List Group 3

Basdewa (Wasudeo, Harbola, Kaparia, Jaga, Kapdi) - Basdewa (Harbola) - Bashara - Basor - Baul - Bauri - Bavuris - Bawariya - Bazigar - Bedar (Boya) - Bediya - Beldâr - Béldâr - Be¡lda¡ri¡¡ - Bépâri - Beria (Bedia) - Beriya (Bediya) - Beshara (Bashara) - Bhaina - Bhâmta (Bhâmtay) - Bhâm†í - Bhând (Bhânr) - Bhand - Bhântu (Bhâtu) - Bhar - Bharatri - Bharbhunjas

Basdewa: -Wasudeo, Harbola, Kaparia, Jaga, Kapdi.[1]

A wandering beggar caste of mixed origin, who also call themselves Sanadhya or Sanaurhia Brahmans. The Basdewas trace their origin to Wasudeo, the father of Krishna, and the term Basdewa is a corruption of Wasudeo or Wasudeva. Kaparia is the name they bear in the Anterved, or country between the Ganges and Jumna, whence they claim to have come. Kaparia has been derived from kapra , cloth, owing to the custom of the Basdewas of having several dresses, which they change rapidly like the Bahr”pia, making themselves up in different characters as a show.

Harbola is an occupational term, applied to a class of Basdewas who climb trees in the early morning and thence vociferate praises of the deity in a loud voice. The name is derived from Har, God, and bolna, to speak. As the Harbolas wake people up in the morning they are also called Jaga, or "Awakener." The number of Basdewas in the Central Provinces and Berâr in 1911 was 2500, and they are found principally in the northern Districts and in Chhattísgarh. They have several territorial subcastes, as Gangâputri or those who dwell on the banks of the Ganges; Khaltia or Deswâri, those who belong to the Central Provinces; Parauha, from para , a male buffalo calf, being the dealers in buffaloes; Harbola, or those who climb trees and sing the praises of God; and Wasudeo, the dwellers in the Marâtha Districts who marry only among themselves. The names of the exogamous divisions are very varied, some being taken from Brâhman gotras and Râjpît septs, while others are the names of villages, or nicknames, or derived from animals and plants. It may be concluded from these names that the Basdewas are a mixed occupational group recruited from high and low castes, though they themselves say that they do not admit any outsiders except Brâhmans into the community. In Bombay [2]the Wasudevas have a special connection with Kumhârs or potters, whom they address by the term of kâka or paternal uncle, and at whose houses they lodge on their travels, presenting their host with the two halves of a cocoanut. The caste does not observe celibacy. A price of Rs. 25 is usually given for a bride, and a Brâhman is employed to perform the ceremony. At the conclusion of this the Brâhman invests the bridegroom with a sacred thread, which he thereafter continues to wear. Widow marriage is permitted, and widows are commonly married. If a wife dies, the husband shaves his moustache and beard, if any, in mourning and a father likewise for a daughter-in-law; this is somewhat peculiar, as other Hindus do not shave for a wife or daughter-in-law. The Basdewas are wandering mendicants. In the Marâtha Districts they wear a plume of peacock's feather, which they say was given to them as a badge by Krishna. In Saugor and Damoh instead of this they carry, during the period from Dasahra to the end of Mâgh, or from September to January, a brass vessel called matuk bound on their heads. It is topped by a brass cone and adorned with mango-leaves, cowries and a piece of red cloth, and with figures of Râma and Lakshman. Their stock-in-trade for begging consists of two kartâls or wooden clappers, which are struck against each other; ghungrus or jingling ornaments for the feet, worn when dancing; and a paijna, or kind of rattle, consisting of two semicircular iron wires bound at each end to a piece of wood with rings slung on to them. This is simply shaken in the hand and gives out a sound from the movement of the rings against the wires. They worship all these implements as well as their beggar's wallet on the Janam-Ashtami or Krishna's birthday, the Dasahra, and the full moon of Mâgh (January). They rise early and beg only in the morning from about four till eight, and sing songs in praise of Sarwan and Karan. Sarwan was a son renowned for his filial piety; he maintained and did service to his old blind parents to the end of their lives, much against the will of his wife, and was unmovable against all her machinations to induce him to abandon them. Karan was a proverbially charitable king, and all his family had the same virtue. His wife gave away daily rice and pulse to those who required it, his daughter gave them clothes, his son distributed cows as alms and his daughter-in-law cocoanuts. The king himself gave only gold, and it is related of him that he was accustomed to expend a maund and a quarter [3] weight of gold in alms-giving before he washed himself and paid his morning devotions. Therefore the Basdewas sing that he who gives early in the morning acquires the merit of Karan; and their presence at this time affords the requisite opportunity to anybody who may be desirous of emulating the king. At the end of every couplet they cry 'Jai Ganga' or 'Har Ganga,' invoking the Ganges. The Harbolas each have a territory of a certain number of villages which must not be infringed upon by the others. Their method is to ascertain the name of some well-to-do person in the village. This done, they climb a tree in the early morning before sunrise, and continue chanting his praises in a loud voice until he is sufficiently flattered by their eulogies or wearied by their importunity to throw down a present of a few pice under the tree, which the Harbola, descending, appropriates. The Basdewas of the northern Districts are now commonly engaged in the trade of buying and selling buffaloes. They take the young male

[1] See Russel. This article is compiled from papers by Mr. W. N. Maw, Deputy Commissioner, Damoh, and Murl’dhar,Munsiff of Khurai in Saugor.

[2] Bombay Gazetteer , xvii. p. 108.

[3] About 100 Ibs.

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calves from Saugor and Damoh to Chhattísgarh, and there retail them at a profit for rice cultivation, driving them in large herds along the road. For the capital which they have to borrow to make their purchases, they are charged very high rates of interest. The Basdewas have here a special veneration for the buffalo as the animal from which they make their livelihood, and they object strongly to the calves being taken to be tied out as tiger bait, refusing, it is said, to accept payment if the calf should be killed. Their social status is not high, and none but the lowest castes will take food from their hands. They eat flesh and drink liquor, but abstain from pork, fowls and beef. Some of the caste have given up animal food.

Basdewa.: -or Harbola. They are nomads who travel from place to place and beg. In the morning they can be heard praying loudly and noisily.

Bashara: -See Beshara.

Basor: -A tribe found only in the Bundelkhand Division, and usually regarded as a sub-caste of Doms [1]-. Some of them are occasional visitors to Mirzapur and other towns, where the men work as musicians and basket-makers, and the women as midwives. The name of the tribe seems to mean "worker in the bamboo," and to be the same as Bânsphor (q. v.). The Basors have large number of exogamous sections, of which locally the most important are: in Hamírpur, the Bâhmangot, Dhuneb, Gotela, Katahriya, Parauniya, Sakarwâr. Samangot, Sarmoriya, Sonach, and Sîpa or Supach Bhagat, the Dom hero; in Jhânsi the Barâr, Basgarh, Basobiya, and Dhânuk; in Jâlaun, the Beghela, Balâhar Khangrela, and in Lalitpur the Barâr, Morel, and Purabiya. In Mirzapur they name four exogamous sections: Kulpariya, Katariya (named from the katâri or curved knife used in splitting bamboo); Neoriya, which is also a section of Dharkârs (q. v. ), and takes its name from newar, a young, soft bamboo and Bamhíls, who say that they are so called because they had once some connection with Brâhmans. In Jhânsi the Basors are also known as Barâr and Dhânuk. Barâr is apparently derived from the Sanskrit varataka kâra , "a maker of string." Dhânuk is from the Sanskrit dhanushka, "a bow." When a Basor abandons his regular occupation of working in bamboo and takes service with a land-owner as messenger or drum-beater, he becomes known in Jhânsi by the name of Barâr, and the Dhânuks seem to have been an offshoot from the original Basor stock, who took to the profession of bow-making. They now, however, work as much in bamboo as the regular Basors do; and all three- Basors, Dhânuks, and Barârs-intermarry and eat and drink together. In Jhânsi they have no traditions of their origin, but believe themselves indigenous to that part of the country. They name in Jhânsi, like so many of these menial castes, seven exogamous sections, Jhitiya, Loleri, Rasmel, Saina, Astiya, Bhardela, and Gursariya: of the origin and explanation of these names they can give no explanation. A man must marry in Jhânsi in a section different from his own; he will not give his daughter in marriage into a section from which his own wife has come; but he can take wives for his sons, brothers, and brothers' sons, etc., from that section. The prohibition against intermarriage lasts only for three generations. In Mirzapur the stray visitors who occasionally come are said to be governed by the same rule of exogamy as in the case of the Dharkârs (q. v. ). As far as religion goes, the only bar to intermarriage is conversion to another creed, such as Islâm or Christianity. A man may have as many wives as he can afford to keep, and some in Jhânsi have as many as three or four. The first wife, known as Biyâhta or Jethi, manages the house, and the others are subordinate to her. Furthermore, the Basors admit the introduction of a woman of another tribe; but it is asserted that she is not

[1] See Crooke. Based on enquiries made at Mirzapur, and a note by M. Karam Ahmad, Deputy Collector Jhânsi.

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allowed, at any rate at first, complete caste privileges, and if she comes of a caste lower than the Basor, such as the Bhangi, she is never so admitted. If she be of any superior caste, she is admitted to full tribal privileges if her husband give a feast (roti ) to the clansmen.

Marriage Rules.

Women are allowed full freedom before marriage, and fornication, if it does not become a public seandal, and particularly if the woman's paramour be a fellow caste-man, is lightly regarded. They usually marry their girls at puberty at the age of then or twelve; if they are orphans, they settle the marriage themselves, and in any case a considerable freedom of choice seems to be allowed. This choice, curiously enough, is always notified through a female relation, sister, mother, or aunt of the boy or girl, an she notifies it to the tribal council, who, if they agree, permit the marriage to proceed. Widows and widowers living by themselves have full freedom of choice. Some small sum of money, or some vessels, clothes, etc., are usually given by the parents of the bride as dowry, and these become the property of the husband. There is no regular divorce, but if a pair does not agree, or if the husband is dissatisfied with the conduct of his wife, they can separate at any time, and re-marry or take a partner by the sagâi form within the caste. If the parties agree to separate, the case need not necessarily come before the tribal council unless there is some dispute about the property, or the woman protests against the charge brought against her and challenges her husband to prove it in the presence of the assembled brethren. In such case it appears to be the rule that no circumstantial evidence of adultery is accepted; if there are no actual eye-witnesses, the charge will be dismissed. Any child born by any woman or by any form of connection recognised by tribal usage is admitted as legitimate, and ranks as an heir to any property, which is seldom much, that may be left by his father. If a Basor woman has a child by a man of a higher caste, such children will not be allowed to intermarry with a Basor of pure blood, but must find a husband or wife from among families which suffer from the same prohibition. On the contrary, if a Basor keeps a woman of a higher caste than his own, he has seldom any difficulty, particularly if he be a man of standing and substance in the tribe, in marrying his children into a family of pure blood.

Widow Marriage.

As a rule all widows of marriageable age find a new partner. Such connection is fully recognised, and is known in Mirzapur as sagâi , and in Bundelkhand as dharauna or baithâna , "making her sit in the house." There is no particular ceremony in widow marriage, except the announcement of the connection and the giving of a feast to the brethren. The levirate is recognised, but is not compulsory. In a recent case at Jhânsi the tribe excommunicated a man who formed a connection with the widow of his younger brother, and expressed extreme horror at such an act. If the children of a widow are very young she generally takes them with her to the house of her new husband, who adopts them as his own, and is held responsible for getting them married and starting them in the world. In this case they lose all rights to the property of their own father. But if the children are grown up they usually stay with the family of their late father, and are heirs to his estate. If the widow is old and does not form a new connection, she is entitled to a life maintenance in the house of her late husband. If a widow forms a connection with the younger brother of her late husband, he takes all the property and adopts his nephew or nieces as his own. In Mirzapur there is a regular bride-price fixed by tribal custom: this is nine and a half rupees in cash, liquor to the value of three rupees, two sheets, three sers of coarse sugar, and two sers of sweetmeats. More or less than this cannot be given without leave of the council. An outsider marrying a virgin widow has to pay twenty-two rupees, and it is a peculiarity among them that the man, as in other castes, does not go to the fetch his wife, but her relatives bring her, realise the marriage fee, and then make her over to her new partner.

Birth Customs.

A woman during delivery is attended by a woman of the tribe. With the umbilical cord a few pice are buried, and at the door of the delivery room a broken shoe or the horn of some

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animal is burnt to ward off evil from mother and child; the foul smelling smoke thus produced is supposed to be particularly offensive to evil spirits. They have the usual sixth (chhathi ) and twelfth day (barahi ) ceremony, and on the latter a young pig is sacrificed in the name of some godling, about whom they are most reluctant to give any information or even to mention him by name. After the purification the mother worships the family well by rubbing red lead on the platform and pouring some water and a few grains of rice near it. Children have their ears bored and ceremonially shaved at the age of five of six.

Marriage Ceremonies.

In Mirzapur the betrothal is arranged by the husband of the boy, possibly a survival of the matriarchate. The betrothal (mangni ) is concluded by sending a skirt (ghaghri ) and a sheet (arhni ) with some liquor and treacle for the bride, after which the clansmen are feasted on pork and liquor. Some time after is a second ceremony in which the two fathers exchange leaf-platters filled with water or spirits, into one of which the boy's father drops a rupee or two. In Jhânsi the marriage is first arranged by the women, and then day is fixed on which the friends of the bride send a turban and a rupee for the bridegroom. This is received in the presence of the brethren, who are entertained with tobacco and spirits, which last in the case of poor people is replaced by sharbat. When the present has once been accepted, the engagement is held final, and either party repudiating it is suitably dealt with by the tribal council. Then follows the matmangara ceremony common to all low castes in the Eastern Districts. Among the Basors the earth, on this occasion, is dug by the brother-in-law of the boy's father and the father of the bride, in which, again, we seem to find a survival of the matriarchate. In the centre of the marriage shed is a bamboo, and some wooden images of parrots are fixed up, with a jar full of water covered with a saucer filled with rice. Then one of the senior men of the tribe makes a fire offering (hom ) in honour of the deceased ancestors, and the clothes of the pair are knotted together, and they are made to walk seven times round the sacred fire. In Jhânsi an old man says this prayer: "Ye godliness (deota ), stand witness that this pair are joined by the knot. Keep them as closely joined in love as the knot which ties their raiment." On the fourth day is the chauthi chhorna , when the marriage pitchers (kalsa ) are thrown into water by the mother of the bridegroom. The binding part of the ceremony is the giving away of the bride (kanyâdâu ) by the bridegroom.

Death Ceremonies.

When they can afford it, they burn the dead in the usual way; poor people simply fling the corpse into running water; if no river be convenient, it is buried. Some sacrifice a hog in the name of the dead man; some do not. After six months the brethren are feasted. Some kill a pig, cut off its legs, and bury the trunk (thînth ,thîthan ) in the courtyard, in the belief that this prevents the ghost of the dead from giving annoyance to the survivors. In Mirzapur it appears that, as among the Doms, the sister's son of the dead man acts as priest at his obsequies; but this is denied at Jhânsi. At any rate it is quite certain that no Brâhman officiates, and that all the ceremonies are performed by some old man of the tribe. The death impurity lasts only three days, and is then removed by bathing.

Religion.

The tribal deities are Kâli-Bhawâni and Ganga Mâi, or Mother Ganges. To the east of the Province they offer sacrifices of pigs to Vindhyabâsini Devi, at Bindhâchal. In Jhânsi they offer to Kâli or Jagadamba Devi, during the Naurâtra or Chait and Kuâr, or in other months, on a Monday or Friday, cocoanuts, sweets, spirits, betel leaves, and sometimes a goat. In jhânsi they also worship various deified persons who are called Bâba. Thus there is Gusâín Bâba, who has a platform under a pípal tree near Moth Tahsíl, in his ascetic costume in the neighbourhood, who sometimes speaks to people. Nat Bâba has no special shrine; but his platform is to be seen in many villages with a little niche for holding a light, which is occasionally lighted in his honour. Many curious tales of this worthy are told, one being that after his death he attended the marriage of his grand-daughter, and made all the arrangements for the reception of the guests. Mahton Bâba is the ghost of some celebrated

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village headman of the olden time, of whom little is known except that he is now a guardian of villages, and wards off famine and pestilence from men and cattle if he be duly propitiated with some sweets and cocoanuts. The Sayyid, or Shahíd Mard, is some Muhammadan martyr, whom they greatly revere, and another worthy of the same class, Jíwan Shâh Bâba, is also much respected. In no part of this worship are the services of Brâhmans required; but the joshi or village astrologer is occasionally consulted to select lucky days for weddings and the like. Their holidays are the Phagua or Holi, the Kajarí, the Panchaiyân, Naumi, and Dasmi, at all of which they get drunk, if they can afford to do so. They are much afraid of the ghosts of those who die a violent death by drowning or some other accident. Such ghosts haunt the scene of the accident, and need careful propitiation. They have a very vague idea of afterlife. They believe in a sort of hell into which evil-doers are flung and fall into a pit full of human ordure and urine.[1] This place they call Narak, of which Manu enumerates twenty-one varieties. Some of them who are becoming more enlightened have now begun to perform some rude kind of srâddha . Women who are tattooed on the arms, wrists, breast, and bellow the knee, become holy, and the door-keepers of Bahgwân admit them into his paradise

Social Customs.

The women wear noes-rings (nathya , phurhur ), ear-rings (bâli ), ear ornaments (karanphîl), bangles (chîri , kara), ankle ornaments (pairi , sânkar ). They swear by the Ganges, Kâli-Bhawâni, and on their sons' heads. They will eat almost any meat, including beef and pork, and all kinds of fish, but not monkeys, vermin, and the like. They will not eat other people's leftovers, nor food touched by a Musahar, Dom, Chamâr, Dhobi, Halâlkhor, or Dharkâr. Like all of the Dom race, they have a hatred for Dhobis, and consider them the vilest of all castes. They have the usual taboos. They will not touch their younger brother's wife, their child's mother-in-law (samdhin ), nor will they mention their wives by name. They elder brother's wife can eat out of the same dish as her husband's younger brother; but no wife or younger brother's wife will eat with a husband or his elder brother or father. Their salutation is Râm ! Râm ! and the juniors touch the feet of their elders. Women seem, on the whole, to be fairly well treated; But they are soundly beaten if they misbehave themselves. No one, not even a Dom or Mehtar, will drink water from their hands. They will eat food cooked by a Nâi or any higher caste.

Occupation. They live by making baskets and other articles manufactured out of bamboo, and playing on the flute (bânsuli ) or the tambourine (dafla ) at marriages. Their women are midwives.

Baul: -They are a wandering group of mystics of Bengal. They were strongly influenced by the Sufi movement and Kabir teachings. Their spirituality is called Sahajiya. They sing, accompanying themselves with the Ektara, sacred texts and hymns.

Bauri: -A cultivating, earth working, and palanquin-bearing caste of Behar whose features and complexion, says Risley, label them of non-Aryan descent, although evidence is wanting to affiliate them to any particular tribe now in existence . [2] According to one of their own stories, they were degraded for attempting to steal food from the banquet of the gods; another professes to trace them back to a mythical ancestor, Bahak Rishi (the bearer of burdens) and tells how, while returning from a marriage procession,

[1] On this idea of holl see Bhuiyâr , 16.

[2] See T.C. Crawford.

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they stole the palanquin they had been hired to carry, got drunk on the proceeds and assaulted their guru, who cursed them for the sacrilege and condemned them to rank thenceforth among the lowest castes of the community.

There are nine sub-castes which are endogamous:

(1) Mullabhumia,

(2) Sikharia or Goharia,

(3) Panchakoti,

(4) Mola or Mulo,

(5) Dhulia or Dhulo,

(6) Malua,

(7) Jhatia,

(8) Kathuria,

(9)and Pathuria.

Risley thinks some of these may perhaps be nothing more than different local names for what was originally the same sub-caste, but adds that they are distinct at the present day. Most of the sub-castes are found in Manbhum and will not intermarry.

Marriage between members of the same gotra is not forbidden, but the ban applies to relatives for so long as the relationship is remembered. The absence of compact exogamous groups among the Bauris has been attributed to their close contact with Hindus due to their profession of palanquin bearers, but there are still distinct traces of totemism which, as has been seen, usually marches hand-in-hand with the exogamous group. The red-backed heron and the dog are reverenced, the former being looked upon as the emblem of the tribe, which may not be killed or molested on pain of expulsion from the tribe. As for the dog, Colonel Dalton was informed by certain elders that as they killed and ate cows and most other animals, they deemed it right to fix on some beast which should be as sacred to them as the cow is to Brahmans and they selected the dog, "because it was a useful animal while alive, and not very nice to eat when dead- a neat reconciliation of the twinges of conscience and cravings of appetite!" This ingenious explanation, as Risley points out, shows that their own customs become unintelligible to the Bauris themselves, and serves to illustrate the tendency to imitate Brahmanical usage. The horse also probably was a totem of the tribe, for they exhibit a great reluctance towards cleaning up a stable, and may not take up the occupation of syce, without suffering expulsion from the caste.

Bauris, like the Bagdis, admit into their caste members of any caste higher than themselves in social standing. Risley attributes this singular practice, which is entirely out of accord with the spirit of the caste system ,to the lax views of these two castes on the subject of sexual morality. In every other caste a woman who has an intrigue with an outsider is expelled from the caste; the Bauris and Bagdis, however, welcome the outsider who is, of course, usually outcaste for the liaison.

Marriage among the Bauris is either infant or adult, the former being considered more respectable. Widows may marry again and are usually expected to marry their deceased husband's younger brother. Divorce is recognised and is effected by the husband taking away the iron ring which every married woman wears and proclaiming to the panchaiyat the fact that he has divorced her. Divorced wives may always marry again.

The marriage ceremony is of the usual low caste Hindu type, sindurdan being deemed to be the essential part of the ceremony.

Bauris profess to be Hindus of the Sakta sect; But in Behar and Orissa, their connection with Hinduism is of the slenderest description. They worship Manasa, Bhadu, Barpahari and other local deities. Manasa is the sister of the great snake-king Vasuki and is worshipped on the

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5th and 20th of the four rainy months, Asar, Sraban, Bhadra and Aswin. The great day is Nagpanchami, the 5th of the light half of Sraban, towards the end of August, when a four-armed effigy of the goddess, grasping a cobra in each hand is carried found the village with much music and finally thrown into a tank. Bhadu is a female saint supposed to have been a daughter of the Raja of Pachete who sacrificed herself for the good of the people. She is worshipped on the last day of Bhadra. Barpahari or "great mountain" is our familiar friend "Marang Buru" of the Mundas and Santals and inhabits the highest peak in the locality. The Bauris have no Brahmans, but their own priests officiate at all public worship, and are called Laya or Degharia. Some land is usually set aside for the Laya which he holds rent free (layali jami )

In most districts, the Bauris cremate their dead; in Bankura they bury, with the head to the north and face downwards, the object of this attitude being to prevent the spirit from getting out and giving trouble to the living. A rude funeral ceremony is performed on the eleventh day after death, when the relations feast together and the nearest relative of the deceased has his head shaved

The Bauris make excellent agricultural labourers. In Manbhum and Bankura several hold service tenures in return for Police and Chaukidari services. They were well known as workers in Indigo Factories and are among the best labourers in the Coal Mines. They prefer agricultural labour, however, and consequently freely emigrate to Tea Gardens.

The Bauris enumerated in Assam are 43,000 and are all either extra Garden Coolies or employed on Tea Estates. They still unfortunately exhibit signs of the taints which, according to their own legends, caused their downfall, and indulge freely in lal pani and the "sport of theft" !

Bauri: -a cultivating, earth-working, and palanquin-bearing caste of Western Bengal, [1] whose features and complexion stamp them as of non-Aryan descent.

Internal Structure. The Bauris are divided into the following nine sub-castes:-(1) Mallabhumia, (2) Sikharia or Gobaria, (3) Panchakoti, (4) Mola or Mulo, (5) Dhulia or Dhalo, (6) Malua or Malua, (7) Jhatia or jhetia, (8) Kathuria, (9) Pathuria. Some of these may perhaps be nothing more than different local names for what was originally the same sub-caste, but this point is not really very material, by reason of the marked reluctance of the lower castes to intermarry with families living at a distance. Assuming, for example, that Mola of Mulo and Malla bhumia, two sub-castes of Bauris found in the 24-Parganas and Murshedabad, are really the same as the Malua or Malua sub-caste common in Manbhum, it would by no means follow that the eastern and western members of this sub-caste would be willing to intermarry. And if there were no intermarriage, the groups would rightly be treated as true sub-castes. On the whole therefore, in spite of the suspicious similarity of some of the names, I am inclined to think that the nine groups listed above are really distinct at the present day, whatever may have been the case some generations back. As for the origin of the sub-castes, the names Mallabhumia, Malua, and perhaps Mola, denote a group originally residing in Pergunnah Manbhum or in the country south of the Kasai; the Dhulia sub-caste is supposed to have come from Dhalbhum; and the Sikharia from Sikharbhum, the tract between the Kasai and Barakar rivers, which includes the Pachete estate. Panchakoti again denotes the central portion of the Pachete estate. Gobaria is said to refer to a domestic custom of cleaning up the remnants of meals with cowdung, which has somehow come to be deemed a characteristic of the Sikharia sub-caste; while Jhatia is explained as denoting a group who

[1] See H.H. Risley

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simply sweep away the fragments of a meal without washing the place where it had been spread.

