pinjârs, and Dhunia appear to be used equally for the caste in this Province, though in other parts of India they are distinguished from one another. Pinjâra is derived from the word pinjan used for a cotton-bow, and Dhunia is from dhunna , to card cotton. The caste is also known as Dhunak Pathâni. Though professing the Muhammadan religion, they still have many Hindu customs and ceremonies, and in the matter of inheritance our courts have held that they are subject to Hindu and not Muhammadan law. [2] In Raipur a girl receives half the share of a boy in the division of inherited property. The caste appears to be a mixed occupational group, and is split into many territorial subcastes named after the different parts of the country from which

[1] RUS page No 69-76. This article is partly based on a paper by Munshi Kanhya Lâl of the Gazetteer office.

[2] Sir B. Robertson's C . P . Census Report (1891), p. 203.

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its members have come, as Badharia from Badhas in Mírzâpur, Sarsîtia from the Sâraswati river, Berâri of Berâr, Dakhni from the Deccan, Telangi from Madras, Pardeshi from northern India, and so on. Two groups are occupational, the Newâris of Saugor, who make the thick newâr tape used for the webbing of beds, and the Kanderas, who make fireworks and generally constitute a separate caste. There is considerable ground for supposing that the Bahnas are mainly derived from the caste of Telis or oil-pressers. In the Punjab Sir D. Ibbetson says [1] that the Penja or cotton-scutcher is an occupational name applied to Telis who follow this profession; and that the Penja, Kasai and Teli are all of the same caste. Similarly, in Nâsik the Telis and Pinjâras are said to form one community, under the government of a single panchâyat. In cases of dispute or misconduct the usual penalty is temporary 2 excommunication, which is known as the stopping of food and water. [2] The Telis are an enterprising community of very low status, and would therefore be naturally inclined to take to other occupations; many of them are shopkeepers, cultivators and landholders, and it is quite probable that in past times they took up the Bahna's profession and changed their religion with the hope of improving their social status. The Telis are generally considered to be quarrelsome and talkative, and the Bahnas or Dhunias have the same characteristics. If one man abusing another lapses into obsceneties, the other will say to him, 'Hamko Julâha Dhunia neh jâno ,' or 'Don't talk to me as if I was a Julâha or a Dhunia.'

Marriage.

Some Bahnas have exogamous sections with Hindu names, while others are without these, and simply regulate their marriages by rules of relationship. They have the primitive Hindu custom of allowing a sister's son to marry a brother's daughter, but not vice versa . A man cannot marry his wife's younger sister during her lifetime, nor her elder sister at any time. Children of the same foster-mother are also not allowed to marry. Their marriages are performed by a K¡âzi with an imitation of the Nikâh rite. The bridegroom's party sits under the marriage-shed, and the bride remains with the women of her party inside the house. The Kâzi selects two men, one from the bride's party, who is known as the Nikâhi Bâp or 'Marriage Father,' and the other from the bridegroom's who is called the Gowâh or 'Witness.' These two men go to the bride and ask her whether she accepts the bridegroom for her husband. She answers in the affirmative, and mentions the amount of the dowry which she is to receive. The bridegroom, who has hitherto had a veil (mukhna ) over his face, now takes it off, and the men go to him and ask him whether he accepts the bride. He replies that he does, and agrees to pay the dowry demanded by her. The Kâzi reads some texts and the guests are given a meal of rice and sugar. Many of the preliminaries to a Hindu marriage are performed by the more backward members of the caste, and until recently they erected a sacred post in the marriage-shed, but now they merely hang the green branch of a mango tree to the roof. The minimum amount of the mehar or dowry is said to be Rs. 125, but it is paid to the girl's parents as a bride-price and not to herself, as among the Muhammadans. A widow is expected, but not obliged, to marry her deceased husband's younger brother. Divorce is permitted by means of a written deed known as 'Fârkhati.'

Religious and other customs.

The Bahnas venerate Muhammad, and also worship the tombs of Muhammadan saints or Pârs. A green sheet or cloth is spread over the tomb and a lamp is kept burning by it, while offerings of incense and flowers are made. When the new cotton crop has been gathered, they lay some new cotton by their bow and mallet and make an offering of malída or cakes of flour and sugar to it. They believe that two angels, one good and one bad, are perched continually on the shoulders of every man to record his good and evil deeds. And when an eclipse occurs they say that the sun and moon have gone behind a pinnacle or tower of the heavens. For exorcising evil spirits they write texts of the Korân on paper and burn them before the sufferer. The caste bury the dead with the feet pointing to the south. On the way

[1] Punjab Census Report (1881), paras. 646, 647

[2] Nâsik Gazetteer , pp. 84, 85.

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to the grave each one of the mourners places his shoulder under the bier for a time, partaking of the impurity communicated by it. Incence is burnt daily in the name of a deceased person for forty days after his death, with the probable aim of preventing his ghost from returning to haunt the house. Muhammadan beggars are fed on the tenth day. Similarly, after the birth of a child a woman is unclean for forty days, and cannot cook for her husband during that period. A child's hair is cut for the first time on the tenth or twelfth day after birth, this being known as Jhâlar. Some parents let a lock of hair grow on the head in the name of the famous saint Saeikh Faríd, thinking that this will thus ensure a long life for the child. It is probably in reality a way of preserving the Hindu choti or scalp-lock.

Occupation.

The hereditary calling [1] of the Bahna is the cleaning or scutching of cotton, which is done by subjecting it to the agitation of a bow-string. The seed has been previously separated by a hand-gin, but the ginned cotton still contains much dirt, leaf-fibre and other rubbish, and to remove this is the Bahna's task. The bow is somewhat in the shape of a harp, the wide end consisting of a broad piece of wood over which the string passes, being secured to a strong wooden bar at the back. At the narrow end the bar and string are fixed to an iron ring. The string is made of the sinew of some animal, and this renders the implement objectionable to Hindus, and may account for the Bahnas being Muhammadans. The club or mallet is a wooden implement shaped like a dumb-bell. The bow is suspended from the roof so as to hang just over the pile of loose cotton; and the worker twangs the string with the mallet and then draws the mallet across the string, each three or four times. The string strikes a small portion of the cotton, the fibre of which is scattered by the impact and thrown off in a uniform condition of soft fluff, all dirt being at the same time removed. This is the operation technically known as teasing. Buchanan remarked that women frequently did the work themselves at home, using a smaller kind of bow called dhunkara . The clean cotton is made up into balls, some of which are passed onto the spinner, while others are used for the filling of quilts and the padded coats worn in the cold weather. The ingenious though rather clumsy methods of the Bahna have been superseded by the ginning-factory, and little or no cotton destined for the spindle is now cleaned by them. The caste have been forced to take to cultivation or field labour, while many have become cartmen and others are brokers, peons or constables. Nearly every house still has its pinjan or bow, but only a desultory use is made of this during the winter months. As it is principally used by a Muhammadan caste it seems a possible hypothesis that the cotton-bow was introduced into India by invaders of that religion. The name of the bow, pinjan , is, however, a Sanskrit derivative, and this is contrary to the above theory. It has already been seen that the fact of animal sinew being used for the string would make it objectionable to Hindus. The Bahnas are subjected to considerable ridicule on account of their curious mixture of Hindu and Muhammadan ceremonies, amounting in some respects practically to a caricature of the rites of Islâm; and further, they bear with the weaver class the contempt shown to those who follow a calling considered more suitable for women than men. It is related that when the Mughal general Asaf Khân first made an expedition into the north of the Central Provinces he found the famous Gond-Râjpît queen Durgâvati of the Garha-Mandla dynasty governing with great success a large and prosperous state in this locality. He thought a country ruled by a woman should fall an easy prey to the Muhammadan arms, and to show his contempt for her power he sent her a golden spindle. The queen retorted with a present of a gold cotton-cleaner's bow, and this so enraged the Mughal that he proceeded to attack the Gond kingdom. The story indicates that cotton-carding is considered a Muhammadan profession, and also that it is held in contempt.

[1] Crooke's Tribes and Castes , art. Bahna.

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Proverbs about Bahnas.

Various sayings show that the Bahna is not considered a proper Muhammadan, as

Turuk to Turuk

Aur Bahan Turuk ,

or 'A Muhammadan (Turk) is a Muhammadan and the Bahna is also a Muhammadan' ; and again-

Achera ,[1] Kachera , Pinjâra ,

Muhammad se dîr , Dín se niyâra ,

or 'The Kachera and Pinjâra are lost to Muhammad and far from the faith' ; and again-

Adho Hindu adho Musalmân

Tinkhon kahen Dhunak Pathân ,

or 'Half a Hindu and half a Muhammadan, that is he who is a Dhunak Pathân.' They have a grotesque imitation of the Muhammadan rite of halâl , or causing an animal's blood to flow onto the ground with the repetition of the kalma or invocation; thus it is said that when a Bahna is about to kill a fowl he addresses it somewhat as follows :

Kîhe karkarât hai ?

Kâhe barbarât hai ?

K¡âhe jai jai logon ka dâna khât hâi ?

Tor kiâmat mor niâmat

Bismillâh hai tuch ,

or "Why do you cackle ? Why do you crow ? Why do you eat other people's grain ? Your death is my feast; I Touch you in the name of God." And saying this he puts a knife to the fowl's throat. The vernacular verse is a good imitation of the cackling of a fowl. And again, they slice off the top of an egg as if they were killing an animal and repeat the formula, "White dome, full of moisture, I know not if there is a male or female within; in the name of God I kill you." A person whose memory is not good enough to retain these texts will take a knife and proceed to one who knows them. The man will repeat the texts over the knife, blowing on it as he does so, and the Bahna considers that the knife has been sanctified and retains its virtue for a week. Others do not think this necessary, but have a special knife, which having once been consecrated is always kept for killing animals, and descends as an heirloom in the family, the use of this sacred knife being considered to make the repetition of the Kalma unnecessary. These customs are, however, practised only by the ignorant members of the caste in Raipur and Bilâspur, and are unknown in the more civilised tracts, where the Bahnas are rapidly conforming to ordinary Muhammadan usage. Such primitive Bahnas perform their marriages by walking round the sacred post, keep the Hindu festivals, and feed Brâhmans on the tenth day after a death. They have a priest whom they call their K¡âzi, but elect him themselves. In some places when a Bahna goes to the well to draw water he first washes the parapet of the well to make it ceremonially clean, and then draws his water. This custom can only be compared with that of the Râj-Gonds who wash the firewood with which they are about to cook their food, in order to make it more pure. Respectable Muhammadans naturally look down on the Bahnas, and they retaliate by refusing to take food or water from any Muhammadan who is not a Bahna. By such strictness the more ignorant think that they will enhance their ceremonial purity and hence their social consideration; but the intelligent members of the caste know better and are glad to improve themselves by learning from educated Muhammadans. The other menial artisan castes among the Muhammadans have similar ideas, and it is reported that a Rangrez boy who took food in the house of one of the highest Muhammadan officers of government in the Province was temporarily put out of his caste. Another saying about the Bahnas is-

Sheikhon kí Sheikhi ,

Pathânon kí tarr ,

Turkon kí Turkshâhi ,

Bahnon kí bharakhi

[1] The word Achera is merely a jingle put in to make the rhyme complete. Kachera is a maker of glass bangles.

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or 'Proud as a Sheikh, obstinate as a Pathân, royal as a Turk, buzzing like a Bahna.' This refers to the noise of the cotton-cleaning bow, the twang of which as it is struck by the club is like a quail flying; and at the same time refers to the Bahna's loquacity. Another story is that a Bahna was once going through the forest with his cotton-cleaning bow and club or mallet, when a jackal met him on the path. The jackal was afraid that the Bahna would knock him on the head, so he said, "With thy bow on thy shoulder and thine arrow in thy hand, whither goest thou, O King of Delhi ?" The Bahna was exceedingly pleased at this and replied, 'King of the forest, eater of wild plums, only the great can recognise the great.' But when the jackal had got to a safe distance he turned round and shouted, "With your cotton-bow on your shoulder and your club in your hand, there you go, you sorry Bahna." It is said also that although the Bahnas as good Muhammadans wear beards, they do not cultivate them very successfully, and many of them only have a growth of hair below the chin and none on the under-lip, in the fashion known as a goat's beard. This kind of beard is thus proverbially described as 'Bahna kaisi dârhi ' or 'A Bahna's beard.' It may be repeated in conclusion that much of the ridicule attached to the Bahnas arises simply from the fact that they follow what is considered a feminine occupation, and the remainder because in their ignorance they parody the rites of Islâm. It may seem ill-natured to record the sayings in which they are lampooned, but the Bahnas cannot read English, and these have an interest as specimens of popular wit.

Bahrot: -See Charan.

Bahurupia: -They are wandering religious actors.

Bahurupias: -They are actors and story-tellers. They also have plays of religious and mythological content. They are very skillful. They put on make up and dress as half man and half woman. During acting they turnaround so quickly as to give the impression of being two different actors. They used to be buffoons at the Rajas' courts.

Baidya: -Vaidya [1] ( from Sansk. vid, to known ) Ambastha, Bhisak, Chikitsak, a well-known and highly respected caste, found only in Bengal Proper, whose features and complexion seem to warrant their claim to tolerably pure Aryan descent. There has been much controversy regarding their origin. The name Vaidya does not occur in Manu, but the Ambasthas there are said to be the offspring of a Brahman father and a Vaisya mother, and their profession to be the practice of medicine. According to this account the Baidyas are anulomaj ("born with the hair or grain," that is, in due order), the father being of higher caste than the mother. Another tradition describes them as begotten on a Brahman woman by one of the Aswini Kumaras, the light-bringing and healing twin-horsemen of Vedic mythology; and then, oddly enough, goes on to say that they were reckoned as Sudras because their mother was of superior rank to their father, and their generation was consequently pratilomaja, " against the hair, " or in the inverse order according to the succession of the castes. It would appear from this that the Aswini Kumaras were classed as Kshatriyas, and that, according to Brahmanical ideas, even the gods were not equal mates for a Brahman maiden.

[1] Risley vol. I page 46-50 The term Baidya is not distinctive, and may denote either a member of the Baidya caste properly so called, or a man who practises medicine, whether a Brahman or a member of some lower caste. In Behar, where the Baidya caste is unknown, Sakadwipi Brahmans are the regular physicians.

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An expanded version of the pedigree given by Manu is found in the Skanda Purana. This legend tells how Galava Muni, a pupil or son of Viswamitra, being greatly distressed by thirst while on a pilgrimage, was given a draught of water by a Vaisya girl named Birbhadra. The grateful sage blessed the maiden that she should soon have a son. Birbhadra demurred to this boon, on the ground that she was unmarried; but the rash oath, so characteristic of Indian mythology, could not be recalled, nor could Galava himself put matters straight by marrying the virgin whose kindness had involved her in so strange a difficulty. For, so it is explained, she had saved his life by the draught of water, and therefore he looked upon her in the light of a mother. A miracle was clearly in request. By the word of power of a Vedic mantra a wisp of kusa grass ( Poa Cynosuroides ) was transformed into a male child, variously known as Dhanvantari, Amrita Acharya, and Ambastha. He was the first of the Vaidyas, because to a Vedic (Vaidik ) text he owed his birth. He was also Ambastha because he had no father, and therefore belonged to the family of his mother (Amba ). A number of analogous myths have been collected by Bachofen in his two letters on 'Pueri juncini,' and his method of interpretation applied to the present case would lead to the conclusion that the tradition given in the Skanda Purana records an instance of female kinship.

Internal structure.

The Baidyas are now divided into the following four subcastes:- (1) Rarhi, (2) Banga, (3) Barendra, and (4) Panchakoti, according to the parts of Bengal in which their ancestors resided. All of these are endogamous. A fifth endogamous group, which bears no distinctive name, comprises those Baidya families of the districts of Sylhet, Chittagong, and Tipperah who intermarry with Kayasths and Sunris, the children in each case following the caste of the father. This practice appears to be the only modern instance of intermarriage between members of different castes. It is said to have arisen from the reluctance of the Baidyas farther west to give their daughters to men who had settled in the country east of the Brahmaputra. Failing women of their own caste, the latter were compelled not only to marry the daughters of Kayasths, but to give their own daughters in return. This interchange of women is said to extend even to the comparatively degraded caste of Sunri, and it may be for this reason that the Chittagong, Tipperah, and Sylhet Baidyas are cut off from communal partaking of food with the other subcastes. The sections or exogamous groups in use among the Baidyas will be found in Appendix 1. All of them appear to be eponymous, the eponyms being Vedic Rishis or saints. The restrictions on intermarriage are the same as among Brahmans.

Legend of Ballal Sen.

The evidence of inscriptions shows that a dynasty of Baidya Kings ruled over at least a portion of Bengal from 1010 to 1200 A. D. To the most famous of these, Ballal Sen, is ascribed the separation of the Baidyas into two divisions, one of which wore the sacred thread and observed fifteen days as the prescribed period of mourning, while with the other, investiture with the thread was optional, and mourning lasted for a month. Before his time, it is said, all Baidyas formed a single group, the members of which intermarried with one another, as all were equal in rank. All wore the thread and observed the term of mourning characteristic of the Vaisyas. Ballal Sen, however, insisted on marrying a ferryman's daughter, named Padmavati, of the Patni or Dom-Patni caste. His son, Lakshan Sen, followed by a majority of the caste, protested against the legality of the marriage, and, finding their remonstrances unheeded, tore off the sacred cord which all Baidyas then wore, and retired into a distant part of the country. These were the ancestors of the Banga and Barendra sub-castes of the present day, while the Rarhi Baidyas represent the remnant who condoned Ballal Sen's offence. It is difficult to reconcile this legend with the accepted tradition that in the course of his social reforms Ballal Sen separated the Baidyas into three classes-Rarhi, Barendra, and Banga-according to the place of their abode, and introduced the hypergamous divisions of Kulin, Bangsaj, and Maulik. A Kulin must marry his daughter to a Kulin, but he himself may marry either a Kulin or a Bangsaj women. If he marries a Maulik woman, his family is to a certain extent dishonoured, but the stain may be wiped out by marrying his sister or

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daughter to a Kulin. Hence the saying, "Rising and falling is the Baidya's lot, provided the original stock remains sound." Ballal Sen is said to have distributed the Baidyas of his time into twenty-seven sthans or communes, beyond which no one could reside without losing caste priveledges. The principal settlements were at Senhati, Chandam Mahal, Daspara, Puigram, Karoria, Shendia, Itna, and Bhattapratap in Jessore; Poragachha in Bikrampur; and Dasora and Chand-pratap in Dacca. To him also is attributed the institution of the three classes-Siddha, sadhya, and Kashta, which, like the Kulinistic groups, have reference to social esteem or purity of lineage. They differ from the latter in being more rigid. Thus, a Siddha Baidya who takes a wife from the Sadhya or Kashta class sinks at once to their level, and his descendants cannot recover their status by marrying into a higher class.

The Samaj-pati, or presidency, of the Banga Baidyas, has for several generations been vested in the family of Raja Raj Ballabh of Rajnagar, who reside on the south bank of the Padma river, and though now poor and dependent, the members are still consulted on matters affecting the caste. In the middle of the last century the influence of the family was much stronger, and a Raja of that time induced many of the Banga and Barendra Baidyas to resume the sacred thread which their ancestors had discarded. With reference to this tradition, Ward writes as if the entire caste had then for the first time obtained the right to wear thread by means of Raj Ballabh's influence. He says: “Raj Ballabh, a person of this [Baidya] class, steward to the Nawab of Murshedabad, about a hundred years ago first procured for Baidyas the honour of wearing the paita: He invited the Brahmans to a feast, and persuaded them to invest his son; from which time many Baidyas wear this badge of distinction.”

Marriage.

Infant-marriage is the rule of the caste, rare exceptions being met with in highly-educated families, which have come under the influence of European ideas. Polygamy is permitted, but is not practised on a large scale. Divorce is unknown: a woman taken in adultery is simply turned adrift, and ceases to be a member of respectable Hindu society. Widows are not allowed to marry again, and the practice of sati was formerly very common. On this point Ward, writing in 1811, says: “Many Baidya widows ascend the funeral pyre. At Sonakhali, in Jessore, which contains many families of this order, almost all the widows are regularly burnt alive with the corpses of their husbands.”

The Baidya marriage ceremony does not differ materially from that in vogue among other groups, except that sometimes the Kusundika ceremony is performed on the marriage night. When equals marry, a curious custom is observed. A bond is proclaimed certifying that the bridegroom has received twelve rupees; should a second son marry, he executes a bond for twenty-four; and in the case of a third son the acknowledgment is for thirty-six. Beyond this it never goes, however many brothers the bridegroom may have older then himself.

Religion.

The religion of the Baidyas is that of the orthodox high caste Hindu. All old Baidya families are Sakti Worshippers, but among the poorer classes Vaishnavas are occasionally found. Of late years many of the caste have joined the Brahma Samaj. Brahmans are employed for religious and ceremonial purposes; but it is doubtful whether these are of the highest rank, as they also officiate for the Nava-sakha. They have also ghataks of their own, who were formerly Brahmans, but for many years past members of their own caste have discharged this important social function. The innovation is ascribed to one Viswanath of Jessore, who is said to have been the first regular Baidya ghatak.

Occupation.

Their primary occupation is the practice of medicine, according to the traditional Hindu method. It was no doubt the original profession of the Baidya caste. From the time of the Sen kings, however, the tendency has been towards the adoption of other vocations, and at the present day hardly one-third of the caste are believed to be engaged in their traditional

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vocation. Those who remain are still in pretty high demand. Certain passages of the Shasrras regard the taking of medicine from a Baidya as a sort of sacramental act, and forbid resort to anyone not of that caste, so that some orthodox Hindus, when at the point of death, call in a Baidya to prescribe for them in the belief that by swallowing the drugs he orders for them they obtain absolution for their sins. Many Baidyas have distinguished themselves at the Bar, and as agents, managers, and school-masters, whilst others have taken to the study of English medicine and have entered Government service or engaged in private practice as medical men. Many again are found among the higher grades of land-holders, as zemindars, tenure-holders, and a few are occupancy raiyats. They will on no account hold the plough, or engage in any form of manual labour, and thus necessarily carry on their cultivation by means of hired servants paid in cash or by a share of the crop.

Social status.

In point of social standing, Baidyas rank next to Brahmans and above Kayasths. Strictly speaking, they are inferior to Rajputs, but this point cannot be insisted on in practice, as there are comparatively few Rajputs in the area inhabited by Baidyas, and those are mostly immigrants from Upper India, who belong to a different social system from Bengalis. There has been some controversy between Baidyas and Kayasths regarding their relative rank, the leading points of which will be found in the article on Kayasths. Putting aside the manifest futility of the discussion, we may fairly conclude by saying that in point of general culture there is probably difference between the two castes, though the Baidyas have distinctly the best technical claim to precedence. On the other hand, it would, I think, strike most observers that the Kayasths are the more pliant and adaptive of the two, and have thereby drawn to themselves a larger share of official preferment then the more conservative Baidyas.

Baidyas eat boiled rice and food coming under that category only with members of their own caste. They will drink and smoke with the Nava Sakha and with castes ranking higher than that group, but will not use the same drinking vessel or the same hookah. Brahmans will eat sweetmeats in a Baidya's house, and will drink and smoke in their company, subject to the restriction noticed in last sentence as to not using the same pipe.

Baiga: -A primitive Dravidian tribe - [1] whose home is on the eastern Satpîra hills in the Mandla, Bâlâghât and Bilâspur Districts. The number of the Baigas was only 30,000 in 1911. But the Binjhâls or Binjhwârs, a fairly numerous caste in the Chhattísgarh Division, and especially in the Sambalpur District, appear to have been originally Baigas, though they have dropped the original caste name, become Hinduised, and now disclaim connection with the parent tribe. A reason for this may be found in the fact that Sambalpur contains several Binjhwâr zamíndârs, or large landowners, whose families would naturally desire a more respectable pedigree than one giving them the wild Baigas of the Satpîras for their forefathers. And the evolution of the Binjhwâr caste is a similar phenomenon to the constitution of the Râj-Gonds, the Râj-Korkus, and other aristocratic subdivisions among the forest tribes, who have been admitted to a respectable position in the Hindu social community. The Binjhwârs, however, have been so successful as to cut themselves off almost completely from connection with the original tribe, owing to their adoption of another name. But in Bâlâghât and Mandla the Binjhwâr subtribe is still recognised as the most civilised subdivision of the Baigas. The Bhainas, a small tribe in Bilâspur, are probably another offshoot, Kath-Bhaina being the name of a subtribe of Baigas in that District, and Rai-Bhaina in Bâlâghât, though the Bhainas too no longer admit a common identity with the Baigas. A feature common to all three branches is that they have forgotten their original tongue, and

[1] RUS Page No 76-92. This article is based largely on a monograph by the Rev. J. Lampard, missionary, Baihar, and also on papers by Muhammad Hanif Siddíqi, forest ranger, Bilaspur, and Mr. Muhammad Ali Haqqâni, B.A., Tahsíldâr, Dindori. Some extracts have been made form Colonel Ward's Mandla Settlement Report (1869), and form Colonel Bloomfield's Notes on the Baigas.