Exogamy.

The few exogamous subdivisions which we find among the Bauris have clearly been borrowed dignitatis causa from the higher castes, and are inoperative for matrimonial purposes, as marriage between members of the same gotra is not forbidden. They profess to observe the standard formula mamers, chachera, etc., and in addition to prohibit marriage between persons descended from the same ancestors within seven degrees on the male and three degrees on the female side; but the caste is extremely illiterate: there is no machinery among them for maintaining genealogies, and thus guarding against consanguineous marriages, and in actual practice such marriages are believed to be far from uncommon.

The absence of compact exogamous groups, such as we find among tribes apparently closely akin to the Bauris, may possibly be due to the latter having adopted the profession of palanquin-bearing, and thus having been brought into closer contact with Hindus then was the case with their more independent congeners. Traces of totemism,, however, still survive in their reverence for the red-backed heron and the dog, and perhaps in their strong objection to touching horse-dung. The heron is looked upon as the emblem of the tribe, and may not be killed or molested on pain of expulsion from the caste. Dogs also are sacred. A Bauri will on no account kill a dog or touch a dead dog's body, and the water of a tank in which a dog has been drowned cannot be used until an entire rainy season has washed the impurity away. "In regard to dogs," says Colonel Dalton , "I was gravely informed by some of their elders that as they killed and ate cows and most other animals, they deemed it right to fix on some beast which should be as sacred to them as the cow to the Brahman, and they selected the dog, because it was a useful animal while alive, and not very nice to eat when dead- a neat reconciliation of the twinges of conscience and cravings of appetite. "This ingenious explanation, however valueless in itself, shows that their own customs had become unintelligible to the Bauris themselves, and serves to illustrate the tendency to imitate Brahmanical usage.

Admission Of Outsiders.

Like the Bagdis, Bauris admit into their caste members of any caste higher than themselves in social standing. No regular ceremony is appointed for such occasions; the new member merely pays to the caste panchayat a sum of money, varying from Rs. 10, to be spent on a feast, in which for the first time he openly eats with his adopted caste brethren. The origin of this singular practice, which is entirely out of accord with the spirit of the caste system at the present day, is apparently to be sought in the lax views of the Bauris and Bagdis on the subject of sexual morality. In every other caste a woman who has an intrigue with an outsider is punished by expulsion from the caste; but Bagdis and Bauris not only allow their women to live openly with men of other castes, but receive those men into their own community when, as frequently happens, they are outcaste by their own people for eating rice cooked by their mistresses.

Marriage.

Marriage among the Bauris is either infant or adult, the tendency being for those who can afford it to marry their daughters as infants. Polygamy is permitted: a man is allowed to have as many wives as he can afford to maintain. Widows may marry again, and usually expected to marry their deceased husband's younger brother. No ceremony is performed; the bridegroom pays Re. 1-4 to the bride's father, and gives a feast to the members of the caste. Divorce is recognised. It is effected by the husband taking away from his wife the iron which every married woman wears, and proclaiming to the paramanik and panchayat of his having divorced her. In some districts a wife may divorce her husband for ill-treatment, desertion, or adultery. Divorced wives may always marry again. The marriage ceremony in use among the Bauris of Western Bengal differs little from that of the Bagdis, except that there

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is no pool of water in the middle of the marriage bower, and the bride sits on the left of the bridegroom instead of facing him. In districts further east an attempt is made to follow the standard Hindu ritual, and the interchange of garlands is held to be the binding portion of the procedure.

Religion.

Bauris profess to be Hindus of the Sakta sect, but in Western Bengal, at any rate, their connection with Hinduism is of the slenderest kind, and their favourite objects of worship are Manasa, Bhadu, Mansingh, Barpahari, Dharmaraj, and Kudrasini. The cult of the two former deities has been described in the article on the Bagdis. Goats are sacrificed to Mansingh, and fowls to Barpahari, which is another name for the "great mountain" (Marang Buru ) of the Santals. Pigs, fowls, rice, sugar and ghee are offered to Kudrasini on Saturdays and Sundays at the akhra or dancing place of the village through the medium of a Bauri priest, who abstains from the flesh of fish on the day preceding the sacrifice. The priest gets as his fee the fowls that are offered and the head or leg of the pig; the worshippers eat the rest. It should be mentioned here that in Western Bengal Bauris have not yet attained the dignity of having Brahmans of their own. Their priests are men of their own caste, termed Lava or Degharia, some of whom hold layali land rent-free or at a nominal rent as remuneration for their services. The headman of the village (paramanik) may also officiate as priest. The Bauris of Eastern Bengal employ a low class of Barna Brahmans. Kali and Visvakarma are their favourite deities. In most districts Bauris have adopted the Hindu practice of burning their dead; but in Bankura corpses are buried with the head to the north and face downward, the object of this attitude being to prevent the spirit from getting out and giving trouble to the living. A rude funeral ceremony is performed on the eleventh day after death, when the relations feast together and the nearest relative of the deceased has his head shaved .

Occupation.

Agricultural labour and palanquin-bearing are supposed to be the original occupations of the caste, and this tradition corresponds pretty closely to the facts as we now find them. They work also as wood-cutters and masons, and in Bardwan a few have risen to be traders and money-lenders. In some respects they are more particular than would be expected, considering the low social position they hold. A Bauri who takes to curing leather, works as a syce, or keeps a liquor shop, is turned out of the caste. Comparatively few Bauris are raiyats with occupancy rights, most are probably under-raiyats or landless day-labourers. They were well known as indigo-cultivators and workers in the vats in the prosperous days of Bengal indigo, and nomadic tillage of char lands is one of their characteristics. In Manbhum and Bankura many of them hold substantial tenures on terms of police service- a fact which lends colour to the view that they are among the earliest settlers in thet part of the country. Thus in Manbhum we find two sadials, one digwar, two naib digwars , 17 village sardars , and 49 tabidars of the caste; while in Bankura the Bauris are represented by 14 sardar ghatwals, 16 sadials , 8 digwars , 375 chakran chaukidars .

Social Status.

The social rank of Bauris is very low. Members of the higher castes will not take water from their hands, and they themselves eat with Bagdis, Kewats, Lohars, and the non-Aryan Kurmis of Western Bengal. They are, in fact, hardly distinguishable from the Haris of Bengal and the Ghasis of Chota Nagpur, and are despised everywhere except in Manbhum and Birbhum, where they are allowed by the Hindus to do certain menial offices which are usually done by people of higher castes. With few exceptions, they are entirely indifferent to the nice scruples regarding food, which have so important a bearing on the status of the average Hindu, for they eat beef, pork, fowls, all kinds of fish, and rats, and are much addicted to strong drink. Nevertheless they pride themselves on not eating snakes and lizards, like the Oraons.

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Bauri.: -Found in the Madras Presidency are nomad gangs of Bauris or Bawariyas [1], who are described [2] as "one of the worst criminal tribes of India. The sphere of their operations extends throughout the length and breadth of the country. They not only commit robberies, burglaries and thefts, but also practice the art of manufacturing and passing counterfeit coins. They keep with them a small quantity of wheat and sandal seeds in a small tin or brass case, which they call Devakadana or God's grain, and a tuft of peacock's feathers, all in a bundle. They are very superstitious, and do not embark on any enterprise without first ascertaining by omens whether it will be attended with success or not. This they do by taking at random a small quantity of grains out of their Devakadana and counting the number of grains, the omen being considered good or bad according to whether the number of seeds is odd or even. For a detailed record of the history of this criminal class, and the methods employed in the performance of criminal acts, I would refer the reader to the accounts given by Mr. Paupa Rao [3] and Mr. W. Crook. [4]

Bavuris: -or Bauris, are a low class of Oriya basket-makers, living in Ganjam, and are more familiarly known as Khodalo .[5] They are a polluting class, living in separate quarters, and occupy a position lower then the Samantiyas, but higher then the Kondras, Dandasis, and Haddis. They claim that palanquin (dhooly or duli) bearing is their traditional occupation, and consequently call themselves Boyi. "According to the story," Risley writes, [6] "they were degraded for attempting to steal food from the banquet of the gods; another professes to trace them back to a mythical ancestor named Bahak Rishi (the bearer of burdens), and tells how, while returning from a marriage procession, they sold the palanquin they had been hired to carry, got drunk on the proceeds, and assaulted their guru (religious preceptor), who cursed them for the sacrilege, and condemned them to rank thenceforward among the lowest castes of the community." The Bavuris are apparently divided into endogamous sections, viz., Dulia and Khandi. The former regard themselves as superior to the latter, and prefer to be called Khodalo. Some of these have given up eating beef, call them selves Dasa Khodalos, and claim descent from one Balliga Doss, a famous Bavuri devotee, who is said to have worked wonders analogous to those of Nandan of the Paraiyan community. To this section the caste priests belong. At Russelkonds, a woman, when asked if she was a Bavuri, replied that the caste is so called by others, but that its real name is khodalo. Others, in reply to a question whether they belonged to the Khandi section, became angry, and said that the Khandis are inferior, because they eat frogs. The Bavuris gave the name of two gotras, saptha bhavunia and naga, which are said to be exogamous. The former offer food to the gods on seven leaves of the white gourd melon, Benincasa cerifera (kokkara), and the latter on jak (Artocarpus integrifolia : panasa ) leaves. All over the Oriya country there is a general belief that house-names or bamsams are foreign to the Oriya castes, and only possessed by the Telugus. But some genuine Oriya castes, e.g ., Haddis, Dandasis and Bhondaris, have exogamous bamsams. For every group of villages (muttah), the Bavuris apparently have a headman called Behara, who is assisted by Naikos or Dolo Beharas, or, in some places, Dondias or Porichas, who hold sway over a smaller number of villages. Each village has its own headman, called Bhollobhaya (good brother), to whose notice all irregularities are brought. These are either settled by him or referred to the Behara and Naiko. In some villages, in addition to the 112 Bhollobhaya, there is a caste servant called Dangua or Dogara. For serious offences, a council-meeting

[1] See Thurston.

[2] M. Paupa Rao Naidu. The Criminal Tribes of India. No.111, Madras,

[3] Op. cit .

[4] Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. Bawariya, 1906.

[5] See Thurston.

[6] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, 1891 .

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is convened by the Behara, and at tended by the Bhollobhayas, Naikos, and a few leading members of the community. The meeting is held in an open plain outside the village. Once in two or three years, a council-meeting, called mondolo, is held, at which various matters are discussed and decided. The expenses of meetings are defrayed by the inhabitants of the villages in which they take place. Among the most important matters to be decided by tribunals are adultery, eating with lower castes, the re-admission of convicts into the caste, etc. Punishment takes the form of a fine, and trial by ordeal is apparently not resorted to. A man who is convicted of committing adultery or eating with a member of a lower caste is received back into the caste on payment of the fine. A woman, who has been proven guilty of such offences, is not taken back. It is said that when a member of a higher caste commits adultery with a Bavuri woman, he is sometimes received into the Bavuri caste. The Behara receives a small fee annually from each village or family, and also a small present of money for each marriage. Girls are married either before or after puberty. The festivities last for four days, whereas, at an infant marriage, they are extended over seven days. When a young man's parents have selected a girl for him, they consult a Brahman, and if he decides that the marriage will be auspicious, they proceed to the girl's home, and ask that a day be fixed for the betrothal. On the appointed day the amount of money which is to be paid by the bridegroom is fixed. One or two new cloths must be given to the girl's grandmother, and the man's party must announce the number of feasts they intend to give to the castemen. If the family is poor, the feasts are mentioned, but do not actually take place. The marriage ceremony is always celebrated at night. On the evening of the day prior thereto, the bride and bridegroom's people proceed to the temple of the village goddess (Takurani), and, on their way home, go to seven houses of members of their own or some higher caste, and ask them to give them water, which is poured into a small vessel. This vessel is taken home, and hung over the bedi (marriage dais). The water is used by the bride and bridegroom on the following morning for bathing. On the marriage day, the bridegroom proceeds to the bride's village, and is met on the way by her party, and escorted by his brother-in-law to the dais. The Bhollobhava enquires whether the bride's party has received everything as arranged, and, when he has been assured on this point, the bride is brought to the dais by her maternal uncle. She carries with her in her hands a little salt and rice; and, after throwing these over the bridegroom, she sits by his side. The grandfather of the contracting couple, or a priest called Dhiyani, officiate. Their palms are placed together, and the hands united by a string dyed with turmeric. The union of the hand is called hasthagonti, and is the binding portion of the ceremony. Turmeric water is poured over the hands seven times from a chank or sankha shell. Seven married women then throw over the heads of the couple a mixture of Zizyphus Jujuba (borkolipathro) leaves, rice smeared with turmeric, and Cynodon Dactylon (dhuba) culms. This rite is called bhondaivaro, and is performed at all auspicious ceremonies. The fingers of the bridal pair are then linked together, and they are led by the wife of the bride's brother seven times round the bedi. The priest then proclaims that the soot can soon be wiped off the cooking-pot, but the connection brought about by the marriage is enduring, and relationship is secured for seven generations. The pair are taken indoors and fed. The remaining days of the marriage ceremonies are given up to feasting. The remarriage of widows is permitted. A widow is expected to marry the younger brother of her deceased husband, or, with his permission, may marry whom she likes.

When a girl a attains maturity, she is seated on a new mat, and Zizyphus Jujuba leaves are thrown over her. This ceremony is sometimes repeated daily for six days, during which sweets, ect., are given to the girl, and women who bring presents are fed. On the seventh day, the girl is taken to a pond and bathed.

The dead are either buried or burnt. The corpse is, at the funeral, borne in the hands, or on a bier, by four men. Soon after the village boundary has been crossed, the widow of the deceased throws rice over the eyes of the corpse. She usually carries with her a pot and ladle, which she throws away. If an elderly woman dies, these rites are performed by her daughter-in-law.

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At the burial-ground, the corpse is taken seven times around the grave, and, as it is lowered into it, those present say "Oh! trees, Oh! sky, Oh! earth, we are laying him in. It is not our fault." When the grave has been filled in, the figures of a man and woman are drawn on it, and all throw earth over it, saying "You were living with us; now you have left us. Do not trouble the people." On their return home, the mourners sprinkle cowdung water about the house and over their feet, and toddy is partaken of. On the following day all the old pots are thrown away, and the mourners eat rice cooked with margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves. Food is offered to the dead person, either at the burial-ground or in the backyard of the house. On the tenth day, the Dhiyani, as the priest is called, is sent for, and arrives with his drum (dhiyani). A small hut is erected on a tank bund (embankment ), and food cooked seven times, and offered seven times on seven fragments of pots. A new cloth is spread, and on it food, fruits, a chank shell, etc., are placed, and offered to the deceased. The various articles are put into a new pot, and the son, going into the water up to his neck, throws the pot into the air and breaks it . The celebrants of the rite then return to the house and stand in a row in front thereof. They are there purified by means of milk smeared over their hands by the Dhiyani. On the twelfth day, food is offered on twelve leaves.

The Bavuris do not worship Jagannathaswami, or any other of the higher deities, but reverence their ancestors and the village goddesses or Takuranis. Like other Oriya classes, the Bavuris name their children on the twenty-first day. Opprobrious names are common among them, e,g., Ogadu (dirty fellow ), Kangali (wretched fellow ), Haddia ( Haddi, or sweeper caste ).

Bawariya: -A hunting and criminal tribe practically found only in Muzaffarnagar and Mirzapur. [1] Various explanations have been given of the name. Colonel Dalton would connect it with the Sanskrit barbara, varvara, which appears to be the Greek barbaros, and applied to any outcaste who cannot speak Sanskrit. Others, take to be another form of the Hindi Baola, baora (Sanskrit, ratula, "inflamed with wind"). It is most probably derived from the Hindi banwar,, " a creeper"(Sanskrit Bhramara ), in the sense of a noose made originally from some fibrous plant and used for trapping animals, which is one of the primary occupations of the tribe. The Bawariyas in these provinces seem to fall into two branches-those resident in the Upper Duab, who still retain some of their original customs and manners, and those to the east, who assert a more respectable origin, and have abandoned their original predatory life.

The Western Bawariyas.

The best account of the western branch is that given by Mr. J. Wilson - [2] " The Bawariyas of Sirsa are divided into four sections- (1) the Bidawati from Bikaner territory, claiming connection with the Bidawat Rajputs, giving Chithor as their place of origin; (2) The Deswali, living in the country about Sirsa; (3) the Kapriya to the west about Delhi; (4) the Kalkamaliya, or "black blanket people," who (especially to women) wear black blankets, and are found chiefly among the Sikhs of the jungle and Malwa country. These four sections do not eat together or intermarry; but say they all came originally from the country about Bikaner. They are most numerous in Rajputana and the districts bordering it, but extend up the Satlaj to Firozpur and Lahore. The name of the tribe seems to be derived from the banwar, or snare, with which they catch wild animals, but many of them despise this their hereditary occupation; and, indeed, it seems now to be practised only by the Kalkamaliya or Panjabi section. The Bawariyas are seemingly an aboriginal tribe, being of a dark complexion and inferior physique, though resembling the Bagri Jats. Many of them are fond of a wandering life, living in wretched huts, and feeding upon lizards, foxes and other jungle animals, but

[1] See W. Crooke.Based on enquiries at Mirzapur and a note by the Deputy Inspector of Schools , Bijnor.

[2] Sirsa Settlement Report, 123.

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they say they will not eat fish. In other districts they are known as a criminal tribe, but here many of them are fairly respectable cultivators, some are employed as village watchmen, and many of them are skilled in tracking. They are divided into clans (got, nak ) with Rajput names, such as Chauhan, Panwar Bhati. The Bawariayas who live among the Sikhs (Kalkamaliya) wear the hair long (kes ), and have received the pahul. The black blanket Bawariyas speak Panjabi, and the Bidawati Bagri; but they also have a dialect peculiar to them, which is not understood by the ordinary peasants. Bawariyas consider themselves good Hindus, and say that regular Brahmans officiate at their marriage ceremonies- the same Brahmans as officiate for Jats and Banyas. They hold the cow sacred and will not eat beef; they burn their dead and send their ashes to the Ganges. They are said sometimes to admit men of other tribes to there fraternity, and an instance is given in which a Banya for love of a Bawariya woman became a Bawariya himself.

Manner Of Hunting Practised By The Western Bawariyas.

Whole families of Bawariyas come South in the rains for a lizard hunt, and may by seen returning with baskets full of their game, which live for days without food, and thus supply them with a succession of fresh meat. The lizard has a soft fat body and a broad tail with spikes along each side. He lives on grass, cannot bite severely, and is sluggish in his movements, so that he is easily caught. He digs an hole for himself of no great depth, and the easiest why to catch him is to look out for the scarcely perceptible air-hole and dig him out; but there are various ways of saving oneself this trouble. One, which I have seen, takes advantage of a habit the lizard has in cold weather (when he never comes out of his hole ) of coming to the mouth for air and warmth. The Chuhra or other sportsman puts off his shoes and steals along the prairie till he sees signs of a lizard's hole. This he approaches on tiptoe, raising over his head with both hands a mallet with a round, sharp point, and fixing his eyes intently upon the hole. When close enough, he brings down his mallet with all his might on the ground just behind the mouth of the hole, and is often successful in breading the lizard's back before he awakens to sense of his danger. Another plan, which I have not seen, is to tack a wisp of grass to a long stick and move it over the hole, so as to make a rustling noise. The lizard within thinks “Oh here's a snake! I may as well give in,” and comes to the mouth of the hole, putting out his tail first that he may not see his executioner. The sportsman seizes his tail and snatches him out before he has time to learn his mistake.

Again, a body of them, men and women, and go out into the prairie in search of game. When they have sighted a herd of antelope in the distance, they choose a favourable piece of ground and arrange their Banwars, which are a series of many running nooses of raw hide tied together and fastened loosely to the ground by pegs; from the Banwars they rapidly make two lines of bogies by sticking bits of straw with black rags tied to them into the ground at distances of a foot or two apart. These lines widen away from the snares so as to enclose a V-shaped piece of ground with sides perhaps a mile in length, the unsuspecting herd of antelope being enclosed within the V, at the pointed end of which are the snares. All this in arranged in a wonderfully short space of time, and when it is all ready, the main body of hunters , who have meanwhile gone round the herd of antelope and formed a line across the open mouth of the V, suddenly start up, and by unearthly yells drive the herd inwards towards the point. The first impulse of the antelopes is to rush directly away from their tormentors, but they soon come to the long lines of fluttering bits of rag which forms one line of the V. They are thus directed into the place occupied by the snares . It is interesting as one of the methods by which an ignorant tribe with the simplest means can by their superior cunning circumvent the swift antelope on his native prairies.

Dialect Of The Western Bawariyas.

The Bawariyas have a dialect of their own, which has sometimes been considered a sort of thieves' slang kept up to facilitate their combination for purposed of crime; but the great mass of the Bawariyas in this district are not at all given to crime, and have no desire to conceal their dialect; moreover it is spoken most generally by the women and children, while the

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men, at all events in their intercourse with their neighbours, speak in ordinary Bagri of Panjabi. It seems probable that it is simply the dialect of the country of their origin, preserved by them in their wanderings. I had not much time to make much enquiry about it, but was given the following as their names for the numbers by their leading men-ek bai, tren, char, panch chhau hat nau, daukh, (20) and the following words - khakhra for susra (father - in -law), khakhu for sasu (mother- in- law), hando for sando (lizard), manukh (man) , charo (antelope), haru (snake), laukra (fox), nauri (jackal), jamna (right hand), dava (left hand) . Some of this words may be Bagri, and they are not much to go upon, but the use of h, for s , and the peculiar kh for the Sanskrit palatal sibilant should afford some clue to the origin of the dialect; for this kh sound, like the Arabic kh in khawind, is not found in any dialect indigenous in this part of India. The numerals are obviously of Sanskrit origin, and so are most of the words.

The Bawariyas Of The North-Western Provinces .

A body of Bauriyas or Bawariyas who were, many years ago, interrogated as to their customs and kindred, gave the following account of themselves [1] :-“The Mugins and Baguras who reside in Malwa and on the Chambal river commit dacoity, burglary, and theft; they stick at nothing. They go in large parties (kafila ), sometimes as carriers of Ganges water, sometimes as Brahmans, with the sacred string around their necks. The Haburas commit theft. The Gujars call us Gidiyas, and the Jats call us Bauris. Gidiya is merely a local name of our tribe; there is no distinct class of people of that name. The Sansiyas are not of our tribe; they are a distinct class; they are thieves, but seldom ascend to dacoity- [this is certainly incorrect]. The Kanjars are all thieves; they cut grass and make thatches, and bivouac in suburbs under huts of long grass (sirki ), but always thieve. Our caste was originally Rajput, and our ancestors came from Marwar. We have seven clans (got ) - Punwar, Soharki, Dabas, alias Dabi, Chauhan, Tunwar, Dhandara, alias Dhandal or Koli, and Gordhi, with the Chami, making eight in all. Two or three centuries ago, when the Emperor of Delhi attacked the fortress of Chithor and besieged it for years for the sake of the Princess Padmani, the country became desolate, and we were obliged to emigrate in search of employment, and disperse. Those that came into the Delhi territory were called Bauris; those that went into the Gwalior territory were called Mugins and Baguras. To the east they were called Baddhiks, and in Malwa, Haburas. We are not people of yesterday; we are of ancient and illustrious descent. When Ravana took away the wife of the god Rama, and Rama wanted to recover her, men of all castes went to fight for him in the holy cause. Among the rest was a leader of the Bauris called Pardhi. When Rama vanquished his enemy and recovered sits he asked Pardhi what he could do for him. 'Grant,' said Pardhi, 'that I may attend your majesty, mount guard, and hunt in the intervals of leisure, and I shall have all that my heart wishes'. The god granted him his request, and his occupation has come down to us . If any Prince happens to have an enemy that he wishes to have made away with, he sends for some of our tribe and says, 'Go and bring so and so's head.' We go, steal into his sleeping apartments, and take off the person's head without any other person knowing anything about it. If a Prince wanted not the head of his enemy, but the gold tassels of the bed on which he lay asleep, we brought them to him. In consequence of our skill on those matters we were held everywhere in high esteem, and we served Princes and had never occasion to labour at tillage. This was before the emigration and dispersion of the tribe. We, who have come to the Delhi territory and are called Bauris, took to the trade of thieving. Princes still employed us to take off the heads of their enemies and rob them of their valuables. At present the Bauris confine themselves almost exclusively to robbing tents; they do not steal cattle or break into houses, but they will rob a cart on the highway occasionally; an other trade than robbery they never take to. They reside in or near villages under the protection of landlords, and while out for long period at their vocation, they leave their wives and children under their care. They give them the means of subsistence, and for these advances we are often indebted to them in the amount of three hundred or four hundred rupees by the time we return. When we are about to set out

[1] Selections from the Records of Government, Western Provinces, 1., 886 North Indian Notes and queries , 1., 66 .

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on our expeditions we get a loan of twenty or thirty rupees from the landholders or merchants of the place, and two days before starting we sacrifice a goat and make burnt offerings to the goddess Devi, sometimes to her of the fiery furnace of Jawala, in the Himalaya, and sometimes to our old tutelary god of Chithor. We present sweetmeats and vow unceasing devotions if we are successful. After this we take our auspices thus: we go in the evening into the jungle, and there in silence await the call. If the partridge or jackal calls on the left we set out without further ceremony; even the bark of a fox will do. If any of them call on the right, we return home and try again the following day. As soon as we get a good omen we set out. If we take it in the morning it must be before sunrise, and the fox, partridge, or jackal must cry on the right to be good. If a deer crosses from the left to the right it is a good omen. We have a couplet on this subject signifying that if the crow and the deer cross from the left to the right and the blue jay from left to right, even the wealth that has gone from us will come back.”

Present Condition In The Upper Duab.

The Census returns give the sections as Badniyar, Banwar, Bardhia, Barmar, Chauhan, Dale, Dhandin, Dyas, Garali, Gaur, Kori, Madniyariya, Pahari, Panwar, Rajput, Solankhi, Saurangi, and Topiwal. Those best known in the Upper Duab are Turai, Pachhada, or "Western," Gola Kori, and Khagi. These gotras , as they are called, are exogamous, but the Turai marry only with the Pachhada and the Gola with the Khagi. This rule of exogamy they reinforce with the rather vague formula that marriage with relatives by blood (duds ke natedar) is prohibited. They can marry two sisters in succession. They have now settled down and abandoned their wandering habit of life. They admit strangers into the caste. The only ceremony is that the convert has to eat and drink with his new clansmen. Some say that candidates for admission must be of high caste themselves; but they do not appear to be very particular, and these new admissions are treated at the outset with some contempt, and are not all at once admitted into full tribal privileges. Marriage usually takes place in infancy. 1 The standard of morality is very low, because in Muzaffarnagar [1] it is extremely rare for a Bawariya woman to live with her husband. Almost invariably she lives with another man; but whoever he may be, the official husband is responsible for the children. Divorced wives may marry in the clan by the karao from, and a man can have two or three wives at a time. The marriage ceremony is carried out by the brother-in-law (dhiyana ) of the bride, and he makes them walk round the marriage shed, and promise to be faithful to each other. The relatives, in fact, does all their religious and quasi-religious ceremonies. Infidelity, contraction of a fatal disease, and loss of religion and caste warrant either husband or wife giving up cohabitation, and if the separation is approved of by the clansmen, the woman can re-marry by the karao form. It is also said that a wife can be discarded when she loses her good looks.

Religion And Customs Of The Western Bawariyas.

They are Hindu by religion and worship Kali-Bhawani and Zahir Diwan. The women in particular worship Kali-Bhawani. As already stated, they do not employ Brahmans, but get their religious business done by the brother-in-law. They usually burn the adult dead, and bury those who have not been married. They are in constant fear of the ghosts of the dead, and lay out food for them in platters made of leaves. They now principally live by catching birds of all kinds. Those that are edible, they sell, others they take to the houses of rich Jain merchants, and make an income by releasing them from their cages. They do not prostitute their married women or girls. They will eat almost any kind of meat except beef, and indulge freely in liquor. They will eat and drink from the hands of any Hindu except Nats and the regular outcaste tribes.

[1] North Indian Notes and Queries, 1., 51

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The Eastern Bawariyas Of The North-Western Provinces.

In direct contrast to this disreputable branch of the tribe are the Eastern Bawariyas of Mirzapur. They are very possibly an offshoot of the Bauris of Western Bengal, of whom Mr. Risley writes [1] : "They are a cultivating, earth-working, and palanquin-bearing race, whose features and complexion stamp them as being of non-Aryan descent, although evidence is wanting to affiliate them to any particular tribe now in existence. Their meagre folklore throws no light on their origin. According to one story they were degraded for attempting to steal food from the banquet of the gods; another professes to trace them back to a mythical ancestor named Bahak Rishi (the bearer of burdens), and tells how while returning from a marriage procession, they sold the palanquin they had been hired to carry, got drunk on the proceeds, and assaulted their Guru, who cursed them for the sacrilege, and compelled them to rank thenceforward among the lowest castes of the community. Another name for this ancestor is Rik Muni, the same as the eponym of the Musahars and Bhuiyas; but it would be straining conjecture to infer from this any connection between the Bauris and the Bhuiyas." At any rate the Mirzapur Bawariyas admit no connection with such people. According to their own account they were originally Bais Chhatris, and come from Baiswara, a tract of country which Sir H.M. Elliot defines as lying between Cawnpur on the west, and the Chhuanb rivulet on the south, and Dikhtan, or the land of the Dikhit Rajputs, on the north.

They tell their story as follows: There were two Chhatri brothers named Sure and Bire, who left Baiswara in search of employment, and went to Chayanpur, in the Shahabad District. There they took service with a Raja who had a lovely daughter. When her suitor, a neighbouring Raja, came to woo her, the two brothers challenged his wrestlers. To show their prowess they took a well-burnt tile and crushed it into dust, with which they rubbed their bodies as athletes do before they enter the arena. Then they tore up a great tamarind tree by the roots, and the rival wrestlers ran away in fear. This so pleased their master that he gave them a village called Bawari or Chan Bawari, from whence they take their name. They appear now to be fully recognised as Chhatris, and marry in the Chauhan, Juthi, and Gaharwar clans.

They have now no landed property, but settle as tenants wherever they can find land. They do not admit outsiders into the tribe. Their marriage rules are of the type common to the more respectable tribes, but their special worship of Dulha Deo at marriages suggests a connection with some of the non-Aryan races. This is done on the eve of the marriage. The house kitchen is plastered, and the oldest woman of the family draws a lota full of water from the well, but in doing this she must use only her right hand. A burnt offering is then made with one-and-a-quarter sers of butter, and the water is poured on the floor in honour of the godling. Widow marriage is forbidden, and a woman caught in adultery must be discarded. They are generally initiated into either the Saiva or Sakta sect, and specially worship Dulha Deo and Sinha Baba, who was a Nanak Shahi faqir. To him is made a burnt offering of sugar and butter once a year; the butter must be of the weight of one piece and the sugar one quarter piece. A goat is also sometimes offered in the house court-yard. The priests of the clan are known as the Panres of Machhiawan, who have come with them from their original settlement. Their death ceremonies are such as are performed by the higher castes. They abstain from spirits, and their women are kept under careful control. They eat the flesh of deer and goats, and all kinds of fish except the gunch or Gangetic shark. Brahmans will eat pakki from their hands, and they will eat kachchi cooked by their Brahman spiritual guides. They smoke only with their clansmen. Lower castes, like Kanars and Nais will eat both kachchi and pakki from their hands.

The Criminal Bawariyas.

The Western Bawariyas of these Provinces are best known to District Officers as a criminal tribe. When they go on their predatory excursions, which extend over a large part of Northern India, they usually assume the garb of fakirs, and the only way of finding them

[1] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, 1., 78.

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out is by a peculiar necklace of small wooden beads, which they fixed to their front teeth.[1] It seems, however doubtful whether this last test is always conclusive. In cases of doubt their mouths should be examined, for under their tongues a hollow is formed by constant pressure from their younger days, in which they can secure from fifteen to twenty silver bits. The women are believed to possess secrets for charms and medicines, and sell the roots and herbs which they collect in the jungles. They are said to be expert in making patchwork quilts, which they sell. Whenever they wander they sleep on a bed and not on the ground. One peculiarity about their thieving is that, like the Alagiris of Madras, [2] when they enter a house they take with them some dry grain, which they throw about in the dark, so as to be the ascertain the position of brass vessels and other metal articles. In Central India they are said to be greatly wanting in intelligence and timid in their intercourse with their fellow men. They are there divided into five tribes-the Rathaur or Mewara, Chauhan, Sawandiya, Korbiyar, Kodiyar; and each tribe has a separate hunting ground. They are governed by Chiefs called Hauliya, whose office is hereditary.

“Booty is divided into three shares- one for the god of the wilds, one for the god of the river, and the remainder is divided among those present at the capture. At the Holi festival they all assemble at the Hauliya's residence, when he collects his income, one rupee per head. For the first five years after the beard first appears, it and the hair are cut once a year; but ever after that they wear both unshorn, and their long shaggy locks add to their uncouth appearance. Few attain sixty years of age, and ten is the greatest number of children they have known 3 one woman to bear. They call themselves a branch of the Dhangar, or shepherd class.” [3]

Bazigar: -They are a sub-division of the Nats.

Bedar: -Boya [4] "Throughout the hills," Buchanan writes,[5] "northward from Capaladurga, are many cultivated spots, in which, during Tippoo's government, were settled many Baydaru or hunters, who received twelve pagodas (L 4 5 s.) a year, and served as irregular troops whenever required. Being accustomed to pursue tigers and deer in the woods, they were excellent marksmen with their match-locks, and indefatigable in following their prey; which, in the time of war, was the life and property of every helpless creature that came in their way. During the wars of Hyder and his son, these men were chief instruments in the terrible depredations committed in the lower Carnatic. They were also frequently employed with success against the Poligars (feudal chiefs), whose followers were of a similar description." In the Gazetteer of the Anantapur district it is noted that "the Boyas are the old fighting caste of this part of the country, whose exploits are so often recounted in the history books. The Poligars' forces, and Haidar Ali's famous troops were largely recruited from these people, and they still retain a keen interest in sport and manly exercises."

In his notes on the Boyas, which Mr. N. E. Q. Mainwaring has kindly placed at my disposal, many a Boya served in the ranks of our Native army, being entered in the records thereof 6 either under his caste title of Naidu, or under the heading of Gentu, which was largely used in old day military records, yet this congenial method of earning a livelihood has now been swept away by a Government order, which directs that in the future on Telegas shall be enlisted into the Indian army. That the Boyas were much prized as fighting men in the

[1] Report, inspector General of Police, N.W.P., 1868, p. 13.

[2] Mullaly, Notes on Criminal Tribes, 10.

[3] Balfour, Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, Vol. XIII .

[4] See E. Thurston.

[5] Journey through Mysore, Canara and Malabar, 1807.

[6] Gentu or Gentoo is " corruption of the Portuguese Gentio, gentile or heathen, which they applied to the Hindus in contradistinction to the Moros or Moors, i. e., Mahommedans. It is applied to the Telugu-speaking Hindus specially, and to their language." Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jubson.

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stirring times of the eighteenth century is spoken to in the contemporaneous history of Colonel Wilks. [1] He speaks of the brave armies of the Poligars of Chitteldroog, who belonged to the Beder or Boya race in the year 1755. Earlier, in 1750 Hyder Ali, who was then only a Naik in the service on the Mysore Raja, used with great effect his select corps of Beder peons at the battle of Ginjee. Five years after this battle, when Hyder was rising to great eminence, he augmented his Beder peons, and used them as scouts for the purpose of ascertaining the whereabouts of his enemies, and for poisoning with the juice of the milkhedge (Euphorbia Tirucalli ) all wells in use by them, or in their line of march. The historian characterises them as being 'brave and faithful thieves.' In 1751, the most select army of Morari Row of Gooty consisted chiefly of Beder peons, and the accounts of their deeds in the field, as well as their defence of Gooty fort, which only feel after the meanness of device had been resorted to, prove their bravery in time gone by beyond doubt. There are still a number of old weapons to be found amongst the Boyas, consisting of swords, daggers, spears, and matchlocks. None appear to be purely Boya weapons, but they seem to have assumed the weapons of either Muhammadans or Hindus, according to which race held sway at the time. In some districts, there are still Boya poligars, but, as a rule, they are poor, and unable to maintain any position. Generally, the Boyas live at peace with their neighbours, only occasionally 2 committing a grave dacoity (robbery ). [2]

"In the Kurnool district, they have a bad name, and many are on the police records as habitual thieves and housebreakers. They seldom stoop to lesser offences. Some are carpenters, others blacksmiths who manufacture all sorts of agricultural implements. Some, again, are engaged as watchmen, and others make excellent snares for fish out bamboo. But the majority of them are agriculturists, and most of them work on their own putta lands. They are now a hard-working, industrious people, who have become thrifty by dint of their industry, and whose former predatory habits are being forgotten. Each village, or group of villages, submits to the authority of a headman, who is generally termed the Naidu, or less commonly Dora. In some parts of Kurnool, the headmen are called Simhasana Boyas. The headman presides over all functions, and settles with the assistance of the elders any disputes that may arise in the community regarding division of property, adultery, and other matters. The headman has the power to inflict fines, the amount of which is regulated by the status and wealth of the defaulter. But it is always arranged that the penalty shall be sufficient to cover the expense of feeding the panchayatdars (members of council ), and leave a little over to be divided between the injured party and the headman. In this way, the headman gets paid for his services, and practically fixes his own remuneration.

It is stated in the Manual of the Bellary district that "of the various Hindu castes in Bellary, the Boyas (called in Canarese Bedars, Byedas, or Buadas are by far the most numerous. Many of the Poligars whom Sir Thomas Munro found in virtual possession of the country when it was added to the Company belonged to this caste, and their irregular levies, and also a large proportion of Haidar's formidable force where of the same breed. Harpanahalli was the seat of one of the most powerful Poligars in the district in the eighteenth century. The founder of the family was a Boya taliari, who, on the subversion of the Vijayanagar dynasty, seized on two small districts near Harpanahalli. The Boyas are perhaps the only people in the district who still retain any aptitude for manly sports. They are now for the most part cultivators and herdsmen and are engaged under the Government as constables, peons, village watchmen (taliaris), and so forth. Their community provides an instructive example of the growth of caste sub-divisions. Both the Tillage-speaking Boyas and the Canarese speaking Bedars are split into the two main divisions of Uru or village men, and Myasa or grass-land men, and each of these division is again sub-divided into a number of exogamous Bedagas. Four of the best known of these sub-divisions are Yemmalavaru or "buffalo-men;" Mandalavaru or "men of the herd;" Pulavaru or "flower-men," and Minalavaru or "fish-men." They are in no way

[1] Historical Sketches of the South of India : Mysore, 1810-17.

[2] By law, to constitute dacoity, there must be five or more in the gang committing the crime. Yule and Burnell, op cit.

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totemistic. Curiously enough, each Bedagu has its own particular god, to which its members pay special reverence. But these Bedagas bear the same names among both the Boyas and the Bedars, and also among both the Uru and Myasa divisions of both Boyas and Bedars. It thus seems clear that, at some distant period, all the Boyas and all the Bedars must have belonged to one homogeneous caste. At present, although Uru Boyas will marry with Uru Bedars and Myasa Boyas with Myasa Bedars, there is no intermarriage between Urus and Myasas, whether they be Boyas or Bedars. Even if Urus and Myasas dine together, they sit in different rows, each division by themselves. Again, the Urus (whether Boyas or Bedars) will eat chicken and drink alcohol, but the Myasas will not touch a fowl or any form of strong drink, and are so strict on this last matter that they will not even sit on mats made of the leaf of the date-palm, the tree which in Bellary provides all the toddy. The Urus, moreover, celebrate their marriages with the ordinary ceremonial of the halu-kamba or milk-post and the surge, or bathing of the happy pair; the bride sits on a flour-grinding stone, and the bridegroom stands on a basket full of cholam (millet), and they call in Brahmans to officiate. But the Myasas have a simpler itual, which omits most of these points, and dispenses with the Brahman. Other differences are that the Uru women wear ravikkais or tight-fitting bodices, while the Myasas tuck them under their waist-string. Both divisions eat beef, and both have a hereditary headman called the ejaman, and hereditary Dasaris who act as their priests."

In the Madras Census Report, 1901, it is stated that the two main divisions of Boyas are called also Pedda (big) and Chainna (small) respectively, and, according to another account, the caste has four endogamous sections, Pedda, Chinna, and Myasa. Sadaru is the name of a subdivision of Lingayats, found mainly in the Bellary and Anantapur districts, where they are largely engaged in cultivation. Some Bedars who live amidst those Lingayats call themselves Sadaru. According to the Manual of the North Arcot district, the Boyas are a "Telugu hunting caste, chiefly found above the ghats. Many of the Poligars of that part of the country used to belong to the caste, and proved themselves so lawless that they were dispossessed. Now they are usually cultivators. They have several divisions, the chief of which are the Mulki Boyas and the Pala Boyas, who cannot intermarry." According to the Mysore Census Reports, 1891 and 1901, "the Bedas have two distinct divisions, the Kannada and Telugu, and own some twenty sub-divisions, of which the following are the chief: Halu, Machi or Myasa, Nayaka, Pallegar, Barika, Kannaiyyanajati, and Kirataka. The Machi or Myasa Bedas comprise a distinct sub-division, also called the Chunchus. They live mostly in hills, and outside inhabited places in temporary huts. Portions of their community had, it is alleged, been coerced into living in villages, with whose descendants the others have kept up social intercourse. They do not, however, eat fowl or pork, but partake of beef; and the Myasa 1 Bedas are the only Hindu class among whom the rite of circumcision is performed [1] on boys of ten or twelve years of age. These customs, so characteristic of the Musulmans, seem to have been absorbed when the members of this sub-caste were included in the hordes of Haidar Ali. Simultaneously with the circumcision, other rites, such as the panchagavyam, the burning of the tongue with a nim (Melia Azadirachta ) stick, etc. (customs pre-eminently Brahmanical), are likewise practised prior to the youth being received into communion. Among their other peculiar customs are the exclusion from their ordinary dwellings of women in child-bed and in periodical sickness. The Myasa Bedas are said to scrupulously avoid liquor or every kind, and eat the flesh of only two kinds of birds viz., gauja (grey partridge), and lavga (rock-bush quail)." Of circumcision among the Myasa Bedars it is noted, in the Gazetteer of the Bellary district, that they practise this rite found about Rayadrug and Gudekota. "These Myasas seem quite proud of the custom, and scorn the idea of marrying into any family in which it is not the rule. The rite is performed when a boy is seven or eight. A very small piece of the skin is cut off by a man of the caste, and the boy is then kept for eleven days in a separate hut, and touched by no one. His food is given him on a piece of stone. On the twelfth day he is bathed, given a new cloth, and brought back to the house, and his old cloth and the stone on which his food was served are thrown away. His relations in a body then take him to a

[1] Circumcision is practised by some Kallans of the Tamil country .

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tangedu (Cassia auriculata ) bush, to which are offered cocoanuts, flowers, and so forth, and which is worshipped by them and him. Girls on attaining puberty are similarly kept for eleven days in a separate hut, and afterwards made to do worship to a tangedu bush. This tree also receives reverence at funerals."

The titles of the Boyas are said to be Naidu or Nayudu, Naik, Dora, Dorabidda (children of chieftains), and Valmiki. They claim direct lineal descent from Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana. At times of census in Mysore, some Bedars have set themselves up as Valmiki Brahmans. The origin of the Myasa Bedas is accounted for in the following story. A certain Bedar woman had two sons, of whom the elder, after taking his food, went to work in the fields. The younger son, coming home, asked his mother to give him food, and she give him only cholam (millet) and vegetables. While he was partaking thereof, he recognised the smell of meat, and was angry because his mother had given him none, and beat her to death. He then searched the house, and, on opening a pot from which the smell of meat emanated, found that it only contained the rotting fibre-yielding bark of some plant. Then cursing his luck, he fled to the forest, where he remained, and became the forefather of the Myasa Bedars.

For the following note on the legendary origin of the Bedars, I am indebted to Mr. Mainwaring. " Many stories are told of how they came into existence, each story bringing out the name which the particular group may be known by. Some call themselves Nishadulu, and claim to be the legitimate descendants of Nishadu. When the great Venudu, who was directly descended from Brahma, ruled over the universe, he was unable to procure a son and heir to the throne. When he died, his death was regarded as an irreparable misfortune. In grief and doubt as to what was to be done, his body was preserved. The seven ruling planets, then sat in solemn conclave, and consulted together as to what they should do. Finally they agreed to create a being from the right thigh of the deceased Venudu, and they accordingly fashioned and gave life to Nishudu. But their work was not successful, for Nishudu turned out to be not only deformed in body, but repulsively ugly. It was accordingly agreed, at another meeting of the planets, thet he was not a fit person to be placed on the throne. So they set to work again, and created a being from the right shoulder of Venudu. Their second effort was crowned with success. They called their second creation Chakravati, and, as he gave general satisfaction, he was placed on the throne. This supersession naturally caused Nishudu, the first born, to be discontented, and he sought a lonely place. There he communed with the gods, begging of them the reason why they had created him, if he was not to rule. The gods explained to him that he could not now be put on the throne, since Chakravati had already been installed, but that he should be a ruler over the forests. In this capacity, Nishudu begot the Koravas, Chenchus, Yanadis, and Boyas. The Boyas were his legitimate children, while the others were all illegitimate. According to the legend narrated in the Valmiki Ramayana, when king Vishwamitra quarrelled with the Rishi Vashista, the Kamadenu belonging to the latter grew angry, and shook herself. From her body an army, which included Nishadulu, Turka ( Muhammadans ), and Yevannudu ( Yerukalas ) at once appeared.

"A myth related by the Boyas in explanation of their name Valmikudu runs as follows. In former days, a Brahman, who lived as a highwayman, murdering and robbing all the travellers he came across, kept a Boya female, and begot children by her. One day, when he went out to carry on his usual avocation, he met the seven Rishis, who were the incarnations of the seven planets. He ordered them to deliver their property, or risk their lives. The Rishis consented to give him all their property, which was little enough, but warned him that one day he would be called to account for his sinful deeds. The Brahman, however, haughtily replied that he had a large family to maintain, and as they lived on his plunder, they would have share the punishment that was inflicted upon himself. The Rishis doubted this and advised him to go and find out from his family if they were willing to suffer an equal punishment with him for his sins. The Brahman went to his house and confessed his

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misdeeds to his wife, explaining that it. was through them that he had been able to keep the family in luxury. He then told her of his meeting with the Rishis, and asked her if she would share his responsibility. His wife and children emphatically refused to be in any way responsible for his sins, which they declared were entirely his business. Being at his wit's end, he returned to the Rishis, told them how unfortunate he was in his family affairs, and begged advice of them as to what he should do to be absolved from his sins. They told him that he should call upon the god Rama for forgiveness. But, owing to his bad upbringing and his misspent youth, he was unable to utter the god's name. So the Rishis taught him to say it backwards by syllables, thus:- ma ra, ma ra, ma ra which, by rapid repetition a number of times, gradually grew into Rama. When he was able to call on his god without difficulty, the Brahman sat at the scene of his graver sins, and did penance. White-ants came out of the ground, and gradually enveloped him in a heap. After he had been thus buried alive, he became himself a Rishi, and was known as Valmiki Rishi, valmiki meaning an ant-hill. As he had left children by the Boya woman who lived with him during his prodigal days, the Boyas claim to be descended from these children and call themselves Valmikudu"

The Bedars, whom I examined at Hospet in the Bellary district, used to go out on hunting expeditions, equipped with guns, deer or hog spears, nets like lawn-tennis nets used in drives for young deer or hares. Several men had cicatrices, as the result of encounters with wild boars during hunting expeditions, or when working in the sugar plantations. It is noted in the Bellary Gazetteer that "the only caste which goes in for manly sports seems to be the Boyas, or Bedars, as they are called in Canarese. They organise drives for pig, hunt bears in some parts in a fearless manner, and are regular attendants at the village gymnasium (garidimane), a building without any ventilation often constructed partly underground, in which the ideal exercise consists in using dumbbells and clubs until a profuse perspiration follows. They get up wrestling matches, tie a band of straw round one leg, and challenge all and sundry to remove it, or back themselves to perform feats of strength, such as running up the steep Joladarasi hill near Hospet with a bag of grain of their back." At Hospet wrestling matches are held at a quiet spot outside the town, which crowds of hundreds gather to watch. The wrestlers, who performed before me, had the hair shaved clean so that the adversary could not seize them by the back hair, and the moustache was trimmed short for the same reason. Two young wrestlers, whose measurements I place on record, were splendid specimens of youthful muscularity.

cm cm

Height 163.2 163

Shoulders 41.8 42.8

Chest 84 82

upper arm, flexed 28 29

Thigh 47 51

In the Gazetteer of Anantapur it is stated that the Telugu New Year's day is the great occasion for driving pigs, and the Boyas are the chief organisers of the beats. All except children, the aged and infirm, join in them, and, since to have good sport is held to be the best of omens for the coming year, the excitement aroused is almost ludicrous in its intensity. It runs so high that the parties from rival villages have been known to use their weapons upon one 1 another, instead of upon the beasts of the chase. In an article entitled "Boyas and bears" [1] a European sportsman gives the following graphic description of a bear hunt: "we used to sleep out on the top of one of the hills on a moonlight night. On the top of every hill round, a Boya was watching for the bears to come home at dawn, and frantic signals showed when one had been spotted. We hurried off to the place, to try and cut the bear off from his residence among the boulders, but the country was terribly rough, and the hills were covered with a peculiarly persistent wait-a-bit-thorn. This, however, did not daunt the Boyas.

[ 1] Madras Mail, 1902.