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now speak a more or less corrupt form of the Indo-Aryan vernaculars current around them. Finally, the term Bhumia or 'Lord of the soil' is used sometimes as the name of a separate tribe and sometimes as a synonym for Baiga. The fact is that in the Central Provinces [1] Bhumia is the name of an office, that of the priest of the village and local deities, which is held by one of the forest tribes. In the tract where the Baigas live, they, as the most ancient residents, are usually the priests of the indigenous gods; but in Jubbulpore the same office is held by another tribe, the Bharias. The name of the office often attaches itself to members of the tribe, who consider it somewhat more respectable than their own, and it is therefore generally true that the people known as Bhumias in Jubbulpore are really Bharias, but in Mandla and Bilâspur they are Baigas.

In Mandla there is also found a group called Bharia-Baigas. These are employed as village priests by Hindus, and worship certain Hindu deities and not the Gond gods. They may perhaps be members of the Bharia tribe of Jubbulpore, originally derived from the Bhars., who have obtained the designation of Baiga, owing to their employment as village priests. But they now consider themselves a part of the Baiga tribe and say they came to Mandla from Rewah. In Mandla the decision of a Baiga on a boundary dispute is almost always considered as final, and this authority is of a kind that commonly emanates from recognised priority of residence. [2] There seems reason to suppose that the Baigas are really a branch of the primitive Bhuiya tribe of Chota Nâgpur, and that they have taken or been given the name of Baiga, the designation of village priest, on migration into the Central Provinces. There is reason to believe that the Baigas were once dominant in the Chhattisgarh plain and the hills surrounding it which adjoin Chota Nâgpur, the home of the Bhuiyas. The considerations in favour of this view are given in the article on Bhuiya.

Tribal legends

The Baigas, however, are not without some conceit of themselves, as the following legend will show. In the beginning, they say, God created Nanga Baiga and Nangi Baigin, the first of the human race, and asked them by what calling they would choose to live. They at once said that they would make their living by felling trees in the jungle, and permission being accorded, have done so ever since. They had two sons, one of whom remained a Baiga, while the other became a Gond and a tiller of the soil. The sons married their own two sisters who were born afterwards, and while the elder couple are the ancestors of the Baigas, from the younger are descended the Gonds and all the remainder of the human race. In another 3 version of the story, the first Baiga cut down two thousand old sâl [3] trees in one day, and God told him to sprinkle a few grains of kutki on the ashes, and then to retire and sleep for some months, when on his return he would be able to reap a rich harvest for his children. In this manner the habit of shifting cultivation is accorded divine sanction. According to Binjhwâr tradition Nanga Baiga and Nangi Baigin dwelt on the kajli ban pahâr, which being interpreted is the hill of elephants, and may well refer to the ranges of Mandla and Bilâspur. It is stated in the Ain-i-Akbari [4] that the country of Garha-Mandla abounded in wild elephants, and that the people paid their tribute in these and gold mohurs. In Mandla the Baigas sometimes hang from their houses a bamboo mat fastened to a long pole to represent a flag which they say once flew from the palace of the tribe which may have been in the Chhattísgarh plain and the hill-ranges surrounding it. A number of estates in these hills are held by landowners of tribes which are offshoots of the Baigas, such as the Bhainas and Binjhwârs. The point is further discussed in the article on Bhuiya. Most of the Baigas speak a corrupt form of the Chhattísgarhi dialect. When they first came under the detailed observation of English officers in the middle of the nineteenth century, the tribe was even

[1] In Bengal the Bhumia or Bhumíj are an important tribe.

[2] Colonel Ward's Mandla Settlement Report (1868-69), p. 153.

[3] Shorea robusta.

[4] Jarrett's Ain-i-Akbari, vol. ii. p. 196.

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more solitary than at present. Their villages, it is said, were only to be found in places far removed from all cleared and cultivated country. No roads or well-defined paths connected them with ordinary lines of traffic and more thickly inhabited tracts. Tucked away in snug corners of the hills, and hidden by convenient projecting spurs and dense forests from the surrounding country, they could not be seen except when in very close proximity, and were seldom visited unless by occasional enterprising Banias and vendors of country liquor. Indeed, without a Baiga for a guide many of the villages could hardly be discovered, for nothing but occasional notches on the tress distinguished the tracks to them from those of the sâmbhar and other wild animals.

Tribal subdivisions.

The following seven subdivisions or subtribes are recognised: Binjhwâr, Bharotia, Narotia or Nâhar, Raibhaina, Kathbhaina, Kondwân or Kundi, and Gondwaina. Of these the Binjhwâr, Bharotia and Narotia are the best-known. The name of the Binjhwârs is probably derived from the Vindhyan range, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit vindhya , "a hunter." The rule of exogamy is by no means strictly observed, and in Kawardha it is said that these three subcastes intermarry though they do not eat together, while in Bâlâghât the Bharotias and Narotias do both. In both places the Binjhwârs occupy the highest position, and the other two subtribes will take food from them. The Binjhwârs consider themselves Hindus and abjure the consumption of buffalo and cow flesh and rats, while the other Baigas will eat almost anything. The Bharotias partially shave their heads, and in Mandla are apparently known as Mundia or Mudia, or "shaven." The Gondwainas eat both cow flesh and monkeys, and are regarded as the lowest subcaste. As shown by their name, they are probably the offspring of unions between Baigas and Gonds. Similarly the Kondwâns apparently derive their name from the tract south of the Mahânadi, which is named after the Khond tribe, and was formerly owned by them.

Each subtribe is divided into a number of exogamous sects, the names of which are identical in many cases with those of the Gonds, as Markâm, Marâvi, Netâm, Tekâm and others. Gond names are found most frequently among the Gondwainas and Narotias, and these have adopted from the Gonds the prohibition of marriage between worshipers of the same number of gods. Thus the four sects above mentioned worship seven gods and may not intermarry. But they may marry among other sects such as the Dhurua, Pusâm, Bania and Mawâr who worship six gods. The Baigas do not appear to have assimilated the further division into worshippers of five, four, three and two gods which exists among the Gonds in some localities, and the system is confined to the lower subtribes. The meanings of the sect names have been forgotten and no instances of totemism are known. And the Binjhwârs and Bharotias, who are more or less Hinduised, have now adopted territorial names for their sects, as Lapheya from Lâpha zamíndâri, Ghugharia from Gond. Names and sects appears to indicate that Gonds were in former times freely admitted into the Baiga tribe; and this continues to be the case at present among the lower subtribes, so far that a Gond girl marrying a Baiga becomes a regular member of the community. But the Binjhwârs and Bharotias, who have a somewhat higher status than the others, refuse to admit Gonds, and are gradually adopting the strict rule of endogamy within the subtribe.

Marriage

A Baiga must not take a wife from his own sect or from another one worshipping the same number of gods. But he may marry within his mother's sect, and in some localities the union of first cousins is permitted. Marriage is adult and the proposal comes form the parents of the bride, but in some places the girl is allowed to select a husband for herself. A price varying from five to twenty rupees is usually paid to the bride's parents, or in lieu of this the prospective husband serves his father-in-law for a period of about two years, the marriage being celebrated after the first year if his conduct is satisfactory. Orphan boys who have no parents to arrange their marriages for them often use the service of intermediaries for a wife. Three ceremonies should precede the marriage. The first, which may take place at any time

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after the birth of both children, consists merely in the arrangement for their betrothal. The second is only a ratification of the first, feasts being provided by the boy's parents on both occasions. When the children approach marriageable age, the final betrothal or barokhi is held. They boy's father gives a large feast at the house of the girl and the date of the wedding is fixed. To ascertain whether the union will be auspicious, two grains of rice are dropped into a pot of water, after various preliminary solemnities to mark the importance of the occasion. If the points of the grains meet almost immediately it is considered that the marriage will be highly auspicious. If they do not meet, a second pair of grains are dropped in, and should these meet it is believed that the couple will quarrel after an interval of married life and that the wife will return to her father's house. While if neither of the two first essays are successful and a third pair is required, the regrettable conclusion is arrived at that the wife will run away with another man after a very short stay with her husband. But it is not stated that the betrothal is on that account annulled. The wedding procession starts form the bridegroom's house [1] and is received by the bride's father outside the village. It is considered essential that he should go out to meet the bride's party riding on an elephant. But as a real elephant is not within the means of a Baiga, two wooden bedsteads are lashed together and covered with blankets with a black cloth trunk in front, and this arrangement passes muster of an elephant. The elephant makes pretence to charge and trample down the marriage procession, until a rupee is paid, when the two embrace each other and proceed to the marriage-shed. Here the bride and bridegroom throw fried rice at each other until they are tired, and then walk three or seven times round the marriage-post with their clothes tied together. It is stated by Colonel Ward that the couple always retired to the forest to spend the wedding night, but this custom had now been abandoned. The expenditure on a marriage varies between ten and fifty rupees, of which only about five rupees fall on the bride's parents. The remarriage of widows is permitted, and the widow is expected, though not obliged, to wed her late husband's younger brother, while if she takes another husband he must pay her brother-in-law the sum of five rupees. The ceremony consists merely of the presentation of bangles and new clothes by the suitor, in token of her acceptance of which the widow pours some tepid water stained with turmeric over his head. Divorce may be effected by the husband and wife committee. If the woman remains in the same village and does not marry again, the husband is responsible for her maintenance and that of her children, while a divorced woman may not remarry without the sanction of the panchâyat so long as her husband is alive and remains single. Polygamy is permitted.

Birth and funeral rites.

A woman is unclean for a month after childbirth, though for the Binjhwârs the period is eight days. At the ceremony of purification a feast is given and the child is named, often after the month or day of its birth, as Chaitu, Phâgu, Saoni, and so on, from the months of Chait, Phâgun and Shrâwan. Children who appear to be physically defective are given names accordingly., such as Langra (lame), or Bahira (deaf).

The dead are usually buried, the bodies of old persons being burnt as a special honour and to save them from the risk of being devoured by wild animals. Bodies are laid naked in the grave with the head pointing to the south. In the grave of a man of importance two or three rupees and some tobacco are placed. In some places a rupee is thrust into the mouth of the dying man, and if his body is burnt, the coin is recovered from the pyre by his daughter or sister, who wears it as an amulet. Over the grave a platform is made on which a stone is erected. This is called the Bhíri of the deceased and is worshipped by his relatives in time of trouble. If one of the family has to be buried elsewhere, the relatives go to the Bhíri of the great dead and consign his spirit to be kept in their company. At a funeral the mourners take one black and one white fowl to a stream and kill and eat them there, setting aside a portion for the dead man. Mourning is observed from two to nine days, and during this time

[1] Colonel Ward gives the bride's house as among the Gonds. But inquiry in Mandla shows that if this custom formerly existed it has been abandoned.

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labour and even household work are stopped, food being supplied by the friends of the family. When a man is killed by a tiger the Baiga priest goes to the spot and there makes a small cone out of the blood-stained earth. This must represent a man, either the dead man or one of his living relatives. His companions having retired a few paces, the priest goes on his hands and knees and performs a series of antics which are supposed to represent the tiger in the act of destroying the man, at the same time seizing the lump of blood-stained earth in his teeth. One of the party then runs up and taps him on the back with a small stick. This perhaps means that the tiger is killed or otherwise rendered harmless; and the Baiga immediately lets the mud cone fall into the hands of one of the party. It is then placed in an ant-hill and a pig is sacrificed over it. Then the dead man's name is written on its head with red ochre, and it is thrown back into the forest, the priest exclaiming, 'Take this and go home.' The ceremony is supposed to lay the dead man's spirit to rest and the at the same time prevent the tiger from doing any further damage. The Baigas believe that the ghost of the victim, if not charmed to rest, resides on the head of the tiger and incites him to further 1 deeds of blood, rendering him also secure from harm by his preternatural watchfulness. [1]

They also think that they can shut up the tiger's dâr or jaws, so that he cannot bite them, by driving a nail into a tree. The forest track from Kânha to Kisli in the Banjar forest reserve of Mandla was formerly the haunt of man-eating tigers, to whom a number of the wood-cutters and Baiga coolies, clearing the jungle paths, fell victim every year. In a large tree, at a dangerous point in the track, there could recently be seen a nail,. driven into the trunk by a Baiga priest, at some height from the ground. It was said that this nail shut the mouth of a famous man-eating tiger of the locality and prevented him from killing any more victims. As evidence of the truth of the story there were shown on the trunk the marks of the tiger's claws, where he had been jumping up the tree in the effort to pull the nail out of the trunk and get his man-eating powers restored.

Religion.

Although the Binjhwâr subcaste now profess Hinduism, the religion of the Baigas is purely animistic. Their principal deity is Bura Deo, [2] who is supposed to reside in a sâj tree (Terminalia tomentosa ); he is worshipped in the month of Jeth (May), when goats, fowls, coconuts, and the liquor of the new mahua crop are offered to him. Thâkur Deo is the god of the village land and boundaries, and is propitiated with a white goat. The Baigas who plough the fields have a ceremony called Bidri, which is performed before the breaking of the rains. A handful of each kind of grain sown is given by each cultivator to the priest, who mixes the grains together and sows a little beneath the tree where Thâkur Deo lives. After this he returns a little to each cultivator, and he sows it in the centre of the land on which crops are to be grown, while the priest keeps the reminder. This ceremony is believed to secure the success of the harvest. Dulha Deo is the god who averts disease and accident, and the offering made to him should consist of a fowl or goat of reddish colour. Bhímsen is the deity of rainfall, and Dharti Mâta or Mother Earth is considered to be the wife to Thâkur Deo and must also be propitiated for the success of the crops. The grain itself is worshipped at the threshing floor by sprinkling water and liquor on to it. Certain Hindu deities are also worshipped by the Baigas, but not in orthodox fashion. For example it would be sacrilege on the part of a Hindu to offer animal sacrifices to Nârâyan Deo, the sun-god, but the Baigas devote to him a special oblation of the most unclean animal, the pig. The animal to be sacrificed is allowed to wander loose for two or three years, and is then killed in a most cruel manner. It is laid across the threshold of a doorway on its back, and across its stomach is placed a stout plank of sâj -wood. Half a dozen men sit or stand on the ends of this, and the fore and hind feet of the pig are pulled backwards and forwards alternately over the plank until it is crushed to death, while all the men sing or shout a sacrificial hymn. The head and feet are cut off and offered to the deity, and the body is eaten. The forests are believed to be

[1] Forsyth's Highlands of Central India , p. 377.

[2]The Great God. The Gonds also worship Bura Deo, resident in a sâj tree.

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haunted by spirits, and in certain localities pâts or shrines are erected in their honour, and occasional offerings are made to them. The spirits of married persons are supposed to live in streams, while tress afford a shelter to the souls of the unmarried, who become bhîts or malignant spirits after death. Nâg Deo or the cobra is supposed to live in an ant-hill, and offerings are made to him there. Demon possession is an article of faith, and a popular remedy is to burn human hair mixed with chilies and pig's dung near the person possessed, as the horrible smell thus produced will drive away the spirit. Mr. Low writes of the many strange articles which the Baiga's travelling scrip contains. Among these a dried bat has the chief place; this the Baiga says he uses to charm his nets with, that the prey may catch in them as the bat's claws catch in whatever it touches. As an instance of the Baiga's pantheism it may be mentioned that on one occasion when a train of the new Satpîra railway [1] had pulled up at a wayside forest station, a Baiga was found offering a sacrifice to the engine. Like other superstitious people they are great believers in omens. A single crow bathing in a stream is a sign of death. A cock which crows in the night should be instantly killed and thrown into the darkness, a custom which some would be glad to see introduced into much more civilised centres. The woodpecker and owl are birds of bad omen. The Baigas do not appear to have any idea of a fresh birth, and one of their marriage songs says, “O girl, take your pleasure in going round the marriage-post once and for all, for there is no second birth.” The Baigas are generally the priests of the Gonds, probably because being earlier residents of the country they are considered to have a more intimate acquaintance with the local deities. They have a wide knowledge of the medicinal properties of jungle roots and herbs, and are often successful in effecting cures when the regular native doctors have failed. Their village priests have consequently a considerable reputation as skilled sorcerers and persons conversant with the unseen world. A case is known of a Bhâhman transferred to a jungle station, who immediately after his arrival called in a Baiga priest and asked what forest gods he should worship, and what other steps he should take to keep well and escape calamity. Colonel Ward states that in his time Baigas were commonly called in to give aid when a town or village was attacked by cholera, and further that he had seen the greatest benefit to result from their visit, for the people had such confidence in their powers and ceremonies that they lost half their fright at once, and were consequently not so much predisposed to an attack of the disease. On such an occasion the Baiga priest goes round the village and pulls out a little straw from each house-roof, afterwards burning the whole before he also offers a chicken for each homestead. If this remedy fails goats are substituted for chickens, and lastly, as a forlorn hope, pigs are tried, and, as a rule, do not fail, because by this time the disease may be expected to have worked itself out. It is suggested that the chicken represents a human victim from each house, while the straw stands for the house itself, and the offering had the common idea of a substituted victim.

Appearance and mode of life.

In stature the Baigas are a little taller than most other tribes, and though they have a tendency to the flat nose of the Gonds, their foreheads and the general shape of their heads are of a better mould. Colonel Ward states that the members of the tribe inhabiting the Maikal range in Mandla are a much finer race than those living nearer the open country. [2] "Their figures are very nearly perfect," says Colonel Bloomfield, [3] "and their wiry limbs, unburdened by superfluous flesh, will carry them over very great distances and over places inaccessible to most human beings, while their compact bodies need no other nourishment than the scanty fare afforded by their native forests. They are born hunters, hardy and active in the chase, and exceedingly bold and courageous. In character they are naturally simple, honest and truthful, and when their fear of a stranger has been dissipated are most companionable folk." A small hut, 6 or 7 feet high at the ridge, made of split bamboo and

[1] Opened in 1905.

[2] Mandla Settlement Report (1864-69), p. 153.

[3] Notes on the Baigas, p.4.

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mud, with a neat veranda in front thatched with leaves and grass, forms the Baiga's residence, and if it is burnt down or abandoned during a disease epidemic, he can build another in the space of a day. A rough earthen vessel to hold water, leaves for plates, gourds for drinking-vessels, a piece of matting to sleep on, and a small axe, a sickle and a spear, exhaust the inventory of the Baiga's furniture, and the money value of the whole would not exceed a rupee. [1] The Baigas never live in a village with other castes, but have their huts some distance away from the village in the jungle. Unlike the other tribes, the Baiga prefers his house to stand alone and at some little distance from those of his fellow-tribesmen. While nominally belonging to the village near which they dwell, so separate and distinct are they from the village people that in the famine of 1897 cases were found of starving Baiga hamlets only a few hundred yards away from the village proper, in which ample relief was to be found. When asked why the Baigas had not been helped, the other villagers said, ' We did not remember them'; and when the Baigas were asked why they did not apply for relief, they said, ' We did not think it was meant for Baigas.'

Dress.

Their dress is of the most simple description, a small strip of rag between the legs and another wisp for a headcovering sufficing for the men, though the women are decently covered from their shoulders to half-way between the thighs and knees. A Baiga may be known by his scanty clothing and tangled hair, and his wife by the way in which her single garment is arranged so as to provide a safe sitting-place in it for child. Baiga women have been seen at work in the field transplanting rice with babies comfortably seated in their cloth, one sometimes supported on either hip with their arms and legs out, while the mother was stooping low, hour after hour, handling the rice plants. A girl is tattooed on the forehead at the age of five, and over her whole body before she is married, both for the sake of ornament and because the practice is considered beneficial to the health. The Baigas are usually without blankets or warm clothing and in the cold season they sleep round a wood fire kept burning or smouldering all night, stray sparks from which may alight on their tough skins without being felt. Mr. Lampard relates that on one occasion a number of Baiga men were supplied by the Mission under his charge with large new cloths to cover their bodies and to make them presentable in church. On the second Sunday, however, they came with their cloths burnt full of small holes; and they explained that the damage had been done at night while they were sleeping round the fire.

A Baiga, Mr. Lampard continues, is speedily discerned in a forest village bazâr, and is the most interesting object in it. His almost nude figure and wild, tangled hair mark him out at once. He generally brings a few mats or baskets which he has made, or fruits, roots, honey, horns of animals, or other jungle products which he has collected for sale, and with the sum obtained (a few pice or annas at the most) he proceeds to make his weekly purchases, changing his pice into cowrie shells, of which he receives eighty for each one. He buys tobacco, salt, chillies and other sundries, besides as much of kodon, kutki, or perhaps rice, as he can afford, always leaving a trifle to be expended at the liquor shop before departing for home. The various purchases are tied up in the corners of the bit of rag twisted round his head. Unlike pieces of cloth known to civilisation, which usually have four corners, the Baiga's headgear appears to be nothing but corners, and when the shopping is done the strip of rag may have a dozen bundles tied up in it.

In Baihar or Bâlâghât buying and selling are conducted on perhaps the most minute scale known, and if a Baiga has one or two pice [2] to lay out he will spend no inconsiderable time over it. Grain is sold in small measures holding about four ounces called baraiyas, but each of these has a layer of mud at the bottom of varying degrees of thickness, so as to reduce its capacity. Before a purchase can be made it must be settled by whose baraiya the grain is to

[1] Mr. Lampard's monograph.

[2] Farthings

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be measured, and the seller and purchaser each refuse the other's as being unfair to himself, until at length after discussion some neutral person's baraiya is selected as a compromise. Their food consists largely of forest produce and roots with a scanty allowance of rice or light millet, and they can go without nourishment for periods which appear extraordinary to civilised man. They eat the flesh of almost all animals, though the more civilised abjure beef and monkeys. They will take food from a Gond but not from a Brâhman. The Baiga dearly loves the common country liquor made from the mahua flower, and this is consumed as much as funds will permit at weddings, funerals and other social gatherings, and also if obtainable at other times. They have a tribal panchâyat or committee which imposes penalties for social offences, one punishment being the abstention from meat for a fixed period. A girl engaging in indiscretions with a man of the caste is punished by a fine, but cases of unchastity among unmarried Baiga girls are rare. Dancing is one of their chief pastimes, and in their favourite dance, known as karma, the men and women form long lines opposite, to each other with the musicians between them. One of the instruments, a drum called mândar, gives out a deep bass note which can be heard for miles. The two lines advance and retire, everybody singing at he same time, and when the dancers get fully into the rythym, the pace increases, the drums beat furiously, the voices of the singers rise higher and higher, and by the light of the bonfires which are kept burning, the whole scene is wild in the extreme.

Occupation.

The Baigas formerly practised only shifting cultivation, burning down patches of jungle and sowing seeds on the ground fertilised by the ashes after the breaking of the rains. Now that this method has been prohibited in Government forest, attempts have been made to train them in regular cultivation, but with indifferent success in Bâlâghât. An idea of the difficulties may be obtained from the fact that in some villages the Baiga cultivators, if left unwatched, would dig up the grain which they had themselves sown as seed in their fields and eat it; while the plough-cattle which were given to them invariably developed diseases in spite of all precautions, as a result of which they found their way sooner or later to the Baiga's cooking-pot. But they are gradually adopting settled habits, and in Mandla, where a considerable block of forest was allotted to them in which they might continues their destructive practice of shifting sowings, it is reported that the majority have now become regular cultivators. One explanation of their refusal to till the ground is that they consider it a sin to lacerate the breast of their mother earth with a ploughshare. They also say that God made the jungle to produce everything necessary for the sustenance of men and made the Baigas kings of the forest, giving them wisdom to discover the things provided for them. To Gonds and others who had not this knowledge, the inferior occupation of tilling the land was left. The men never become serfs, but during the cultivating season they work for hire at uprooting the rice seedlings for transplantation; they do no other agricultural labour for others. Women do the actual transplantation of rice and work as harvesters. The men make bamboo mats and baskets, which they sell in the village weekly markets. They also collect and sell honey and other forest products with an axe, making excellent woodcutters. But they show no aptitude in acquiring the use of any other implement, and dislike steady continuous labour, preferring to do a few day's work and then rest in their homes for a like period before beginning again. Their skill and dexterity in hunting with and axe is extraordinary. Small deer, hares, and peacocks are often knocked over by throwing it at them, and panthers and other large animals are occasionally killed with a single blow. If one of two Baigas is carried off by a tiger, the survivor will almost always make a determined and often successful attempt to rescue him, with nothing more formidable than an axe or a stick. They are expert trackers, and are also clever at setting traps and snares, while, like Korkus, they catch fish by damming streams in the hot weather and throwing into the pool thus formed some leaf or root which stupefies them. Even in a famine year, Mr. Low says, a Baiga can collect a large basketful of roots in a single day; and if the bamboo seeds he is amply provided for. Nowadays Baiga cultivators may occasionally be met with who have taken to regular cultivation and become quite prosperous, owning a number of cattle.

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Languages.

As already stated, the Baigas have completely forgotten their own language, and in the Satpîra hills they speak a broken form of Hindi, though they have a certain number of words and expressions peculiar to the caste.

Bairagi: - The Bairâgis [1] are class of religious mendicants, who roam about all over India, and are for the most part recruited from North Indian castes. They are followers of Râmânand, who founded the order at the end of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century. According to common tradition, the schism of Râmânand originated in resentment of an affront offered him by his fellow disciples, and sanctioned by his teacher. It is said that he had spent some time in travelling through various parts of India, after which he returned to the math, or residence of his superior. His brethren objected to him that in the course of his peregrinations it was impossible he could have observed that privacy in his meals which is a vital observance of the Râmânuja sect; and, as Râghavânand admitted the validity of the objection, Râmânand was condemned to feed in a place apart from the rest of the disciples. He was highly incensed at the order, and retired from the society altogether, establishing a schism of his own [2]

The name Bairâgi is derived from the Sanskrit vairâgya (vi+râg), denoting "without desire or passion," and indicates an ascetic who has subdued his passions and liberated himself from worldly desires. The Bairâgis are sometimes called Bâvâji or Sâdhu. The Bairâgis are Vaishnavites, and bear the Tengalai Vaishnava mark (nâmam), made with sandal-paste or gópi, on the forehead. Bairâgis with a Vadagalai mark are very rare. The Bairâgis wear necklaces of tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) beads or lotus (Nelumbium speciosum ) seeds. Every Bairâgi cooks his food within a space cleansed with cow-dung water by himself or his disciple, and will not leave the space until he has finished his meal. The Bairâgis are not particular about screening the space from the public gaze. They partake of one meal daily, in the afternoon, and are abstainers from flesh. They live mainly on alms obtained in the bazars, or in choultries (rest-houses for travellers). They generally carry with them one or two brass vessels for cooking purposes, a sâlagrâma stone and a conch-shell for worship, and a chillum (pipe) for smoking ganja (Indian hemp) or opium. They are, as a rule, naked except for a small piece of cloth tied round the waist and passed between the thighs. Some wear more elaborate body-clothing, and a turban. They generally allow the beard to grow, and the hair of the head is long and matted, with sometimes a long tail of yak or human hair tied in a knot on the top of the head. Those who go about nearly naked smear ashes all over their bodies. When engaged in begging, some go through the streets, uttering aloud the name of some God. Others go from house to house, or remain at a particular spot, where people are expected to give them alms.

Some Bairâgis are celibates, and others married. They are supposed to be celibates, but, as Dr. T. N. Bhattacharjee observes, [3] "the monks of this order have generally a large number of nuns attached to their convents, with whom they openly live as man and wife." The Bairâgis are very particular about the worship of the sâlagrâma stone, and will not partake of food without worshipping it. When so doing, they cover their head with a piece of cloth (Râm nâm ka safa), on which the name Râma is printed in Dévanâgiri characters. Their face and shoulders are stamped, by means of brass stamps, with the word Râma in similar characters. For the purpose of meditation, the Bairâgi squats on the ground, sometimes with a deer or tiger skin beneath him, and rests his hands on the cross-piece of his yógadandam, or bent stick. A pair of tongs is stuck in the ground on his right side, and sometimes fire is kept near

[1] See Thurston.

[2] H. H. Wilson, Essays and Lectures, chiefly on the Religion of the Hindus, 1862

[3] Hindu Castes and Sects.

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it. It is noted by Mr. J. C. Oman [1] that "a most elaborate ritual has been laid down for the guidance of Bairâgis in the daily routine of the indispensable business and duties of life, prescribing in minute detail how, for example, the ascetic should wash, bathe, sit down, perform pranayam (stoppage or regulation of respiration), purify his body, purge his mind, meditate on Vishnu, repeat the Gâyatri (hymn) as composed for the special use of members of the sect, worship Râma, Sita, Lakshman, Bharata, and Satringah, together with Râma's bows and arrows, and, lastly, the monkey god Hanumân." The Bairâgis have a guru or priest, whom they call Mahant. Some visit the celebrated temple near Tirupati and pay their respects to the Mahant thereof.

Bairâgi.: -Sâdhu. [2] -The general term for members of the Vishnuite religious orders, who formerly as a rule lived by mendicancy. The Bairâgis have now, however, become a caste. In 1911 they numbered 38, 000 persons in the Provinces, being distributed over all Districts and States. The name Bairâgi is supposed to come from the Sanskrit Vairâgya and to signify one who is free from human passions. Bairâga is also the term for the crutched stick which such mendicants frequently carry about and lean upon, either sitting or standing, and 3 which in case of need would serve them as a weapon. Platts considers [3] that the name of the order comes from the Sanskrit abstract term, and the crutch therefore apparently obtained its name from being used by members of the order. Properly, a religious mendicant of any Vishnuite sect should be called a Bairâgi. But the term is not generally applied to the more distinctive sects as the Kabírpanthi, Swâmi-Nârâyan, Satnâmi and others, some of which have almost separated from Hinduism, nor to the Sikh religious orders, nor to the Chaitanya sect of Bengal. A proper Bairâgi is one whose principal deity is either Vishnu or either of his great incarnations, Râma and Krishna.

The four Sampradâyas or main orders.

It is generally held that there are four Sampradâyas or main sects of Bairâgis. These are-

(a) The Râmânujis, the followers of the first prominent Vishnuite reformer Râmânuj in southern India, with whom are classed the Râmânandis, or adherents of his great disciple Râmânand in northern India. Both these are also called Sri Vaishnava, that is, the principal or original Vaishnava sect.

(b) The Nímânandi, Nímât or Nímbaditya sect, followers of a saint called Nímânand.

(c) The Vishnu-Swâmi or Vallabhachârya sect, worshippers of Krishna and Râdha.

(d) The Mâdhavachârya sect of southern India.

It will be desirable to give a few particulars of each of these, mainly taken from Wilson's Hindu Sects and Dr. Bhattachârya's Hindu Castes and Sects.

The Râmânujis.

Râmânuj was the first great Vishnuite prophet, and lived on a island in the Kâveri river near Trichinopoly. He preached the worship of a supreme spirit, Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi, and taught that men also had souls or spirits, and that matter was lifeless. He was a strong opponent of the cult of Siva, then predominant in southern India, and of phallic worship. He, however, admitted only the higher castes into his order, and cannot therefore be considered as the founder of the Râmânuja sect are called Achârya, and rank highest among the priests of the Vishnuite orders. The most striking feature in the practice of the Râmânujis is the separate preparation and scrupulous privacy of their meals. They must not eat in cotton garments, but must bathe, and then put on wool or silk. The teachers allow their select

[1] The Mystics, Asceties, and Saints of India, 1903

[2] RUS Page No 92-105. This article contains material from Sir E, Maclagan's Punjab Census Report (1891), and Dr. J. N.. Bhattachârya's Hindu Caster, and Sects (Thacker, Spink & Co., Calentta)

[3] Dictionary , s.v.

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pupils to assist them, but in general all the Râmânujis cook for themselves, and should the meal, during its preparation or consumption, attract even the look of a stranger, the operation is instantly stopped and the viands buried in the ground. The Râmânujis address each other with the salutation Dasoham, or 'I am your slave,' accompanied with the Pranâm or slight inclination of the head and the application of joined hands to the forehead. To the Achâryas or superiors the other members of the sect perform the Ashtanga or prostration of the body with eight parts touching the ground. The tilak or sect-mark of the Râmânujis consists of two perpendicular white lines from the roots of the hair to the top to the eyebrows, with a connecting white line at the base, and a third central line either of red or yellow. The Râmânujis do not recognise the worship of Râdha, the consort of Krishna. The mendicant orders of the Sâtanis and Dasaris of southern India are branches of this sect.

The Râmânandis.

Râmânand, the great prophet of Vishnuism in northern India, and the real founder of the liberal doctrines of the cult, lived at Benâres at the end of the fourteenth century, and is supposed to have been a follower of Râmânuj. He introduced a great extension of his predecessor's gospel in making his sect, nominally open to all castes. He thus initiated the struggle against the social tyranny and exclusiveness of the caste system, which was carried to greater lengths by his disciples and successors, Kabír, Nânak, Dâdu, Rai Dâs and others. These afterwards proclaimed the worship of one unseen god who could not be represented by idols, and the religious equality of all men, their tenets no doubt being considerably influenced by their observance of Islâm, which had now become a principal religion of India. Râmânand himself did not go so far, and remained a good Hindu, inculcating the special worship of Râma and his consort Síta. The Râmânandis consider the Râmâyana as their most 1 sacred book, and make pilgrimages to Ajodhia and Râmnath. Their sect-mark consists of two white lines down the forehead with a red one between, but they are continued on to the nose ending in a loop, instead of terminating at the line of the eyebrows, like that of the Râmânujis. The Râmânandis say that the mark on the nose represents the Singâsun or lion's throne, while the two white lines up the forehead are Râma and Lakhshman, and the centre red one is Síta. Some of their devotees wear ochre-coloured clothes like the Sivite mendicants.

The Nímânandis.

The second of the four orders is that of the Nímânandis, called after a saint Nímânand. He lives near Mathura Brindâban, and on one occasion was engaged in religious controversy with a Jain ascetic till sunset. He then offered his visitor some refreshment, but the Jain could not eat anything after sunset, so Nímânand stopped the sun from setting, and ordered him to wait above a ním tree till the meal was cooked and eaten under the tree, and this direction the sun duly obeyed. Hence Nímânand, whose original name was Bhâskarachârya, was called by his new name after the tree, and was afterwards held to have been an incarnation of Vishnu or the Sun.

The doctrines of the sect, Mr. Growse states, [2] are of a very enlightened character. Thus their tenet of salvation by faith is thought by many scholars to have been directly derived from the gospels; while another article in their creed is the continuance of conscious individual existence in a future world, when the highest reward of the good will not be extinction, but the enjoyment of the visible presence of the divinity whom they have served on earth. The Nímânandis worship Krishna, and were the first sect, Dr. Bhattachârya states, [3] to associate Râdha with him as his divine consort, the chief partner of his illicit lives.

[1] Sir E. Maclagan's Punjab Census Report (1891), p. 122.

[2] Memoir of Mathura.

[3] Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 449.

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Their headquarters are at Muttra, and their chief festival is the Janam-Ashtami [1] ,or Krishna's birthday. Their sect-mark consists of two lines down the forehead with a black patch in the centre, which is called Shiâmbindini. Shiâm means black, and is a name of Krishna. They also sometimes have a circular line across the nose, which represents the moon.

The Mâdhavachâryas.

The third great order is that of the Mâdhavas, named after a saint called Mâdhavachârya India. He attempted to reconcile the warring Sivites and Vishnuites by combining the worship of Krishna with that of Siva and Pârvati. The doctrine of the sect is that the human soul is different from the divine soul, and its members are therefore called dualists. They admit a distinction between the divine soul and the universe, and between the human soul and the material world. They deny the possibility of Nirvâna or the absorption and extinction of the human soul in the divine essence. They destroy their thread at initiation, and also wear red clothes like the Sivite devotees, and like them also they carry a staff and water-pot. The Tilak of the Mâdhavachâryas is said to consist of two white lines down the forehead and continued on to the nose where they meet, with a black vertical line between them.

The Vallabhachâryas.

The fourth main order is the Vishnu-Swâmi, which is much better known as the Vallabhachârya sect, called after its founder Vallabha, who was born in A.D. 1479. The god Krishna appeared to him and ordered him to marry and set up a shrine to the god at Gokul near Mathura (Muttra). The sect worships Krishna in his character of Bâla Gopâla, or the cowherd boy. Their temples are numerous all over India, and especially at Mathura and Brindâban, where Krishna was brought up as a cowherd. The temples at Benâres, Jagannâth and Dwârka are rich and important, but the most celebrated shrine is at Sri Nâthadwâra in Mewâr. The image is said to have transported itself thither from Mathura, when Aurângzeb ordered its temple at Mathura to be destroyed. Krishna is here represented as a little boy in the act of supporting the mountain Govardhan on his finger to shelter the people from the storms of rain sent by Indra. The image is splendidly dressed and richly decorated with ornaments to the value of several thousand pounds. The images of Krishna in the temples are commonly known as Thâkurji, and are of either stone or brass. At all Vallabhachârya temples there are eight daily services: the Mangala or Morning live`e, a little after sunrise, when the god is taken from in his jewels and seated on his throne; the Gwâla, when he is supposed to be starting to graze his cattle in the woods of Braj; the Râj Bhog or midday meal, which, after presentation, is consumed by the priests and votaries who have assisted at the ceremonies; the Uttâpan, about three o'clock, when the god awakes from his siesta; the Bhog or evening collation; the Sandhiya or disrobing at sunset; and the Sayan, or retiring to rest. The ritual is performed by the priests and the lay worshipper is only a spectator, who shows his reverence by the same forms as he would to a human superior.[2]

The priests of the sect are called Gokalastha Gosain or Mahârâja. They are considered to be incarnations of the god, and divine honours are paid to them. They always marry, and avow that union with the god is best obtained by indulgence in all bodily enjoyments. This doctrine has led to great licentiousness in some groups of the sect, especially on the part of the priests or Mahârâjas. Women were taught to believe that the service of and contact with the priest were the most real form of worshipping the god, and that intercourse with him was 3 equivalent to being united with the god. Dr. Bhattachârya quotes [3] the following tariff for the privilege of obtaining different degrees of contact with the body of the Mahârâja or priest:

[1] Lit. the birth on the eighth day, as Krishna was born on the 8th of dark Bhâdon.

[2] Mr. Crooke's Tribes and Castes , art. Vallabhachârya.

[3] Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 457.

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For homage by sight Rs. 5.

For homage by touch Rs. 20.

For the honour of washing the Mahârâja's foot Rs. 35.

For swinging him Rs. 40.

For rubbing sweet unguents on his body Rs. 42.

For being allowed to sit with him on the same couch Rs. 60.

For the privilege of dancing with him Rs. 100 to 200.

For drinking the water in which he has bathed Rs. 17.

For being closeted with him in the same room Rs. 50 to 500.

The public disapprobation caused by these practices and their bad effect on the morality of women culminated in the great Mahârâj libel suit in the Bombay High Court is 1862. Since then the objectionable features of the cult have to a large extent disappeared, while it has produced some priests of exceptional liberality and enlightenment. The tilak of the Vallabhachâryas is said to consist of two white lines down the forehead, forming a half-circle at its base and a white dot between them. They will not admit the lower castes into the order, but only those from whom a Brâhman can take water.

Minor sects.

Besides the main sects as described above, Vaishnavism has produced many minor sects, consisting of the followers of some saint of special fame, and mendicants belonging to these are included in the body of Bairâgis. One or two legends concerning such saints may be given. A common order is that of the Bendiwâle, or "those who wear a dot." Their founder began putting a red dot on his forehead between the two white lines in place of the long red line of the Râmânandis. His associates asked him why he had dared to alter his tilak or sect-mark. He said that the goddess Jânki had given him the dot, and as a test he went and bathed in the Sarju river, rubbed his forehead with water, and all the sect-mark was rubbed out except the dot. So the others recognised the special intervention of the goddess, and he founded a sect. Another sect is called the Chaturbhuj or "four-armed", Chaturbhuj being an epithet of Vishnu. He was taking part in a feast when his loincloth came undone behind, and the others said to him that as this had happened, he had become impure at the feast. He replied, 'Let him to whom the dhoti belongs tie it up,' and immediately four arms sprang from his body, and while two continued to take food, the other two tied up his loin-cloth behind. Thus it was recognised that the Chaturbhuji Vishnu had appeared in him, and he was venerated.

The seven Akhâras.

Among the Bairâgis, besides the four Sampradâyas, or main orders, there are seven Akhâras. These are military divisions or schools for training, and were instituted when the Bairâgis had to fight with the Gosains. Any member of one of the four Sampradâyas can belong to any one of the seven Akhâras, and a man can change his Akhâra as often as he likes, but not his Sampradâya. The Akhâras, with the exception of the Lasgaris, who change the red centre line of the Râmânandis into a white line, have no special sect-marks. They are distinguished by their flags or standards, which are elaborately decorated with gold thread embroidered on silk, or sometimes embellished with jewels, and cost two or three hundred rupees to prepare. These standards were carried by the Nâga or naked members of the Akhâra, who went in front and fought. Once in twelve years a great meeting of all the seven Akhâras is held at Allahâbâd, Nâsik, Ujjain or Hardwâr, where they bathe and wash the image of the god in the water of the holy rivers. The quarrels between the Bairâgis and Gosains usually occurred at the sacred rivers, and the point of contention was which sect should bathe first. The following is a list of the seven Akhâras : Digambari, Khâki, Munjia, Kathia, Nirmohi, Nirbâni or Niranjani and Lasgari.

The name of the Digamber or Meghdamber signifies sky-clad or cloud-clad, meaning naked. They do penance in the rainy season by sitting naked in the rain for two or three hours a day

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with an earthen pot on the head and the hands inserted in two others so that they cannot rub the skin. In the dry season they wear only a little cloth round the waist and ashes over the rest of the body. The ashes are produced from burnt cowdung picked up off the ground, and not mixed with straw like that which is prepared for fuel.

The Khâki Bairâgis also rub ashes on the body. During the four hot months they make five fires in a circle, and kneel between them with the head and legs and arms stretched towards the fires. The fires are kindled at noon with little heaps of cowdung cakes, and the penitent stays between them till they go out. They also have a block of wood with a hole through it, into which they insert the reproductive organ and suspend it by chains in front and behind. They rub ashes on the body, from which they probably get their name of Khâki, or dust-coloured.

The Munjia Akhâra have a belt made of munj grass round the waist, and a little apron also of grass, which is hung from it, and passed through the legs. Formerly they wore no other clothes, but now they have a cloth. They also do penance between the fires.

The Kathias have a waist-belt of bamboo fibre, to which is suspended the wooden block for the purpose already described. Their name signifies wooden, and is probably given to them on account of this custom. The Nirmohi carry a lota or brass vessel and a little cup, in which they receive alms. The Nirbâni wear only a piece of string or rope round the waist, to which is attached a small strip of cloth passing through the legs. When begging, they carry a kawar or banghy, holding two baskets covered with cloth, and into this they put all their alms. They never remove the cloth, but plunge their hands into the basket at random when they want something to eat. They call the basket Kâmdhenu, the name of the cow which gave inexhaustible wealth. These Bairâgis marry and accumulate property.

The Lasgari are soldiers, as the name denotes. [1] They wear three straight lines of sandalwood up the forehead. It is said that on one occasion the Bairâgis were suddenly attacked by the Gosains when they had only made the white lines of the sect-mark, and they fought as they were. In consequence of this, they have ever since worn three white lines and no red one.

The Dwâras.

Others say that the Lasgari are a branch of the Digambari Akhâra, and that the Munjia three other Kathia are branches of the Khâki Akhâra. They give three other Akhâras-Níralankhi, Mahânirbâni and Santokhi-about which nothing is known. Besides the Akhâras, the Bairâgis are said to have fifty-two Dwâras, and every man most be a member of a Dwâra as well as of a Sampradâya and Akhâra. The Dwâras seem to have no special purpose, but in the case of Bairâgis who marry, they now serve as exogamous sections, so that members of the same Dwâra do not intermarry.

Initiation, appearance and customs.

A candidate for initiation has his head shaved, is invested with a necklace of beads of the tulsi or basil, and is taught a mantra or text relating to Vishnu by his preceptor. The initiation text of the Râmânandis is said to be Om Râmâya Nâmah, or Om , Salutation to Râma. Om is a very sacred syllable, having much magical power. Thereafter the novice must journey to Dwârka in Gujarât and have his body branded with hot iron or copper in the shape of Vishnu's four implements: the chakra or discus, the guda or club, the shank or conch-shell and the padma or lotus. Sometimes these are not branded but are made daily on the arms with clay. The sect-mark should be made with Gopichandan or the milkmaid's sandalwood. This is supposed to be clay taken from a tank at Dwârka, in which the Gopis or milkmaids who had been Krishna's companions drowned themselves when they heard of his death. But as this can seldom be obtained, suitable whitish clay is used instead. The Bairâgis commonly

[1] From laskkar, an army.

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let their hair grow long, after being shaved at initiation by the old forest ascetics. If a man makes a pilgrimage on foot to some famous shrine he may have his head shaved there and make an offering of his hair. Others keep their hair long and shave it only at the death of their guru or preceptor. They usually wear white clothes, and if a man has a cloth on the upper part of the body it should be folded over the shoulders and knotted at the neck. He also has a chimta or small pair of tongs, and, if he can obtain it, the skin of an Indian antelope, on which he will sit while taking his food. The skin of this animal is held to be sacred. Every Bairâgi before he takes his food should dip a spring of tulsi or basil into it to sanctify it, and if he cannot get this he uses his necklace of tulsi -beads for the purpose instead. The caste abstains from flesh and liquor, but are addicted to the intoxicating drugs, gânja and bhâng , or preparations of Indian hemp. A Hindu on meeting a Bairâgi will greet him with the phrase 'Jai Sítârâm,' and the Bairâgi will answer, 'Sítârâm.' This word is a conjunction of the names of Râma and his consort Síta. When a Bairâgi receives alms he will present to the giver a flower and a spring of tulsi.

Recruitment of the order and its character.

A man belonging to any caste except the impure ones can be initiated as a Bairâgi, and the order is to a large extent recruited from the lower castes. Theoretically all members of the order should eat together; but the Brâhmans and other high castes belonging to it now eat only among themselves, except on the occasion of a Ghosti or special religious assembly, when all eat in common. As a matter of fact the order is a very mixed assortment of people. Many persons who lost their caste in the famine or 1897 from eating in Government poor-houses, joined the order and obtained a respectable position. Debtors who have become hopelessly involved sometimes find in it a means of escape from their creditors. Women of bad character, who have been expelled from their caste, are also frequently enrolled as female members, and in monasteries live openly with the men. The caste is also responsible for a good deal of crime. Not only is the disguise a very convenient one for thieves and robbers to assume on their travels, but many regular members of the order are criminally disposed. Nevertheless large numbers of Bairâgis are men who have given up their caste and families from a genuine impulse of self-sacrifice, and the desire to lead a religious life.

Social position and customs.

On account of their sanctity the Bairâgis have a fairly good social position,. and respectable Hindu castes will accept cooked food from them. Brâhmans usually, but not always, take water. They act as gurus or spiritual guides to the laymen of all castes who can become Bairâgis. They give the Râm and Gopâl Mantras, or the texts of Râma and Krishna, to their disciples of the three twice-born castes, and the Sheo Mantra or Siva's text to other castes. The last is considered to be of smaller religious efficacy than the others, and is given to the lower castes and members of the higher ones who do not lead a particularly virtuous life. They invest boys with the sacred thread, and make the sect-mark on their foreheads. When they go and visit their disciples they receive presents, but do not ask them to confess their sins nor impose penalties. If a mendicant Bairâgi keeps a woman without marrying her it is stated that he is expelled from the community, but this rule does not seem to be enforced in practice. If he is detected in a casual act of sexual intercourse a fine should be imposed, such as feeding two or three hundred Bairâgis. The property of an unmarried Bairâgi descends to a selected chela or disciple. The bodies of the dead are usually burnt, but those of saints specially famous for their austerities or piety are buried, and salt is put round the body to preserve it. Such men are known as Bhakta.

Bairâgi monasteries.

The Bairâgis [1] have numerous maths or monasteries, scattered over the country and usually attached to temples. The Math is comprised of a set of huts or chambers for the Mahant (the

[1] This paragraph is taken from Professor Wilson's Account of Hindu Sects in the Asiatic Researches.

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superior), and his permanent pupils, a temple and often the Samâdhi or tomb of the founder, or of some eminent Mahant, and a Dharmsâla or charitable hostel for the accommodation of wandering members of the order, and of other travellers who are constantly visiting the temple. Ingress and egress are free to all, and, indeed, a restraint on personal liberty seems never to have entered into the conception of any Hindu religious legislator. There are, as a rule, a small number of resident chelas or disciples who are scholars and attendants on the superiors, and also out-members who travel over the country and use the monastery as headquarters. The monastery has commonly some small land endowment, and the resident chelas go out and beg for alms for their common support. If the Mahant is married the headship may descend in his family; but when he is unmarried his successor is one of his disciples, who is commonly chosen by election at a meeting of the Mahants of neighbouring monasteries. Formerly the Hindu governor of the district would preside at such an election, but it is now, of course, left entirely to the Bairâgis themselves.

Married Bairâgis.

Large numbers of Bairâgis now marry and have children, and have formed an ordinary caste. The married Bairâgis are held to be inferior to the celibate mendicants, and will take food from them, but the mendicants will not permit the married Bairâgis to eat with them in the chauka or place purified for the taking of food. The customs of the married Bairâgis resemble those of ordinary Hindu castes such as the Kurmis. They permit divorce and the remarriage of widows, and burn the dead. Those who have taken to cultivation do not, as a rule. plough with their own hands. Many Bairâgis have acquired property and become landholders, and others have extensive money lending transactions. Two such men who had acquired possession of extensive tracts of zamíndâri land in Chhattísgarh, in satisfaction of loans made to the Gond zamíndârs, and had been given the zamíndâri status by the Marâthas, were subsequently made Feudatory Chiefs of the Nândgaon and Chhuikhadan States. As a rule, the Bairâgi landowners and moneylenders are not found to be particularly good specimens of their class.