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Telling me to wait outside the jumble of rocks, each man took off his turban, wound it round his left forearm, to act as a shield against attacks from the bear, lit a rude torch, grasped his long iron-headed spear, and coolly walked into the inky blackness of the enemy's stronghold, to turn him out for me to shoot at. I used to feel ashamed of the minor part assigned to me in the entertainment, and asked to be allowed to go inside with them. But this suggestion was always respectfully, but very firmly put aside. On could not shoot in such darkness, they explained, and if one fired, smoke hung so long in the still air of the caves that the bear obtained an unpleasant advantage, and finally, bullets fired at close quarters into naked rock were apt to splash or re-bound in an uncanny manner. So I had to wait outside until the bear appeared with a crowd of cheering and yelling Boyas after him." Of a certain cunning bear the same writer records that, unable to shake the Boyas off, " he had at last taken refuge at the bottom of a sort of dark pit, 'four men deep' as the Boyas put it, under a ledge of rock, where neither spears nor torches could reach him. Not to be beaten, there of the Boyas at length clambered down after him, and unable otherwise to get him to budge from under the mass of rock beneath which he had squeezed himself, fired a cheap little nickel-plated revolver one of them had brought twice into his face. The bear then concluded that his refuge was after all an unhealthy spot, rushed out, knocking one of the three men against the rocks as he did so with a force which badly barked one shoulder, clambered out of the pit, and was thereafter kept straight by the Boyas until he got to the entrance of his residence, where I was waiting for him."

Mr. Mainwaring writes that "the Boyas are adepts at shikar (hunting). They use a bullock to stalk antelope, which they shoot with matchlocks. Some keep a tame buck, which they let loose in the vicinity of a herd of antelope, having previously fastened a net over his horns. As soon as the tame animal approaches the herd, the leading buck will come forward to investigate the intruder. The tame buck does not run away, as he probably would if he had been brought up from infancy to respect the authority of the buck of the herd. A fight naturally ensues, and the exchange of a few butts finds them fastened together by the net. It is then only necessary for the shikaris to rush up, and finish the strife with a knife." Among other occupations, the Boyas and Bedars collect honey-combs, which, in some places, have to be gathered from crevices in overhanging rocks, which have to be skilfully manipulated from above or below. The Bedar men whom I saw during the rainy season wore a black woollen kambli (blanket) as a body-cloth, and it was also held over the hand as a protection against the driving showers of the south-west monsoon. The same cloth does double duty as a basket for bringing back to the town heavy loads of grass. Some of the men wore a garment with the waist high up in the chest, something like an English rustic's smock frock. Those who worked in the fields carried steel tweezers on a string round to loins, with which to remove babul (Acacia arabica ) thorns, twigs of which tree are used as a protective hedge for fields under cultivation. As examples of charms worn by men the following may be cited: string tied around the upper arm with a metal talisman box attached to it drives away devils, as does a strong round anklet; quarter-anna rolled up in cotton cloth, and worn on the upper arm while performing a vow. Necklaces of coral and ivory beads are worn as a vow to the Goddess Huligamma, whose shrine is in Hyderabad, and other necklaces of ivory beads and a gold disc with the Vishnupad (feet of Vishnu) engraved on it are purchased from religious mendicants to bring good luck. A man, who had dislocated his shoulder when a lad, had been tattooed with a figure of Hanuman (the monkey god) over the deltoid muscle to remove the pain. Myasa Bedar women are said [1] to be debarred from wearing toe-rings. Both Uru and Myasa women are tattooed on the face, and on the upper extremities with elaborate designs of scorpions, centipedes, Sita's jade (plaited hair), Hanuman, parrots, etc. Men are branded by the priest of a Hanuman shrine on the shoulders with the emblem of the chank shell (Turbinella rapa ) and chakram (wheel of the law) in the belief that it enables them to go the

[1] Mysore Census Report, 1901.

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Swarga (heaven). When a Myasa man is branded, he has to purchase a cylindrical basket called gopala made by a special Medara woman, a bamboo stick, fan, and a winnow. Female Bedars who are branded become Basavis (dedicated prostitutes), and are dedicated to a male deity, and called Gandu Basavioru (male Basavis). They are thus dedicated when there happens to be no male child in a family; or, if a girl falls ill, a vow is made to the effect that, if she recovers, she shall become a Basavi. If a son is born to such a woman, he is affiliated with her father's family. Some Bedar women, whose house deities are goddesses instead of gods, are not branded, but a string with white bone beads strung on it, and a gold disc with two feet (Vishnupad) impressed on it, is tied round their neck by a Kuruba woman called Pattantha Ellamma (priestess to Uligamma). When Bedar girls whose house deities are females are dedicated as Basavis, they use a similar necklace, but with black beads, tied round the neck, and are called Hennu Basavis (female Basavis). For the ceremony of dedication to a female deity, the presence of the Madiga goddess Matangi is necessary. The Madigas bring a bent iron rod with a cup at one end, and twigs of Vitex Negundo to represent the goddess, to whom goats are sacrificed. The iron rod is set up in front of the doorway, a wick and oil are placed in the cup, and the impromptu lamp is lighted. Various cooked articles of food are offered, and partaken of by the assembled Bedars. Bedar women sometimes live in concubinage with Muhammadans. And some Bedars, at the time of the Mohurram festival, wear a thread across the chest like Muhammadans, and may not enter their houses till they have washed themselves.

According to the Mysore Census Report, 1901, the chief deity of the Bedars is " Tirupati Venkataramana-swami worshipped locally under the name of Tirumala-devaru, but offerings and sacrifices are also made to Mariamma. Their guru is known as Tirumalatatacharya, who is also a head of the Srivaishnava Brahmans. The Uru Boyas employ Brahmans and jangams as priests." In addition to the deities mentioned, the Bedars worship a variety of minor gods, such as Kanimiraya, Kanakarayan, Uligamma, Palaya, Poleramma, and others, to whom offerings of fruits, vegetables, and sacrifices of sheep and goats are made. The Dewan of Sandur informs me that, in recent times, some Myasa Bedars have changed their faith, and are now Saivas, showing special reverence to Mahadeva. They were apparently converted by Jungams, but not to the fullest extent. The guru is the head of the Ujjani Lingayat matt (religious institution) in the kudligi taluk of Bellary. They do not wear the lingam. In the Madras Census Report, 1901, the patron deity of the Boyas is said to be Kanya Devudu. Concerning the religion of the Boyas, Mr. Mainwaring writes as follows: "They worship both Siva and Vishnu, and also different gods in different localities. In the North Arcot district, they worship Tirupatiswami. In Kurnool, it is Kanya Devudu. In Cuddapah and Anantapur, it is Chendrugadu, and many, in Anantapur, worship Akkamma, who is believed to be the spirit of the seven virgins. At Uravakonda, in the Anantapur district, on the summit of an enormous rock, is a temple dedicated to Akkamma, in which the seven virgins are represented by seven small golden pots or vessels. Cocoanuts, rice, and dal (Cajanus indicus ) form the offerings of the Boyas. The women, on the occasion of the Nagalasauthi or snake festival, worship the Nagala swami by fasting, and pouring milk into the holes of white-ant hills. By this, a double object is fulfilled. The ant heap is a favourite dwelling of the naga or cobra, and it was the burial-place of Valmiki, so homage is paid to the two at the same time. Once a year, a festival is celebrated in honour of the deceased ancestors. This generally takes place about the end of November. The Boyas make no use of Brahmans for religious purposes. They are only consulted for the auspicious hour at which to tie the tali at a wedding. Though the Boya finds little use for the Brahman, there are times when the latter needs the services of the Boya.

The Boya cannot be dispensed with, if a Brahman wishes to perform Vontigadu, a ceremony by which he hopes to induce favourable auspices under which to celebrate a marriage. The story has it that Vontigadu was a destitute Boya, who died from starvation. It is possible that Brahmans and Sudras hope in some way to ameliorate the sufferings of the race to which Vontigadu belonged, by feeding sumptuously his modern representative on the occasion of performing the Vontigadu ceremony. On the morning of the day on which the ceremony is performed for which favourable auspices are required, a Boya

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is invited to the house. He is given a present of gingelly (Sesamum ) oil, where-with to anoint himself. This done, he returns, carrying in his hand a dagger, on the point of which a lime has been stuck. He is directed to the cowshed, and there given a good meal. After finishing the meal, he steals from the shed, and dashes out of the house uttering a piercing yell, and waving his dagger. He on no account looks behind him. The inmates of the house follow for some distance, throwing water wherever he has trodden. By this means, all possible evil omens for the coming ceremony are done away with "

I gather [1] that some Boyas in the Boyas in the Bellary district "enjoy inam (rent free) lands for propitiating the village goddesses by a certain rite called bhuta bali. This takes place on the last day of the feast of the village goddess, and is intended to secure the prosperity of the village. The Boya priest gets himself shaved at about midnight, sacrifices a sheep or a buffalo, mixes its blood with rice, and distributes the rice thus prepared in small balls throughout the limits of the village. When he starts out on this business, the whole village bolts its doors, as it is not considered auspicious to see him then. He returns early in the morning to the temple of the goddess which he started, bathes, and receives new cloths from the villagers." At Hospet the Bedars have two buildings called chavadis, built by subscription among members of their community, which they use as a meeting place, and where caste councils are held. At Sandur the Uru Bedars submit their disputes to their guru, a srivaish-nava Brahman, for settlement. If a case ends in a verdict of guilty against an accused person, he is fined, and purified by the guru with thirtham (holy water). In the absence of the guru, a caste headman (Kattaintivadu) sends a Dasari holding office under the guru to invite the castemen and the guru's representative (Samaya) to a caste meeting. The Dasari may or may not be a Bedar. The Samayas are the pujaris at Hanuman and other shrines, and perform the branding ceremony, called chakrankitam. The Myasa Bedars have no guru, instead, pujaris belonging to their own caste are in charge of the affairs of certain groups of families. Their caste messenger is called Dalavai. The following are examples of exogamous septs among the Boyas, recorded by Mr. Mainwaring:

Mukkara, nose or ear ornament.

Puchakayala, Citrullus colocynthis.

Majjiga, butter-milk.

Gandhapodi, sandal powder.

Kukkala, dog.

Pasula, cattle.

Pula, flowers.

Chinthakayala, Tamarindus indica.

Pandhi, pig.

Chilakala, Paroquet. Avula, cow.

Hastham, hand

Udumala, lizard ( Varanus )

Yelkameti, good rat.

Pulagam, cooked rice and dhal.

Misala, whiskers.

Boggula, charcoal.

Nemili, peacock.

Midathala, locust.

Pegula, intestines.

Potta, abdomen.

Mijam, seed.

Utla, swing for holding pots.

Uttareni, Achyranthes aspera.

Rottala, bread.

Chimpiri, rags.

Panchalingala, five lingams.

Kotala, fort.

Gudisa, hut.

Chapa, mat.

Tota, garden.

Guntala, pond.

Lanka, island.

Thappata, drum.

Bilpathri, Agle Marmelos.

Bellapu, jaggery.

Kodi-kandla, fowl's eyes

Chimala, ants.

Gadidhe-kandla, donkey's eyes.

Genneru, Nerium odorum.

Joti, light.

Pichiga, sparrows.

Namala, the Vaishnavite namam.

Uluvala, Dolichos biflorus.

Geddam, beard.

[1] Madras Mail, 1905

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Nagellu, plough.

Eddula, bulls.

Ulligadda, onions.

Cheruku, sugar-cane.

Jinkala, gazelle.

Pasupu, turmeric.

Dandu, army.

Aggi, fire.

Kattelu, sticks or faggots.

Mirapakaya, Capsicum frutescens.

Mekala, goat.

Janjapu, sacred thread.

Nakka, jackal.

Sankati, ragi or millet pudding.

Chevvula, ear.

Jerripothu, centipede.

Guvvala, pigeon.

Many of this sects are common to the Boyas and other classes, as shown by the following list:

Avula, cow-Korava.

Boggula, charcoal- Devanga

Cheruku, sugar-Jogi, Odde.

Chevvula, ear-Golla.

Chilakala, paroquet-Kapu, Yanadi.

Chimala, ants-Tsakala.

Chinthakayala, tamarind fruit-Devanga.

Dandu, army-Kapu.

Eddula, bulls-Kapu.

Gandhapodi, sandal powder-a sub-division of Balija.

Geddam, beard-Padma Sale.

Gudisa, hut-Kapu.

Guvvala, pigeon-Mutracha.

Jinkala, gazelle-Padma Sale.

Kukkala, dog-Orugunta Kapu.

Lanka, island-Kamma.

Mekala, goat-Chenchu, Golla, Kamma, Kapu, Togata, Yanadi.

Midathala, locust-Madiga.

Nakkala, jackal-Dudala, Golla, Mutracha.

Nemili, peacock-Balija.

Pichiga, sparrow-Devanga.

Pandhi, pig-Asili, Gamalla.

pasula, cattle-Madiga, Mala.

Puchakaya, colocynth-Komati, Viramusnti.

Pula, flowers-Padma Sale, yerukala.

Tota, garden-Chenchu, Mila, Mutracha, Bonthuk Savara.

Udumala, lizard-Kapu, Tottiyan, Yanadi.

Ulligadda, onions-Korava.

Uluvala, horse-gram--Jogi

Utla, swing for holding pots- Padma Sale.

At Hospet, the preliminaries of a marriage among the Myasa Bedars are arranged by the parents of the parties concerned and the chief men of the keri (street). On the wedding day, the bride and bridegroom sit on a raised platform, and five married men place rice stained with turmeric on the feet, knees, shoulders, and head of the bridegroom. This is done three times, and five married women then perform a similar ceremony on the bride. The bridegroom takes up the tali, and, with the sanction of the assembled Bedars, ties it around the bride's neck. In some places kit is handed to a Brahman priest, who ties it instead of the bridegroom. The unanimous consent of those present is necessary before the tali tying is proceeded with. The marriage ceremony among the Uru Bedars is generally performed at the bride's house, whither the bridegroom and his party proceed on the eve of the wedding. A feast, called thuppathuta or ghi (clarified butter) feast, is held, towards which the bridegroom's parents contribute rice, cocoanuts, betel leaves and nuts, and make a present of five bodices (ravike). At the conclusion of the feast all assemble beneath the marriage pandal (booth), and betel is distributed in a recognised order of precedence, commencing with

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the guru and the god. On the following morning four big pots, smeared with turmeric and chunam (lime) are placed in four corners, so as to have a square space (irani square) between them. Nine turns of cotton thread are wound round the pots. Within the square the bridegroom and two young girls seat themselves. Rice is thrown over them, and they are anointed. They and the bride are then washed by five women called bhumathoru. The bridegroom and one of the girls are carried in procession to the temple, followed by the five women, one of whom carries a brass vessel with five betel leaves and a ball of sacred ashes (vibuthi) over its mouth, and another a woman's cloth on a metal dish, while the remaining three women and the bridegroom's parents throw fice. Cocoanuts and betel are offered to Hanuman, and lines are drawn on the face of the bridegroom with the sacred ashes. The party then return to the house. The lower half of a grinding mill is placed beneath the pandal, and a Brahman priest invites the contracting couple to stand thereon. He then takes the tali, and ties it on the bride's neck, after it has been touched by the bridegroom. Towards evening the newly married couple sit inside the house, and close to them is placed a big brass vessel containing a mixture of cooked rice, jaggery (crude sugar) and curds, which is brought by the women already referred to. They give a small quantity thereof to the couple, and go away. Five Bedar men come near the vessel after removing their head-dress, surround the vedssel, and place their left hands thereon. With their right hands they shovel the food into their mouths. This ceremony is called bhuma idothu, or special eating, and is in some places performed by both men and women. All those present watch them eating, and, if any one chokes while devouring the food, or falls ill within a few months, it is believed to indicate that the bride has been guilty of irregular behaviour. On the following day the contracting couple go through the streets, accompanied by Bedars, the brass vessel and female cloth, and red powder is scattered broadcast. On the morning of the third and two following days, the newly married couple sit on a pestle, and are anointed after rice has been showered over them. The bride's father presents his son-in-law with a turban, a silver ring, and a cloth. It is said that a man may marry two sisters, provided that he marries the elder before the younger.

The following variant of the marriage ceremonies among the Boyas is given by Mr. Mfainwaring. "When a Boya has a son who should be settled in life, he nominally goes in search of a bride for him, though it has probably been known for a long time who the boy is to marry. However, the formality is gone through. The father of the boy, on arrival at the home of the future bride, explains to her father the object of his visit. They discuss each other's families, and, if satisfied that a union would be beneficial to both families, the father of the girl asks his visitor to call again, on a day that is agreed to, with some of the village elders. On the appointed day, the father of the lad collects the elders of his village, and proceeds with them to the house of the bride-elect. He carries with him four moottus (sixteen seers) of rice, one seer of dhal (cajanus indicus ), two seers of ghi (clarified butter), some betel leaves and areca nuts, a seer of fried gram, two lumps of jaggery (molasses), five garlic bulbs, five dried dates, five pieces of turmeric, and a female jacket. In the evening, the elders of both sides discuss the marriage, and, when it is agreed, the money has to be paid at once. The cost of a bride is always 101 madas, or Rs. 202 Towards this sum, sixteen rupees are counted out, and the total is arrived at by counting areca nuts. The remaining nuts articles which were brought by the party of the bridegroom are then placed on a brass tray, and presented to the bride-elect, who is requested to take three handfuls of nuts and the same quantity of betel leaves. On some occasions, the betel leaves are omitted. Betel is then distributed to the assembled persons. The provisions which were brought are next handed over to the parents of the girl, in addition to two rupees. These are to enable her father to provide himself with a sheet, as well as to give a feast to all those who are present at the betrothal. This is done on the following morning, when both parties breakfast together, and separate. A purohit is consulted as to the auspicious hour at which the tali or bottu should be tied. This having been settled, the bridegroom goes on the day fixed to the bride's village, or sometimes the bride goes to the village of the bridegroom. Supposing the bridegroom to be the visitor, the bride's party carries in procession the provisions which are to form the meal for

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the bridegroom's party, and this will be served on the first night. As the auspicious hour approaches, the bride's family leave her in the house, and go and fetch the bridegroom, who is brought in procession to the house of the bride. On arrival, he is made to stand under the pandal which has been erected. A curtain is tied therein from north to south. The bridegroom then stands on the east of the curtain, and faces west. The bride is brought from the house, and placed on the west of the curtain, facing her future husband. The bridegroom then takes up the bottu, which is generally a black thread with a small gold bead upon it. He shows it to the assembled people, and asks permission to fasten it on the bride's neck. The permission is accorded with acclamations. He then fastens the bottu on the bride's neck, and she in return ties round the right wrist of the bridegroom a thread from a black cumbly (blanket) on which a piece of turmeric has been threaded. After this, the bridegroom takes some seed, and places it in the bride's hand. He then puts some pepper-corns with the seed, and forms his hands into a cup over those of the bride. Her father then pours milk into his hand, and the bridegroom, holding it, swears to be faithful to his wife until death. After he has taken the oath, he allows the milk to trickle through into the hands of the bride. She receives it, and lets it drop into a vessel placed on the ground between them. This is done three times, and the oath is repeated with each performance. Then the bride goes through the same ceremony, swearing on each occasion to be true to her husband until death. This done, both wipe their hands on some rice, which is placed close at hand on brass trays. In each of these trays there must be five seers of rice, five pieces of turmeric, five bulbs of garlic, a lump of jaggery, five areca nuts, and five dried dates. When their hands are dry, the bridegroom takes as much of the rice as he can in his hands, and pours it over the bride's head. He does this three times, before submitting to a similar operation at the hands of the bride. Then each takes a tray, and upsets the contents over the other. At this stage, the curtain is removed, and, the pair standing side by side, their cloths are knotted together. The knot is called the knot of Brahma, and signifies that it is Brahma who has tied them together. They now walk out of the pandal, and make obeisance to the sun by bowing, and placing their hands together before their breasts in the reverential position of prayer. Returning to the pandal, they go to one corner of it, where five new and gaudily painted earthenware pots filled with water have been previously arranged. Into one of these pots, one of the females present drops a gold nose ornament, or a man drops a ring. The bride and bridegroom put their right hands into the pot, and search for the article. Whichever first finds it takes it out, and showing it, declares that he or she has found it. This farce is repeated three times, and the couple then take their seats on a cumbly in the centre of the pandal, and await the preparation of the great feast which closes the ceremony. For this, two sheep are killed, and the friends and relations who have attended are given as much curry and rice as they can eat. The next morning, the couple go to the bridegroom's village, or, if the wedding took place at his village, to that of the bride, and stay there three days before returning to the marriage pandal. Near the five water-pots already mentioned, some white-ant earth has been spread at the time of the wedding, and on this some paddy (unhusked rice) and dhal seeds have been scattered on the evening of the day on which the wedding commenced. By the time the couple return, these seeds have sprouted. A procession is formed, and the seedlings, being gathered up by the newly married couple, are carried to the village well, into which they are thrown. This ends the marriage ceremony. At their weddings, the Boyas indulge in much music. There dresses are gaudy, and suitable to the occasion. The bridegroom, if he belongs to either of the superior gotras, carries a dagger or sword placed in his cummerbund (loinband). A song which is frequently sung at wedding is known as the song of the seven virgins. The presence of a Basavi at a wedding is looked on as a good omen for the bride, since a Basavi can never become a widow."

In some places, a branch of Ficus religiosa or Ficus bengalensis is planted in front of the house as the marrage milk-post. If it withers, it is thrown away, but if it takes root, it is reared. By some Bedars a vessel is filled with milk, and into it a headman throws the nose ornament of a married woman, which is searched for by the bride and bridegroom three times. The milk is then poured into a pit, which is closed up. In the North Arcot Manual it is

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stated that the Boya bride, "besides having a golden tali tied to her neck, has an iron ring fastened to her wrist with black string, and the bridegroom has the same. Widows may not remarry or wear black bangles, but they wear silver ones."

"Divorce," Mr. Mainwaring writes, "is permitted. Grounds for divorce would be adultery and ill-treatment. The case would be decided by a panchayat (council). A divorced woman is treated as a widow. The remarriage of widows is not permitted, but there is nothing to prevent a widow keeping house for a man, and begetting children by him. The couple would announce their intertion of living together by giving a feast to the caste. If this formality was omitted, they would be regarded as outcastes until it was complied with. The offspring of such unions are considered illegitimate, and they are not taken or given in marriage to legitimate children. Here we come to further social distinctions. Owing to promiscuousness, the following classes sprang into existence:

1. Swajathee Sumpradayam. Pure Boyas, the offspring of parents who have been properly married in the proper divisions and sub-divisions. 2. Koodakonna Sumpradayam. The offspring of a Boya female, who is separated or divorced from her husband who is still alive, and who cohabits with another Boya.

3. Vithunthu Sumpradayam. The offspring of a Boya widow by a Boya.

4. Arsumpradayam. The offspring of a Boya man or woman, resulting form cohabitation with a member of some other caste.

The Swajathee Sumpradayam should only marry among themselves. Koodakonna Sumpradayam and Vithunthu Sumpradayam may marry among themselves, or with each other. Both being considered illegitimate, they cannot marry Swajathee Sumpradayam, and would not marry Arsumpradayam, as these are not true Boyas, and are nominally outcasted, who must marry among themselves."

On the occasion of a death among the Uru Bedars of Hospet, the corpse is carried on a bier by Uru Bedars to the burial-ground, with a new cloth thrown over, and flowers strewn thereon. The sons of the deceased each place a quarter-anna in the mouth of the corpse, and pour water near the grave. After it has been laid therein, all the agnates throw earth into it, and it is filled in and covered over with a mound, on to the head end of which five quarter-anna pieces are thrown. The eldest son, or a near relation, takes up a pot filled with water, and stands at the head of the grave, facing west. A hole is made in the pot, and after going thrice round the grave, he throws away the pot behind him, and goes home without looking back. This ceremony is called the lagolu, and if a person dies without any heir, the individual who performs it inherits such property as there may be. On the third day the mound is smoothed down, and three stones are placed over the head, abdomen, and legs of the corpes, and whitewashed. A woman brings some luxuries in the way of food, which are mixed up in a winnowing tray divided into three portions, and placed in the front of the stones for crows to partake of. Kites and other animals are driven away, if they attempt to steal the food. On the ninth day, the divasa ceremony is performed. At the spot where the deceased died is placed a decorated brass vessel representing the soul of the departed, with five betel leaves and a ball of sacred ashes over its mouth. Close to it a lamp is placed, and a sheep is killed. Two or three days afterwards, rice and vegetables are cooked. Those who have been branded carry their goods, represented by the cylindrical bamboo basket and stick already referred to, to a stream, wash them therein, and do obeisance. On their return home, the food is offered to their gods, and served first to the Dasari, and then to the others, who must not eat until they have received permission from the Dasari. When a Myasa Bedar who has been branded dies, his basket and stick are thrown into the grave with the corpse.

In the Mysore Census Report, 1891, the Mysore Bedars are said to cremate the dead, and on the following day to scatter the ashes on five tangedu (Cassia auriculata ) trees.