Bajania: -They are nomads, and perform mainly as musicians at wedding celebrations.

Bajgi: -They live in North India. They work as musicians. They are probably a sub­division of the Doms.

Bakarwal: -They are shepherds living in Jammu Kashmir and are of Gujar stock.

Bâlasantósha: -The Bâlasantósha or Bâlasanta Vândlu [1] (those who please children) are described in the Kurnool Manual as "ballad reciters, whose chief stories are the Bobbili katha, or the story of the siege of the fort of Bobbili in Vizagapatam by Bussy; the Kurnool Nabob's katha or the story of the resumption of Kurnool by the English; and the tale of the quarrels between Ganga and Parvati, the two wives of Siva."

[1] See Thurston.

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Balija: - The Balijas are described by Mr. Francis [1] as being "The chief Telugu trading caste, scattered throughout all parts of the Presidency. It is said they have two main sub­divisions, Désa (or Kóta, a fort) and Péta (street). The first of these includes those, whose ancestors are supposed to have been the Balija (Nâyak) kings of Madura, Tanjore and Vijayanagar, or provincial governors in those kingdoms; and to the second belong those like the Gâzulu (bangle sellers) and Perike (salt sellers), who live by trade. In the Tamil districts Balijas are known as Vadugans (Telugu people) and Kavarais. The descendants of the Nâyak or Balija Kings of Madura and Tanjore claim to be Kshatriyas and of the Kâsyapa (a rishi) gótra, while the Vijayanagar Râis say they are lineal descendants of the sage Bhâradwâja. Others trace their ancestry to the Kauravas of the Mahâbhârata. This Kshatriya descent is, however, not admitted by other castes, who say that Balijas are an offshoot of the Kammas or Kâpus, or that they are a mixed community recruited from these and other Telugu castes. None of the members of the caste now wear the sacred thread, or follow the Védic ritual. The name Kartâkkal (governors) was returned by those who claim to be descendants of the Nâyak Kings of Madura and Tanjore."

In a letter submitted from Coimbatore to Mr. Francis in connection with the census of 1901, it was stated that "the Balija people are Kshatriyas of the Lunar Race, as can be proved by a reference to the Bahgavatham, Vishnupurânam, and Brahmandapurâman, etc. In this connection, it will be interesting to note that one Sevappa Naidu married Murthiammal, sister-in-law to Achuta Déva Royulu of Narapathi Samasthanam of Vijayanagar, and as a marriage portion or dowry received the territory of Tanjore, over which he ruled as king for a long period. It was at this time that the celebrated Tirumalay Naidu of Madura took as wife one of the daughters of Sevappa Naidu's family. Tirumalay's grandson, one Chockalinga Naidu, married Mangammal, daughter of Vijiaragavulu Naidu, a grandson of the said Tanjore Sevappa Naidu. It will thus be seen that the Naidu rulers of Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Madura, were all relations of Narapathi Samasthanaam of Vijianagar. That these Narapathies of Vijianagaram were Kshatriyas of the Lunar Race can be clearly seen by a reference to Manucharithra, Pârijâthâpaharanam, Prouda Prabanda Kavi Charitra, etc., and that they were direct descendants of the great Andra Kings can be proved with equal satisfaction by referring to Colonel Mackenzie's MSS., in the introduction of A. D. Campbell's Telugu Grammar, and James Prinsep's "Useful Tables of Andra Kings" will show that the Andras were immediate descendants of the well-known Yayathi Râja of the Lunar Race." "The Balijas," Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, [2] "are the trading caste of the Telugu country, but they are now found in every part of the Presidency. Concerning the origin of this caste several traditions exist, but the most probable is that which represents them as a recent offshoot of the Kâpu or Reddi caste. The caste is rather a mixed one, for they will admit, without much scruple, persons who have been expelled from their proper caste, or who are the result of irregular unions. The bulk of the Balijas are now engaged in cultivation, and this accounts for so many having returned Kâpu as their main caste, for Kâpu is also a common Telugu word used for a ryot (farmer). It is not improbable that there was once a closer connection than now between the Kâpus and the Balijas, and the claim of the Balijas to belong to the Kâpu caste may have a foundation in fact. In their customs there is very little difference between the Kâpus and Balijas. Their girls are married both before and after puberty. The re­marriage of widows is forbidden. They eat flesh, and alcohol is said to be freely indulged in [There is a proverb 'If a man be born a Balija, he must crack the arrack bottle']. Like the Bógams and Sânis, the Balija females usually wear a petticoat instead of the long robe of ordinary Hindus. The general name of the caste is Naidu." "The Balija Naidu," it has been said, [3] "is to be met with in almost every walk of life: railway station-masters, head coolies, bakers, butlers, municipal inspectors, tappal (post) runners, hawkers, and hotel-keepers. The

[1] See Thurston. Madra Census Report, 1901.

[2] Madras Census Report, 1891.

[3] A Native ; Pen and Ink Sketches of South India.

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title Chetti is by some used in preference to Naidu." It is noted in the Bellary Manual that the Balijas "have by common consent obtained a high place in the social system of South India. Some are land-owners, residing on and working their own property with the help of members of inferior castes; but the majority live by trade." At Tirupati, a number of Balija families are engaged in the red sandres wood (pterocarpus santalinus ), carving industry. Figures of swâmis (deities), mythological figures, elephants, and miniature temples with flying cherubs and winged horses are most abundantly carved; but domestic utensils in the shape of chembus, kinnis, plated cups, etc., are turned on the lathe. Large vessels are sometimes made of the wood of vépi or âchamaram (hardwickia binata ), which resembles red sanders wood, but is more liable to crack. The carved figures are sold to pilgrims and others who visit Tirupati, and are also taken to Conjeeveram, Madura, and other places, at times when important temple festivals are celebrated. Vessels made of red sanders wood carry no pollution, and can be used by women during the menstrual period, and taken back to the house without any purification ceremony. For the same reason, Sanyâsis (ascetics) use such vessels for doing pîja.

The name Balija is said to be derived from the Sanskrit bali (a sacrifice) and ja (born), signifying that the Balijas owe their origin to the performance of a yâgam. The current legend is that on one occasion Siva wanted his consort Parvati to appear before him in all her glory. But, when she stood before him fully decorated he laughed, and said that she was not as charming as she might be. On this, she prayed that Siva would help her to become so. From his braid of hair Siva created a being who descended on the earth, bearing a number of bangles and turmeric paste, with which Parvati adorned herself. Siva, being greatly pleased with her appearance, told her to look at herself in a looking-glass. The being, who brought the bangles, is believed to have been the ancestor of the Gâzula Balijas. According to another version of the legend, Parvati was not satisfied with her appearance when she saw herself in the looking-glass, and asked her father to tell her how she was to make herself more attractive. He accordingly prayed to Brahma, who ordered him to perform a severe penance (thapas). From the sacrificial fire, kindled in connection therewith, arose a being leading a donkey laden with heaps of bangles, turmeric, palm leaf rolls for the ears, black beads, sandal powder, a comb, perfumes, etc. From this Maha Purusha who thus sprang from a sacrifice (bali), the Balijas derived their origin and name. To him, in token of respect, were given flags, torches, and certain musical instruments.

The Désâyis, or leaders of the right-hand faction, are said to be Balijas by caste. In former days they had very great influences, and all castes belonging to the fight-hand faction would obey the Désâyi chetti. Even at the present day, the Oddés and others refer their disputes to the Désâyi, and not to their own caste headman. In former times there were three principal Désâyis, who had their headquarters at Conjeeveram, Cuddalore, and Walajapet. The head Désâyi possesses a biruthu (insignia of office) in the form of a large brass ladle with a bell attached to it. On the occasion of Balija marriages and funerals, this is sent through the Chalavathi (a pariah), who is the servant of the Désâyi, and has the right of allu eduththal (taking a handful) when he goes to the bazaar, where he receives meat from the butcher, vegetables, etc., as his perquisite. The Désâyi's ladle is kept in the custody of the Chalavathi (See Désâyi).

The Balijas, Mr. Stuart writes, [1] "employ Brâhmans and Sâtânis as their priests. The chief object of their worship is Gauri, their caste deity. It is said that the Mâlas are the hereditary custodians of the idol of Gauri and her jewels, which the Balijas get from them whenever they want to worship her. The following story is told to account for this. The Kâpus and Balijas, molested by the Muhammadan invaders on the north of the northern Pennâr, migrated to the south when the Pennâr was in full flood. being unable to cross the river, they invoked their deity to make a passage for them, for which it demanded to sacrifice of a first-born child.

[1] Madras Census Report, 1891

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While they stood at a loss what to do, the Mâlas who followed them boldly offered one of their children to the goddess. Immediately the river divided before them, and the Kâpus and Balijas deposited the images of Gauri the bull and Ganésa, which they worhipped, in the house of a Mâla. I am credibly informed that the practice of leaving these images in the custody of Mâlas is even now observed in some parts of the Cuddapah district and elsewhere." Of the numerous sub-divisions of the Balijas, the following may be noticed:

Gâzula, [glass bangles. Valaiyal or vala (bangle)] Chetti is the Tamil equivalent. By some, the sight of a Gâzula Balija with his pile of bangles on his back is considered a good omen. In recent years, a scare has arisen in connection with an insect, which is said to take up its abode in imported German glass bangles, which compete with the indigenous industry of the Gâzulas. The insect is believed to lie low in the bangle till it is purchased, when it comes out and nips the wearer, after warning her to get her affairs in order before succumbing. A specimen of a broken bangle, from which the insect is stated to have burst forth and stung a girl in the wrist, was sent to me. But the insect was not forthcoming.

Gandavallu, [or Gundapodi vândlu.] Go about the villages, hawking turmeric, kunkumam (colour powder), kamela (mallotus philippinensis ) dye powder, beads, combs, cosmetics, and other articles. Supposed to have been originally Kómatis.

Other Sub-divisions:

Kavarai, Tamil synonym for Balija.

Longa.

Panchama.

Telugu or Telaga. A synoym for Balija in the Northern Circars.

Râjamâhendram or Mîsu Kamma. The former denotes the town of Rajahmundry, and the latter a special ear ornament worn by women.

Tóta, garden.

Ralla, precious stones.

Pagadala, coral

Pîsa, beads.

Râcha, royal.

Vyâsa, a sage (rishi) or hunter, whom the hunting classes claim as their ancestor.

Other sub-divisions, classified as Balijas at the census of 1901 were: Jakkulas, among whom it was (at Tenali in the Kistna district) formerly customary for each family to give up one girl for prostitution. Under the influence of social reform, a written agreement was a few years ago entered into to give up the practice. Ádapâpa. Female attendants on the ladies of the families of Zamindars, who, as they are not allowed to marry, lead a life of prostitution. Their sons call themselves Balijas. In some places, e.g., the Kistna and Godâvari districts, this class in known as Khasa or Khasavandlu. Santa Kavarai, recorded as Balijas in the Chingleput district. Ravut, returned in the Salem district, said to have formerly been soldiers under the Poligars.

Like other telugu castes, the Balijas have exogamous septs (intipéru) and gótras. Of the former, the following are examples:

Tup¡akala, musket.

Samudram, ocean.

Pappu, split pulse.

Gantla, bell.

Puli, tiger.

Balli, lizard.

Ávula, cow.

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Gandham, sandal paste or powder.

Jilakard, cummin seeds.

Miriyâla, pepper.

Mutyâla, pearls.

Nârikélla, cocoanut.

Nemili, peacock.

Pagadâla, coral.

Pattindla, silk house.

Ratnâla, precious stones.

Ungarâla. rings.

Yenumala, buffalo.

There is a saying that a Balija who has no gótra must take the name of the Pasuleti, or Pasupuleti gótra. In like manner, a Brâhman orphan, whose gótra cannot be traced, is made to adopt the Vathsa gótra. Among the Mîsu Kammas, the consent of both the maternal uncle and elder sister's husband must be obtained before a girl is given in marriage. At the betrothal ceremony, the future bridegroom's relations proceed to the house of the girl, carrying the following articles on an odd number of trays beneath a cloth canopy (ulladam): mustard, fenugreek (Trigonella Foenumgroecum ) cummin seeds, curds, jaggery, dhâl (Caajanus indicus ), balls of condiments, tamarinds, pepper, twenty-one cakes, eleven coconuts, salt, plantains, flowers, a new cloth, black beads, a palm-leaf roll for the earlobe, turmeric, a comb, and kunkuman (Colour powder). A few rupees, called kongu mudi, to be given to the future mother-in-law, are also placed on the tray. The contracting parties exchange betel and a coconut, of which the latter is taken away by a member of the bridegroom's party, tied up in his body-cloth. The girl is seated on a plank, goes through the ceremony (nalagu) of being anointed with oil and paste, and is presented with a new cloth. Wearing this, she sits on the plank, and betel, flowers, jewels, etc., are placed in her lap. A near female relation then ties a string of black beads round her neck. Among the Mîsu Kammas, the milk-post, consisting of a green bamboo, with sometimes a branch of Odeon Wodier, must be set up two days before the commencement of the marriage ceremonies. It is worshipped, and to it are tied an iron ring, a string of cotton and wool twisted together (ulladam), and given to married couples closely related to the bridegroom, who fetch water, and place the pots on the dais. Some married women pour rice on a clean white cloth spread onto the floor, and rub off the bran with their hands while they sing songs. The cloth to be worn by the bridegroom is dipped in turmeric water by these women and dried. the Balijas are very particular about the worship of their female ancestors (pérantâlu) and no auspicious ceremony can be commenced until pérantâlu pîja has been performed. Among the M`îsu Kammas, five women who are closely related to the bridal couple take only one meal a day, and try to keep free from pollution of all sorts. They go through the nalagu ceremony, and are presented with new cloths. Among other sections, the wall is simply painted with turmeric dots to represent the ancestors. The ancestor worship concluded, the finger and toe-nails of the bridegroom are cut, and a Mîsu Kamma bridegroom is conducted to a temple of Vignéswara (Ganésa, if there is one near at hand. By other sections it is considered sufficient, if Vignéswara worship is performed at the marriage place. The Mîsu Kamma bridegroom is dressed up at the temple, and a bashingam (chaplet) tied on his waist-cloth. It is said that in olden times the Balijas used to worship the dagger, and sacrifice sheep or goats at marriages. The bridegroom is next brought to the house where the wedding is being celebrated, and his brother-in-law washes his feet, and, after throwing flowers and rice over them, puts toe-rings and shoes thereon. The Brâhman puróhit lights the sacred fire (hómam), and pours ghí (clarified butter) therein, while he utters some verses, Védic or other. He then ties the kankanam (thread) on the bridegroom's wrist. The parents of the bride next proceed with the dhârâdhattam (gift of the girl) by pouring water and grains of rice into the hands of the bridegroom. Vignéswara is then worshipped, and the bottu (marriage badge) is blessed by those assembled, and handed to the bridegroom. He, placing his right foot on that of the bride, who is separated from him

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by a screen, ties it round her neck. The couple then exchange seats, and rice is thrown in front of them. They go thrice round the dais and milk-post, and, at the end of the first and second rounds, the foot of the bride is placed on a grinding stone. After the third round they gaze at the pole-star (Arundati). Into one of the marriage post are put a pap-bowl, ring, and bracelet, which are picked out by the couple. If the pap-bowl is first got hold of by the bridegroom, the first-born child will be a boy ; if the ring, it will be a girl. This rite concluded, the bridegroom makes a mark on the bride's forehead with collyrium. On the second day, the bridegroom makes a pretence of being angry, and stays in a garden or house near that in which the marriage ceremonies are conducted. The bride, and some of her relations, go to him in procession, and, treating him with great respect, bring him back. The sacred fire is lighted, and the bride enters the room in which the marriage pots (aravéni) are kept. The bridegroom is stopped at the entrance thereto by a number of married women, and has to call his wife by her name, and pay a small sum of money for the ârathi (coloured water), which is saved by the women, to ward off the evil eye. In some places, the sister of the bridegroom extracts a promise that his coral (daughter)shall be given in marriage to her pearl (son). He is then permitted to enter the room. On the third day, after hómam has been performed by the Brâhman priest, the newly married couple go through a burlesque imitation of domestic life, after they have worshipped the posts of the booth and perform a mimic ploughing ceremony, the bridegroom stirring up some earth in a basket with a stick of miniature plough. This, in some places, his sister tries to prevent him from doing by covering the basket with a cloth, and he has to say "I will give my coral to your pearl." His brother-in-law tries to squeeze his fingers between a pair of sticks called kitti, which was, in former times, a very popular from of torture as a means of extracting confession. The bride gives her husband some conji (rice-gruel) to refresh him after his pretended labour.

At a marriage among the Perikes (q.v.), a gunny bag is said to be worshipped before the bottu is tied. A quantity of rice is measured on the first day of the ceremonies and tied up in a cloth. On the third day, the cloth is opened, and it is considered an auspicious sign if the quantity of rice exceeds that which was originally put into it. Among the Râjamâhendram Balijas, just before the nalagu ceremony, the knees, shoulders, and cheeks of the bride and bridegroom are touched with a pestle, while the names of their septs are called out. On the third day, the same process is repeated, but in the reverse order. A Gâzula Balija bride must, when the bottu is tied, be dressed in a white cloth with red stripes, called sanna pappuli. With other sections, a white cloth dyed with turmeric is de rigeur. Balija, it may be noted, is in the North Arcot Manual returned as a division of Dâsaris and Ïdigas. The better classes of Médaras (cane-splitters and mat makers) are also taking to calling themselves Balijas, and assume the title Chetti. Oddés and Upparas Balija. They belong to the right-hand section, which is headed by the Désayi, who is a Balija, and so describe themselves as belonging to the Setti or Chetti samayam (section). Some members of the Mila and Vâda fishing castes have adopted Óda or Vâda (boat) Balija as their caste name.

Jakkula.: - Described [1] as an inferior class of prostitutes, mostly of the Balija caste; and as wizards and as a dancing and theatrical caste. At Tenali, in the Kistna district, it was customary for each family to give up one girl for prostitution. She was "married" to any chance comer for one night with the usual ceremonies. Under the influence of social reform, the members of the caste, in 1901, entered into a written agreement to give up the practice. A family went back on this, so the head of the caste prosecuted the family and the "husband" for disposing of a minor for the purpose of prostitution. The records state that it was resolved in 1901 that they should not keep the females unwed, but should marry them before they attain puberty. "As the deeds of the said girls not only brought discredit on all of us, but their association gives our married women also an opportunity to contract bad habits, and, as all of our castemen thought it good to give up henceforth the custom now in vogue of leaving girls unmarried, all of us convened a public meeting in the Tenali village, considered

[1] Madras Census report, 1901 ; Nellore Manual.

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among us fails to marry the girls in the families before puberty, the managing members of the families of the girls concerned should pay Rs. 500 to the three persons whom we have selected as the headmen of our caste, as penalty for acting in contravention of this agreement. If any person does not pay the headmen of the caste the penalty, the headmen are authorised to recover the amount through Court. We must abstain from taking meals, living, or intermarriage with such families as do not now join with us in this agreement, and continue to keep girls unmarried. We may take meals or intermarry with those that are now included in this agreement, but not with those who hereafter act in contravention of it. If any of us act in contravention of the terms of the two last paragraphs, we should pay a penalty of Rs. 50 to the headmen.

Bandar: -See Kadera.

Bangâli: - Bengâli. [1] - A resident of Bengal, Vanga or Bang Desa. It is not quite clear whether some of these recorded in the census lists are not the familiar Bengâli Bâbu who were not recorded in his regular caste, Brâhman, Kâyasth, etc. At any rate there is a recognised tribe of vagrants known as Bengâli, Muslim Bengâli or Singiwâla, the last because they use a kind of horn in cupping.

From reports of the District Superintendents of Police at Sahâranpur, Meerut, and Aligarh, it appears that these people wander all over the Upper Duâb and the Panjab and Native States. They disclaim any direct connection with Nats, Kanjars, and similar vagrants; but they are obviously closely related. Among the Hindu branch there appear to be at least three exogamous sections, Negiwâla, Teli, and Jogeli. The Census returns show 54 sections of the Hindu and four of the Muhammadan branch, but it is impossible to say how many of these belong to the vagrant Bengâlis. The Hindu branch call themselves the descendants of one Siwâi Râm, Râjput, who was a Bengâli and elephant driver, and in the time of Aurangzeb learnt the art of bleeding and cupping from a native physician or Hakím, and taught it to his descendants. The Muhammadan branch usually call themselves Lodi Pathâns from Bengal. They do not admit outsiders to their caste. If they are Muhammadans, they marry in the usual form-- through the Kâzi, but as might have been expected, their religious practices are vague. The Muhamadans are said to be circumcised, and they as well as the Hindus worship Devi and Zâhir Pír.

From Meerut it is reported that the Hindu branch will eat meat of all kinds, the flesh of cloven or uncloven footed animals, fowls, all kinds of fish and crocodiles, and the leftovers of other people. Though this is quite certain, it would appear that the Muhammadan branch generally abstains from pork.

The Bengâli is a loafer and vagabond, prone to commit petty theft, a beggar, and a rustic surgeon as far as bleeding and cupping go. In their manner of life they much resemble the Mâl and Bediya of Bengal, and, if there is anything in the name, the tribes are possibly kin.

Bangâli, Bengâli. - One of the great divisions of Brâhmans recorded at the last census. According to Mr. Risley, who has given an elaborate account of them, [2] the Bengal Brâhmans belong are divided into five main sub-castes: Rârhi, Barendra, Vaidik, Saptasati and Madhyasrani. As already stated, it is impossible to say how many of the 58 sections

[1] CRK Page No 143-149.

[2] Tribes and Castes, I., 144, sqq.

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recorded in the census refer to the Brâhman branch, and how many to the tribe of vagrants of the same name.

The Rârhi Brâhmans.

The Rârhi Brahmans derive their name from the Rârh, or the high-lying alluvial tract on the west bank of the river Bhagírathi. Their claim to be of comparatively pure Aryan descent is to some extent borne out by the results of anthropometric enquiries. The current tradition is that early in the eleventh century A.D. Adisvara or Adisvara, King of Bengal, finding the Brâhmans, then settled in Bengal, too ignorant to perform for him certain Vedic ceremonies, applied to the Râja of Kanauj for priests thoroughly conversant with the sacred ritual of the Aryans. In answer to this request five Brâhmans of Kanauj were sent to him, Bhatta Nârâyana, of the Sândilya section, or gotra ; Daksha, of the Kasyapa gotra ; Vedagarbha or Vidagarbha, of the Vatsa gotra , or, as others say, from the family of Bhrigu ; Chandra of Chhandara, of the Savarna gotra ; and Sri Harsa of the Bhâradvâja gotra. They brought with them their wives, their sacred fire and their sacrificial implements. It is said that Adisura was at first disposed to treat them with disrespect, but he was soon compelled to acknowledge his mistake, and to beg the Brâhmans to forgive him. He then made over to them five populous villages, where they lived for a year. Meanwhile the king was so impressed with the superhuman virtue of Bhatta Nârâyana who was a son of Kshitisa, King of Kanauj, that he offered him several more villages. The Brâhman, however, declined to take these as a gift, but bought them (so the story goes) at a low price.

Although the immigrant Brâhmans brought their wives with them, tradition says that they contracted second marriages with the women of Bengal, though that their children by the latter, claim to represent the offspring from the original Hindustâni wives, and allege that the Rârhi Brâhmans themselves have sprung from the alliances contracted in Bengal.

By the middle of the eleventh century, when Ballâl Sen, the second of the Sen Kings of Bengal, instituted his famous enquiry into the personal endowments of the Rârhi Brâhmans, their numbers seem to have increased greatly. They were divided into fifty-six villages (gâin), the headships of which were reserved for them, and might not be encroached on by Brâhmans of other orders.

It is interesting to trace in Ballâl Sen's enquiry the survival or reassertion of the principle that the Brâhmanhood of the Brâhmans depended not merely on birth but upon personal endowments. It is a question of virtue, not a question of descent. Ballâl Sen, of course, could not go as far as this. The time had long passed when a Kshatriya could transform himself into a Brâhman by penance and self-denial. But the Sen Monarch sought to reaffirm the ancient principle, so far as was then possible, by testing the qualifications of each Rârhi family for the priestly office, and classifying them, in the order of their virtue, according to the results of this examination. Thus two grades of sacerdotal virtue were formed, the Kulin being those who had observed the entire nine counsels of perfection, and the Srotiya, who, though regular students of the Vedas, had lost status by intermarrying with families of inferior birth. The Srotiya were again divided into Siddha or 'perfect,' Sâdhya or 'capable of attaining purity,' and Kashta or 'difficult.' The last-named group was also called Ari or 'enemy,' because a Kulin marrying a daughter of that group was disgraced.