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It is noted by Buchanan [1] that the spirits of Baydaru men who die without having married become Virika (heroes), and to their memory have small temples and images crected, where offerings of cloth, rice, and the like, are made to their names. If this be neglected, they appear in dreams, and threaten those who are forgetful of their duty. These temples consist of a heap or cairn of stones, in which the roof of a small cavity is supported by two or three flags; and the image is a rude shapeless stone, which is occasionally oiled, as in this country all other images are. "

Bedar: -A small caste of about 15,500 persons, belonging to Akola, Khandesh and Hyderabad . [2] Their ancestors were Pindaris, apparently recruited from the different Maratha castes, and when the Pindaris were suppressed they obtained or were awarded land in the localities where they now reside, and took to cultivation. The more respectable Bedars say that their ancestors were Tirole Kunbis, but when Tipu Sultan invaded the Carnatic he took many of them prisoners and ordered them to become Muhammadans. In order to please him they took food with Muhammadans, and on this account the Kunbis put them out of caste until they could purify themselves. But as there were a large number of them, they did not do this, and have remained a separate caste. The real derivation of the name is unknown, but the caste say that it is be-dar or 'without fear and was given to them on account of their bravery. They have now obtained a warrant from the descendant of Shankar Acharya, or the high priesty of Sivite Hindus, permitting them to describe themselves as Put Kunbi or purified Kunbi. The community is clearly of a most mixed nature, as there are also Dher or Mahar Bedars. They refuse to take food from other Mahars and consider themselves defiled by their touch. The social position of the caste also presents some peculiar features. Several of them have taken service in the army and police, and have risen to the rank of native officer; and Rao Sahib Dhonduji, a retired Inspector of Police, is a prominent member of the caste. The Raja of Surpur, near Raichur, is also said to be a Bedar, while others are ministerial officials occupying a respectable position. Yet of the Bedars generally it is said that they cannot draw water freely from the public wells, and in Nasik Bedar constables are not considered suitable for ordinary duty, as people object to their entering houses. The caste must therefore apparently have higher and lower groups, differing considerably in position.

Sub-Divisions And Marriage Customs.

They have three subdivisions, the Maratha, Telugu and Kande Bedars. The names of their exogamous sections are also Marathi. Nevertheless they retain one or two northern customs, presumably acquired from association with the Pindaris. Their women do not tuck the body-cloth in behind the waist, but draw it over the right shoulder. They wear the choli or Hindustani breast-cloth tied in front, and have a hooped silver ornament on the top of the head, which is known as dhora.. They eat goats, fowls and the flesh of the wild pig, and drink liquor, and will take food from a Kunbi or a Phulmali, and pay little heed to the rules of social impurity. But Hindustani Brahmans act as their priests. Before a wedding they call a Brahman and worship him as a god, the ceremony being known as Deo Brahman. The Brahman then cooks food in the house of his host. On the same occasion a person specially nominated by the Brahman, and known as Deokia, fetches an earthen vessel from the potter, and this is worshipped with offerings of turmeric and rice, and a cotton thread is tied round it. Formerly it is said they worshipped the spent bullets picked up after a battle, and especially any which had been extracted from the body of a wounded person.

[ 1] Op. cit.

[ 2] See Russel based on a paper by Rao Sahib. Mr Aduram Chaudhri of the Gazetteer Dhonduji, retired Inspector of Police, office Akola.

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Funeral Rites.

When a man is about to die they take him down from his cot and lay him on the ground with his head in the lap of a relative. The dead are buried, a person of importance being carried to the grave in a sitting posture, while others are laid out in the ordinary manner. A woman is buried in a green cloth and a breast-cloth. When the corpse has been prepared for the funeral they take some liquor, and after a few drops have been poured into the mouth of the corpse the assembled persons drink the rest. While proceeding to the grave they beat drums and play on musical instruments and sing religious songs; and if a man dies during the night, since he is not buried till the morning, they sit in the house playing and singing for the remaining hours of darkness. The object of this custom must presumably be to keep away evil spirits. After the funeral each man places a leafy branch of some tree or shrub on the grave, and on the thirteenth day they put food before a cow and also throw some on to the roof of the house for the crows.

Bediya: -Bediya, the generic name of a number of vagrant gipsy-like groups [1], of whom it is difficult to say whether they can properly be described as castes. The following groups are included under the followinfg names:

Babajiya, Lava, or Patwa,

Peddlers and mountebanks professing to be Mahommedans, but singing songs in praise of Rama and Lakshmana, and exhibiting painted scrolls representing the exploits of Hanumân. Their women have the reputation of being skillful in the treatment of childrens' diseases and the removal of nervous and rheumatic pains. They also tattoo, but are not so expert in this art as the Nat women.

Bâzigar, Kabutari, Bhanumati, Dorâbâz,

Acrobats and conjurors, probably closely akin to the Nata and Kanjars of Hindustan. As acrobats the women and girls are the chief performers: the men play tricks with balls and knives. The women also dabble in medicine, prescribe for children suffering from fever or indigestion, practise massage for rheumatism and succeed in curing toothache.

Mâl, also called Ponkwah

Named for their dexterity in extracting worms from the teeth. They appear to be a possibly a Hinduised offshoot of the Male`. It seems at any rate more reasonable to suppose that the tribal name Mâl may be a variant of Male`, a man, that to derive it from Mâla, a hillman, or Malla, a wrestler. Mâls do not now intermarry with other Bediyâs, and repudiate any connexion with them: for further particulars, see the article Mâl.

Mir-shikâr or Chirimâr,

Hunters and fowlers, they take birds with bird-lime or horse-hair nooses and the Sâtnali or light lance divided into sections like a fishing rod. Some of the animals which the Mir-shikâr catch are highly prized for medicinal purposes or for charms. The flesh of the scaly ant-eater, Banrahu or Bajrakit (Manis pentadactyla ), is believed to restore virile energy, it scales bound on the arm cure palpitations of the heart, and worn on the finger in the form of a ring are a sovereign prophylactic against venereal diseases. the flesh of the crow pheasant (mahokha or pân-kori ) killed on a Tuesday or Saturday, cures enlargement of the spleen and puerperal disorders. The claws and droppings of the spotted owlet (penchâ ) if pounded up with betel-nut are a powerful and certain love-potion, and the dried flesh of the dâuk (Gallinula phaenicura ) is very beneficial in rhcumatism.

[1] See Risley.

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Sâmperia,

Snake-charmers, hawkers of miscellancous goods, and makers of fish-hooks and such like articles. According to Dr. Wise, the snakes usually exhibited are the cobra; the light and dark varieties of the Ophiophagus Elaps, named by them Dudh-raj and Mani-raj; the python; a whip-snake, with red, black, and yellow spots, called Udaya Sâmp; and a large brown snake with black stripes on its neck, known as Ghâr-bânkâ, from the singular way it bends before striking. The Sâmperia catches a snake by pinning it to the ground with a forked stick, and seizing it by the neck, the thumb being held over the first vertebra. If the snake be a poisonous one, the fangs are torn out, but the poison bag is carefully preserved. Snake poison is highly valued by Hindu physicians for the treatment of diseases, and fetches in the market from fifteen to sixteen rupees per bhari or 179 grains. Another valuable prize is the tick (kilní), occasionally found on the hood of the black cobra, about which many fabulous stories are told. One of these parasites is worth a large sum, as it is popularly believed to be a certain preservative against snake-bites and poisons in general. The Sâmperia feeds his snakes with fish, frogs, and mice. Sâmperias have no specific antidote for snake-bite, but each man carries as a charm the root of the Bhatrâj, a forest creeper. The popular idea is that the bud (mâlatí) of the Bhatrâj is a specific, but the Sâmperias deny this. When anyone is bitten by a poisonous animal, the Sâmperia ties a string round the limb, sucks the wound, bathes the extremity in hot water, and covers the bite with the leaves of the Bhatrâj. One of the company then recites Hindustâní matras or incantations, which are usually utter gibberish.

Members of this caste are in great request at the festival of Manasâ Devi, their patron deity in the month of Srâvan (July-August), being engaged by Brahmans to exhibit their collection and make the snakes crawl in front of the idol. On such occasions the Sâmperia plays on a pipe, while his wife or child chants a monotonous Hindustâní song, and induces the reptile to strike. The Sâmperia also tames jungle cocks to entrap wild ones, and the Kora (Gallicrex cristatus ), a bird famous for its pugnacity. When he hunts this particular bird he tethers the decoy near a marsh, arranging a low screen with three movable leaves from which horse-hair nooses hang. The wild bird advancing to test the courage of the captive, gets entangled and falls an easy prey to the Sâmperia, who is lying concealed close by. Like other Bediyâs, the Sâmperias keep tame cormorants to drive fish into the net, but they do not sell what they catch. They are keen sportsmen, and when an opportunity offers itself they stalk deer, and shoot partridges, paddy-birds, and egrets.

The Shândârs

They have the reputation of being the most orderly and industrious of the Bediya divisions. Their name is derived from the Persian Shânah, a comb. This comb, or more correctly reed, through which the warp threads pass, is in great demand by Tântís and Julâhas for their looms, and no one can make them so cheaply and neatly as the Shândâr. The frame-work of the comb (dhangi ) is made of split bamboo, and the teeth (gaibi ) of well-seasoned wood. The latter are fixed at equal distances apart by strong cotton thread. The Shândâr is also a Manihâr, or peddler, retailing in the villages beads and trinkets; waist-strings (Kardhaní ) bought from the Patwâ; and needles, thread, and tape, procured from Mughuliyâ shops. Shândârs are expert divers, and, when anchored in suitable localities, gather the common bivalve shells (sípí), and sell them to the Chunâri, or lime-burner. They also use the sât-nali, or bamboo rod of seven joints, tipped with bird-lime, catching bulbuls and other small birds. Like the Sâmperia, they keep tame koras, jungle cocks, and cormorants, and, if they can afford to do so, take out a gun license to shoot game. Of late years they have all become converts to Islam, but Mahommedans do not admit them into their society, and refuse to intermarry, to eat, and to pray with them.

Rasia Bediyas

The use boats of curious construction, only half covered over, while the tilt is cocoon, or bottle-shaped, tapering gradually towards the stern, where there is a small round opening through

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which a man can crawl with difficulty. These Bediyas work with zinc, which is bought in pigs, melted, and run into moulds. From the similarity in colour of zinc and mercury (rasa ), the division has derived its distinctive name from the latter metal. The Rasias make anklets, bracelets, and collars for the neck (hansli ), which are worn by all Hindu and Mahommedan females of the lower orders. At their homes they are cultivators, and being strict Farazís are accepted as members of the Mahommedan community. Their social standing, however, is so precarious that prolonged absence from home or a manifest partiality for boat life is punished by expulsion from society.

Godna.-Godnâ-wâlí,

She is a female tattooer. In Eastern bengal, according to Dr. Wise, Bediya women travel about the country with a bag, containing a variety of drugs, a cupping horn (Singa `) , and a scarificator (Nâran ). They attract attention by bawling "To tattoo, to cup, and to extract worms from decayed teeth!" They also prescribe for female disorders. It is said that small grubs are kept in a bamboo tube, and while the patient's attention is occupied by the talk of the operator, a maggot is presented as if it had been extracted from the hollow tooth. For this trick the Godnâ-wâli receives a suitable fee.

In tattooing the juice of the Bhangra plant (Indigofera linifolia ) and woman's milk are the materials used, and the punctures are made with needles or the thorns of the Karaundâ (Carissa Carandas ). While the operation is being performed, a very equivocal mantra is recited to alleviate pain and prevent any subsequent inflammation. In respectable Hindu families an old nurse usually tattoos the girls. Nowadays the ordinary tattoo design, either circular or stellate, is made at the top of the nose of the centre of the forehead; formerly the fashionable stain (Ullikhí) was at the same spot, but a line extended along the bridge of the nose, branching out into two curves over each ala. Tattoo marks were originally distinctive of Hindu females, but Muhammadan women copied them, and it is only since the Farazí revival that they have discontinued the habit. Chandâl women are often employed to cure goitre by tattooing. A circular spot on the most prominent part of the swelling is punctured with a bamboo spike, and common ink mixed with the sap of the Kâli Koshijia rubbed in.

Beldâr: -(One who works with the bel or mattock).[1] A general term for the aggregate of low Hindu tribes who make their living by earth-work. But, besides these, there seems to be a real endogamous group of this name found chiefly in Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Basti, and Pilibhít. Mr. Risley [2] describes under the same name a wandering Dravidian caste of earth-workers and navvies in Bihâr and Western Bengal, many of whom are employed in the coal mines of Râniganj and Barâkar. "Both men and women labour, the former digging the earth and the latter removing it in baskets carried on the had. The Beldârs regard this mode of carrying earth as distinctive of themselves, and will on no account carry earth in baskets slung from the shoulders." Whatever may be the case in Bengal, in these provinces at least, the practice of carrying earth and other burdens on the head and not on the back or shoulders is habitual among all the castes who do this kind of labour.

Internal Organization.

The Beldârs of these provinces classified themselves at the last Census under three sub-castes-Bâchhal, Chauhân, and Kharot. The two former are, of course, well known Râjput tribes. The Kharot appear to take their name from khar (Sanskrit, khata ), "grass." They are described as a tribe of mat-makers in Basti, and a number have entered themselves

[ 1] . See Crooke work from a note by Pandit Râm Bakhsh Chaube of Gorakhpur.

[ 2] . Tribes and Castes, l., 86.

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separately at the last census. Besides these, among the most important local sub-castes, we find the Mahul and Orh of Bareilly; the Desi, Kharébind, and Sarwariya, or "dwellers beyond the Sarju," of Gorakhpur; and the Kharébind and Maskhauwa, or "flesh-casters," of Basti. The Census returns give 186 sub-castes of the usual type. Some are taken from the names of existing well-known tribes, such as Bachgoti, Bâchhal, Baheliya, Bindwâr, Chauhân, Dikhit, Gaharwâr, Gaura, Gautam, Ghosi, Kurmi, Luniya, Orh, Râjput, Thâkur; others, local terms of the usual type, like Agarwâl, Agrabansi, Ajudhyabâsi, Bhadauriya, Dehliwâl, Gangapâri, Gorakhpuri, Kanaujiya, Kashiwâla, Purabiya, Sarwariya, and Uttarâha. The Beldârs have no definite traditions of their origin, save that they were once Râjput who were compelled by some Râja to work as navvies, and were in consequence degraded. There can, however, be little doubt that they are an occupational offshoot from the great Luniya, Orh, or Bind tribe, who are certainly to a large extent of non-Aryan origin.

Occupation And Status.

Besides their trade of doing earth-work, they also make their living by fishing. They are very fond of field rats, which they dig out of the rice fields after the harvest is over, and boil down with the grain which they have collected in their granaries. They also eat pork, but in spite of this it is reported from Gorakhpur that Brâhmans and Kshatriyas drink water from their hands. Their widows marry by the sagâi form, and a man may discard his wife for adultery; but if she marries her paramour, the council compels him to repay the original cost of her marriage to her first husband.

Religion.

To the east of the province they worship the Pânchonpír, to whom they offer a turban (patuka ) and a sheet (patau ) made of coarse country cloth, and occasionally a fowl. The sheets are marked by a streak of red before being offered. Another form of offering is what is known as ka`ra , which is made of flour and urad pulse. Some worship Mahâdeva once a year in the month of Phâlgun or at the Sivarâtri.

Béldâr.: -Od, Sonkar, Raj, Larhia Karigar, Matkuda, Chunkar, Munurwar, Thapatkari, Vaddar, Pathrot, Takari . [1] The term Beldar is generically applied to a number of occupational groups of more or less diverse origin, who work as masons or navvies, build the earthen embankments of tanks or fields, carry lime and bricks and in former times refined salt. Beldar means "one who carries a bel," a hoe or mattock. In 1911 a total of 25.000 Beldars were returned from the Central Provinces, being most numerous in the Nimar, Wardha, Nagpur, Chanda and Raipur districts. The Nunia, Murha and Sansia (Uriya) castes, which have been treated in separate articles, are also frequently known as Beldar, and cannot be clearly distinguished from the main caste. If they are all classed together the total of the earth and stone-working castes comes to 35.000 persons.

It is probable that the bulk of the Beldars and allied castes are derived from the non-Aryan tribes. The Murhas or navvies of the northern Districts appear to be an offshoot of the Bind tribe; the people known as Matkuda (earth-digger) are usually Gonds or Pardhans; the Sansias and Larhias or Uriyas or Chhattisgarh and the Uriya country seem to have originated from the Kol, Bhuiya and Oraon tribes, the Kols especially making excellent diggers and masons; the Oddes or Vaddars of Madras are a very low caste, and some of their customs point to a similar origin, though the Munurwar masons of Chanda appear to have belonged originally to the Kapu caste of cultivators. The term Raj, which is also used for the Beldars in the northern Districts, has the distinctive meaning of a mason, while Chunkar signifies a lime-burner. The Sonkars were formerly

[ 1] See Russell. His article is based on papers by Mr. A. K. Smith, C. S., Mr. Khande Rao, Superintendent of Land Records, Raipur, and Munshi Kanhiya Lal, of the Gazetteer office.

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occupied in Saugor in carrying lime, bricks and earth on donkeys, but they have now abandoned this calling in Chhattisgarh and taken to growing vegetables, and have been given a short separate notice. In Hoshangabad some Muhammadan Beldars are now also found.

Beldars Of The Northern Districts.

The Beldars of Saugor say that their ancestors were engaged in refining salt from earth. A divine saint named Nona Rishi (non, salt) came down on earth, and while cooking his food mixed some saline soil with it. The bread tasted much better jin consequence, and he made the earth into a ball or goli and taught his followers to extract the salt from it, whence their descendants are known as Goli Beldars. The customs of these Beldars are of the ordinary low-caste type. The wedding procession is accompanied by drums, fireworks and, if means permit, a nautch-girl. If a man puts away his wife without adequate cause the caste panchayat may compel him to support her so long as she remains of good conduct. The party seeking a divorce, whether husband or wife, has to pay Rs. 7 to the caste committee and the other partner Rs. 3, irrespective of where the blame rests, and each remains out of caste until he or she pays. These Beldars will not take food from any caste but their own, and will not take water from a Brahman, though they will accept it from Kurmis, Gujars and similar castes. Sir H. Risley notes that their women always remove earth in baskets on the head. "The Beldars regard this mode of carrying earth as distinctive of themselves, and will on no account transport it in baskets slung from the shoulders. They work very hard when paid by the pice, and are notorious for their skill in manipulating the pillars (sakhi, witness) left to mark, work done, so as to exaggerate the measurement. On occasion while working for me on a large lake at Govindpur, in the north of the Manbhum District, a number of Beldars transplanted an entire pillar during the night and claimed payment for several thousand feet of imaginary earthwork. The fraud was most skilfully carried out, and was only detected by accident." [1] The Beldars are often dishonest in their dealings, and will take large advances for a tank or embankment, and then abscond with the money without doing the work. During the open season parties of the caste travel about in camp looking for work, their furniture being loaded on donkeys. They carry grain in earthen pots encased in bags of netting, neatly and closely woven, and grind their wheat daily in a small mill set on a goat-skin. Butter is made in one of their pots with a churning-stick, consisting of a cogged wheel fixed on to the end of a wooden rod.

Odias Of Chhattisgarb.

The Beldars of Chhattisgarh are divided into the Odia or Uriya, Larhia, Kuchbandhia, Matkuda and Karigar groups. Uriya and Larhia are local names, applied to residents of the Uriya country and Chhattisgarh respectively. Odia is the name of a low madras caste of masons, but whether it is a corruption of Uriya is not clear. Karigar means a workman, and Kuchbandhia is the name of a separate caste, who make loom-combs for weavers. The Odias pretend to be fallen Rajputs. They say that when Indra stole the sacrificial horse of Raja Sagar and kept it in the underworld, the Raja's thousand sons dug great holes through the earth to get it. Finally they arrived at the underworld and were all were reduced to ashes by the Rishi Kapil Muni, who dwelt there. Their ghosts besought him for life, and he said that their descendants should always continue to dig holes in the earth, which would be used as tanks; and that whenever a tank was dug by them, and its completion celebrated with a sacrifice, the savour of the sacrifice would descend to the ghosts and would afford them sustenance. The Odias say that they are the descendants of the Raja's sons, and unless a tank is dug and its completion celebrated by them it remains impure. These Odias have their tutelary deity in Rewah State, and at his shrine is a flag which none but an Odia of genuine descent from Raja Sagar's sons can touch without some injury befalling him. If any Beldar therefore claims

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

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to belong to their caste they call on him to touch the flag, and of he does so with impunity they acknowledge him as a brother.

Other Chhattisgarhi Beldars.

The other groups of Chhattisgarhi Beldars are of lower status, and clearly derived from the non-Aryan tribes. They eat pigs, and at intervals of two or three years they celebrate the worship of Gosain Deo with a sacrifice of pigs, the deity being apparently a deified ascetic or mendicant. On this occasion the Dhimars, Gonds, and all other castes which eat pig's flesh join in the sacrifice, and consume the meat together after the fashion of the sacrifice at Jagannath's temple, which all castes may eat together without becoming impure. These Beldars use asses for the transport of their bricks and stones, and on the Diwali day they place a lamp before the ass and pay reverence to it. They say that at their marriages a bride-price of Rs. 100 or Rs. 200 must always be paid, but they are allowed to give one or two donkeys and value them at Rs 50 apiece. They make grindstones (chakki ), combs for straightening the threads on the loom, and frames for stretching the threads. These frames are called dongi, and are made either wholly or partly from the horns of animals, a fact which no doubt renders them impure.

Munurwar And Telenga.

Telugus, who are also known as Thapatkari (tapper or chiseller), Telenga Kunbi and Munurwar. They occupy a higher position then the ordinary Beldar, and Kunbis will take water from them and sometimes food. They say they came into Chanda from the Telugu country along the Godavari and Pranhita rivers to build the great wall of Chanda and the palaces and tombs of the Gond kings. There is no reason to doubt that the Munurwars are a branch of the Kapu cultivating caste of the Telugu country. Mr. A. K. Smith states that they refuse to eat the flesh of an animal which has been skinned by a Mahar, a Chamar, or a Gond; the Kunbis and Marathas also consider flesh touched by a Mahar or Chamar to be impure, but do not object to a Bond. Like the Berar Kunbis, the Telengas prefer that an animal should be killed by the rite of halal as practised by Muhammadan butchers. The reason no doubt is that the halal is a method of sacrificial slaughter, and the killing of the animal is legitimised even though by the ritual of a foreign religion. The Thapatkaris appear to be a separate group, and their original profession was to collect and retail jungle fruits and roots having medicinal properties. Though the majority have become stone and earth-workers some of them still do this.

Vaddar.

The Vaddars or Wadewars are a branch of the Odde caste of Madras. They are almost an impure caste, and a section of them are professional criminals. Their women wear glass bangles only on the left arm, those on the right arm being made of brass or other metal. This rule has no doubt been introduced because glass bangles would get broken when they were supporting loads on the head. The men often wear an iron bangle on the left wrist, which they say keeps off the lightning. Mr, Thurston states that "women who have had seven husbands are much respected among the Oddes, and their blessing on a bridal pair is greatly prized. They work in gangs on contract, and every one, except very old and very young, shares in the labour. The women carry the earth in baskets, while the men use the pick and spade. The babies are usually tied up in cloth, which are suspended, hammock-fashion, from the boughs of trees. A woman found guilty of immorality is said to have to carry a basketful of earth from house to house before she is readmitted to the caste. The stone-cutting Vaddars are the principal criminals, and by going about under the pretence of mending grindstones they obtain much useful information as to the houses to be looted or parties of travellers to be attacked. In committing a highway robbery or dacoity they are always armed with stout sticks." [1]

[1] The Castes and Tribes of Southern India, art. Odde.

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Pathrot.

In Berar, besides the regular Beldars two castes of stone workers are found, the Pathrawats or Pathrots (stone-breakers) and the Takaris, who should perhaps be classed as separate castes. Both make and sharpen millstones and grindstones, and they are probably only occupational groups of recent formation. The Takaris are connected with the Pardhi caste of professional hunters and fowlers and may be a branch of them. The social customs of the Pathrots resemble those of the Kunbis. "They will take cooked food from a Sutar or a Kumbhar. Imprisonment, the killing of a cow or criminal intimacy of a man with a woman of another caste is punished by temporary outcasting, readmission involving a fine of Rs. 4 or Rs. 5. Their chief deity is the Devi of Tuljapur and their chief festival Dasahra; the implements of the caste are worshipped twice a year, on Gudhi Padwa and Diwali. Women are tattooed with a crescent between the eyebrows and dots on the right side of the nose, the right cheek, and the chin, and a basil plant or peacock is drawn on their wrists." [ 1]

Takari. "The Takaris take their name from the verb takne, to reset or rechisel. They mend the handmills (chakkis ) used for grinding corn, and occupation which is sometimes shared with them by the Langoti Pardhis. The Takari's avocation of chiselling grindstones gives him excellent opportunities for examining the interior economy of houses, and the position of boxes a cupboards, and for gauging the wealth of the inmates. They are the most inveterate house-breakers and dangerous criminals. A form of crime favoured by the Takari, in common with many other criminal classes, is that of decoying into a secluded spot outside the village the would-be receiver of stolen property and robbing him of his cash; a trick which carries a wholesome lesson with it." [ 2] The chisel with which they chip the grindstones furnishes, as stated by Mr. D. A. Smyth, D. S. P., an excellent implement for breaking a hole through the mud wall of house.