The Barendra Brâhmans.

As above stated, there is a difference of opinion as to their origin. "The sub-caste takes its name from the tract of country known as Barendra, lying north of the river Padma and corresponding roughly to the Districts of Pabna, Râjshâhi, and Bogra. Of these there are three hypergamous classes- Kulin, Suddha or 'pure,' Srotiya and Kashta, or 'bad Srotiya.'" Of their rules of intermarriage Mr. Risley gives full details.

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The Vaidik Brâhmans.

Concerning the origin of the Vaidik Brâhmans, some differences of opinion exist. All agree in honouring them for their adherence to Vedic rites, their zeal for Vedic study, their social independence, and their rejection of polygamy. From the fact that some of the most important settlements of the sub-caste are formed in the outlying districts of Orissa and Sylhet, some authorities are led to describe them as descendants of the original Brâhmans of Bengal, who refused to accept the reforms of Ballâl Sen, and took refuge in regions beyond his jurisdiction. The theory that they came from Kanauj derives support from Mr. Sherring's statement that the Kanaujiya Brâhmans of Benares recognise the Vaidik as a branch of their own the tribe, who settled in Bengal. There are two main divisions of Vaidik Brahmans-Pasehâtya or 'Western,' claiming to have come from Kanauj, and Dakshinatya or 'Southern,' tracing their origin to the original Bengal stock.

The Saptasati Brâhmans.

According to popular tradition, the Saptasati Brâhmans are descended from the seven hundred ignorant Brâhmans sent by Adisur to the Court of Kanauj for the purpose of learning their priestly duties. Others trace their origin to certain Brâhmans who were exiled beyond the Brahmaputra river for resisting the innovations of Ballâl Sen. It seems to be certain that they are peculiar to Bengal, and that they cannot claim connection with any of the ten standard Brâhmanical tribes. Men of education and respectability are reluctant to admit that they belong to this sub-caste, as all distinctive practices are being abandoned, and the entire group likely to be absorbed in the Srotiya of Rârhi Brâhmans. The Madhyasreni Brâhmans. The Madhyasreni Brâhmans profess to derive their name from the fact that their original settlement was in the District of Midnapur, lying midway (Madhyadesa) between Bengal and Orissa. the Rârhi, Utkal, and Saptasati sub-castes, who for some reason broke off from their own classes, settled in an outlying district, and in the ourse of time formed a new sub-caste.

Banjâra: -Wanjâri, Labhâna, Mukeri [1] . The caste of carriers and drivers of pack-bullocks. In 1911 the Banjâras numbered about 56,000 persons in the Central Provinces and 80,000 in Berâr, the caste being in greater strength here than in any part of India except Hyderâbâd, where their total is 174,000. Bombay comes next with a figure approaching that of the Central Provinces and Berâr, and the caste belongs therefore rather to the Deccan than to northern India. The name has been variously explained, but the most probable derivation is from the Sanskrit banijya kara, meaning "a merchant." Sir H.M. Elliot held that the name Banjâra was of great antiquity, quoting a passage from the Dasa Kumara Charita of the eleventh or twelfth century. But it was subsequently shown by Professor Cowell that the name Banjâra did not occur in the original text of this work [2] . Banjâras are supposed to be the people mentioned by Arrian in the fourth century B.C., as leading a wandering life, dwelling in tents and letting out for hire their beasts of burden [3] . But this passage merely proves the existence of carriers and not of the Banjâra caste. Mr. Crooke states [4] that the first mention of

[1] See Russel. This article is based principally on a Monograph on the Banjåra Clan, by Mr. N.F. Cumberlege of the Berår Police , believed to have been first written in 1869 and reprinted in 1882 ; notes on the Banjåras written by Colonel Mackenzie and printed in the Berår Census Report ( 1881) and the Pioneer newspaper ( communicated ) by Mrs. Horsburgh) ; Major Gunthorpe's Criminal Tribes ; papers by Mr. M.E.Khare, Extra-Assistant Commissioner , Canada; Mr. Mukund Rao, Tahr., Betul ; Mr. Narrayan Rao, Manger, Pachmarhi Estate ; and information on the caste collected in Yeotmal and Nimår

[2] Mr. Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art Banjåra, para. I.

[3] Berår Census Report ( 1881), p. 150.

[4] Ibidem, para. 2. quoting Dowson's Elliot, v.100.

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Banjâras in Muhammadan history is in Sikandar's attack on Dholpur in A.D. 1504 .[1] It seems improbable, therefore, that the Banjâras accompanied the different Muhammadan invaders of India, as might have been inferred from the fact that they came into the Deccan in the wake of the forces of Aurângzeb. The caste has indeed two Muhammadan sections, the Tîrkia and Mukeri .[2] But both of these have the same Râjpît clan names as the Hindu branch of the caste, and it seems possible that they may have embraced Islam under the proselytising influence of Aurângzeb, or simply owing to their having been employed with the Muhammadan troops. The great bulk of the caste in southern India are Hindus, and there seems no reason for assuming that its origin was Muhammadan.

Banjáras Derived From The Chârans Or Bhât

It may be suggested that the Banjâras are derived from the Châran or Bhât caste of Râjputâna. Mr. Cumberlege, whose Monograph is one of the best authorities on the caste in Berâr, states that of the four divisions existing there the Chârans are the most numerous and by far the most interesting class .[3] In the article on Bhât it has been explained how the Chârans, or bards, owing to their readiness to kill themselves rather than give up the property entrusted to their care, became the best safe conduct for the passage of goods in Râjputâna. The name Châran is generally held to mean 'Wanderer ', and in their capacity as bards the Chârans were accustomed to travel from court to court of different chiefs in quest of patronage. They were first protected by their sacred character and afterwards by their custom of trâga or chândi, that is, of killing themselves when attacked and threatening their assailants with the dreaded fate of being haunted by their ghosts. Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam [4]remarks: "After Parâsurama's dispersion of the Kshatris the Chârans accompanied them in their southward flight. In those troubled times the Chârans took charge of the supplies of the Kshatri forces and so fell to their present position of cattle - breeders and grain-carriers..." Most of the Chârans are grazers, cattle-sellers and pack-carriers. Colonel Tod says :[5] "The Chârans and Bhâts or bards and genealogists are the chief carriers of these regions(Mârwâr); their sacred character overawes the lawless Râjpît chief, and even the savage Koli and Bhîl and the plundering Sahrai of the desert dread the anathema of these singular races, who conduct the caravans through the wildest and most desolate regions." In another passage Colonel Tod identifies the Chârans and Banjâras [6] as follows: "Murlâh is an excellent township inhabited by a community of Chârans of the tribe Cucholia (Kacheli), who are Banjâris (carriers) by profession , though poets by birth. The alliance is a curious one, and would appear incongruous were not mutual gain the object of both parties. It was the sanctity of their office which converted our bardais (bards) into bunjârris, for their persons being sacred, the immunity extended likewise to their goods and saved them from all imposts; so that in time they became the free traders of Râjputâna. I was highly gratified with the reception I received from the community, which collectively advanced to meet me at some distance from the town. The procession was headed by the village elders and all the fair Châranis, who, as they approached, gracefully waved their scarves over me until I was fairly made captive by the muses of Murlâh! It was a novel and interesting scene. The manly persons of the Chârans, clad in the flowing white robe with the high loose-folded turban inclined on one side, from which the mâla or chaplet was gracefully suspended; and the naiques or leaders, with their massive necklaces of gold, with the image of the pitriswar (manes ) engraved thereon, gave the whole scene an air of opulence and dignity. The

[1] Khan Bahadur Fazlullah Lutfullah Faridi in the Bombay Gazetteer ( Muhammadans of Gujråt, p.86) quoting from General Briggs (Transactions Bombay Literary Society, vol. i. 183) says that " as carriers of grain for Muhammadan armies the Banjåras have figured in history from the days of Muhammad Tughlak ( a A.D. 1340) to those of Aurangzeb".

[2] Sir H.M. Elliot's Supplemental Glossary.

[3] Monograph on the Banjåra Clan , p,8.

[4] Hindus of Gujråt, p. 214 el seq.

[5] Rajasthan, i. 602.

[6] Ibidem, ii, 570,573.

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females were uniformly attired in a skirt of dark-brown camlet, having a bodice of light-coloured stuff, with fold ornaments worked into their fine black hair; and all had the favourite chîris or rings of hâthidânt ( elephant's tooth) covering the arm from the wrist to the elbow, and even above it," A little later, referring to the same Châran community, Colonel Tod writes: "The tânda or caravan consisting of four thousand bullocks, has been kept up amidst all the evils which have beset this land through Mughal and Marâtha tyranny. The unity of these caravans as general carriers to conflicting armies and as regular tax-paying subjects has proved their safeguard, and they were too strong to be pillaged by any petty marauder, as any one who has seen a Banjâri encampment will be convinced. They encamp in a square, and their grain-bags piled over each other breast-high, with interstices left for their matchlocks, make no contemptible fortification . Even the ruthless Tîrk, Jamshîd Khân, set up a protecting tablet in favour of the Chârans of Murlâh, recording their exemption from dînd contributions, and that there should be no increase in duties, with threats to all who should injure the community. As usual, the sun and moon are appealed to as witness of good faith, and sculptured on the stone. Even the forest Bhîl and mountain Mair have set up their signs of immunity and protection to the chosen of Hingâz (tutelary deity); and the figures of a cow and its kairi (calf ) carved in rude relief speak the agreement that they should not be slain or robbed within the limits of Murlâh".

In the above passage the community described by Colonel Tod were Chârans, but he identified them with Banjâras, using the names interchangably. He mentions their large herds of pack-bullocks, for the management of which the Chârans, who were grazers as well as bards, would naturally be adapted; the name given to the camp, tânda , is that generally used by the Banjâra; the women wore ivory bangles, which the Banjâra women wear .[1] In commenting on the way in which the women threw their scarves over him, making him a prisoner, Colonel Tod remarks: "This community had enjoyed for five hundred years the privilege of making prisoner any Râna of Mewâr who may pass through Murlâh, and keeping him in bondage until he gives them a got or entertainment. The patriarch ( of the village) told me that I was in jeopardy as the Râna's representative, but not knowing how I might have relished the joke had it been carried to its conclusion, they let me escape." Mr. Ball notes a similar custom of the Banjâra women far away in the Bastar State of the Central Provinces:[2] "Today I passed through another Banjâra hamlet, from whence the women and girls all hurried out in pursuit, and a brazen faced powerful-looking lass seized the bridle of my horse as he was being led by the sais in the rear. The sais and chaprâsi were both Muhammadans, and the forward conduct of these females perplexed them not a little, and the former was fast losing his temper at being thus assaulted by a woman." Colonel Mackenzie in his account of the Banjâra caste remarks:[3] "It is certain that the Chârans, whoever they were, first rose to the demand created by the great armies of Northern India, combatting in countries far from their basis of supply, regarding the need of a fearless and reliable transport service. The vocation which the Chârans then acquired they retain among Banjâras to this day, though in very much diminished splendour and position. As they themselves relate, they were originally five brethren, Râthor, Turi, Panwâr, Chauhân and Jâdon. But fortune particularly smiled on Bhîka Râthor, as his four sons, Mersi, Multâsi, Dheda and Khâmdâr, great names among the Chârans, rose immediately to eminence as commissariat transporters in the north. And not only under the Delhi Emperors, but under the Satâra, subsequently the Poona Râj, and the Subâhship of the Nizâm, several of their descendants rise to consideration and power." It thus seems a reasonable hypothesis that the nucleus of the Banjâra caste was constituted by the Chârans or bards of Râjputâna.

[1] This custom does not necessarily indicate a special connection between the Banjåras and Chårans, as it is common to several castes in Råjputåna ; but it indicates that the Banjåras came from Råjputåna. Banjåra men also frequently wear the hair long, down to the neck, which is another custom of Råjputåna.

[2] Jungle Life in India , p. 517.

[3] Berår Census Report ( 1881),p.

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Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparâm [1] also identifies the Chârans and Banjâras, and following notice [2] by Colonel Tone is of interest in this connection: "The vast consumption that characterises a Marâtha army demands great amounts of supplies; yet, notwithstanding this, the native powers never concern themselves about providing for their forces, and have no idea of a grain and victualling department, which forms so great an object in a European campaign. The Banias or grain-sellers in an Indian army have always sent their servants ahead of the troops on the line of the march, to purchase in the surrounding country whatever necessities are required. Articles of consumption are never wanting in a native camp, though they are generally twenty-five percent more expensive than in the town bazârs; but independent of this mode of supply the Vanjâris or itinerant grain merchants furnish large quantities, which they bring on bullocks from an immense distance. These are a very peculiar race, and appear to be a marked and distinctly different people from any other I have yet seen in this country. Formerly they were considered so sacred that they passed in safety in the midst of contending armies; of late, however, this reverence for their character is much abated and they have been frequently plundered, particularly by Tipu."

The reference to the sacred character attached to the Banjâras a century ago appears to be strong evidence in favour of their derivation from the Chârans. For it could scarcely have been obtained by any body of commissariat agents coming into India with the Muhammadans. The fact that the example of disregarding it was first set by a Muhammadan prince points to the same conclusion. Mr. Irvine describes the Banjâras with the Mughal armies in similar terms : [3] "It is by this people that the Indian armies in the field are fed, and they are never injured by either army. The grain is taken from them, but invariably paid for. They encamp for safety every evening in a regular square formed of the bags of grain of which they construct a breastwork. They and their families are in the centre, and the oxen are made fast outside . Guards with matchlocks and spears are placed at the corners, and their dogs do duty as advanced posts. I have seen them with droves of 5000 bullocks. They do not move above two miles an hour, as their cattle are allowed to graze as they proceed on the march." It may be hypothesized that the Chârans, having acted as carriers for the Râjpît chiefs and courts both in times of peace and in their continual internal feuds, were pressed into service when the Mughal armies entered Râjputâna and passed through it to Gujarât and the Deccan. In adopting the profession of transport agents for the imperial troops, they may have been amalgamated into a fresh caste with other Hindus and Muhammadans doing the same work, just as the camp language formed by the superimposition of a Persian vocabulary on to a grammatical basis of Hindi became Urdu or Hindustâni. The readiness of the Chârans to commit suicide rather than give up property committed to their charge was not, however, copied by the Banjâras, and so far as I am aware there is no record of men of this caste taking their own lives, though they had little scruple with those of others.

Châran Banjâras Employed With The Mughal Armies.

The Châran Banjâras, Mr. Cumberlege states [4] first came to the Deccan with Asaf Khân in the campaign which closed with the annexation by the Emperor Shâh Jahân of Ahmadnagar and 5 Berâr about 1630. Their leaders or Nâiks were Bhangi and Jhangi or the Râthor [5] and Bhagwân Dâs of the Jâdon clan. Bhangi and Jhangi had 180,000 pack-bullocks, and Bhagwân Dâs 52,000. It was naturally an object with Asaf Khân to keep his commissariat well stocked for his force, and as Bhangi and Jhangi made difficulties about the supply of grass and water to their cattle, he gave them an order engraved on copper in letters of gold to the following effect :

[1] Bombay Gazetteer , Hindus of Gujråt.

[2] Letter on the Marathas ( 1798), p. 67. India Office Tracts.

[3] Army of the Indian Mughals, p.192.

[4] Monograph, p. 14, Berår Census Report (1881) (Kitts), p. 151.

[5] These are held to have been descendants of the Bhika Råthor referred to by Colonel Mackenzie above.

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Ranjan kâ pâni

Chhappar kâ ghâs

Din ke tîn khîn umuâf ;

Aur jahân Asaf Jâh ke ghore

Wahân Bhangi Jhangi ke bail.

which may be rendered as follows: "If you can find no water elsewhere you may even take it from the pots of my followers; grass you may take from the roofs of their huts; and I will pardon you up to three murders a day, provided that wherever I find my cavalry, Bhangi and Jhangi's bullocks shall be with them". This grant is still in the possession of Bhangi Nâik's descendant who lives at Musi, near Hingoli. He is recognised by the Hynerâbâd Court as the head Nâik of the Banjâra caste, and on his death his successor receives a Khillat or dress of honour from His Highness the Nizâm. After Asaf Khân's campaign and settlement in the Deccan, a quarrel broke out between the Râthor clan, headed by Bhangi and Jhangi, and the Jâdons under Bhagwân Dâs , owing to the fact that Asaf Khân had refused to give Bhagwân Dâs a grant like that quoted above. Both Bhangi and Bhagwân Dâs were slain in the feud and the Jâdons captured the standard, consisting of eight thans (lengths) of cloths, which was annually presented by the Nizâm to Bhangi's descendants. When Mr. Cumberlege wrote (1869), this standard was in the possession of Hatti Nâik, a descendant of Bhagwân Dâs, who had an estate near Muchi Bunder, in the Madras Presidency. Colonel Mackenzie states that the leaders of the Râthor clan became so distinguished as men of war that the Emperors recognised their carrying distinctive standards, which were known as dhal by the Râthors themselves. Jhangi's family was also represented in the person of Ramu Nâik, the patel or headman of the village of Yaoli in the Yeotmâl District. In 1791-92 the Banjâras were employed to supply grain to the British army under the Marquis of Cornwallis during the siege of Seringapatam , [1] and the Duke of Wellington in his Indian campaigns regularly engaged them as part of the commissariat staff of his army. On one occasion he said of them: "The Banjâras I look upon in the light of servants of the public, of whose grain I have a right to regulate the sale, always taking care that they have a proportionate advantage [2] ."

Internal Structure.

Mr. Cumberlege gives four main divisions of the caste in Berâr, the Chârans, Mathurias, Labhânas and Dhâris. Of these the Chârans are by far the most numerous and important, and included all the famous leaders of the caste mentioned above. The Chârans are divided into the five clans, Râthor, Panwâr, Chauhân, Puri and Jâdon or Burthia, all of these being the names of leading Râjpît clans; and as the Châran bards themselves were probably Râjpîts, the Banjâras, who are descended from them, may claim the same lineage. Each clan or sect is divided into a number of subsects; thus among the Râthors the principal subsect is the Bhurkia, called after the Bhika Râthor already mentioned; and this is again split into four groups, Mersi, Multâsi, Dheda and Khâmdâr, named after his four sons. As a rule, members of the same clan, Panwâr Râthor and so on, may not intermarry, but Mr. Cumberlege states that a man belonging to the Bânod or Bhurkia subsects of the Râthors must not take a wife from his own subsect, but may marry any other Râthor girl. It seems probable that the same rule may hold with the other subsects, as it is most unlikely that intermarriage should still be prohibited among so large a body as the Râthor Chârans have now become. It may be supposed therefore that the division into subsects took place when it became to inconvenient to prohibit marriage throughout the whole body of the sect, as has happened in other cases. The Mathuria Banjâras take their name from Mathura or Muttra and appear to be Brâhmans. “They wear the sacred thread [3] know the Gayatri Mantra, and to the present day abstain from meat and liquor, subsisting entirely on grain and vegetables. They always had a

1] General Briggs quoted by Mr. Faridi in Bombay Gazetteer, Muhammadens of Gujaråt, p. 86

[2] A. Wellesley (1800), quoted in Mr. Crooke's edition of Hobson Jobson, Art. Brinjarry.

[3] Cumberlege, loc. cit.

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sufficiency of Chârans and servants (Jânjar ) in their villages to perform all necessary manual labour, and would not themselves work for a remuneration otherwise than by carrying grain, which was and still is their legitimate occupation; but it was not considered undignified to cut wood and grass for the household. Both Mathuria and Labhâna men are fairer than the Chârans; they wear better jewellery and their loin-cloths have a silk border, while those of the Chârans are of rough, common cloth.” The Mathurias are sometimes known as Ahiwâsi, and may be connected with the Ahiwâsis of the Hindustâni Districts, who also drive pack-bullocks and call themselves Brâhmans. But it is naturally a sin for a Brâhman to load the sacred ox, and any one who does so is held to have derogated from the priestly order. The Mathurias are divided according to Mr. Cumberlege into four groups called Pânde, Dube, Tiwari and Chaube, all of which are common titles of Hindustâni Brâhmans and signify a man learned in one, two, three and four Vedas respectively. It is probable that these groups are exogamous, marrying with each other, but this is not stated. The third division, the Labhânas, may derive their name from lavana, salt, and probably devoted themselves more especially to the carriage of this staple. They are said to be Râjpîts, and to be descended from Mota and Mola, the cowherds of Krishna. The fourth subdivision are the Dhâris or bards of the caste who rank below the others. According to their own story [1] , their ancestor was a member of the Bhât caste, who became a disciple of Nânak, the Sikh apostle, and with him attended a feast given by the Mughal Emperor Humayun. Here he ate the flesh of a cow or buffalo and in consequence became a Muhammadan and was circumcised. He was employed as a musician at the Mughal court, and his sons joined the Chârans and became the bards of the Banjâra caste . "The Dharis," Mr. Cumberlege continues, "are both musicians and mendicants they sing in praise of their own and the Châran ancestors and of the old kings of Delhi; while at certain seasons of the year they visit Vharan hamlets, when each family gives them a young bullock or a few rupees. They are Muhammadans, but worship Sârasvati and at their marriages offer up a male goat to Gâji and Gandha, the two sons of the original Bhât, who became a Muhammadan. At burials a Fakir is called to read the prayers".

Minor Subcastes .

Besides the above four main divisions, there are a number of others, the caste being now of a very mixed character. Two principal Muhammadan groups are given by Sir H. Elliot, the Tîrkia and Mukeri. The Tîrkia have thirty-six sects, some with Râjpît names and others with territorial or titular ones. They seem to be a mixed group of Hindus who may have embraced Islam as the religion of their employers. The Mukeri Banjâras assert that they derive their name from Mecca (Makka), which one of their Nâiks, who had his camp in the vicinity, assisted Father Abraham in building [2] . Mr. Crooke thinks that the name may be a corruption of Makkeri, meaning "a seller of maize." Mr. Cumberlege says of them: “Mîltanis and Mukeris have been called Banjâras also , but have nothing common with the caste; the Mîltanis are carriers of grain and the Mukeris of wood and timber, and hence the confusion may have arisen between them. ” But they are now held to be Banjâras by common usage; in Saugor the Mukeris also deal in cattle. From Chânda a different set of subcastes is reported called Bhîsarjin, Ladjin , Saojin and Kanhejin; the first may take their name from bhîsa,, the chaff of wheat, while Lad is the term used for people coming from Gujrât, and Sao means a banker. In Sambalpur again a class of Thuria Banjâras is found, divided into the Bandesia, Atharadesia, Nafadesia and Chhadesia, or the men of the 52 districts, the 18 districts, the 9 districts and the 6 districts respectively. The first and last two of these take food and marry with each other. Other groups are the Guâr Banjâras, apparently from Guâra or Gwâla, a milkman, the Gîguria Banjâras, who may, as Mr. Hira Lâl suggests, take their name from trading in gîgar , a kind of gum, and the Bahrîp Banjâras, who are Nats or acrobats. In Berâr also a number of the caste have become respectable cultivators and now call themselves Wanjâri, disclaiming any connection with the Banjâras, probably on account of the bed reputation for crime attached to the latter. Many of the Wanjâris have been allowed to rank

[1] Cumberlege, pp. 28, 29

[2] Elliot's Races, quoted by Mr. Crooke Ibidem.

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with the Kunbi caste, and call themselves Wanjâri Kunbis in order the better to dissociate themselves from their parent caste. The existing caste is therefore of a very mixed nature, and the original Brâhman and Châran strains, though still perfectly recognisable, cannot have maintained their purity.

Marriage: Betrothal.

At a betrothal in Nimâr the bridegroom and his friends come and stay in the village next to that of the bride. The two parties meet on the boundary of the village, and here the bride-price is fixed , which is often a very large sum, ranging from Rs. 200 to Rs. 1,000. Until the price is paid the father will not let the bridegroom into his house. In Yeotmâl, when a betrothal is to be made, the parties go to a liquor-shop and there a betel-leaf and a large handful of sugar are distributed to everybody. Here the price to be paid for the bride amounts to Rs. 40 and four young bullocks. Prior to the wedding the bridegroom goes and stays for a month or so in the house of the bride's father, and during this time he must provide a supply of liquor daily for the bride's male relatives. The period was formerly longer, but now extends to a month at the most. While he resides at the bride's house the bridegroom wears a cloth over his head so that his face cannot be seen. Probably the prohibition against seeing him applies to the bride only, as the rule in Berâr is that between the betrothal and marriage of a Châran girl she may not eat or drink in the bridegroom's house, or show her face to him or any of his relatives. Mathuria girls must be wedded before they are seven years old, but the Chârans permit them to remain single until after adolescence.

Marriage.

Banjâra marriages are frequently held in the rains, a season forbidden to other Hindus, but naturally the most convenient to them, because in the dry weather they are usually travelling. For the marriage ceremony they pitch a tent in lieu of the marriage - shed, and on the ground they place two rice-pounding pestles, round which the bride and bridegroom make the seven turns. Others substitute for the pestles a pack-saddle with two bags of grain in order to symbolise their camp life. During the turns, the girl's hand is held by the Joshi, or village priest, or some other Brâhman, in case she should fall; such an occurrence being probably a very unlucky omen. Afterwards, the girl runs away and the Brâhman has to pursue and catch her. In Bhandâra the girl is clad only in a light skirt and breast-cloth, and her body is rubbed all over with oil in order to make his task more difficult. During this time the bride's party pelt the Brâhman with rice, turmeric and areca-nuts and sometimes even with stones; and if he is forced to cry with the pain, it is considered lucky. But if he finally catches the girl, he is conducted to a dais and sits there holding a brass plate in front of him, into which the bridegroom's party drop presents. A case is mentioned of a Brâhman having obtained Rs. 70 in this manner. Among the Mathuria Banjâras of Berâr the ceremony resembles the usual Hindu type [1] .Before the wedding the families bring the branches of eight or ten different kinds of trees, and perform the hom or fire sacrifice with them. A Brâhman knots the clothes of the couple together, and they walk round the fire. When the bride arrives at the bridegroom's hamlet after wedding, two small brass vessels are given to her; she fetches water in these and returns them to the women of the boy's family, who mix this with other water previously drawn, and the girl, who up to this period was considered of no caste at all, becomes a Mathuria [2] . Food is cooked with this water, and the bride and bridegroom are formally received into the husband's kuri or hamlet. It is possible that the mixing of the water may be a survival of the blood covenant, whereby a girl was received into her husband's clan on her marriage by her blood being mixed with that of her husband [3] , or it may be simply symbolical of the union of the families. In some localities,

[1] Cumberlege, pp. 4, 5

[2] Cumberlege, l.c.

[3] This custom is noticed in the article on Khairwar.

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after the wedding, the bride and bridegroom are made to stand on two bullocks,which are driven forward, and it is believed that whichever of them falls off first will be the first to die.

Widow Remarriage.

Owing to the scarcity of women in the caste a widow is seldom allowed to go out of the family, and when her husband dies she is taken either by his elder or younger brother; this is in opposition to the usual Hindu practice, which forbids the marriage of a woman to her deceased husband's elder brother, on the ground that as successor to the headship of the joint family he stands to her, at least potentially, in the light of a father. If the widow prefers another man and runs away to him, the first husband's relatives claim compensation, and threaten, in the event of its being refused, to abduct a girl from this man's family in exchange for the widow. But no case of abduction has occurred in recent years . In Berâr the compensation claimed in the case of a woman marrying out of the family amounts to Rs. 75, with Rs. 5 for the Nâik or headman of the family. Should the widow elope without her brother-in-law's consent, he chooses ten or twelve of his friends to go and sit dharna (starving themselves) before the hut of the man who has taken her. He is then bound to supply these men with food and liquor until he has paid the customary sum, when he may marry the widow [1] . In the event of the second husband being too poor to pay monetary compensation, he gives a goat, which is cut into eighteen pieces and distributed to the community [2] .

Birth And Death.

After the birth of a child the mother is unclean for five days, and lives apart in a separate hut. On the sixth day she washes the feet of all the children in the kuri, feeds them and then returns to her husband's hut. When a child is born in a moving tânda or camp, the same rule is observed, and for five days the mother walks alone after the camp during the daily march. The caste bury the bodies of unmarried persons and those dying of smallpox and burn the others. Their rites of mourning are not strict, and are observed only for three days The Banjâras have a saying: "Death in a foreign land is to be preferred, where there are no kinsfolk to mourn, and the corpse is a feast for birds and animals"; but this may perhaps be taken rather as an expression of philosophic resignation to the fate which must be in store for many of them, than a real preference, as with most people the desire to die at home almost amounts to an instinct.

Religion : Banjára Devi.

One of the tutelary deities of the Banjâras is Banjâri Devi, whose shrine is usually located in the forest. It is often represented by a heap of stones, a large stone smeared with vermilion being placed on the top of the heap to represent the goddess. When a Banjâra passes the place he casts a stone upon the heap as a prayer to the goddess to protect him from the dangers of the forest. A similar practice of offering bells from the necks of cattle is recorded by Mr. Thurston [3] " It is related by Moor that he passed a tree on which were hanging several hundred bells. This was a superstitious sacrifice of the Banjâras (Lambâris), 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 of them were taken for our own cattle, several accidents which 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 the tree, as that from which he relieved the donor."

[1] Cumberlege, p.18

[2] Mr. Hira Lal Suggests that this custom may have something to do with the phrase Athara jat ke gay, or 'She has gone to the eighteen castes,' used of a woman who has been turned out of the community. The phrase seems, however, to be an euphemism, eighteen castes being a term of indefinite multitude for any or no caste. The number eighteen may be selected from the same unknown association which causes the goat to be cut into eighteen pieces.

[3] Ethnographic Notes in Southern India, p.344, quoting from Moor's Narrative of Little's Detachment .

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In their houses the Banjâri Devi is represented by a pack-saddle set on high in the room, and this is worshipped before the caravans set out on their annual tours .

Mîthu Bhîkia.

Another deity is Mîthu Bhîkia, an old freebooter, who lived in the Central Provinces; he is venerated by the dacoits as the most clever dacoit known in the annals of the caste, and a hut was usually set apart for him in each hamlet, a staff carrying a white flag being planted before it . Before setting out for a dacoity, the men engaged would assemble at the hut of Mîthu Bhîkia, and, burning a lamp before him, ask for an omen; if the wick of the lamp dropped the omen was propitious, and the men present then set out at once on the raid without returning home. They might not speak to each other nor answer if challenged for if any one spoke the charm would be broken and the protection of Mîthu Bhîkia removed; and they should either return to take the omens again or give up that particular dacoity altogether [1] . It has been recorded as a characteristic trait of Banjâras that they will, as a rule, not answer if spoken to when engaged on a robbery, and the custom probably arises from this observance; but the worship of Mîthu Bhîkia is now frequently neglected. After a successful dacoity a portion of the spoil would be set apart for Mîthu Bhîkia, and of the balance the Nâik or headman of the village received two shares if he participated in the crime; the man who struck the first blow or did most towards the common object also received two shares, and all the rest one share. With Mîthu Bhîkia's share a feast was given at which thanks were returned to him for the success of the enterprise, a burnt offering of incense being made in his tent and a libation of liquor poured over the flag staff. A portion of the food was sent to the women who were not allowed to share in the worship of Mîthu Bhîkia nor to enter his hut.

Siva Bhâia.

Another favourite deity is Siva Bhâia, whose story is given by Colonel Mackenzie [2] as follows: "The love borne by Mâri Mâta, the goddess of cholera, for the handsome Siva Râthor, is an event of our own times (1874) she proposed to him, but his heart being pre-engaged he rejected her; and in consequence his earthly bride was smitten sick and died, and the hand of the goddess fell heavily on Siva himself, thwarting all his schemes and blighting his fortunes and possessions, until at last he gave himself up to her. She then possessed him and caused him to prosper exceedingly, gifting him with supernatural power until his fame was proclaimed abroad, and he was venerated as the saintly Siva Bhâia or great brother to all women, being himself unable to marry. But in his old age the goddess capriciously wished him to marry and have issue, but he refused and was slain and buried at Pohur in Berâr. A temple was erected over him and his kinsmen became priests of it, and hither large numbers are attracted by the supposed efficacy of vows made to Siva, the most sacred of all oaths being that taken in his name." If a Banjâra swears by Siva Bhâia, placing his right hand on the bare head of his son and heir, and grasping a cow's tail in his left, he will fear to perjure himself, 3 lest by doing so he should bring injury on his son and a murrain on his cattle [3] .

Worship Of Cattle.

Naturally also the Banjâras [4] worshipped their pack-cattle. “When sickness occurs they lead the sick man to the feet of the bullock called Hâtadiya [5] . On this animal no burden is ever laid, but he is decorated with streamers of red-dyed silk, and tinkling bells with many brass chains and rings on neck and feet, and silken tassels hanging in all directions; he moves

[1] Cumberlege, p.35, VOL. II

[2] Berår Census Report, 1881.

[3] Cumberlege, p. 21

[4] The following instance is taken from Mr. Balfour's article. 'Migratory Tribes of Central India,' in J.A.S.B., new series, vol. XIII, quoted in Mr. Crooke's Tribes and Castes.

[5] From the Sanskrit Hatya adhya, meaning ' That which it is most sinful to slay' (Balfour).

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steadily at the head of the convoy, and at the place where he lies down when he is tired they pitch their camp for the day; at his feet they make their vows when difficulties overtake them, and in illness, whether of themselves or their cattle, they trust to his worship for a cure”.

Connection With The Sikhs.

Mr. Balfour also mentions in his paper that the Banjâras call themselves Sikhs, and it is noticeable that the Châran subcaste say that their ancestors were three Râjpît boys who followed Guru Nânak, the prophet of the Sikhs. The influence of Nânak appears to have been widely extended over northern India, and to have been felt by large bodies of the 1 people other than whose who actually embraced the Sikh religion. Cumberlege states that before starting his marriage procession the bridegroom ties a rupee in his turban in honour of Guru Nânak which is afterwards expended in sweetmeats. But otherwise the modern Banjâras do not appear to retain any Sikh observances.

Witchcraft.

The Banjâras, Sir A. Lyall writes [2] “are terribly vexed by witchcraft, to which their wandering and precarious existence especially exposes them in the shape of fever, rheumatism and dysentery”. Solemn inquiries are still held in the wild jungles where these people camp out like gypsies, and many an unlucky 'witch' has been strangled by sentence of their 'secret tribunals' The business of magic and witchcraft was in the hands of two classes of Bhagats or magicians, one good and the other bad [3] who may correspond to the European practitioners of black and white magic. The good Bhagat is called Nimbu-kâtna or lemon -cutter, a lemon speared on a knife being a powerful averter of evil spirits. He is a total abstainer from meat and liquor, and fasts once a week on the day sacred to the deity whom he venerates, usually Mahâdeo; he is highly respected and never panders to vice. But the Jânta, the 'Wise or Cunning Man, ' is of a different type, and the following is an account of the devilry often enacted when a deputation visited him to inquire into the cause of a prolonged illness, a cattle murrain, a sudden death or other misfortune. A woman might often be called a Dâkun or witch in spite, and when once this word had been used the husband or nearest male relative would be regularly bullied into consulting the Jânta. Or if some woman had been ill for a week, an avaricious [4] husband or brother would begin to whisper foul play. Witchcraft would be mentioned, and the wise man called in. He would give the sufferer a quid of betel, muttering an incantation, but this rarely effected a cure, as it was against the interest of all parties that it should do so. The sufferer's relatives would then go to their Nâik, tell him that the sick person was bewitched, and ask him to send a deputation to the Jânta or witch-doctor. This would be at once despatched, consisting of one male adult from each house in the hamlet, with one of the sufferer's relatives. On the road the party would bury a bone or other article to test the wisdom of the witch-doctor. But he was not to be caught out, and on their arrival he would bid the deputation rest, and come to him for consultation on the following day. Meanwhile, during the night the Jânta would be thoroughly coached by some accomplice in the party. Next morning, meeting the deputation, he would tell every man all the particulars of his name and family, name the invalid, and tell the party to bring materials for consulting the spirits, such as oil, vermilion, sugar, dates, coconut, chironiji [5] and sesamum. In the evening, holding a lamp, the Jânta would be possessed by Mâriai, the goddess of cholera; he would mention all particulars of the sick man's illness, and indignantly inquire why they had buried the bone on the road, naming it and describing the place . If this did not satisfy the deputation, a goat would be brought, and he would name its

[1] Monograph, p.12

[2] Asiatic Studies, i. p. 118 (ed. 1899).

[3] Cumberlege, p, 23 et seq. The description of witchcraft is wholly reproduced from his Monograph.

[4] His motive being the fine inflicted on the witch's family.

[5] The fruit of Bhuchanania Latifolia.

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sex with any distinguishing marks on the body. The sick person's representative would then produce his nazar or fee, formerly Rs. 25, but lately the double of this or more. The Jânta would now begin a sort of chant, introducing the names of the families of the kuri other than that containing her who was to be proclaimed a witch, and heap on them all kinds of abuse. Finally , he would assume an ironic tone, extol the virtues of a certain family, become facetious, and praise its representative then present. This man would then question the Jânta on all points regarding his own family, his own family, his connections, worldly goods, and what gods he worshipped, ask who was the witch, who taught her sorcery, and how and why she practised it in this particular instance. But the witch doctor, having taken care to be well coached, would answer everything correctly and fix the guilt onto the witch. A goat would be sacrifice and eaten with liquor, and the deputation would return. The punishment for being proclaimed a Dâkun was formerly death to the woman and a fine to be paid by her relatives to the bewitched person's family. The woman's husband or her sons would be directed to kill her, and if they refused, other men were deputed to murder her, and bury the body at once with all the clothing and ornaments then on her person, while a further fine would be exacted from the family for not doing away with her themselves. But murder for witchcraft has been almost entirely stopped, and nowadays the husband, after being fined a few head of cattle, which are given to the sick man, is turned out of the village with his wife. It is quite possible, however, that an obnoxious old hag would even now not escape death, especially if the money fine were not forthcoming, and an instance is known in recent times of a mother being murdered by her three sons. The whole village combined to screen these amiable young men, and eventually they made the Jânta the scapegoat, and he got seven years, while the murderers could not be touched. Colonel Mackenzie writes that "Curious to relate, the Jântas, known locally as Bhagats, in order to become possessed of their alleged powers of divination and prophecy , must travel to Kazhe, beyond Surat, there to learn and be instructed by low-caste Koli impostors". This is interesting, as an instance of the powers of witchcraft being attributed by the Hindus or higher race to the indigenous primitive tribes, a rule which Dr. Tylor and Dr. Jevons consider to hold good generally in the history of magic .

Human Sacrifice.

Several instances are known also of the Banjâras having practised human sacrifice. Mr. Thurston states : [1] “In former times the Lambâdis, before setting out on a journey, used 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. In proportion to the bullocks thoroughly trampling the child to death, so their belief in a successful journey increased.” The Abbey Dubois describes another form of sacrifice [2] “The Lambâdis are accused of the still more atrocious crime of offering up human sacrifices. When they wish to perform this horrible act, it is said, 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 lamp of dough made of flour, which they place on his head; this they fill with oil, and light four wicks in it. Having done this, the men and women join hands and, forming a circle , dance round their victim, singing and making a great noise until he expires”. Mr. Cumberlege records [3] the following statement of a child kidnapped by Banjâra caravan in 1871. After explaining how he was kidnapped and the tip of his tongue cut off to give him a defect in speech, the Kunbi lad, taken from Sâhungarhi in the Bhandâra District, went on to say that “The tânda ( caravan ) encamped for the night in the jungle. In the morning a woman named Gangi said that the devil was in her and that a sacrifice must be made. On this four men and three women took the boy to a place they had made for pîja (worship). They fed him with milk, rice and sugar, and then made him stand up, when Gangi drew a sword and approached the child, who tried to run away; he was caught and

[1] Ethnographic Notes in Southern India, p. 507, quoting from Rev. J. Cain, Ind. Ant. viii (1879)

[2] Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, p.70

[3] Monograph, p19

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brought back to this place, Gangi, holding the sword with both hands and standing on the child's right side, cut off his head with one blow. Gangi collected the blood and sprinkled it on the idol; this idol is made of stone, is about 9 inches high, and has something sparkling in its forehead. The camp marched that day, and for four or five days consecutively, without another sacrifice; but on the fifth day a young woman came to the camp to sell curds, and having bought some, the Banjâras asked her to come in the evening and eat with them. She did come, and after eating with the women slept in the camp. Early next morning she was sacrificed in the same way as the boy had been, but it took three blows to cut off her head; it was done by Gangi , and the blood was sprinkled on the stone idol. About a month ago Sitârâm, a Gond lad, who had also been kidnapped and was in the camp, told me to run away as it had been decided to offer me up in sacrifice at the next Jiuti festival, so I ran away”. The child having been brought to the police, a searching and protracted inquiry was held, which, however, determined nothing,though it did not disprove his story.

Admission Of Outsiders; Kidnapped Children And Slaves .

The Banjâra caste is not closed to outsiders, but the general rule is to admit only women who have been married to Banjâra men. Women of the lowest and impure castes are excluded, and for some unknown reason the Patwas [1] and Nunias are classified with these. In Nimâr it is stated that formerly Gonds, Korkus and even Balâhis [2] might become Banjâras, but this does not happen now, because the caste has lost its occupation of carrying goods, and there is therefore no inducement to enter it. In former times they were much addicted to kidnapping children. These were carried off or enticed away whenever an opportunity presented itself during their expeditions. The children were first put into the gonis or grain bags of the bullocks and so carried for a few days, being made over at each halt to the care of a woman, who would pop the child back into its bag if any stranger passed by the encampment. The tongues of boys were sometimes slit or branded with hot gold, this last being the ceremony of initiation into the caste still used in Nimâr. Girls, if they were as old as seven, were sometimes disfigured for fear of recognition, and for this purpose the juice of the marking-nut [3] tree would be smeared on one side of the face, which burned into the skin and entirely altered the appearance. Such children were known as Jângar. Girls would be used as concubines and servants of the married wifves, and boys would also be employed as servants. Jângar boys would be married to Jângar girls, both remaining in their condition of servitude. But sometimes the more enterprising of them would abscond and settle down in a village. The rule was that for seven generations the children of Jângars or slaves continued in that condition, after which they were recognised as proper Banjâras. The Jângar could not draw in smoke through the stem of the hookah when it was passed round in the assembly, but must take off the stem and inhale from the bowl. The Jângar also could not eat off the bell-metal plate of his master, because these were liable to pollution, but must use brass plates. At one time the Banjâras conducted a regular traffic in female slaves between Gujarât 4 and Central India, selling in each country the girls whom they had kidnapped in the other [4].

Dress.

Up to twelve years of age a Châran girl only wears a skirt with a shoulder-cloth tucked into the waist and carried over the left arm and the head. After this she may have anklets and bangles on the forearm and a breast-cloth. But until she married she may not have the wânkri or curved anklet, which marks that estate, nor wear bone or ivory bangles on the upper arm [5] . When she is ten years old a Labhâna girl is given two small bundles containing a nut, some cowries and rice, which are knotted to two corners of dupatta or shoulder cloth

[1] The Patwas are weavers of silk thread and the Nunias are masons and navvies.

[2] An impure caste of weavers, ranking with the Mahars.

[3] Semecarpus Anacordium.

[4] Malcolm, Memoir of Central India, ii. p.296

[5] Cumberlege, p. 16.

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and hung over the shoulder, one in front and one behind. This denotes maidenhood. The bundles are considered sacred, are always knotted to the shoulder-cloth in use, and are only removed to be tucked into the waist at the girl's marriage, where they are worn till death. These bundles alone distinguish the Labhâna from Mathuria woman. Women often have their hair hanging down beside the face in front and woven behind with silver thread into a plait down the back. This is known as Anthi, and has a number of cowries at the end. They have large bell-shaped ornaments of silver tied over the head and hanging down behind the ears, the hollow part of the ornament being stuffed with sheep's wool dyed red; and to these are attached little bells, while the anklets on the feet are also hollow and contain little stones or balls, which tinkle as they move. They have skirts, and separate short cloths drawn across the shoulders according to the northern fashion, usually red or green in colour, and along the skirt-borders, double lines of cowries are sewn. Their breast-cloths are profusely ornamented with needlework embroidery and small pieces of glass sewn into them, and are tied behind with cords of many colours whose ends are decorated with cowries and beads. Strings of beads, ten to twenty thick, threaded on horse-hair, are worn round the neck. Their favourite ornaments are cowries [1] and they have these on their dress, in their houses, and on the trappings of their bullocks. On the arms they have ten or twelve bangles of ivory, or in default of this lac, horn or coconut shell. Mr. Ball states that he was "at once struck by the peculiar costumes and brilliant clothing of these Indian gypsies. They recalled to my mind the appearance of the gypsies of the Lower Danube and Wallachia" [2]. The most distinctive ornament of a Banjâra married woman is, however, a small stick about 6 inches long made of the wood of the khair or catechu. In Nimâr this is given to a woman by her husband at marriage, and she wears it afterwards placed upright on the top of the head, the hair being wound around it and the head-cloth draped over it in a graceful fashion. Widows leave it off, but on remarriage adopt it again. The stick is known as chunda by the Banjâras, but outsiders call it singh or horn. In Yeotmâl instead of one, the women have two little sticks fixed upright in the hair .The rank of the woman is said to be shown by the angle at which she wears this horn [3] . The dress of the men presents no features of special interest. In Nimâr they usually have a necklace of coral beads, and some of them carry, slung on a thread round the neck, a tin tooth-pick and ear-scraper, while a small mirror and comb are kept in the head-cloth so that toilet can be performed anywhere. Mr. Cumberlege [4] notes that in former times all Châran Banjâras, when carrying grain for an army, placed a twig of some tree, the sacred nîm [5]

[1] Small double shell which are still used to a slight extent as a currency in backward tracts. this would seem an impossibly cumbrous method of carrying money about nowadays, but I have been informed by a comparatively young official that in his father's time change for a rupee could not be had in Chhattisgarh outside the two principal towns. As the cowries were a form of currency they were probably held sacred, and then hence sewn on to clothes as a charm, jut as gold and silver are used for ornaments.

[2] Jungle Life in India, p.516.

[3] Brewe's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable contains the following notice of horns as an article of dress: " Mr. Buckingham says of a Tyrian lady, 'She wore on her had a hollow silver horn rearing itself up obliquely from the forehead. It was some four inches in diameter at the root and pointed at the extremity. This peculiarity reminded me forcibly of the expression of the psalmist: " Lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff neck. All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted" (Ps.lxxv.5,10).' Bruce found in Abyssinia the silver horns of warriors and distinguished men. In the reign of Henry V, the horned headgear was introduced into England and from the effigy of Beatrice Countess of Arundel, at Arundel church, who is represented with the horns outspread to a great extent, we may infer that the length of the head horn, like the length of the shoe point in the reign of Henry VI etc., marked a degree of rank. To cut off such horns would be to degrade; and to exult and extend such horns would be to add honour and dignity to the wear." Webb (Heritage of Dress, p.117) writs: "Mr. Elworthy in a paper to the British Association at Ipswich in 1865 considered the crown to be a development from horns of honour. He maintained that the symbols found in the head of the gold Serapis were the elements from which were formed the composite head­dress called crown into which horns entered to a very great extent." This seems a doubtful speculation, but still it may be quite possible that the idea of distinguishing by a crown the leader of the tribe was originally taken from the antlers of the leader of the herd. The helmets of the Vikings were also, I believe, decorated with horns.

[4] Monograph, p. 40 when available, in their turban to show

[5] Melia Indica.

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that they were on the war-path; and that they would do the same now if they had occasion to fight to the death on any social matter or under any supposed grievance.

Social Customs.

The Banjâras eat all kinds of meat, including fowls and pork, and drink liquor. But the Mathurias abstain from both flesh and liquor. Major Gunthorpe states that the Banjâras are accustomed to drink before setting out for a dacoity or robbery and, as they smoke after drinking, the remains of leaf-pipes lying about the scene of action may indicate their handiwork. They rank below the cultivating castes, and Brâhmans will not take water to drink from them.. When engaged in the carrying trade, they usually lived in kuris or hamlets attached to such regular villages as had considerable tracts of wasteland belonging to them. When the tânda or caravan started on its long carrying trips, the young men and some of the women went with it with the working bullocks, while the old men and the remainder of the women and children remained to tend the breeding cattle in the hamlet. In Nimâr they generally rented a little land in the village to give them a footing, and paid also a carrying fee on the number of cattle present. Their spare time was constantly occupied in the manufacture of hempen twine and sacking, which was much superior to that obtainable in towns. Even in Captain Forsyth's [1] time (1866) the construction of railways and roads had seriously interfered with the Banjâras' calling, and they had perforce taken to agriculture. Many of them have settled in the new ryotwâri villages in Nimâr as Government tenants. They still grow tilli [2] in preference to other crops, because this oilseed can be raised without much labour or skill, and during their former nomadic life they were accustomed to sow it on any poor strip of land which they might rent for a season. Some of them are also accustomed to leaving a part of their holding untilled in memory of their former and more prosperous life. In many villages they have not yet built proper houses, but continue to live in mud huts thatched with grass. They consider it unlucky to inhabit a house with a cement or tiled roof; this being no doubt a superstition arising from their camp life. Their houses must also be built so that the main beams do not cross, but the beams may be parallel. The same rule probably governed the arrangement of tents in their camps. In Nimâr they prefer to live at some distance from water, probably that of a tank or river; and this seems to be a survival of a usage mentioned by the Abbe Dubois:[3] " Among other curious customs of this odious caste is one that obliges them to drink no water which is not drawn from springs or wells. The water from rivers and tanks being thus forbidden, they are obliged in case of necessity to dig a little hole by the side of a tank or river and take the water filtering through, which, by this means, is supposed to become spring water." It is possible that this rule may have had its origin in a sanitary precaution. Colonel Sleeman notes [4] that the Banjâras on their carrying trips preferred by-paths through jungles to the high roads along cultivated plains, as grass, wood and water were more abundant along such paths; and when they could not avoid the high roads, they commonly encamped as far as they could from villages the towns, and upon the banks of rivers and streams, with the same object of obtaining a sufficient supply of grass, wood and water. Now it is well known that the decaying vegetation in these hill streams renders the water noxious and highly productive of malaria. And it seems possible that the perception of this fact led the Banjâras to dig shallow wells by the sides of the streams for their drinking-water, so that the supply thus obtained might be in some degree filtered by percolation through the intervening soil and freed from its vegetable germs. And the custom may have grown into a taboo, its underlying reason being unknown to the bulk of them, and be still practised, through no longer necessary when they do not travel. If this explanation be corrected it would be an interesting conclusion that the Banjâras anticipated so

[1] Author of the Nimår Settlement Report.