Beldari: -Béldâr [3] literally means one who works with the bél or mattock. It is a general term for the aggregate of low Hindu tribes who make their living by earth work. The number of Beldârs returned at the Census of 1911 was as follows:

Bengal 9,294

Bihar and Orissa 88,92

Bombay 12,398

Central Provinces and Berar 25,616

United Provinces 39,035

Central India Agency 26,378

Elsewhere 3,787

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Total 205,420

The majority of these Béldârs probably speak the same dialect as their surroundings.

According to Sir Herbert Risley the Béldârs of Bihar and Western Bengal form a separate wandering caste of Dravidian origin. The same is perhaps also the case in some other districts. The word Béldâr is accordingly used in two different senses denoting sometimes a distinct caste, sometimes all low caste earth-workers. It is impossible to decide how many of the Béldârs enumerated at the last Census in the various provinces belong to either group.

[ 1] Akola District Gazetteer ( Mr. C. Brown ), PP. 132, 133.

[ 2] Amraoti District Gazetter ( Messrs Nelson and Fitzgerald ), p. 146.

[ 3] See G. A. Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India.

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During the preliminary operations of this Survey a dialect called Béldâri¡ was returned from Rajputana, Berar and Bombay. The estimated numbers of speakers were as follows:

Rajputana, Jaisalmir State 100

Berar- Amraoti 800

Ellichpur 500

Buldana 585

----

1,985

Bombay Presidency- Thana 2,560

Satara 350

Satara Agency, State Aundh 15

Satara Agency, state Phaltan 40

Kolhapur State 50

Southern Maratha Jaghirs 200

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3,215

Total 1,985 + 3,215 = 5,200

The returns of the last Census do not furnish us with materials for checking these figures. Specimens of the so-called Béldârí have been received from Ellichpur and Buldana, from the Jaisalmir State, and from the Ramdurg State. Though the dialect differs in the different districts, being more or less influenced by the prevailing languages, there are some characteristic features which recur everywhere, and it is accordingly possible to speak of a separate dialect. Béldârí is not, however, a fixed form of speech with consistent features. Like Óπkí it is a mixture. The prevailing elements are Mar¡ât hí and Eastern Râjasthâní. To the former language belongs forms such as the plurals bét é , sons (Ramdurg); nâπé , tanks (Jaisalmir); daís , to a father (Buldana); ma∑sân , to a man (Ramdurg); danât , in days (Ramdurg); the oblique bases in â of weak nouns such as dishâ-su§§, from a direction (jaisalmir); utha∑π-panâ-sé, in riotousness (Ellichpur); the genitive termination châ in the Jaisalmir and Ramdurg specimens, the common termination lâ of the past tense, and so forth. Râjasthâní elements are forms of strong bases such as poryâ , sons; chhót ó , small (Ellichpur); ghó®ó , house (jaisalmir) (but also kuttâ ,dog; compare also ghó®é , horses; gho®iyê , mares); the dative suffixes -né ( Amraoti , Ramdurg, Jaisalmir); -nê , nu§ (Jaisalmir); -ké (Buldana) and -ku (Ellichpur); compare Mâlví -né , -ké , -ku§; the genitive suffix -kó ,-kâ ,-kí (Ellichpur, Buldana); Compare Méwâtí, Jaipurí and Mâlví -kó , -kí ; the ablative suffixes -sé and -su§; compare Mâlví -sé , -su; the past tense in yó , ó , which is used by side with forms in -lâ; forms such as maru§ , I die; kahu , I may say (Ellichpur); maré-hé , I am dying (Jaisalmir); kahus , I shall say ( Buldana) and so forth. It would also be possible to compare some of the l -forms of the past with O®iyâ, and the common mór , móra , my, mine, seems connected with forms in Eastern languages. It is accordingly likely that there is also an admixture of Eastern vernaculars. The chief components of Béldârí are, however, of the same kind as in Óπkí. With that form of speech there are also other points of agreement; thus the pronoun tudâ thy; conjunctive participles such as kartí , having done, and so forth. Note the curious form méré-ku , me, an idiom frequent in Dakhiní Hindósthâní, and also finding parallels in Eastern languages, as in the Bihârí hamara-ke¡ , with the same meaning.

Bépâri: -Bépâri [1] is, in the Madras Census Report, described as "a caste allied to the Lambâdia. Its members worship a female deity called Banjâra, speak the Bépâri or Lambâdi

[1] See Thurston, language,

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and claim to be Kshatriyas." Bhonjo, the title of the Râjâh of Gumsîr, was recorded 1 as a sub-caste. The Rev. G. Gloyer correctly makes the name Boipari synonymous with Brinjâri, and his illustration of a Boipari family represents typical Lambâdis or Brinjâris. Répâri and Boipari are forms of Vyapâri or Vépâri, meaning a trader. The Bépâris are traders and carriers between the hills and plains in the Vizagapatam Agency tracts. Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao informs me that "They regard themselves as immune from the attacks of tigers, if they take certain precautions. Most of them have to pass through places infested with these beasts, and their favourite precaution is taken when they encamp at a place, and they level a square bit of ground and light fires in the middle of it, round which they pass the night. It is their firm belief that the tiger will not enter the square, from fear lest it should become blind, and eventually be shot. I was once travelling towards Malkangiri from Jeypore, when I fell in with a party of these people encamped in the manner described. At that time, several villages about Malkangiri were being ravaged by a nototious man-eater (tiger).

Beria: -Bedia. [2] A caste of gipsies and thieves who are closely connected with the Sansias. In 1891 they numbered 906 person in the Central Provinces, distributed over the northern Districts; in 1901 they were not separately classified but were identified with the Nats." They say that some generations ago two brothers resided in the Bhartpur territory, one of whom was named Sains Mul and the other Mullanur. The descendants of Sains Mul are the Sansias and those of Mullanur the Berias or Kolhatis, who are vagrants and robbers by hereditary profession, living in tents or huts of matting, like Nats or other vagrant tribes, and having their women in common without any marriage ceremonies or ties whatsoever. Among themselves or their relatives the Sansias or descendants of Sains Mul, they are called Dholi or Kolhati. The descendants of the brothers eat, drink and smoke together, and join in robberies, but never intermarry." So Colonel Sleeman wrote in 1849, and other authorities agree on the close connection or identity of the Berias and Sansias of Central India. The Kolhatis belong mainly to the Deccan and are apparently a branch of the Berias, named after the Kolhan or long pole with which they perform acrobatic feats. The Berias of Central India differ in many respects from those of Bengal. Here Sir H. Risley considers Beria to be "the generic name of a number of vagrant, gipsy-like groups"; and a description or them has been given by Babu Rajendra Lal Mitra, who considers them to resemble the gipsies of Europe. "They are noted for a light, elastic, wiry make, very uncommon in the people of this country. In agility and hardness they stand unrivalled. The men are of a brownish colour, like the bulk of Bengalis, but never black. The women are of lighter complexion and generally well-formed; some of them have considerable claims to beauty, and for a race so rude and primitive in their habits as the Berias, there is a sharpness in the features of their women which we see in no other aboriginal race in India. Like the gipsies of Europe they are noted for the symmetry of their limbs; but their offensive habits, dirty clothing and filthy professions give them a repulsive appearance, which is heightened by the reputation they have of kidnapping children and frequenting burial-grounds and places of cremation. Familiar with the use of bows and arrows and greatly adept in laying snares and traps, they are seldom without large supplies of game and flesh of wild animals of all kinds. They keep the dried bodies of a variety of birds for medical purposes; mongoose, squirrels and flying-foxes they eat with avidity as articles of luxury. Spirituous liquors and intoxicating drugs are indulged in to a large extent, and the chief of each clan assume the title of Bhangi or drinkers of hemp (bhang ) as a mark of honour. In lying, thieving and knavery the Beria is not a whit inferior to his brother gipsy of Europe. The Beria woman deals in charms for exorcising the devil and palmistry is her special vocation. She also carries with her a bundle of herbs and other real or pretended charms against sickness of body and mind; and she is much sought

[1] Jeypore. Breklum, 1901.

[2] See Russell V. II pp. 220-224.

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after by village maidens for the sake of the philtre with which she restores to them their estranged lovers; while she foretells the date when absent friends will return and the sex of unborn children. They practise cupping with buffalo horns, pretend to extract worms from decayed teeth and are commonly employed as tattooers. At home the Beria woman makes mats of palm-leaves, while her lord alone cooks. Beria women are even more circumspect then European gipsies. If a wife does not return before the jackal's cry is heard in the evening, she is subject to severe punishment. It is said that a faux pas among her own kindred is not considered reprehensible; but it is certain that no Berini has ever been known to be at fault with any one not of her own caste." This last statement is not a little astonishing, inasmuch as in Central India and in Bundelkhand Berni is an equivalent term for a prostitute. A similar diversity of conjugal morality has been noticed between the Bagris of northern India and the Vaghris of Gujarat.[ 1]

Criminal Tendencies

In The Central Provinces. In other respects also the Berias of Bengal appear to be more respectable then the remainder of the caste, obtaining their livelihood by means which, if disreputable, are not actually dishonest; while in Central India the women Berias are prostitutes and the men housebreakers and thieves. These latter are so closely connected with the Sansias that the account of that caste is also applicable to the Berias. In Jubbulpore, Mr. Gayer states, the castes are expert house-breakers, bold and daring, and sometimes armed with swords and matchlocks. They sew up stolen property in their bed-quilts and secrete it in the hollow legs of their sleeping-cots, and the women habitually conceal jewels and even coins in the natural passages of the body for which purpose they make special saos or receptacles by practice. The Beria women go about begging, and often break open the doors of unoccupied houses in the daytime and steal anything they can find [ 2] Both Sansia and Beria women wear a laong or clove in the left nostril.

Social Customs.

As already stated, the women are professional prostitutes but these do not marry, and on arrival at maturity they choose the life which they prefer. Mr. Crooke states, [3] however, that regular marriages seldom occur among them, because nearly all the girls are reserved for prostitution, and the men keep concubines drawn from any fairly respectable caste. So far is this the rule that in some localities if a man marries a girl of the tribe he is put out of caste or obliged to the tribal council. This last rule does not deem to obtain in the Central Provinces, but marriages are uncommon. In a colony of Berias in Jubbulpore [ 4] numbering sixty families it was stated that only eight weddings could be remembered as having occurred in the last fifty years. The boys therefore have to obtain wives as best they can; sometimes orphan girls from other castes are taken into the community, or any outsider is picked up. For a bride from the caste itself a sum of Rs. 100 is usually demanded, and the same has to be paid by a Beria man who takes a wife from the Nat or Kanjar castes, as is sometimes done. When a match is proposed they ask the expectant bridegroom how many thefts he has committed without detection; and if his performances have been inadequate they refuse to give him the girl on the ground thet he will be unable to support a wife. At the betrothal the boy's parents go to the girl's house, taking with them a pig and a potful of liquor round which a silver ring is placed. The ring is given to the girl and the head of the pig to her father, while the liquor and the body of the pig provide a feast for the caste. They consult Brahmans at their birth and marriage ceremonies. Their principal deities appear to be their ancestors, whom they worship on the same day of the month and year as that on which their death took place. They make an offering of a pig to the goddess Dadaju or Devi before starting on their annual

[1] See article on Badhak.

[2] Kennedy, p. 247.

[3] Crooke, art. Beria.

[4] The following particulars are taken from a note by Mr. K. N. Date, Deputy Superintendent, Reformatory School, Jubbulpore.

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predatory excursions. Some rice is thrown into the animal's ear before it is killed, and the direction in which it turns its head is selected as the one divinely indicated for their route. Prostitution is naturally not regarded as a disgrace, and the women who have selected this profession mix on perfectly equal terms with those who are married. They occupy, in fact, a more independent position, as they dispose absolutely of their own earnings and property, and on their death it devolves on their daughters or other female relatives, males having no claim to it, in some localities at least. Among the children of married couples daughters inherit equally with sons. A prostitute is regarded as the head of the family so far as her children are concerned. Outsiders are freely admitted into the caste on giving a feast to the community. In Saugor the women of the caste, known as Berni, are the village dancing-girls, and are employed to give performances in the cold weather, especially at the Holi festival, where they dance the whole night through, fortified by continuous potations of liquor. This dance is called rai, and is accompanied by most obscene songs and gestures.

Beriya: -Bediya.- A caste of vagrants found in various parts of the Province [1] . They are very closely allied of not identical with the Sansi, Kanjar, Habura, Bhantu, etc In Bengal the term is applied to a number of vagrant, gypsy-like groups, of whom it is difficult to say whether they can properly be described as castes. Of these Bengal Beriyas a very full account has been given by Babu Rajendra Lala Mitra [ 2] According to him, they show no tendency to obesity, and are noted for "a light, elastic, wiry make, very uncommon in the people of this country. In agility and hardiness they stand unrivalled. The men are of a brownish colour like the bulk of Bengalis, but never Black. The women are of lighter complexion, and generally well formed; some of them have considerable claims to beauty, and for a race so rude and primitive in their habits as the Beriyas, there is a sharpness in the features of their women which we see in no other aboriginal race in India. Like the gypsies of Europe, they are noted for the symmetry of their limbs, but their offensive habits, dirty clothing, and filthy professions, give them a repulsive appearance, which is heightened by the reputation they have of kidnapping children and frequenting burial grounds and places of cremation. Their eyes and hair are always black, but their stature varies much in different individuals. They are a mixed race and many outcastes join them. Some of them call themselves Mal, and live by snake-catching and sale of herbs. Though known as Bediyas, they keep distinct, and do not intermarry or mix with the pure Bediyas, who, unlike European gypsies, keep themselves distinct. They seldom build houses, or take to agriculture, but wander about with a few miserable wigwams. Like all gypsies, they dress like the people of the country. They cook in a pipkin in common. Their women and children eat promiscuously, except when placed among Bengalis, when the women eat separately. They eat whatever they can get, and nothing comes amiss to them, whether it be a rotten Jackal or a piece of beef or mutton." Familiar with the use of bows and arrows, and great adepts in laying snares and traps, they are seldom without large supplies of game and flesh of wild animals of all kinds. A variety of birds they keep dried for medical purposes; mongooses, squirrels, and flying foxes they eat with avidity as articles of luxury. Spirituous liquors and intoxication drugs are indulged in to a large extent, and chiefs of clans assume the title of Bhangi or drinkers of hemp (bhang ) as a mark of honour." They practise all the usual gypsy trades. "In lying, thieving, and knavery he is not a whit inferior to his brother of Europe, and he practises everything that enables him to pass an easy life without submitting to any law of civilized Government or the amenities of social life." The women deal in charms for exorcising the devil, love phylters, palmistry, cupping with buffalo horns, administering moxas and drugs for spleen and rheumatism. She has a charm for extracting worms from various teeth by repeating indecent verses. They are the only tattooers. At home she makes mats of palm leaves, while her lord alone cooks. Bediyas have no talent for music: Nats and

Banjaras have. Firdausi says this was the reason

[1] See Crooke. His article is based on notes by M. Gopal Prasad, Naib Tahsildar, Phaphund, Etawab District, and the Deputy Inspector of Schools, Farrukhabad.

[2] Memoirs, Anthropological Socicty of London, 111., 122, sqq.

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they were exiled to Persia. Bediya women are even more circumspect than European gypsies. If she does not return before the jackal's cry is heard in the evening, she is subject to severe punishment. It is said that a faux pas among her own kindred is not considered reprehensible. Certain it is that no Bediyani has ever been known to be at fault with any one not of her own caste. They are fond husbands, kind parents, affectionate children, and unswerving friends. Attachment to their nationality is extreme, and no Bediya has ever been known to denounce his race. Whenever a Bediya is apprehended by a police officer, his clansmen do their best to release him, and if condemned to imprisonment or death, they invariably support his family. He is a Hindu or Musalman according to the population he lives in. Some are Deists, some Kabirpanthis, or Sikhs; some take the disguise of Jogis, Faqirs, Darveshes, Santons, etc. Hence he is called Panchpiri. His dead are usually buried, and his marriage contract is solemnized over country arrack without the intervention of priests, the only essential being the consent of the elders of the clan. Marriage is restricted to his own clan; but kidnapped children brought up in camp are not prohibited. He is very sparing of ceremony; in reply to the exhortations of the bride's relatives to treat her kindly, he simply declares, 'This women is my wedded wife,' marking her head at the same time with red lead. The bride replies,- 'This man is my husband.' Incestuous marriages are believed to be common among them. It is said that all Bediyas, whether professing Hinduism or Muhammadism, worship Kali. Like the gypsies, they never go to court. Their chiefs (sardars) have supreme power, and manage their affairs with the help of tribal councils (panchayal). The punishments are fines, stripes with a shoe, and expulsion from caste. The fines are spent in liquor. The office of chief is generally hereditary, and he is invested with authority over his clansmen, wherever they may be located. This is possible, as the Bediya, though a vagrant, is much attached to his birthplace, and often returns there. "

The Beriyas Of The North-Western Provinces And Oudh.

The Beriyas of these Provinees are in a much more degraded condition than their brethren in Bengal. At the last Census they recorded themselves under three main sub-castes: Chauhan and Raghubansi, the titles of well known Rajput sub-division, and Kamchor or "loafers." But in the Central Duab, like so many of the tribes of the same social rank, they pretend to have seven sub-castes. By one enumeration these are given as Khalkhur, Chhahari, Bhains, Gunnar, Naritor, Rattu, and Kachhar. Another list adds Mahish. The complete returns show 250 sections of the Hindu, and 12 of the Muhammadan branch. These are of the usual type, many taken from the names of existing castes, such as Bais, Banya, Bangali, Chauhan, Chhatri, Gaur, Ghosiya, Janwar, Kachhwaha, Kanhpuriya, Raghubansi, Rawat, Teli, and Thakur; others of local origin like Amrapuriya, Baiswari, Ghadauriya, Deswal, Jaiswar, Mainpuriya, Multanwari; others again common to them and similar vagrant and prostitute tribes, such as Brijbasi, Dhanuk, Gandharb, Gidhmar ("kite-killers"), Jangali, Kuchbandhiya, Kapariya Karnataki, Nat, Paturiya, Rajnat, and Tawaif. They believe themselves indigenous to the Central Duab, and profess to have some unexplained connection, like their kinsmen the Haburas, with the old ruined city of Nohkhera, in the north of Pargana Jalesar, in the Etah District. All the camps (gol ) which frequent that part of the country meet there during the rainy season, and hold tribal councils at which marriages and all matters affecting the caste are settled. Regular marriages seldom occur among them, because nearly all the girls are reserved for prostitution, and the men keep concubines drawn from any fairly respectable caste. So far is this the rule, that in Farrukhabad, it is alleged that if a man marry a girl of the tribe, he is put out of caste; and in Etawah, if a man marry a girl who has been prostituted, he is obliged to pay a fine to the tribal council. This is a good example of what Sir John Lubbock [ 1] calls "Communal marriage." " In many cases," he says, "the exclusive possession of a wife could only be legally acquired by a temporary recognition of the pre-existing communal rights." While, however, concubinage is a tribal institution, connections with a woman of the menial tribes, such as Chamar, Bhangi, Kori, or Dhanuk, are prohibited; and a man offending in this way is expelled from the caste. The only ceremony in selecting a

[1] Origin of civilisation, 126; Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, 72 sqq.

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concubine is presenting to her a suit of clothes, and eating with her and the clansmen. There seems, however, to be an increasing tendency towards the more respectable form of marriage, and some of them not only profess to have a law of exogamy to this extent that they will not give their boys to, or take a bride from, a family with which within memory they have been allied by marriage, but they also pretend to allow the levirate under the usual restrictions, and permit widow marriage. When they do marry in the caste continence is compulsory on the wife, and her husband can put her away for infidelity proved to the satisfaction of the tribal council.

Domestic Ceremonies.

During pregnancy the mother generally vows that if she gets over her confinement in safety, she will have the head of the child shaved at some shrine. She is attended at delivery by the Chamarin midwife, and after that by the women of her family. All Beriyas do the chhathi or sixth day ceremony after delivery; some do the barahi or twelfth day rite as well, and if the child be a boy, feed the tribesmen. Adoption is common among them; usually a sister's son is adopted. There is no ceremony except the distribution of sweets to the kinsmen, and formal announcement that the adoption has taken place. There is no initiation rite for males; but when a girl reaches puberty, and is prostituted for the first time, the money she earns is spent in drinking and in feeding the other unmarried girls of the tribe, while Satya Narayana is worshipped, and verses in honour of him are recited. In a marriage of a virgin girl of the caste, which is very unusual, they follow the orthodox form; when they get hold of some other woman or of a widow there is no ceremony except feeding the clansmen, and until this is done the husband cannot eat the food cooked by her.

The caste is in the intermediate stage between burial and ceremation. In Farrukhabad they touch the left foot of the corpse with fire and then bury it. In Etawah they ceremate the dead and collect the ashes, which they put into an earthen pot, and then bury this in the ground, raising over it a small earthen platform. When they can afford it they offer at this place some cakes in honour of the dead, which they subsequently consume themselves. They do not employ the Mahabrahman; all the death ceremonies are done by the sister's son or son-in-law of the deceased. They have no regular sraddha; but once a year, on any convenient date, they offer up cakes in the name of their dead ancestors in general, and invite a few of the brethren to a feast.

Religion.

Their tribal deities are Devi, Kaliji, and Jwalamukhi. Many of them also worship a deity called Sayyid, which they understand to represent Muhammad, the prophet. Others visit the shrine of Madar Sahib. They seem to depend more on ancestor worship than on any other form of belief. They hardly employ Brahmans at all except for giving omens at marriages, and it is, of course, only the very lowest Brahmans who serve them.

Occupation And Social Status.

The Beriya, as we have seen, supports himself to a large extent by prostituting his women. His women loaf about villages and procure information about valuable property of their male relations. He is a pilferer and petty thief, and will steal crops from fields and any uncared-for property which he can find lying about. He makes almost a speciality of stealing the clothes and brass vessels of men who labour in the fields, and a camp of these people is such a pest in a neighbourhood they would meet with short shrift from the villagers if they were not protected by some landowners, who entertain themselves with their women, and by goldsmiths and others, who receive stolen property from them. They have also been known to commit more serious crimes and attack camel carts and wedding parties at night. They usually begin the attack on a travelling party with a shower of stones, and if this fail to compel them to abandon their goods, they assail them with their bludgeons. In Farrukhabad the Gunnar sub-caste carry the regular Kanjar spud (khanti) with which they dig out young jackals and pass them off as wolf cubs for the sake of the government reward. They have

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a vague tradition that they were once Rajputs, and were forced to take to their present means of living by the Muhammadans after the siege of Chithor. But their appearance and physique certainly indicate that they are a branch of the Indian gypsy race, and closely allied to the Sansiya and his kinsfolk. The women who are prostitutes salute with the word salam; those who are married use Ram ! Ram ! When they take an oath they turn to the river and swear by mother Ganges. They are steady believers in the demoniacal theory of disease. When a person falls sick they call in a wizard (syana ), who smokes a huqqa, and with a few incoherent words waves a broom over the patient, and thus scares the ghost. When a patient is attacked by the Evil-eye, they put some thorns of the Babul (acacia arabica ) in an earthen pot face downwards; then a shoe is waved over it, and they call out "Evil glance! Leave the sick Man!" They eat mutton, goat's flesh, and pork; not beef, fowls, fish, vermin, or the leftovers of other people. But there is reason to believe that when in camps by themselves they are much more orthodox in their diet. No respectable caste will eat from their hands, they will eat both kachchi and pakki from the hands of all but the very lowest menials.

Beshara: -or Bashara. They are Muslim Mendicants.

Bhaina: -A primitive tribe peculiar to the Central Provinces [1] and found principally in the Bilâspur District and the adjoining area, that is, in the wild tract of forest country between the Satpíra range and the south of the Chota Nâgpur plateau. In 1911 about 17,000 members of the tribe were reported. The tribe is of mixed descent and appears to have been derived principally from the Baigas and Kawars, having probably served as a city of refuge to persons expelled from these and other tribes and the lower castes for irregular sexual relations. Their connection with the Baigas is shown by the fact that in Mandla the Baigas have two subdivisions, which are known as Rai or Râj-Bhaina, and Kath, or catechu-making Bhaina. The name therefore would appear to have originated with the Baiga tribe. A Bhaina is also not infrequently found to be employed in the office of village priest and magician, which goes by the name of Baiga in Bilâspur. And a Bhaina has the same reputation as a Baiga for sorcery, it being said of him-

Mainhâr ki mânjh

Bhaina ki pâng

or ' The magic of a Bhaina is as deadly as the powdered mainhâr fruit,' this fruit having the property of stupefying fish when thrown into the water, so that they can easily be caught. This reputation simply arises from the fact that in his capacity of village priest the Bhaina performs the various magical devices which lay the ghosts of he dead, protect the village against tigers, ensure the prosperity of the crops and son on. But it is always the older residents of any locality who are employed by latter settlers in this office, because they are considered to have a more intimate acquaintance with the local deities. And consequently we are entitled to assume that the Bhainas are older residents than their neighbours, the Gonds and Kawars. There is other evidence to the same effect; for instance, a chief of this tribe is remembered as having ruled in Bilaigarh; they are also to have been dominant in Pendra, where they are still most numerous, though the estate is now held by a Kawar; and it is related that the Bhainas were expelled from Phuljhar in Raipur by the Gonds. Phuljhar is believed to be a Gond State of long standing, and the Râja of Raigarh and others claim to be descended from its ruling family. A manuscript history of the Bhaina king when the Gonds invaded it comes from Chânda. The Bhaina with his soldiers took refuge in a hollow underground chamber with two exits. But the secret of this was betrayed to the Gonds by an old Gond woman, and they filled up the openings of the chamber with grass and burnt the Bhainas to death. On this account the tribe will not enter Phuljhar territory to this day, and

[ 1] See Russell. His article is based principally on a paper by Panna Lâl, Revenue. Inspector, Bilâspur, and also on papers by Mr. Syed Sher Ali, Nâib-Tahsíldâr, Mr. Hira Lâl and Mr. Adurâm Chaudhri of the Gazetteer office.

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say that it is death to a Bhaina to do so. The Binjhwârs are also said to have been dominant in the hills to the east of Raipur district, and they too are a civilised branch of the Baigas. And in all this area the village priest is commonly known as Baiga, the deduction from which is, as already stated, that the Baigas were the oldest residents. [1] It seems a legitimate conclusion, therefore, that prior to the immigration of the Gonds and Kawars, the ancient Baiga tribe was spread over the whole hill country east and north of the Mahânadí basin.

Closely Connected

With The Kawars. The Bhainas are also closely connected with the Kawars, who still own many large estates in the hills north of Bilâspur. It is said that formerly the Bhainas and Kawars both ate in common and intermarried, but at present, though the Bhainas still eat rice boiled in water from the Kawars, the latter do not reciprocate. But still, when a Kawar is celebrating a birth, marriage or death in his family, or when he takes in hand to make a tank, he will first give food to a Bhaina before his own caste-men eat. And it may safely be assumed that is a recognition of the Bhaina's position as having once been lord of the land. A Kawar may still be admitted into the Bhaina community, and it is said that the reason of the rupture of the former equal relations between the two tribes was the disgust felt by the Kawars for the rude and uncouth behaviour of the Bhainas. For on one occasion a Kawar went to ask for a Bhaina girl in marriage, and as the men of the family were away, the women undertook to entertain him. And as the Bhainas had no axes, the daughter proceeded to crack the sticks on her head for kindling a fire, and for grass she pulled out a wisp of thatch from the roof and broke it over her thigh, being unable to chop it. This so offended the delicate susceptibilities of the Kawar that he went away without waiting for his meal, and from that time the Kawars ceased to marry with the Bhainas. It seems possible to attribute the story to the period when the primitive Bhainas and Baigas did not know the use of iron and to the introduction of this metal by the later-coming Kawars and Gonds. It is further related that when a Kawar is going to make a ceremonial visit he always likes to take with him two or three Bhainas, who are considered as his retainers, though not being so in fact. This enhances his importance, and it is also said that the stupidity of the Bhainas acts as a foil, through which the superior intelligence of the Kawar is made more apparent. All these details point to the same conclusion that the primitive Bhainas first held the country and were supplanted by the more civilised Kawars, and bears out the theory that the settlement of the Munda tribes was prior to those of the Dravidian family.

Internal Structure: Totemism.

The tribe has two subdivisions of a territorial nature, Laria or Chhattísgarhi, and Uriya. The Uriya Bhainas will accept food cooked without water from the Sawaras or Saonrs, and these also from them; so that they have probably intermarried. Two other subdivisions recorded are the Jhalyâra and Ghantyâra; the former being so called because they live in jhâlas or leaf huts in the forest, and the latter, it is said, because they tie a ghanta or bell to their doors. This, however, seems very improbable. Another theory is that the word is derived from ghât, a slope or descent, and refers to a method which the tribe have of tattooing themselves with a pattern of lines known as ghât. Or it is said to mean a low or despised section. the Jhalyâra and Ghatyâra divisions comprise the less civilised portion of the tribe, who still live in the forests; and they are looked down on by the Uriya and Laria sections, who belong to the open country. The exogamous divisions of the tribe show clearly enough that the Bhainas, like other subject races, have quite failed to preserve any purity of blood. Among the names of their gots or septs are Dhobia (a washerman), Ahera (cowherd), Gond, Mallin (gardener), Panika (from a Panka or Ganda) and others. The members of such septs pay respect to any man belonging to the caste after which they are named and avoid picking a quarrel with him. They also worship the family gods of this caste. The tribes also have a number of totem septs, named after animals or plants. Such are Nâg the cobra, Bâgh the tiger, Chitwa the leopard, Gidha the vulture, Besra the hawk, Bendra the monkey, Kok or

[1] For the meaning of the term Baiga and its application to the tribe, see also article on Bhuiya.

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Lodha the wild dog, Bataria the quail, Durgachhia the black ant, and so on. Members of a sept will not injure the animal after which it is named, and if they see the corpse of the animal or hear of its death, they throw away an earthen cooking-pot and bathe and shave themselves as for one of the family. Members of the Baghchhâl or tiger sept will, however, join in a hunt for tiger though they are reluctant to do so. At weddings the Bhainas have a ceremony known as the gotra worship. The bride's father makes an image in clay of the bird or animal of the groom's sept and places it beside the marriage-post. The bride-groom worships the image, lighting a sacrificial fire before it, and offers to it the vermilion which he afterwards smears upon the forehead of the bride. At the bridegroom's house a similar image is made of the bride's totem, and on returning there after the wedding she worships this. Women are often tattooed with representations of their totem animal, and men swear by it as their most sacred oath. A similar respect is paid to the inanimate objects after which certain septs are named. Thus members of the Gawad or cowdung sept will not burn cowdung cakes for fuel; and those of the Mircha sept do not use chillies. One sept is named after the sun, and when an eclipse occurs these perform the same formal rites of mourning as the others do on the death of their totem animal. Some of the groups have two divisions, male and female, which practically rank as separate septs. Instances of these are the Nâgbans Andura and the Nâgbans Mai or male and female cobra septs; the Karsayâl Singhâra and Karsayâl Mundi or stag and doe deer septs; and the Baghchhâl Andura and Baghchhâl Mai or tiger and tigress septs. These may simply be instances of subdivisions arising owning to the boundaries of the sept having become too large for convenience.

Marriage.

The tribe consider that a boy should be married when he has learn to drive the plough, and a girl when she is able to manage her household affairs. When a father wants to arrange a marriage, he goes to the girl's village, taking with him ten or fifteen cakes of bread and a bottle of liquor. He stays with some relative and sends someone to ask the girl's father if he will give his daughter to the inquirer's son. If the former agrees, the bread and liquor are sent over to him, and he drinks three cups of the spirit as a pledge of the betrothal, the remainder being distributed to the company. This is known as Tatia kholna or 'the opening of the door,' and is followed some days afterwards by a similar ceremonial which constitutes the regular betrothal. On this occasion the father agrees to marry his daughter within a year and demands the brideprice, which consists of rice, a goat and other articles, the total value being about five rupees. A date is fixed for the wedding, and two knotted strings are given to each party, with a knot for each day up to that on which the anointings with oil and turmeric will commence at the bridegroom's and bride's houses. Every day one knot is untied at each house up to that on which the ceremonies begin, and thus the correct date for them is known. The invitations to the wedding are given by distributing rice coloured yellow with turmeric to all members of the caste in the locality, with the intimation that the wedding procession will start on a certain day and that they will be invited to attend. During the four days that they are being anointed the bride and bridegroom dance at their respective houses to the accompaniment of drums and other instruments. For the wedding ceremony a number of Hindu rites have been adopted. The eldest sister of the bridegroom or bride is known an the sawâsin and her husband as the sawâsa, and these persons seem to act as the representatives of the bridal couple throughout the marriage and to receive all presents on their behalf. The custom is almost universal among the Hindus, and it is possible that they are intended to act as substitutes and to receive any strokes of evil fortune which may befall the bridal pair at a season at which they are peculiarly liable to it. The couple go round the sacred post, and afterwards the bridegroom daubs the bride's forehead with red lead, she has become a married woman. After the wedding the bridegroom's parents say to him, "Now your parents have done everything they could for you, and you must manage your own house." The expenditure on an average wedding is about fifteen or twenty rupees. A widow is usually taken in marriage by her late husband's younger brother or Dewar, or by one of his relatives. If she marries an outsider, the Dewar receives twelve rupees from him in compensation for her loss. But if there is no Dewar this sum is not payable to her first

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husband's elder brother or her own father, because they could not have married her and hence are not held to be injured by a stranger doing so. If a woman is divorced and another man wishes to marry her, he must make a similar payment of twelve rupees to the first husband, together with a goat and liquor for the penal feast. The Bhainas bury or burn the dead as their means permit.

Religious Superstitions.

Their principal deity in Bilâspur is Nakti Devi [1] or the 'Noseless Goddess.' For her ritual rice is placed on a square of the floor washed with cowdung, and ghí, or preserved butter is poured on it and burnt. A hen is made to eat the rice, and then its head is cut off and laid on the square. The liver is burnt on the fire as an offering to the deity and the head and body of the animal are then eaten. After the death of a man a cock is offered to Nakti Devi and a hen after that of a woman. The fowl is made to pick rice first in the yard of the house, then on the threshold, and lastly inside the house. Thâkur Deo is the deity of cultivation and is worshipped on the day before the autumn crops are sown. On this day all the men in the village go to his shrine, taking a measure of rice and a ploughshare. At the same time the Baiga or village priest goes and bathes in the tank and is afterwards carried to the assembly on a man's shoulders. Here he makes an offering and repeats a charm, and with them kneeling down strikes the earth seven times with the ploughshare, and sows five handfuls of rice, sprinkling water over the seed. After him the villagers walk seven times round the altar of the god in pairs, one man sowing and watering the seed. While this is going on the Baiga sits with his face covered with a piece of cloth, and at the end the villagers salute the Baiga and go home. When a man wishes to do an injury to another he makes an image of him with clay and daubs it with vermilion and worships it with an offering of a goat or a fowl and liquor. Then he prays to the image that his enemy may die. Another way of injuring an enemy is to take rice coloured with turmeric, and after muttering charms throw it in the direction in which the enemy lives.

Admission Of Outsiders And Caste Offences.

Outsiders are not usually admitted, but if a Bhaina forms a connection with a woman of another tribe, they will admit the children of such a union, though not the woman herself. For they say: 'The seed is ours and what matters the field on which it was sown.' But a man of the Kawar tribe having intimacy with a Bhaina woman may be taken into the community. He must wait for three or four months after the matter becomes known and will beg for admission and offer to give the penalty feast. A day is fixed for this and invitations are sent to members of the caste. On the appointed day the women of the tribe cook rice, pulse, goat's flesh and cakes fried in oil, and in the evening the people assemble and drink liquor and then go to take their food. The candidate for admission serves water to the men and his prospective wife to the women, both being then permitted to take food with the tribe. Next morning the people come again and the woman is dressed in a white cloth with bangles. The couple stand together supported by their brother-in-law and sister-in-law respectively, and turmeric dissolved in water is poured over their heads. they are now considered to be married and go round together and give the salutation or Johâr to the people, touching the feet of those who are entitled to this mark of respect, and kissing the others.

Among the offences for which a man is temporarily put out of caste is getting the ear torn either accidentally or otherwise, being beaten by a man of very low caste, growing san-hemp (Crotalaria juncea ), rearing tasar silk-worms or getting maggots in a wound. This last is almost as serious an offence as killing a cow, and, in both cases, before an offender can be reinstated he must kill a fowl and swallow a drop or two of its blood with turmeric. Women commonly get the lobe of the ear torn through the heavy ear-rings which they wear; and in a

[ 1] It is or was, of course, a common practice for a husband to cut off his wife's nose if he suspected her of being unfaithful to him. But whether the application of the epithet to the goddess should be taken to imply anything against her moral character is not known.

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squabble another woman will often seize the ear-ring maliciously in order to tear the ear. A woman injured in this way is put out of caste for a year in jânjgir. To grow turmeric or garlic is also an offence against caste, but a man is permitted to do this for his own use and not for sale. A man who gets leprosy is said to be permanently expelled from caste. The purification of delinquents is conducted by members of the Sonwâni (gold-water) and Patel (headman) septs, whose business it is to give the offender water to drink in which gold has been dipped and to take over the burden of his sins by first eating food with him. But others say that the Hâthi or elephant sept is the highest, and to its members are delegated these duties. And in Jânjgir again the president of the committee gives the gold-water, and is hence known as Sonwân; and this office must always be held by a man of the Sonwân; and this office must always be held by a man of the Bandar or monkey sept.

Social Customs.

The Bhainas are a comparatively civilised tribe and have largely adopted Hindu usages. They employ Brâhmans to fix auspicious days for their ceremonies, though not to officiate at them. They live principally in the open country and are engaged in agriculture, though very few of them hold land and the bulk are farm-labourers. They now disclaim any connection with the primitive Baigas, who still prefer the forests. But documents in place of a signature or use for a brand on cattle, is a bow, and this shows that they retain the recollection of hunting as their traditional occupation. Like the Baigas, the tribe has forgotten their native dialect and now speak bad Hindi. They will eat pork and rats, and almost anything else they can get, eschewing only beef. But in their intercourse with other castes they are absurdly strict, and will take boiled rice only from a Kawar, or from a Brâhman if it is cooked in a brass and not in an earthen vessel, and this only from a male and not from a female Brâhman; while they will accept baked chapâtis and other food from a Gond and a Gond and a Râwat. But in Sambalpur they will take this from a Savar and not from a Gond. They rank below Gonds, Kawars and Savars or Saonrs. Women are tattooed with a representation of their sept totem; and on the knees and ankles they have some figures of lines which are known as ghâts. These they say will enable then to climb the mountains leading to heaven in the other world, while those who have not such marks will be pierced with spears on their way up the ascent. It has already been suggested that these marks may have given rise to the name of the Ghatyâra division of the tribe.

Bhâmta: -or Bhâmtya. [1] A cast numbering 4000 persons in the Central Provinces, nearly all of whom reside in the Wardha, Nâgpur and Chânda Districts of the Nâgpur Division. The Bhâmtas are also found in Bombay, Berâr and Hyderâbad. In Bombay they are known by names of Uchla or 'Lifter' and Ganthachor of 'Bundle-thief.' [2] The Bhâmtas were and still are notorious thieves, but many of the caste are now engaged in the cultivation of hemp, from which they make rope, mats and gunny-bags. Formerly it was said in Wardha that a Bhâmta girl would not marry unless her suitor had been arrested not less than fourteen times by the police, when she considered that he had qualified as a man. The following description of their methods does not necessarily apply to the whole caste, though the bulk of them are believed to have criminal tendencies. But some colonies of Bhâmtas who have taken to the manufacture of sacking and gunny-bags from hemp-fibre may perhaps be excepted. They steal only during the daytime, and divide that part of the Province which they frequent into regular beats or rages. They adopt many disguises. Even in their own cottages one dresses as a Mârwâri Bania, another as a Gujarât Jain, a third as a Brâhman and a fourth as a Râjpít. They keep to some particular disguise for years and often travel hundreds of miles entering and stealing from the houses of the classes of persons whose dress they adopt, or taking service with a merchant or trader, and having gained their employer's confidence,

[ 1] See Russel.

[ 2] Bombay Gazettcer (Campbell), from a paper by Pyâre Lâl Misra, xviii. p. 464. Ethnographic Clerk.

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seize an opportunity to abscond with some valuable property. Sometimes two three Bhâmtas visit a large fair, and one of them dressed as a Brâhman mingles with the crowd of bathers and worshippers. The false Brâhman notices some ornament deposited by a bather, and while himself entering the water and repeating sacred verses, watches his opportunity and spreads out his cloth near the ornament, which he then catches with his toes, and dragging it with him to a distance as he walks away buries it in the sand. The accomplices meanwhile loiter near and when the owner discovers his loss the Brâhman sympathises with him and points out the accomplices as likely thieves, thus diverting suspicion from himself. The victim follows the accomplices, who make off, and the real thief meanwhile digs the ornament our of the sand and escapes at his leisure. Women often tie their ornaments in bundles at such bathing-fairs, and in that case two Bhâmtas will go up to her, one on each side, and while one distracts her attention the other makes off with the bundle and buries it in the sand. A Bhâmta rarely retains the stolen property on his person while there is a chance of his being searched, and is therefore not detected. They show considerable loyalty to one another, and never steal from or give information against a member of the caste. If stolen property is found in a Bhâmtas house, and it has merely been deposited there for security, the real thief comes forward. An escaped prisoner does not come back to his friends lest he should get them into trouble. A Bhâmta is never guilty of house-breaking or gang-robbery, and if he take part in this offence he is put out of caste. He does not steal from the body of a person asleep. He is, however, expert at the theft of ornaments from the person. He never steals from a house in his own village, and the villagers frequently share directly or indirectly in his gains. The Bhâmtas are now expert railway thieves. [1] Two of them will get into a carriage, and, engaging the other passengers in conversation, find out where they are going, so as to know the time available for action. When it gets dark and the travellers go to sleep, one of the Bhâmtas lies down on the floor and covers himself with a large cloth. He begins feeling some bag under the seat, and if he cannot open it with his hands, takes from his mouth the small curved knife which all Bhâmtas carry concealed between their gum and upper lip, and with this he rips up the seams of the bag and takes out what he finds; or they exchange bags, according to a favourite device of English railway thieves, and then quickly either leave the train or get into another carriage. If attention is aroused they throw the stolen property out of the window, marking the place and afterwards go back to recover it. Another device is to split open the pockets of people in a crowd. Besides the knife they often have a needle and thread and an iron nut-cutter.

Members of other castes, as Chhatri, Kanjar, Râwat and others, who have taken to stealing, are frequently known as Bhâmtas, but unless they have been specially initiated do not belong to the caste. The Bhâmtas proper have two main divisions, the Chhatri Bhâmtas, who are usually immigrants from Gujarât, and those of the Marâtha country, who are often known as Bhâmtis. The former have a dialect which is a mixture of Hindi, Jarâhi and Gujarâti, while the latter speak the local form of Marâthi. The sections of the Chhatri Bhâmtas are named after Râjpír septs, as Badgíjar, Chauhân, Gahlot, Bhatti, Kachhwâha and others. They may be partly of Râjpír descent, as they have regular and pleasing features and a fair complexion, and are well built and sturdy. The sections of the Bhâmtis are called by Marâtha surnames, as Gudekar, Kaothi, Bailkhade, Sâtbhaia and others. The Chhatri Bhâmtas have northern customs, and the Bhâmtis those of the Marâtha country. Marriage between persons of the same gotra or surname is prohibited. The Chhatris avoid marriage between relations having a common great-grandparent, but among the Bhâmtis the custom of Mehunchâr is prevalent, by which the brother's daughter is married to the sister's son. Girls are usually married at ten and eleven years of age or later. The betrothal and marriage customs of the two subcastes differ, the Chhatris following the ceremonial of the northern Districts and the Bhâmtis that of the Marâtha country. The Chhatris do not pay a bride-price, but the Bhâmtis usually do. Widow-marriage is allowed, and while the Chhatris expect the widow to marry her deceased husband's brother, the Bhâmtis do not permit this. Among both subdivisions a price is paid

[1] The following particulars are taken from Colonel portman's Report on the Bhâmtas of the Deccan (Bombay, 1887).

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for the widow to her parents. Divorce is only permitted for immoral conduct on the part of the wife. A divorced woman may remarry after giving a feast to the caste panchâyat or committee and obtaining their consent.

The goddess Devi is the tutelary deity of the caste, as of all those who ply a disreputable profession. Animals are sacrificed to her or let loose to wander in her name. The offerings are appropriated by the village washerman. In Bombay the rendezvous of the Bhâmtis is the temple of Devi at Konali, in Akalkot State, near Sholapur, and here the gangs frequently assemble before and after their raids to ask the goddess that luck may attend them and to thank her for success obtained, [1] They worship their rope-making implements on the Dasahra day. They both bury and burn the dead. Ghosts and spirits are worshipped. If a man takes a second wife after the death of his first, the new wife wears a putli or image of the first wife on a piece of silver on her neck, and offers it the hom sacrifice by placing some ghi on the fire before taking a meal. In cases of doubt and difficulty she often consults the putli by speaking to it, while any chance stir of the image due to the movement of her body is interpreted as approval or disapproval. In the Central Provinces the Bhâmtis say that they do not admit outsiders into the caste, but this is almost certainly untrue. In Bombay they are said to admit all Hindus [ 2] except the very lowest castes, and also Muhammadans. The candidate must pass through the two ceremonies of admission into the caste and adoption into a particular family. For the first he pays an admission fee, is bathed and dressed in new clothes, and one of the elders drops turmeric and sugar into his mouth. A feast follows, during which some elders of the caste eat out of the same plate with him. This completes the admission ceremony, but in order to marry in the caste a candidate must also be adopted into a particular family. The Bhâmta who has agreed to adopt him invites the caste people to his house, and there takes the candidate on his knee while the guests drop turmeric and sugar into his mouth. The Bhâmtas eat fish and fowl but not pork or beef, and drink liquor. This last practice is frequently made a caste offence by the Bhâmtis. They take cooked food from Brâhmans and Kunbis and water from Gonds. The keeping of concubines is also an offence entailing temporary excommunication. The morality of the caste is somewhat low and their women are addicted to prostitution. The occupation of the Bhâmta is also looked down on, and it is said, Bhâmta ka kâm sub se nikâm, or 'The Bhâmta's work is the worst of all.' This may apply either to his habits of stealing or to the fact that he supplies a bier made of twine and bamboo sticks at a death. In Bombay the showy dress of the Bhâmta is proverbial. Women are tattooed before marriage on the forehead and lower lip, and on other parts of the body for purposes of adornment. The men have the head shaved for three inches above the top of the forehead in front and an inch higher, behind, and they wear the scalp lock much thicker than Brâhmans do. They usually have head-cloths.

Bhâmt í.: -The Bhâmt [3] âs are a criminal class who are especially active as railway thieves. It seems probable that their original home was the Telugu-speaking country. At the present day, however, settlements are to be found in several of the districts and native states in and bordering on the Bombay Presidency. At the Census of 1911, 4,270 Bhâmt âs were recorded from the Central Provinces and Berar and none from elsewhere. They do not lead a gipsy life but settle in some village from which their gangs start on their thieving expeditions. They are known under several different names such as Ga∑t hachórs , Uchliâs , Vaπarís , and so forth. The home tongue of most of them is Vadarí, a debased form of Telugu. They also speak Marât hí, Hindóstâní , and Kanarese. In speaking Kanarese they drop their h's. The home language of some of the Ga∑t hachórs of the Bijapur District is Kanarese. Those of Nagpur in the Central Provinces speak a broken mixture of Dakhiní

[1] Portman, loc. cit

[2] Bombay Gazetteer (Campbell),' xviii. p. 465.

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

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Hindóstâní and Jaipur Râjasthâní. Only fourteen speakers of this Bhâmt í were reported from the Central Provinces.

Bhând: -Bhânr. [ 1] -(Sanskrit, Bhanda , a jester.) -The class of story-tellers, buffoons, and jesters. They are sometimes known by the Muhammadan title of Naqqâl, or actor. The Bhând is sometimes employed in the courts of Râjas and native gentlemen of rank, where, at entertainments, he amuses the company with his buffoonery and imitations of European and Native manners, much of which is of a very coarse nature. The Bhând is quite separate from and of a lower professional rank than the Bahrípiya. They appear now to be practically all Muhammadans, but retain numerous Hindu usages. There are two recognised endogamous sub-castes-the Chenr, which seems to mean little (Hindu, chenra ), and the Kashmíri. The former trace their origin to the time of Taimírlang, who, on the death of his son, gave himself over to mourning for twelve years. Then one Sayyid Hasan, a courtier of the Emperor, composed a humorous poem in Arabic which gained him the title of Bhânr. Sayyid Hasan is regarded as the founder of the caste. Though he was a Sayyid, the present Bhânrs are either Shaikhs or Mughals; and the difference of faith, Sunni and Shiah, is a bar to intermarriage. The Kashmíri Bhânrs are said to be of quite recent origin, having been invited to Kashmír by Nasír-un-din Haidar, King of Oudh. The Chenr Bhânrs fix their headquarters at Karra in Allahâbâd, and Lucknow. In Farrukhâbad they profess to have twelve-and-a-half subdivisions, all of which, except the half sub-division, intermarry. Many of these are derived from the names of castes from which they are, or pretend to be, sprung: thus Kaithela (Kâyasth); Bamhaniya (Brâhman); Kamarhas; Ujharha; Banthela; Gujarha (Gíjar); Nonela (Luniya); Karraha (from Karra); Pitarhanda. The Census returns give the sub-caste of the Hindu Bhânrs as Baraha, Nakhatiya, and Shâhpure, and of the Muhammadan branch as Bakarha, Bhandela, Burkiya, Desi, Gâorâni, Hasanpuri, Kathiya, Jaroha, Jaroyân, Kaithla, Kâyasth, Kâniwâla, Kashmíri, Kathiya, Katila, Qawwâl, Kha, Kharya, Khatri, Kheti, Monkhra, Musalmâni, Naqqâl, Naumuslim, Pathân, Patua, Purablya, Râwat, Sadíqi, Shaikh, and Târâkiya.