[2] Sesamum.

[3] Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, p. 21.

[4] Report of the Badhak or Bagri Dacoits, p. 310. 86

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far as they were able the sanitary precaution by which our soldiers are supplied with portable filters when on the march.

The Nâik Or Headman Banjâra Dogs.

Each kuri (hamlet ) or tânda (caravan) had a chief or leader with the designation of Nâik, a Telugu word meaning 'lord' or 'master'. The office of Nâik [1] was only partly hereditary, and the choice also depended on ability. The Nâik had authority to decide all disputes in the community. As already seen, the Nâik received two shares if he participated in a robbery or other crime, and a fee on the remarriage of a widow outside her family and on the discovery of a witch. Another matter in which he was specially interested was pig-sticking. The Banjâras have a particular breed of dogs, and with these they were accustomed to hunt wild pig on foot, carrying spears. When a pig was killed, the head was cut off and presented to the Nâik or headman, and if any man was injured or gored by the pig in the hunt, the Nâik kept and fed him without charge until he recovered.

The following notice of the Banjâras and their dogs may be cited :[2] "They are brave and have the reputation of great independence, which I am not disposed to allow to them. The Wanjâri indeed is insolent on the road, and will drive his bullocks up against a Sâhib or any one else; but at any disadvantage he is abject enough. I remember one who rather enjoyed seeing his dogs attack me, whom he supposed alone and unarmed , but the sight of a cocked pistol made him very quick in calling them off and very humble in praying for their lives, which I spared, less for his entreaties than because they were really noble animals. The Wanjâris are famous for their dogs, of which there are three breeds. The first is a large, smooth dog, generally black, sometimes fawn-coloured, with a square heavy head, most resembling the Danish boar hound. This is the true Wanjâri dog. The second is also a large, square-headed dog, but shaggy, more like a great underbred spaniel than anything else. The third is an almost tail-less greyhound, of the type known all over India by the various names of Lât Polygar, Râmpîri, etc. They all run both by sight and scent, and with their help the Wanjâris kill a good deal of game, chiefly pigs; but I think they usually keep clear of the old fighting boars. Besides sport and their legitimate occupations the Wanjâris seldom stickle at supplementing their resources by theft, especially of cattle; and they are often suspected of infanticide."

The Banjâras are credited with great affection for their dogs, and the following legend is told about one of them: Once upon a time a Banjâra, who had a faithful dog, took a loan from a Bania (moneylender) and pledged his dog with him as security for payment. And some time afterwards, while the dog was with the moneylender, a theft was committed in his house, and the dog followed the thieves and saw them throw the property into a tank. When they went away the dog brought the Bania to the tank and he found his property. He was therefore very pleased with the dog and wrote a letter to his master, saying that the loan was repaid, and tied it round his neck and said to him, 'Now, go back to your master.' So the dog started back, but on his way he met his master, the Banjâra, coming to the Bania with the money for the repayment of the loan. And when the Banjâra saw the dog he was angry with him, not seeing the letter, and thinking he had run away, and said to him, 'Why do you come, betraying your trust?' and he killed the dog in a rage. And after killing him he found the letter and was very grieved, so he built a temple to the dog's memory, which is called the Kukurra Mandhi. And in the temple is the image of a dog. This temple is in the Drîg District, five miles from Bâlod. A similar story is told of the temple of Kukurra Math in Mandla.

[1]Colonel Mackenzie's Notes. Mr. W. F. Sinclair, C.S., in Lad. Ani. iii p. 184 (1874)

[2]Criminal Tendencies Of The Caste.

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The following notice of Banjâra criminals is taken from Major Gunthorpe's interesting account: [1] "In the Palmy days of the tribe dacoities were undertaken on the most extensive scale. Gangs of fifty to a hundred and fifty well-armed men would go long distances from their tânda or encampments for the purpose of attacking houses in villages,or treasure parties or wealthy travellers on the high roads. The more intimate knowledge which the police have obtained concerning the habits of this race, and the detection and punishment of many criminals through informers, have aided in stopping the heavy class of dacoities formerly prevalent, and their operations are now on a much smaller scale. In British territory arms are scarcely carried, but each man has a good stout stick (gedi), the bark of which is peeled off so as to make it look whitish and fresh. The attack is generally commenced by stone-throwing and then a rush is made, the sticks being freely used and the victims almost invariably struck about the head or face. While plundering, Hindustâni is sometimes spoken, but as a rule they never utter a word, but grunt signals to one another. Their loin-cloths are braced up, nothing is worn on the upper part of the body, and their faces are generally muffled. In house dacoities men are posted at different corners of streets, each with a supply of well-chosen round stones to keep off any people coming to the rescue. Banjâras are expert cattle-lifters, sometimes taking as many as a hundred head or even more at a time. This kind of robbery is usually practised in hilly or forest country where the cattle are sent to graze. Secreting themselves they watch for the herdsman to have his usual midday doze and for the cattle to stray to a little distance. As many as possible are then driven off to a great distance and secreted in ravines and woods. If questioned they answered that the animals belong to landowners and have been given into their charge to graze, and as this is done every day the questioner thinks nothing more of it. After a time the cattle are quietly sold to individual purchasers or taken to markets at a distance.

Their Virtues.

The Banjâras, however, are far from being wholly criminal, and the number who have adopted an honest mode of livelihood is continually on the increase. Some allowance must be made for their having been deprived of their former calling by the cessation of the continual wars which distracted India under native rule, and the extension of roads and railways which has rendered their mode of transport by pack-bullocks almost entirely obsolete. At one time practically all the grain exported from Chhattîsgarh was carried by them. In 1881 Mr. Kitts noted that the number of Banjâras convicted in the Berâr criminal courts was lower in proportion to the strength of the caste than that of Muhammadans, Brâhmans, Koshtis or Sunârs, [2] though the offences committed by them were usually more heinous. Colonel Mackenzie had quite a favourable opinion of them: "A Banjâra who can read and write is unknown. But their memories, from cultivation, are marvellous and very retentive. They carry in their heads, without slip or mistake, the most varied and complicated transactions and the share of each in such, striking a debtor and creditor account as accurately as the best kept ledger, while their history and ongs are all learnt by heart and transmitted orally from generation to generation. On the whole, and taken rightly in their clannish nature, their virtues preponderate over their vices. In the main they are truthful and very brave, be it in war or the chase, and once gained over are faithful and devoted adherents. With the pride of high descent and with the right that might gives in unsettled and troublous times, these Banjâras habitually lord it over the settled inhabitants of the plains. And now, not having read the warnings given by a yearly diminishing occupation, which slowly has taken their bread away, it is a bitter pill for them to sink into the ryot class or oftener still, under stern necessity to become the ryot's servant. But they are settling to their fate, and the time must come when all their peculiar distinctive marks and traditions will be forgotten".

[1] Notes on Criminal Tribes frequenting Bombay, Berår and the Central Provinces (Bombay, 1882).

[2] Berår Census Report (1881), p.151. 88

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Bansohor: -They live in Maharashtra. They make bamboo baskets, ropes, mats and chairs.

Bânsphor: -(Bâns , "bamboo," phorna , "to split"). [1] - A subcaste of doms who may be considered separately as they have been separately enumerated at the last Census. Those in Murzapur represent themselves to be immigrants from a place called Bisurpur or Birsupur in the Native State of Panna, which, according to some, is identical with Birsinhpur, a place north-west of the town of Ríwa. In Gorakhpur they call themselves Gharbâri, or "settled" Doms, in contrast to the Magahiya, or vagrant branch of the tribe. Their immigration from the west is said in Mirzapur to have commenced some four generations ago and still continues. They profess to undertake occasional pilgrimages to their old settlement to worship a local Mahâdeva. In Gorakhpur they have a story that they are the descendants of one Supach Bhagat, who was a votary of Râmchandra. He had two wives, Mân Devi and Pân Devi, the first of whom was the ancester of the Bânsphors. Like other doms, they freely admit outsiders into the caste, and this generally as the result of an intrigue with one of their women. The applicant for admission has to give a feast of rice, pulse, pord, and spirits to the brotherhood, and when he has drunk with them he is admitted to full caste rights.

Internal organization.

The sub-caste being a purely occupational offshoot from the original Dom tribe, their internal organization is rather vague. Thus at the last Census they were recorded under one main sub-caste, the Dhânuk, who, though possibly allied to the Dom race, are generally treated as distinct, and the Benbansi of Gonda. In Bhâgalpur, according to Mr. Risley, [2] They have a number of exogamous sections (pangat); but other Bânsphors on the Nepâl frontier regulate their mariages by local sections (dih); while others in the town of Bhâgalpur have neither pangat nor dih . In Mirzapur they enumerate tight exogamous sections: Mahâwati, Chamkel, Gausel, Samudra, Nahar, Kalai, Magariha, and Saraiha ; and they reinforce the rule of section exogamy prohibiting mariages with the daughter of the maternal uncle, of their father's sister, and of their own sister; also they do not intermarry with a family into which one of these relations has married, until at least one or two generations have passed. Similarly, in Hardoi, where they have no sub-castes or sections, they are reported to prohibit marriage with first cousins on both the father's and mother's sides. In Gorakhpur they name, like so many castes of this social grade, seven endogamous sub-castes: Bânsphor; Mangta, or "begging" Doma; Dharkâr, which has been treated as a separate caste; Nâtak, or dancers; Tasiha; Halâlkhor, one to whom all food is lawful; and Kînchbandhiya, or makers of the brushes used by weavers for cleaning the thread.

Tribal Council.

The Bânsphors on the whole agree with the customs of the Doms and Dhardars, of whom an account has been sepatately given; but, as might be expected from their living a more settled life than the vagrant Doms, they are more completely Hinduised. Their caste council, under a hereditary president (Chaudhari), is a very powerful and influential body, the members of which are, however, only advisors to the president, who, after consultation with them, gives any orders he pleases. If a man is caught in an intrigue with a Dhobin or Domin he is permanently excommunicated, and the same rule applies to a women detected in an amour with a man of either of these castes. Intrigues with persons of more respectable castes involve expulsion only until the necessary feasts of expiation are given to the brethren. In addition to the feast, the offender has always, in Mirzapur, to pay a cash fine of one-and-a-quarter rupees. Monogamy is the rule, but there is no restriction against a man having as many

[1] See Crooke Based on enquiries at Mirzapur, and notes received through Mr. W. Hocy, C. S., Gorakhpur, and Bâbu Sînwal Dâs, hardoi.

[2] Tribes and Castes , I, 60.

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wives as he can marry and support. Concubinage with a woman of another caste is prohibited, and the caste look on the very idea of polyandry with such horror that it is more than doubtful it could ever have been a tribal institution. If an unmarried girl is detected in an intrigue with a clansman she is married to him by order of the council, and her father has to give a dinner to the brethren. When a married woman offends in this way, both her husband and father have to give a feast; but, as among all these tribes, inter-tribal infidelity is lightly regarded; a woman is not condemned except on the actual evidence of eye­witnesses.

Marriage rules. Marriage takes place usually in infancy; and, in Mirzapur, if a girl is not married by the time she comes to puberty, her parents are put out of caste. Marriages are arranged by the brother-in-law of the boy's father, and the bride-price is fixed in Mirzapur by tribal custom at four-and-a-quarter rupees, four annas being added as siwâi for good luck. If a wife habitually commits adultery, eats with a low-caste person, or give her husband food in an impure dish, she is put away with the sanction of the council. A woman is allowed to leave her husband only if he be put out of caste. It is said, in Murzapur, that a divorced wife cannot marry again. This is true, so far as that she cannot go through the regular service which is restricted to virgin brides; but she can live with a man by the sagâi form, and the connetion, after it has been ratified by a feast, is binding, and her children are legitimate. Widows are married by the sagâi , or dharauna form, generally to a widower, and their children are recognised as heirs. The only ceremony is that the husband gives the woman a new suit of clothes, which are put on her inside the house at night, in secret, and he then eats with the family of his father-in-law. The next day he takes his bride home, and feeds his clansmen, on which the union is recognised. The levirate prevails under the usual restrictions. Even if a widow be taken over by the younger brother, her children by the first marriage inherit the estate of the of their father. A man may adopt his brother's, or daughter's son, but not that of his sister. A woman can adopt if there be no one in her husband's family to support her.

Birth ceremonies.

In their birth ceremonies the Bânsphors resemble the Dharkârs. The mother, during her confinement is, in Mirzapur, attended by a woman of the Basor caste. There is no rite performed on the sixth day, and the mother is impure until the twelfth day (barahi). They have the usual dread of the menstrual and parturition impurity. On the twelfth day a hog is sacrificed to the deceased ancestors of the family, and the brethren eat the flesh boiled with rice. The woman has to worship the well from which water is drawn for the use of the family by walking five times around it in the course of the sun and marking it with red lead. A man does not cohabit with his wife for two months after her confinement. The only approach to a puberty ceremony is the ear-boring, which takes place at the age of three or five, but in some cases is delayed to a later date, and it marks a movement to Hinduism that they ask the Pandit to fix a lucky time for its perfromance. From that time the child is regarded as a member of the tribe and must conform to caste usages regarding food.

Marriage.

In the same way the Pandit draws auspices (ganana ganna ) of marriages. The betrothal is settled by the father of the boy exchanging with the girl's father a leaf platter full of liquor in which a rupee is placed, and the brother-in-law of the bridegroom ties a turban on the head of the bride's father. The marriage ceremony resembles that of Dharkârs (q. v.). It is preceded by the matmangara ceremony. The earth is dug by the bridegroom's mother, who offers a burnt sacrifice (Homa) to the village deities (dih). In the center of the marriage shed (mânro) is fixed up a branch of the fig tree (gîlar) and the cotton tree (semal). The usual anointing precedes the marriage. The bride's nails are solemnly cut (nahchhu) and her feet are coloured with lac (mahâwar). The usual waving ceremony (parachhan) is done with a pestle (mîsar). At the bride's door her father makes a mark (líka) on the forehead of the bridegroom with rice and curds. The bride's father washes the feet of the birde and

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bridegroom in a square in the court-yard. They sit facing east, and the bride's father worships the fig tree branch, and then, in imitation of Hindus, Gauri and Ganesa. Then holding some kusa grass in his hand he formally gives away the bride (kanyâdâna). The clothes of the pair are knotted together, and they walk five times round the fig and cotton branches, while at each revolution the girl's brother sprinkles a little parched rice into a sieve which the bridegroom holds. this he scatters on the ground, and the ceremony ends by the bridegroom marking the girl's head with red lead, which is the binding portion of the ceremony. Then they go into the retiring room (kohabar), where jokes are played on the bridegroom, and he receives a present from his mother-in-law. As is usual with these tribes, they have the ceremony of plunging the wedding jars (kalsa dubâna) into water a day or two after the wedding.

Death ceremonies.

The dead are cremated, except young children or those who die of epidemic diseases, whose bodies are thrown into a river or buried. After the cremation they chew leaves of the ním tree as a mark of mourning. The death pollution lasts ten days, during which the mourner every night lays out a platter of food on the road by which the corpse was removed. On the tenth day the chief mourner throws five lumps of rice (pinda) boiled in milk (khír) into water in the name of the dead, and, on returning home, sacrifices a hog in the name of the deceased, which is boiled with rice and eaten by the clansmen. No Brâhmans are employed at any of these ceremonies. In the festival of the dead (pitripaksha) in Kuâr they pour water on the ground every day for fifteen days in honour of deceased ancestors; and on the ninth day they offer cakes (pîri), sweet rice(bakhír), and pork to their ancestors. These are laid out in the court-yard for their use. On the fifteenth day they offer rice, pulse, bread, and pork, if obtainable, in the same way. Any senior member of the family presents the offering.

Religion.

Their chief deity in Mirzapur is the Vindhyâbâsini Devi, of Bindhâchal, whom they worship on the ninth day of Chait, with hogs, goats, cakes (pîri), and pottage (lapsi ). They honour the village gods (dih) with the sacrifice of a hog or goat; butter, barley, and treacle are burnt in a fire offering. On the fifth day of Sâwan they lay milk and parched rice near a snake's hole. They respect the pípal tree, and will not cut or injure it. In Gorakhpur they worship Kâlika and Samai. The former is worshipped at marriages, child-birth, etc., with and offering of a young pig, one-and-a-quarter jars of liquor, flowers, and ground rice boiled in treacle and milk (pithi). To Samai is offered a yearling pig. Maidens and widows married by the Sagâi form are not permitted to join in this worship, which takes place in a corner of the house set apart for the purpose. They do not employ Brâhmans in their domestic ceremonies, which are carried out by some old man (syâna ) of the family. In Hardoi their tribal deity is Kâla Deo, whose image is painted on the wall of the house, and worshipped at any event, such as marriage, birth, etc., in the family. They also sometimes sacrifice a goat or sheep to Devi, and the worshippers consume the offerings. Their holidays are the Phagua or Holi, at which they get drunk and eat choice food; the Râmmaumi, of the ninth of Chait, when they worship the Vundhyabâsini Devi; the Tíj, on the third of Sâwan, when women pray for the long life of their husbands, and the Kajari, on the third of Bhâdon, when women get drunk, and all rules of sexual morality are ignored. In Hardoi, on the Karwa Chauth feast, the women fast and worship the moon by pouring water out of an earthen pot (karwa), whence comes the name of the restival. At the Guriya feast girls make dolls of rags, which are beaten with sticks by boys on the banks of a tank. The dolls are believed to represent snakes, and the feast is in commemoration of the destruction of serpents by Garuda. They worship the dead by laying out food in seven leaf platters and letting the children or crows eat it. They have a great respect for the village shrine, and never dare to tread on the pieces of earthenware horses, etc., with which it is decorated. They also, as is shown in the birth ceremonies, worship wells. The sainted dead specially delight in the flavour of pork, and give trouble if not honoured with this sacrifice.

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Social customs. Women wear in the ears the ornaments known as utarna and karnphîl , bead necklaces (kharkauwa ), and bangles (chîri) on the arms : anklets (pairi), and brass rings on their fingers. Boys and girls have two names, one for ordinary use and one kept secret. They swear on the sun or the heads of their children. Those who break an oath become smitten with leprosy or lose their property. Disease, generally due to demon possession, is treated by the Ojha, who is also called in cases of the Evil-eye. they will not eat beef, nor touch a Dom, Dhobi, the wife of a younger brother, the wife of the elder brother-in-law, or the wife of their sister's son. They will not mention their eldest son by his name. To do so is regarded a sin. They eat pork, fowls, goats, and other animals, but not the cow, monkey, alligator, snake, lizard, jackal, or rat. Men eat before women. They salute their caste men in the form "Râm! Râm!"

Occupation.

Women work as ordinary day-labourers, but their business is making fans, baskets, and boxes of bamboo. Some work as sweepers and remove night-soil. No other caste will touch food or water from their hands.

Barwâr: -A notorious criminal tribe found in Northern Oudh [1]. There is much difference of opinion as to the meaning of the word. According to one theory it means "a bearer of burdens" (bârwâla ); according to others it comes from the Hindi Baryara in the sense of "violent."

Traditional Origin.

The story the Barwârs tell of themselves is as follows: Some centuries ago the ancestor of the tribe, a Kurmi by caste, lived at the village of Yahyapur, which is said to be situated in the Sâran District, east of the river Nârâyani. One day he was ploughing his field near the river when the wife of a rich Mahâjan came down to bathe. She took off her pearl necklace and stepped into the water. A kite swooped down, and, carrying it off, dropped it in the field where the Kurmi was ploughing. When he saw the treasure he began to think that it was easier to live by thieving than by farming. From that time his prosperity increased, and his clan became known as Suvarna or golden. They began then to be known as Barwâr or men of violence. It happened one day that a Kingariya or Nat musician attended the death ceremony of a Barwâr at Yahyapur, and was given an empty purse as a present by the relatives of the deceased. By chance the Kingariya came to the village where the purse with two gold coins had been stolen. the owner recognized it; and after enquiries proving that the theft had been committed by the Barwârs, they were expelled from Yahyapur. After this they divided into two sections. One went to Basti, in the North-Western Provinces, and settled at Barauli, which is four miles west of Basti. The other gang went to Hardoi, in Oudh, and settled there. After their arrival in Hardoi they were given the name of Gânjar, which is said to mean "hoarders," and by which they are still known. In Barauli the Barwârs lived for some two centuries, and supported themselves by thieving. At last, one day, they robbed the camp of the Râja of Basti, and he had them expelled from his territory. They then came to Gonda and settled at Dhanipur, thirteen miles north of Gonda. They now occupy fifty-four villages in the Gonda District. They were again at one time forced to change their quarters by the influence of a money-lender named Sobha Sukl, whose name is still held in abhorrence among them. Another legend makes the Barwârs to be the descendants of a woman of low caste named Goli, by a Kurmi father. There seems nothing improbable in the story that they are a branch of the Kurmis, who separated from the parent stock either owing to their bad character or for some other reason. That much is admitted on all sides. The

[1] See Crooke. Based chiefly on Notes by Mirza Ihfân Ali Beg, Deputy Collector, in charge of the tribe, and a report (date and author not given) entitled "Etymology (sic ) of the Barwârs of Gonda and the Sanaurhiyas of Nagpur .'

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Barwârs, in former times, were certainly in the habit of recruiting their numbers by kidnapping young children of various castes. These became a separate class known either as Ghulâm, an Arabic term meaning "slave," or Tahla, a Hindi word meaning "one who walks about in attendance," "a follower." In contrast to this servile class, the pure Barwâr calls himself Swâng, which in their slang means "Master." It would appear that the recruitment of these Ghulâms has ceased in recent years, and that the pure Barwârs and the Ghulâms no longer intermarry. While the custom prevailed among the Gonda branch, the other divisions of the tribe would not intermarry with them. At present it is said that they neither give their daughters in marriage nor take girls from the Ghulâms, who have become themselves an endogamous section. Below the Ghulâms again is another section known as Tilâms or Talâms, who are the descendants of children kidnapped by the Ghulâms. These ostracised Ghulâms and Tilâms are the only members who have been as yet allowed by the tribe to enlist in the Police force. Ghulâms will eat food prepared by Barwârs, but the latter will not touch a dish prepared by the former. Male Ghulâms and Tilâms both get their equal share of plunder from the thieving gangs they join. A dowry is given with the Ghulâm bride, but not with the bridegroom. The Tilâms possess the same privileges in every way as their kidnappers, the Ghulâms. The Ghulâms are still believed occasionally to seduce girls of other castes, such as Brâhmans, Chhatris, Kurmis, Ahírs and Kahârs. These are received and adopted into the community. The more respectable Barwârs are also known as Thakuriya in Gonda.

Marriage Rules.

The marriage of two sisters is permitted, provided the elder sister is married before the younger. The custom of exchanging girls in marriage does not prevail among them. The bride is admitted into the family of her husband without any special ceremony: but it is significant that every Barwâr, on marrying, is obliged to give to the landlord four hundred betel leaves or the equivalent value in money, which looks as if it were a commutation of the jus primae noctis , if it be not one of the ordinary dues levied by a landlord on his tenants. They may take two wives at one time. the favourite wife for the time being rules the household. Concubinage with women of the tribe is allowed; polyandry is prohibited. Marriage is both adult and infant. Divorce is permitted in case of infidelity on the part of the woman. The husband merely assembles the clansmen, and announces to them the fact of the divorce. Divorced wives cannot be re-married; but they may be kept as concubines by other men in the caste. They have a peculiar rule of inheritance by which the property is divided, half going to the children of the regularly married wife or wives, and the other half to the children of the concubines, provided they belong to the Barwâr caste. The offspring of a woman of a strange tribe have no rights of inheritance. When a pure Barwâr marries or keeps a woman of another caste he is excommunicated and sinks to the rank of a Ghulâm. Illicit intrigues within the caste are also punished by expulsion; but the offending parties can be restored on giving a tribal feast. Widow marriage is allowed. The only ceremony is that the man puts a set of bangles (chîri ) on the woman and feeds the community. The levirate is permitted, not enforced, and the widow may, if she pleases, accept an outsider. In such cases she loses the right of guardianship over the children of the first marriage, and has no rights of succession to the estate of her first husband.

Birth Ceremonies.

The mother is attended by a woman of the Kori caste, who acts as midwife. She attends for five days and then the barber's wife acts as nurse for eight days. On the twelfth day after a birth the father purchases spirits and treats the brotherhood, and puts silver and gold ornaments on the child. This is supposed to bring luck in thieving. If a Barwâr fails to bring home plunder he is taunted by his comrades that his father did not perform the twelfth-day ceremony. If a child is thus initiated, he gets his share of the spoil; but if born after the Dasahra of Jeth he does not share till the next Dasahra of Kuâr. Similarly, during the rainy season, each man keeps his own plunder and has to share only with those who are incapacitated from thieving by blindness, old age, or some physical defect. But, as a rule,

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they seldom thieve in the rains from the Dasahra of Jeth to the Dasahra of Kuâr; and after the latter date the partnership of the whole community is revived, and every soul becomes entitled to a share in the spoil whether he goes on a thieving excursion or remains at home. Widows and women who live in retirement get no share; but if a Barwâr is in prison his share goes to his wife.

Betrothal.

The girl's father goes with some friends to the house of the boy, and pays his father a couple of rupees. He entertains his guests and sends to the bride some curds, fish, sweetmeats and a bottle of liquor. This settles the betrothal. This generally takes place when the girl is between three and seven.

Marriage Ceremonies.

The marriage ceremonies begin with the lagau or fixing of the wedding day, which is carried out in the ordinary way. The actual ceremonies are of the usual type. The binding portions of the ritual are the kanyâdân or the giving away of the bride, the pairpîja, or worship of the feet of the bridegroom by his future father-in-law, and the bhanwar, or walking of the pair around the sacred fire.

Funeral Ceremonies.

The young are buried; adults are cremated, or the corpse is thrown into a river. After the cremation is over, they bathe and then plant a piece of kusâ grass in the ground to act as a refuge for the spirit until the funeral rites are completed. The man who fired the pyre pours water on this for nine days; on the tenth day he is shaved on the eleventh the Mahâbrâhmans are feasted; on the twelfth day the friends and relatives are fed; on the thirteenth the Brâhmans are fed. After this, one Brâhman is fed for a year on the day of each month when the death occurred. On the anniversary there is a feast, and at this the family priest (purohit) receives five articles of clothes: a jacket (angarkha); a loin cloth (dhoti); a turban (sâfa); a sheet (châdar); bedding (bistar); and five cooking utensils: a pot(lota), a tray (thâli), a cooking pot (batloi), tongs (dastpanah), and a spoon (karchhul). Besides these things he gets a cot (chârpâi); wooden sandals (kharaun); a pair of shoes (jîta); and a stool (pírha). When the corpse cannot be found, the ceremonies are performed on an effigy made of barley and Sânwan .

Religion.

Their special deity is Bhâgawati. The household sacrifice is held on the third or fifth day of the first half of Bhâdon, when the master sacrifices a fowl and bakes thin cakes called lubra . These, with cooked gram, are given to a Muhammadan beggar as an offering to the Pânch Pír. They make an annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Bâla Pír, at Bahrâich, and offer a banner. They also worship Devi-Bhawâni; but in their depredations spare only the tomb at Bahrâich and the temple at Jagannath. When a goat is sacrificed to Bhâgawati, the head is given to a gardener (mâli), and the rest of the meat is eaten by the worshippers. Sometimes a pumpkin (lauki) is substituted for a goat.

Festivals.

They observe all the ordinary Hindu festivals, and also some which are not so common- the Bahura on the fourth light half of Bhâdon, when the girls eat curdled milk and cucumbers; on the Barka Itwâr or "great Sunday," the last Sunday of Bhâdon, they fast and drink milk at night; on the Sakat Chauts, or fourth light half of Mâgh, they eat sweet potatoes, sesamum, and new raw sugar. No spirits or intoxicating drugs of any kind are used at the Barka Itwâr, but at the other festivals they are freely consumed.

Omens.

Omens are highly regarded on their expeditions. Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday are lucky days, and sometimes Thursday. The ass is a lucky animal, and so is a dead body met on the

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road, a washerman, a woman, or a Pandit. Tuesday is, however, regarded by some as an unlucky day, and a jackal, a Gusâín, an oilman, are also unlucky. A jackal or fox crossing the road from right to left is lucky the reverse is unlucky. When they go out to thieve they prefer to wear good clothes and a turban. When children are unhealthy they are given opprobrious names as a protection.

Taboos.

When worship is being done to keep off evil spirits, children are not allowed to be present, any intercourse between the husband's father and the wife's relations is taboo. The husband does not name his wife, and vice versâ . A father will not call his eldest son by his name, nor a disciple his Guru.

Social Rules. They eat the flesh of sheep and goats; they reject fowls, and will eat fish. Flesh of monkeys, beef, pork, crocodiles, snakes, jackals, rats, or other vermin are not eaten. Spirits are freely drunk; they will eat the leftovers of no one but a parent. Men and women eat apart. Before they eat they say Jay Thâkurji , "Glory to the Lord!" To Brâhmans they use the salutation Pâ lagan , to Banyas, Kalwârs, etc., Râm ! Râm !; Sâdhs Pranâm and Namaskâr; to Gusâíns Nâmonârâyan ; to Aughars, Dandivat , Elders bless their juniors with Jiyo , "Long may you live." Juniors say to their seniors Pâ lagan . Those who are equal in rank say Râm ! Râm ! .

Occupation.

Of those who have been brought under the Criminal Tribes Act some are cultivators and some field labourers. Like the Sanaurhiyas, they do not commit dacoity, theft with burglary, theft at night, or cattle-lifting. The Sanaurhiya leaders are known as Nal, and those of the Barwârs, Sahua. The leaders of the Barwârs enjoy no rights or privileges from their zamíndârs, unlike the Sanaurhiyas. The Barwârs consult astrologers and go on predatory expeditions after the Dasahra; the Sanaurhiyas after the Diwâli. Among the Sanaurhiyas, if any one renounce the profession of thieving, he is debarred from marrying in the caste, but a Barwâr under similar circumstances is debarred only from a share in the booty. The Sanaurhiyas associate with the children of any caste, even Chamârs, but the Barwârs jealously exclude outsiders. The Sanaurhiya gangs consist of not less than forty or fifty men; those of the Barwârs form twenty to fifty. The Sanaurhiyas teach their children thieving, and punish them if they forget their slight of hand; but the Barwârs leave their children to learn for themselves. The Sanaurhiyas have an umpire called Nahri, who settles disputes and divides the plunder. This is not the case with the Barwârs. The Sanaurhiyas administer oaths to each other to prevent misappropriation of stolen property; the Barwârs do not do this, but excommunicate the offender. The Sanaurhiyas go in for zamíndâri and cultivation, of which the Barwârs do little. In emergencies the leader is expected to feed his gang; but he usually stays at home and looks after the families, and whatever property is acquired is left to the Sahua or actual commander to be divided. The Sahua is generally a Barwâr, but he may be A Brâhman or Râjput, and is often the headman of the Village. Another official is the Dhebra or Naliha (a term also applied to a Barwâr who gives up thieving and is excommunicated). He carries a spade, a knife, or dagger, and some leaf-platters, on which he serves meals to the gang. He receives three rupees per mensem in addition to his share of the spoil. He does not join in thieving. Some go out in smaller gangs, and these are usually more successful than those who go in large bodies. If a single Barwâr brings in plunder he keeps it for himself, and any articles of clothing he acquires are his own at whatever season he gets them. During the rains they engage in drinking and amusement and do not work, the house and farm work being done by the women. A Barwâr who hoards property which should go to the gang is called Kabkatta. If he readily surrenders his spoils he is known as Khiliya . One who holds an influential position in the community is called Jîsar, and one who, from poverty, is obliged to take service is called Rih. A person in ordinary circumstances is Rotikhâha. If within a year a Barwâr does not secure property of some value he does not return home for shame. Each man has a bag of netting secured at both ends with

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a strong cotton string. It is kept tied to the waist and holds jewelry and valuables. It is so carefully concealed that it often escapes detection. The slang phrase for the mode of tying this bag is langri bigâna . The women are usually employed in service with the village zamíndârs, and receive very petty remuneration. If a Barwâr is dissatisfied or suspects misappropriation on the part of his Sahua, he can leave his gang or can discharge his Dhebra from his service, provided in the month of Asârh he clears up accounts with both Sahua and Dhebra.

Morality.

As might have been expected, when the women are left to themselves for a large part of the year adultery is very prevalent. If a woman is detected in a lonely or retired place or in a field or jungle in sexual intercourse with a man, whether it be coerced or by consent, no Barwâr will take offence at it, nor will the woman be excluded from the brotherhood, and a child born in adultery is not considered illegitimate, but admitted to all rights and privileges as if it were legitimate. But if detected otherwise in the act of adultery, both the woman and her paramour are excommunicated, and are re-admitted only after giving a feast to the community.

Modes Of Theft.

When they get booty, they return in November or December. When they go to a fair they always sojourn in the vicinity and some dress as devotees, Brâhmans, Mahâjans, soldiers, tradesmen, etc. Some mark their foreheads, wear the Brâhmanical thread, wear the dress, beads, etc., of learned Brâhmans, and shave their beards and moustaches. They generally keep a brass vessel with a string tied to it, and a stone pot tied up in a cloth. They generally go about with some meal or dry grain in a bag and a stick in their hands. Thus they stroll about in a simple, dejected way intended to evoke compassion. When interrogated, they claim to be Brâhmans or Râjputs, and when arrested call themselves Kurmis, Bâris, or Tamolis, and say that they are going on a pilgrimage to some famous shrine. They never divulge their real names. When they see valuable goods in a shop they pretend to barter or buy. If they observe the shop-keeper to be suspicious, they say Biroh hai budah rahé deo , "He is on his guard; let him alone." When they conceal some article and say Buthahr hai khokar, pherai kar laé,- "The shop keeper is suspicious; take off the booty," then those who are near snatch up the article and run away, while those who are at the shop pretend to disagree about the bargain and leave. If a Barwâr wishes to call his friends to his aid he waves his handkerchief, or puts as many fingers to his cheek as he wants Barwârs to help him. At this signal those in the neighbourhood collect. When he wishes his confederate to carry off an article he puts his hand on his neck. In fact they have a more complete signs language than any other thieving fraternity. When a Barwâr sees a man bathing with his clothes on the bank he puts his own bundle of rags close to it and changes his articles for it. Sometimes another Barwâr assists, and in this case the signal is Teri¡ âi dâl ,-"Leave your own bundle and take his." For a single garment the signal is Roto,-"Leave your own cloth and take his." Whenever they see a crowd and property scattered in different places two of them join the crowd, while a third keeps watch. The signal is Anchri sahâike chânsi râg lâi ,-"Throw the covering of your sheet over the property and make off with it." They tell how a soldier once concealed some jewelry under his shield and sat upon it. A Barwâr with studied inadvertence dropped two gold coins hear him, and as the soldier stretched out his hand to seize them a confederate carried off the jewels. Another plan is to get up a mock fight among themselves in a bâzâr, under cover of which thefts are committed. The Barwâr women also frequent fairs like Ajudhya, Devi Pâtan etc., and in rich dresses attend shrines and rob the worshippers. They also adopt the disguise of Brâhman women, and thus gaining admission to the private apartments of native ladies, commit depredations. Barwârs freely use the railway, and fob travellers.

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Disposal Of The Booty. Formerly they always used to take the stolen property home; but this has been in a great measure discontinued, since the police began to make searches and the tribe has come under special supervision. Some is left with accomplices in the chief places frequented by them. With some they come home after sunset, and sleep that night at their houses, and the next day make it over to the Sahua for distribution. First a deduction is made of 3 3/4 percent.- 1 1/4 for Mahâbír or Hanumân, 1 1/4 for Deviji. Out of the remainder, 28 percent is made over to the Barwâr who stole the property, and the balance is equally divided among the whole clan, including the thief himself. Out of the 28 percent paid to the thief, the Sahua appropriates half, and also receives his own share as a member of the gang. Thus the gains of the thief and Sahua are equal. It is also a rule that if a Barwâr returns with gold Muhars the Sahua pays him R 12 for each, and retains them himself. The rate is the same whatever the value of the coin may be, and this R 12 is divided. Again, for silver bullion the Sahua pays only 10 annas for each coin. Cloth and arms are the property of the thief. As to coral beads, one-sixth is given to the thief and five-sixths to the Sahua, who pays one anna for each bead; and this sum is divided among the clan, including the thief and the Sahua. For pearls, the Sahua pays R 1-4-0 for each lot of 24, and the sum is divided. Then when the spoils are divided, the Sahua produces his account and charges from R1-S-0 to R1-12-0 for each rupee he has advanced to the thief's family during his absence. For any balance due the Sahua takes a bond for a year at 100 percent. All Barwârs are always in debt to the Sahua. The zamíndârs of villages in which Barwârs live extract form them a poll-tax of R1-8-0 per head, known as subhâi , and 3 percent , on the value of property known as chaunâi . They also get R1 per house known as mînr-ginni. Besides this, the zamíndâr gets presents after a successful raid, and on special occasions or births, marriages, etc., in his family. This tribute is known as kavaila . In the same way the zamíndír takes fees for bailing a Barwâr. This account has been mainly taken from a report prepared shortly after the Mutiny on the methods of the Barwârs. Their criminality has much diminished since they have been brought under the Criminal Tribes Act; but the details are so interesting from an ethnographical point of view that they deserve mention.

Thieves' Patois Of The Barwârs.

The following list has been prepared by M. Karam Ahmad, Deputy Collector of Gonds, with the assistance of the police officers at present in charge of the tribe. It would be easy to show that many or most of the words are corrupted Hindi:-

Sahua- the leader of a gang.

Dhebra- the attendant of a gang.

Kabkatta- a man who conceals part of the property.

Khiliya, Nalhiya- a man who faithfully gives up all he steals.

Jîsara- a rich Barwâr.

Rih, Sajurha- one who works for wages.

Roti khâha- one in ordinary circumstances.

Langri bigâna- to tie a purse round the waist.

Nal budâna- to fix a lucky day for a journey.

Phânr chhîrna- to put on the Brâhmanical thread.

Lît âi ao khankhur âte hain- clear out; the police are coming.

Bhînk âi âo- disperse.

Langri lagâo- conceal the goods in your belt.

Wahi tir mâl dabâva hai- let us go where there is much to gain.

Akauti na kurais- don't betray your companions.

Murih ka asrâi deo- I am caught; give up hope for me.

Mâti lai- roll on the ground.

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Chhâwa kuchâyo na nehti na kíno, nahín tau uthai jâo gâj- do not reveal anything or you will be put to death.

Anchari sahâike châns râg lâe- throw your sheet over the goods and escape.

Pohina hai khâli lâi na- let us dig the property from the ground.

Pohina hai khâli lâi na- let us dig the property from the ground.

Subâi- tax paid by the Barwârs to the zamíndâr.

Chaunâi- tax paid on value of stolen property.

Mînr ginni-house- tax paid by Barwârs.

Kavaila- presents given to zamíndârs at marriages.

Namut- man.

Bân- woman.

Bahub- Barwâr man.

Bahuban- Barwâr woman.

Kiryâr- son.

Chhâwa- grandson.

Tiryâr- boy of another tribe.

Dhîchar- old man.

Dhîchari- old woman.

Chhâi- Barwâr's

Kîsar- Brâhman.

Tenwâr- Râjput.

Phairu- Musulmân.

Chorka- British officer.

Baijarâi- a Râja.

Sahâjan- a merchant.

Muskâr- a Kâyasth.

Sîgha- a goldsmith.

Savat- a Bhât.

Kitiha- a blacksmith.

Lîdukha- a confectioner.

Kârikha- a torch-bearer.

Maskâta- a barber.

Chipta- an oil-man.

Matiha- a potter.

leduha- a Kurmi or Lodha.

Sisuha- a washerman.

Bamâr- a sweeper; tanner; shoe-maker.

Suldaha- a bearer.

Guvaha- a cowherd.

Benu- a tailor.

pîtaha- a liquor seller.

Aluhya- beggar.

Satîrya- a dancing girl.

Benâri- prostitute.

Lumit- a Kurmi or Barwâr.

Bisni- valuable property.

Guga- various kinds of Barwârs.

Pachhâdha- " " ".

Auhiriya- " " ".

Udh- " " ".

Ruh- a poor Barwâr.

Siyâhi- a money-changer.

Kula dhânsu- officer in charge of a police station.

Nahkiar- a head police officer.

Churga- a constable.

Chuktahwa- a peon.

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Bingar- a slave.

Pân- one acquainted with the Barwâr language.

Bantikhat- a handsome woman.

Karchhi- a cowry.

Beng- pice; a Barwâr's fees.

Chikain- a gold Muhar .

Bikâsu- four annas.

Telahi- eight annas.

Kinâra- ten or fifteen rupees.

Sît- twenty rupees.

Bhíta bhâri- one hundred rupees.

Audh durgani- fifty or five hundred rupees.

Bajâr- a thousand rupees.

Ganda- twenty-four rupees.

Kajari- night.

Kaira- a garden

Díp- day.

Nehâi- a fair; collection of people.

Dari- a highway.

Bepur- an unfrequented road.

Butahar- simple, careless.

Birah- wide awake.

Mudhar- not on guard.

Thîk- a gang.

Tikhurki- valuable things.

Ghavar- an army.

Chhulu- be silent.

Bel- head.

Bîl- face.

Chandrukh- eyes.

Pâul- hand.

Sunghni- nose.

Gavana- shoe, foot.

Lutakha- breast.

Thâru- grove, timber.

Chanduph- wood.

Sukhar- river.

Laupju- water, fish.

Keli- fire.

Bhâbhi- box, well, pit.

Sonra- chair, stool.

Tinra- bundle.

Basuth- book.

Benâcha- looking-glass.

Gudars- shrine, bathing place.

Sunrhi- boat, elephant.

Nât- temple.

Pheru swâmi- mosque.

Belâcha- Hindu temple.

Songala- European bungalow.

Mâr- dwelling-house.

Chivâri- thatch, cot.

Sullu- gate,

Aijhâpu- priest.

Kalhâri- wheeled carriage.

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Dehânu- bribe.

Chikâri- cattle.

Putâi- lamp.

Kunkhar- village watchman.

Chânsu, khalna, Milavi- theft.

Lenin- plunder.

Uthai dâlna- to murder.

Tipaha- murder by poison.

Khurkana- kidnapping of children.

Kailiyâna- arson.

Bumv- riot.

Jhumni- flogging.

Chamgaya- imprisonment.

Díp- term of imprisonment.

Benbi- cohabitation.

Urso- comfortable sleep.

Gudhana - to eat.

Gânth- to drink.

Díb- to sit.

Nusi- to plunder.

Phona baikali- to dig property out of the ground.

Lutiâna- to come hastily.

Bhaunkana- to leave the road.

Debidina- to conceal stolen property.

Gainjai lâna- to call up the whole gang.

Kachhana- to be afraid of.

Patâkhu- a gun.

Dharâr- a sword or other weapon.

Khopuri- a shield.

Unâva- corn.

Churki- milk, butter.

Pitâri- pepper.

Phurvâni- garlic, onion.

Lang- meal.

Dutar- intoxicating liquor.

Bhagâvati- meat.

Chupra- butter, oil.

Pharoti- pickles, vegetables.

Rasosi- salt.

Gurni- rice, bread, and pulse.

Lingi- parched grain.

Digna- to smoke and chew tobacco.

Lurhi- a camel.

Phînk- bullock, a buffalo.

Nikílha, Dautâra- a horse.

Chukarahwa- a mule or ass.

Sînha- a tiger, a wolf.

Nemi- a ship, a goat,

Sithâi- sweetmeats.

Bakalsithâi- coarse sweetmeats.

Sethar- pearls, precious stones.

Chuksar- silver.

Rih- copper.

Sul, Bakhil- bell metal.

Dharârwâla- Iron.

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Phoridata- corn.

Kharâi dâlna- to sell stolen property.

Nikra- gold and silver ornaments.

Phîdiha- pearl or coral necklace.

Sunhi, Banthi- gold bead necklace.

Tungani- nose ring.

Betâl- gold necklace.

Tevaki- a bangle.

gulchimmi, Putpata- an ear ornament.

Gîna- a wrist ornament.

Bisendhi- metal plates, etc.

Chunti- a lota.

Bugna- a tub.

Dagana- a hookah.

Ghaigha- a large metal vessel.

Biguli- a metal dish.

Kadenla- a vessel

Munhlagani- grass.

Bhambhi- a bucket.

Kaili- a metal box.

chihu- a large metal pot.

Bijra- cloth.

Lamaicha- apparel.

Phutkan- a turban or waistband.

Chappar- a sheet.

Dîna, Agasi- a cap.

Tilauthi- a waist cloth.

Sirki, Sulga- a small cloth worn over the head.

Padangarer- trousers.

Banri- a woman's head dress.

Salaicha- a woollen carpet.

Datta- a handkerchief.

Murghumana- a petticoat.

Thâphu, baklas- a quilt.

Tikhuri- rich clothes.

Selva- a small bag.

Kulahi- a large bag for cash.

Basíth- a bundle of cloth.

Davaiwâla- a carpet.

Chín- brocade.

Bambu- tents.

Sînvi- a double shawl.

Betachha- an umbrella.

Rutika- gold and silver articles.

Lugra- money offered to the gods.

Barwâr: -A sect of Râjputs of whom Mr. Carnegy writes [1 ]"They are said to be an offshoot of the Bais, and to have come from Dundiyakhera, about three hundred years ago, under two leaders, Baryâr Sinh, from whom they take their name, and Châhu Sinh, whence comes the Châhu clan. These two brothers were imprisoned by the Emperor Akbar at Delhi. The elder of the two brothers, during his incarceration, had a dream at night in which he saw

[1] Faisâbad Settlement Report , 280, sq. 1

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a diety who announced himself as Kariya Deota, and promised them deliverance and future greatness, and at the same time pointed out the spot where his effigy was buried in the earth. Soon after, on their release, they sought for and found the effigy and carried it off to the village of Chitâwan in Pargana Pachhimrâth, where they set it up as the object of their domestic adoration, and where it is still worshipped by both branches. Their sacred place is Râmghât at Begamganj, which was selected by their chieftain, Dilâsi Sinh, in consequence of their being excluded form Ajudhya by the enmity of the Sîrajbansi Thâkurs. Another account makes them an offshoot of the Bais who came form Mîngipâtan or Parhânpru, south­west of Jaypur, where their râja Salivâhana, had a fort. Thence they came to Chitâwan Kariya and expelled the Bhars. There is a romantic legend describing how ten heroes of the clan carried off Padmani, the lovely queen of Kanauj, and made her over to the Emperor of Delhi, who in return gave them rent-free lands fourteen kos in circumference. These Barwârs were notorious for the practice of infanticide. Two daughters of the chief of the family who were permitted to live have married, one the Janwâr ex-Râja of Gonda, and the other the Raikwâr Raja of Râmnagar Dhimari, in the Bârabanki District; the Barwârs generally selected wives from the Palwâr, Kachhwâha, Kausik, and Bais sects, which is curious, as they claim Bais origin. These Barwârs are probably of equivocal aboriginal descent, and the heroic legend given above has probably been appropriated from some other clan." The Barwârs of Ballia are reported to take brides from the Ujjaini, Haihobans, Narwâni Kunwâr, Nikumbh, Sengar, and Khâti, and to give girls to the Haihobans, Ujjanini, Narwâni, Nikumbh, Kunwâr, Bais Bisen, and Raghubansi. Their Gotra is Kasyapa.

They are elsewhere known under the name of Birwâr and Bersâr. In Ghâzipur they say they first came from Delhi, and take their name form Bernagar, their leading village. They are said to have come under the auspices of the Narauliyas, whom they helped to expel the Cheros. [1] There is a sect of them in the Chhapra District. In Azamgarh [2] they are said to be both Chhatris and Bhuínhârs, and not to rank high among either. "Each set ignores the origin of, or any connection with, the others. The Bhuínhârs can only say that they came from the west. The Chhatris say they are tomars, and were led from Bernagar, near Delhi, to Azamgarh, by a chief, Garak Deo, who lived between 1336 and 1455 A. D. The Chhatri and Bauínhâr branches are of the same origin, as at marriages and other feasts they refuse to take from their hosts or offer to their guests broken cakes of pulse (bara ). The origin of the custom is said to have been that at a feast to which a number of the Birwârs had been invited by another clan, their treacherous hosts, on the password bara khanda chalâo (khanda means "a sword" as well as "broken" ), slaughtered the Birwârs. Their name is probably connected with this custom. The Brâhman ancestor of the sect is said to have come from Kanauj; but its different branches are not clear as to his name or pedigree, or how they came to Azamgarh."

[1] Oldham, Memo ., 61, sq .

[2] Settlement Report , 30.

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