Girls are married at the age of twelve or fourteen, and unlimited polygamy is allowed. Widows re-marry generally in the family of their late husband, and if a match then is impossible, they marry an outsider, and the levirate in the usual form prevails. A wife can be put away for infidelity, and cannot then marry again in the caste. The marriage ceremonies are conducted in the standard Musalmân form. Bhânrs are generally Sunnis, except in Lucknow, where they are mostly Shiahs, and respect the Pânchonpír (of whom the most regarded is Ghâzi Miyân) and Sayyid Hasan. To the Pânchonpír are offered cakes (malída ), sharbat, garlands of flowers, and perfumes. Sayyid Hasan receives cakes, sweetmeats, flowers, and perfumes, at any time during the year. Food is offered to the sainted dead at the Shab-i-barât festival. The chief offering consists of the halwa sweetmeats, and cakes. The Chenr Bhânrs play on the small drum (dholak ), and Kashmíris on the drum (labla ) and fiddle (sârangi ). A popular proverb describes the Bhânr to be as essential at an entertainment as a tiger in a forest, -Mahfil vírân jahân Bhânr na bâshad; Jangal vírân jahân sher na bâshad. They are notoriously exacting and abusive if offended. A proverb runs,-Rânr, Bhânr, Sânr, bigré, buré,- "The rage of a widow, a Bhânr, and a bull is terrible." Another classes them with the monkey, "jaisé Lakkho bandariya vaisé Manva Bhânr: "Lakkho, the monkey, is like Manva, the actor"-"six of one and half a dozen of the other." Dr. Buchanan quaintly describes them as "impudent fellows who make wry faces, squeak like pigs, bark like dogs, and perform many other ludicrous feats. They also dance and sign, mimicking and turning into ridicule the dancing boys and girls, on whom they likewise pass many jokes, and are employed on great occasions. " [2]

[1] See Croke, chiefly based on enquiries at Mirzapur and short notes from Munshi Bhagwati Dayâl Sinh, Tahsildâr, Chhibraman, Farrukhâbâd, and Bâbu Chhote Lâl. Archaeological Survey, Lucknow.

[2] Eastern India, II., 248.

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Bhand.: -See also Naqqal they are known by this name in Kashmir.

Bhântu: -Bhâtu. -A criminal tribe found chiefly in Rohil-khand and Oudh . [1] They are merely one branch of the Sânsiya tribe, known elsewhere as Beriya, or Kanjar. The derivation of the word is uncertain. Some connect it with Bhât, as some Sânsiyas act as bards or genealogists to some Râjputs and Jâts: others say it comes from bhânti (Sanskrit, bhinna, "broken"),with reference to the miscellaneous elements of which they are composed. There is a tribe of the same name in Central India who are also known as Dumar or Kolhâti, who are wandering athletes and worship Nârâyan and the bamboo, with which all their feats are accomplished. When they bury their dead they place rice and oil at the head of the grave, and draw the happiest omens for the estate of the departed from crows visiting the spot. [2] The Bhântus of these Provinces follow exactly the customs of the kindred tribes of Beriya, Hâbíra and Sânsiya.

Bhar.: -A caste of apparently Dravidian origin found in the eastern parts of the United Provinces. [3] They are also known as Râjbhar, Bharat, and Bharpatwa. The word Bhar is derived by the Pandits from the Sanskrit root bhri, to nourish, but this is improbable, and it is more likely to be of non-Aryan origin. Dr. Oppert [4] indulges in some curious speculations on the subject. He suggests their connection with the Barrhai of Ptolemy (VII-2-20), and with the Bharatas, a mountain tribe mentioned in connection with the Sabaras and with the Barbara, Varvara, or Barbarian. The derivation of large numbers of local names in Upper India from the same source, such as Bihâr, Bahrâich, Bârabanki, Bareilly, Barhaj, Barhar and even Varanasi or Benares, etc., must be accepted with the greatest caution.

Traditions.

This tribe has given rise to much wild speculation. In Gorakhpur they claim to be the descendants of, and named from, an early Kshatriya Râja named Bhâradwâja, whose sons strayed from the ancient way of life and took to the use of meat and wine. Their descendant Surha settled in the village of Surauli, and wishing to marry a high caste Râjput girl, was murdered by her relations, and became an evil spirit, who does much damage still if he is not duly propitiated. That they claim to have been once a dominant race in the castern part of Oudh and the North-Western Provinces is certain. Thus Sir C. Elliott writes: "The scene before us in Oudh at the fall of the historic curtain is an uninhabited forest country and a large colony of Sírajbansis occupying Ajudhya as their capital. When the curtain rises again we find Ajudhya destroyed, the Sírajbansis utterly banished, and a large extent of country ruled over by aborigines, called Cheros in the Far East, Bhars in the Centre, and Râjpâsis in the West. This great revolution seems to be satisfactorily explained by the conjecture that the Bhars, Cheros, etc., were the aborigines whom the Aryans had driven to the hills, and who, swarming down from thence not long after the beginning of our era, overwhelmed the Aryan civilisation even in Ajudhya itself, drove the Sírajbansis under Kanaksen to emigrate into distant Gujarât, and spread over all the plain between the Himalayas and that spur of the

[ 1] See Crooke.

[ 2] Balfour; Journal Asictic society of Bengal, N. S. XIII.; Gunthorpe, Notes on Criminal Tribes, 46, sqq ; Rowney, wild Tribes, 21.

[ 3] See Crooke, based on information collected at Mirzapur and not s received through Mr.H.E.'. P.Ddupernex, C.S., Azamgarh, and from Munshi Chhedi lâl. Deputy Inspector of Schools, Gorakhpur.

[ 4] Original Inhabitants of Bharatavarsa, 37, sqq.

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Vindhya range which passes through the south of Mirzapur." [1] Again we read that the primitive inhabitants of Sultânpur are said to have been Bhars. "Their character is painted in the most sombre colours. They are represented to have been dark-complexioned, ill-favoured, and of mean stature, intemperate in their habits, and not only devoid of any religious belief themselves, but addicted to the persecution of those who ventured to profess any. They are said to have possessed a few scattered and detached fortresses to serve as rallying points; but to have been otherwise of nomadic and predatory habits, while their numbers are said to have barely sufficed to furnish a scanty population to the tract they occupied." [2] In support of these pretensions to have been a ruling race in the eastern part of the Province, numerous old stone forts, embankments, wells, and subterraneous caverns are attributed to them. Thus the Chiraiyakot fort, in Ghâzipur, is said to have been their work. [3] The same is the case with numerous ruing in the Basti and Ghâzipur Districts. [4] The present town of Bahrâich is said to take its name from them and to have been their oldest abode, from which they spread southward into Faizâbâd and Sultânpur. Similarly they are said to have left their name in the Bhadohi and Barhar parganas of Mirzapur. [5] Two other fortresses of the Bhars are said to have been Zahurâbâd and Lakhnesar, in Ghâzipur. [6] In Gorakhpur they are said to have been ousted by the Kausik Râjputs. Mr. Sherring considers their capital in Mirazapur to have been Pampapura; Bindhâchal, where extensive ruins and a curious series of bearded stone figures are attributed to them. [7] In fact, throughout Oudh and the eastern part of the North-West Provinces every town the name of which does not end in pur, âbâd, or 8 man is assigned to them. [8]

Historical Evidence.

An attempt has been made to support these traditions by historical evidence. On the evidence of two inscriptions from Ajaygarh and Kalinjar, in Bandelkhand, and a passage from Farishta, Mr. W. C. Benett [9] argues "that a man whose name is not given, but who is described as the founder of his family, possessed himself of the fort of Ajaygarh. One of his descendants was Malika, whose brother, Dalki, on the overthrow of the last Kanauj King, conquered the whole of the Duâb; and Farishta records the utter defeat and destruction of Dalki and Malki, who had royal forts at Kalinjar and Karra and held the whole country as far as Mâlwa in their possession, by Nasir-ud-din Muhammad, the King of Delhi, in 1246 A.D. The universal tradition of Southern Oudh proves that these princes were really Bhars, and that the whole of the south of the province as far as the Ghâgra was included in their dominions." This theory, however, has failed to stand further investigation, and the Princes Dalki and Malki are identified by General Cunningham with the Bagher Râjas Dalakeswar and Malakeswar. [10] It is probable that out of the same legend has arisen the worship of Râja Bal, who is specially venerated by Bhars and Ahírs. His worship is connected with protection from snake-bite. He is said to have been one of two Bhar brothers who ruled at Dalmau and Râé Bareli, and were slain by the Muhammadans in the time of Ibrahim Sharqi of Jaunpur. In their memory, it is said that the Bharautiya section of Ahirs in time of mourning abstain from wearing anklets. Bal Râja is chiefly worshipped in Râé Bareli, Basti, and Eastern Oudh. He has 76,395 followers.

The evidence, then, for an extensive bhar kingdom in the eastern

[ 1] Chronicles of Unao, 27.

[ 2] Settlement Report, 87, sq.

[ 3] Cunningham, Archaeological Survey, XXII., 107.

[ 4] Buehanan, Eastern India, II., 370; Oldham, Memoir, I., 15-26.

[ 5] Elliott, Chronicles of Unqo, 26.

[ 6] Oldham, Memoir, I., 46.

[ 7] Hindu Tribes and Castes, I., 350, sqq.

[ 8] Chronicles of Unao, 26; Lucknow Settlement Report, 62, 116. For other Instances see sherring, loc. I., 357, sqq.

[ 9] Oudh Gazetteer, Introduction, XXXV., sq.; India Antiquary, I., 265, sq.; Clans of Rae Bareli, 2.

[ 10] Archaeological Survey, XXI., 105; Census Report, North-West Provinces, 1891, p.220.

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part of the Province rests almost entirely on the so-called Bhar dihs or ancient mounds and forts which abound all over the country, and on the so-called Bhar tanks, which are distinguished from those of a later date by being Surajbedi or longer from east to west, while modern tanks are Chandrabedi or lie north and south. Who may have been the builders of these monuments, our existing knowledge hardly entitles us to say with certainty. But that the identification of these monuments with the Bhars is not in every case to be trusted is proved by the fact that two buildings at Bihâr, in Partâbgarh, which are confidently ascribed to the Bhars by a writer in the Oudh Gazetteer, [1] are proved by General Cunningham to be genuine Buddhist stupas. [2] Similarly, the identification of the Bhars with the early rulers of the country presents many features of difficulty. Their identification with the Ubarae of Pliny and the Barrhai of Ptolemy [3] is little more than conjectural. As Sir H .M. Elliot pointed :[4] "It is strange that no trace of Bhars is to be found in the Purânas, unless we may consider that there is an obscure indication of them in the Braham Purana, where, it is said, that among the descendants of Jayadhwaja are the Bhâratas, who, it is added, are not commonly specified on account of their great number, or they may perhaps be the Bhargas of the Mahâbhârata subdued by Bhimsen on his Eastern expedition." To this it has been replied by Mr. Sherring [5] that, first, Brâhmanical writers generally speak of the Dasyus and Asuras with superciliousness and contempt, and, secondly, the abandonment of a considerable tract of country by the Aryans was dishonourable and not likely to be mentioned. It is, perhaps, possible that the Bhars, like the Doms, may have established a fairly advanced civilisation prior to their downfall. But, as Dr. Tylor remarks: "Degeneration probably operates even more actively in the lower than the higher culture," [6] and we must be cautious in identifying the race of fort and tank builders with the existing Bhars mainly on the uncertain evidence of popular tradition. Whoever these people were, they probably succumbed before the eastern emigration of the Râjput tribes contemporaneous with the fall of Kanauj and the invasion of Shâhabuddín Ghori. In Azamgarh and Ghâzipur they were driven out by the Sengar tribe, who reckon fifteen generations since their immigration; in Mirzapur and the adjoining part of Allahâbâd by the Gaharwâr; in Bhadohi, north of the Ganges, by the Monas, and further west, in Allahâbâd, by the Bais, Sonak, Tissyâl, Bisen, Nanwak and; in Faizâbâd and Eastern Oudh by the Bais; and in Gorakhpur by the Kausik. "The overthrow of the Bhars was followed by the establishment, much as we find them now, of the principal clements of modern Oudh society. The country was divided into a number of small chieftainships, ruled over by clans who, whatever their real origin may have been, all professed themselves to be of the ruling caste of Chhatris. Many of these, such as the Kânhpuriyas of Partâbgarh, the Gaurs of Hardoi, and their offshoot the Amethiyas of Râe Bareli are probably descendants of 7 men or tribes who flourished under the low caste government." [7] How far this process may have gone on is one of the problems connected with the Râjput Ethnology of the castern part of the Province. Mr. Carnegy was of the opinion that the more respectable and influential Râjput clansmen may have fled before the then dominant rulers of the serpent race or of the followers of Buddha; but the mass of the Chhatris remained and were in fact none other than the Bhars, Cheros, and the like, and that the final overthrow of these degraded races after the fall of Delhi was neither more nor less than the restoration of Râjput influence in those parts 8 where it had been dormant, and the social reclamation of the Bhars. [8] He again believes them to have been Jains, and Mr. Millett thinks them to be probably of Seythic origin, and that the

[ 1] I., 306.

[ 2] Archaeological Survey, XI., 67.

[ 3] Mr. J.W.McCrindle, Indian Antiquary, Vi., 339; XIII., 380.

[ 4] Supplemental Glossary, s.v.

[5] Journal Royal Asiatic Society, N. S., V., 376. On the Bharatas, see Oppert, Original Inhabitavrsha, 578.

[ 6] sqq. Prumitive Culture, I., 46.

[ 7] Oudh Gazetteer, Introduction, XXXV.

[ 8] Notes,19.

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termination of their influence coincided with the first Aryan invasion. [1] The most probable supposition is that the Bhars were a Dravidian race closely allied to the Kols, Cheros, and Scoris, who at an early date succumbed to the invading Aryans. This is borne out by their appearance and physique, which closely resemble that of the undoubtedly non-Aryan aborigines of the Vindhyan Kaimír plateau.

Internal Structure.

The last Census classes the Bhars under the main sub-castes of Bhâradwâj, Kanaujiya, and Râjbhar. We find among the locally more important sub-castes the Hela of Benares, the Goriya of Jaunpur; in Ghâzipur, the Baltent, Dhelphor, Dhongiya, Kharwâra, Khutant,, Kinwâr, Kuntel, Maunas, Pataun, Sarpos; in Ballia, the Dhelphor and Kulwant; in Faizâbâd, the Bhagta, Gangoha, and Râédâs, and in Bahrâich, the Patolbans. The Bhars of Mirzapur name three endogamous sub-divisions: Bhar, Bhuínhâr, and Dusâdha. The local Pâsis represent the Bhars as merely a sub-caste of their tribe; but this is denied by the Bhars themselves. The Bhar Bhuínhâr assert that they are the remnant of the ruling race among the Bhars. In support of this they wear the sacred thread, and have begun generally to call themselves Sírajbansi Râjputs. The other Bhars, they say, are the descendants of a single pregnant woman who escaped the general massacre of the the Turks or Muhammadans. The Dusâdha Bhars are not acknowledged by the Dusâdhs themselves, but the Bhars claim them as a regular sub-caste.

Exogamy.

Bhars have the usual rule of exogamy, that is they will not intermarry in their own family or in that of their maternal uncle and father's sister until four or five generations have elapsed. They prefer to marry in those families with whom they have been accustomed for generations to eat and smoke. In Gorakhpur the usual sevenfold division is made up of the Bhar, Râjbhar, Godiya, Chain, Patiwân, and Tiyar, in which we have several different, but possibly originally cognate tribes mixed up. In Azamgarh [2] they name several Sub-castes: Bhar, Râjbhar, Biyâr, Patiwân, Bind, and Jonkaha or "leech-finders." Of these the Bind and Biyâr are practically independent castes, and have here been accordingly treated separately. In Azamgarh the Bhars are reckoned outcasts, but the Râjbhar are counted among Hindus. There the special title of the Râjbhars is Patait, and of the common Bhars Khuntait. The latter rear pigs, which the former do not. These divisions intermarry, but the families who do not keep pigs will not marry with those who do. Intercourse between the sexes is regulated by no strict rule. If an unmarried girl has an affair with a clansman they are married after a fine is exacted from the girl's father by the tribal council. A man may take a second wife in the lifetime of the first, with her consent, which is generally given, as it relieves her of household work. [3] In Azamgarh the tendency seems to be towards monogamy, and a second marriage is allowed only when the first wife is barren, insane, or hopelessly diseased. When a second wife is taken she is usually a younger sister or close relation of the first. Concubinage is not permitted. They have a strong representative council (panchâyat), which is presided over by a chairman (chaudhari),, whose office is hereditary. The council deals with offences in connection with marriage and caste usages. Illegitimate children by women of other castes follow the caste of the father, but are not are not allowed to eat, smoke, or intermarry with legitimate Bhars. Widow marriage is permitted. Widows generally marry widowers. The levirate is permitted but not enforced.

Rules Of Marriage.

In the marriage of a widow by sagâi the bridegroom, accompanied by his friends, goes to the house of the widow, where he pays a nominal sum as the bride-price. They are all entertained on pork, boiled rice, and pulse. The bride is dressed in ornaments and clothes

[1] Journal Asiatic Society of Benga, 1877.

[2] Settlement Reoirt, 33.

[3] See instances of this in Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, 496.

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provided by her suitor. Next morning he brings her home and announces the union by feeding his clansmen. If he be not a widower he has to perform a special ceremony. The bride and bridegroom sit opposite each other, and a silver ring is placed between them. The Pandit repeats some verses, during the recital of which the bridegroom marks the ring five times with red lead. He then puts on the ring, and never takes it off during his life. Girls are usually married at the age of five of seven. In Azamgarh marriages are reported to take place usually when the girl is nine years of age. A girl above ten is known as rajaswâli , and it is a disgrace not to have married. The bride-price payable by the friends of the bridegroom is two-and-a-half rupees and a sheet for the bride. In Azamgarh no bride-price is paid, and if the bridegroom's family is poor his friends contribute something to the marriage expenses, which is known as tilak. Any serious physical defect appearing in either party after marriage is recognised as a valid ground for divorce. A wife cannot be divorced excerpt for adultery with a stranger to the caste. The divorce must be with the leave of the tribal council, who will accept no evidence short of that of actual eye-witnesses. Marriage negotiations are carried on by the maternal uncle of the boy. When the match is settled the bride's father goes to the boy's house and gives him a rupee. Then on a fixed day he returns with some of his clansmen "to drink water" (pâni píni kâ din). A square (Chauk) is formed in the court-yard, in which the boy and his future father-in-law sit opposite each other. The bride's father marks the boy's forehead with rice and curds, and he and his party are entertained on rice, pork, goat's flesh, and wine. On this day, with the approval of the Pandit, the wedding day is fixed. The ritual is of the usual type. It begins with the matmangar, or collection of earth, as practised by allied castes. then the pavilion (mânro) is set up at both houses, in which a plough-share and plantain stems are fixed, near which the family rice-pounder and corn-mill are placed. That day the Pandit makes the boy wear an amulet to keep off evil spirits. This contains some mango leaves, an iron ring, and some mustard seed. Next follows the anointing (ubtnni), and the sacrifice of a young pig to Agwân Deva, the Pânchonpír, and Phílimati Devi. At the last Census 25,069 people recorded themselves as worshippers of Agwân Deva. According to Mr. Baillie the word means "a leader and may be the priest (Pujâri) in any temple. One District note states that Agwân is a disease godling, the son of Râja Ben, and, therefore, brother to the seven small-pox sisters." With many of the lower castes to the east of the province he seems to be connected with the worship of fire (agni) in the form of the homa. The higher class Bhars sacrifice a goat instead of a pig to the Pânchonpír. As the procession starts the usual incantation ceremony (parachhan) is done by the boy's mother. The rest of the ritual is of the usual type. At the bride's door the Pandit worships Gauri and Ganesa, and the pair, with their clothes knotted together, moves five times round the centre pole of the shed. Next follows the ceremony in the retiring room (kohabar), where jokes are played on the boy by the bride's father's sister who will not desist until she gets a present. The rest of the ceremonial is of the customary type.

Birth Ceremony.

During pregnancy the oldest woman in the family waves a pice or a handful of grain over the woman's head, and vows to offer a pig to Birtiha (who is regarded as a village deity, dih), and to Phílmati Devi, if the confinement is easy. The Chamâin midwife cuts the cord with a sickle and buries it in the delivery room: a fire is lighted over it, and kept burning the period of pollution. After the sixth day ceremony (chhathi) the barber's wife takes the place of the midwife. The birth pollution ceases on the twelfth day (barahi) when the father offers a pig and some wine to Birtiha Deva. On her first visit to the well the mother worships it and lays little washed rice (achhat) on the platform. The husband does not cohabit with his wife for six months after her confinement. [1] The only initiation ceremony is the usual ear-boring (kanchhedan, kanbedha), which is done at the age of five or six. After this the child must observe the caste rules of food.

[1] On this see Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, 483, sq.

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Death Ceremonies.

The dead, except those who are unmarried or those who died of cholera or small-pox, are cremated. The others are buried or their corpses thrown into running water. Within six months they are cremated in effigy with the usual ritual. The death pollution lasts ten days, during which, daily, the chief mourner pours water on a bunch of kusa grass fixed in the ground on the edge of a tank as a dwelling place for the disembodied spirit. He also daily lays out a little food for the ghost. They shave on the tenth day and offer sacred balls (pinda) in the usual way. On that day uncooked grain (sídha) is given to Brâhmans, and the clansmen are fed on pork, boiled rice and wine.

Religion.

Bhars are hardly ever initiated into any one of the regular Hindu sects. Their tribal deities are Agwân Deva, Phílmati Bhawâni, the Pânchonpír, generally represented by Parihâr, and a deitied ghost Know as Bânru Bír. The Pânchonpír are worshipped in the months if Jeth or Kuâr with fowls and cakes (malída). The other deities require the sacrifice of a pig or goat and an oblation of wine. In Gorakhpur the tribal godlings are Kâlika and Kâshi Dâs Bâba, a deified Bhít. His platform is in a jungle in the Deoriya Tahsíl. There they go once a year to worship him with an offering of cakes, rice, milk, and curds. Kâlika is worshipped in the house or in the field when it is ready for the sowing of the sowing of the spring crop. Her favourite offering is a young, fat pig. According to Mr. Baillie, Kâshi Dâs is particularly worshipped by Ahírs in the Eastern Districts. It is uncertain whetain whether in life he was a 1 Brâhman or an Ahír. His votaries number, according to the last Census returns, 172,599. [1] They have the usual feast to the dead in Kuâr. Their religious duties are done by Brâhmans of the low village class. They observe the festivals of the Phagua, Dasami, Diwâli, Kajari, Khichari, and Tíj. A special sacrifice of a pig is made to the evil spirits who reside in the old fig trees of the village. This is done in Aghan. Some go to Gaya to Perform the srâddha ceremony. The pípal tree is regarded as the abode of Vasudeva, and women bow and cover their faces as they pass it.

Social Customs.

Women are tattooed on the arms. A pig or an ass is regarded as a lucky meeting omen. Women wear glass bangles(chíri) on the bead necklaces, nose rings, (nathiya), ear ornaments (Karanphíl), and anklets (pairs). Men wear a gold coin (mohar) round the neck. Children have two names, one given by the Pandit, which is kept secret, and other, for ordinary use, selected by the parents. They swear on Ganges water, on the head of a son, and standing in water, and in the phrases Râma kriya, Râma duhâi, Ganga mâi kriya, Bhawâni kriya. They believe in magic and witchcraft, but do not practice these arts themselves. They believe in demoniacal possession and the Evil-eye, and in such cases call in an Ojha to treat the patient. They will not kill the cow. They will not touch a Dhobi, Hela, Dom, or Dharkâr, nor the younger brother's wife, nor the wife of the senior brother-in-law. they will not call their wives by their name. They drink liquor freely and eat the flesh of goats, sheep, deer, etc, but they will not eat the meat of the cow, crocodile, monkey, horse, jackal, or fowls. During the fortnight in Kuâr sacred to the worship of the sainted dead (pitra pakiha), they abstain from meat. Among themselves they use the salutation salâm, and address other low castes in the form Râm! Râm! which is also used to the father-in-law if their daughters. Women who assist the men in work are treated fairly well. They eat Kachchi and pakki cooked by Halwâis or Chhatris, and, in fact, all Vaisyas, except, Kalwârs Doms, Dharkârs, and similar menials, etc kachchi cooked by them.

Occupation.

They are usually employed as day labourers and ploughmen. A few are tenants without occupancy rights. Some of them have rather an equivocal reputation. They are occasionally burglars and field thieves, and they have been known to combine for road robbery and dacoity. The Bhars of Bhadohi, in the Mirzapur District, are nothing short of a pest to their

[1] A further sccount of him is given under Bind, 9.

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respectable neighbours at harvest time, and much of the labour spent on field watching is due to their depredations. Of the Oudh Bhars [1] it is said --"In appearance they resemble low caste Hindus, Koris, and Chamârs, and I have not noticed any Mongolian traits in their physionomy. they have, however, one striking peculiarity in common with the Thârus-- their hatred of the cultivated plain. When land has attained a certain pitch of cultivation they always leave it for some less hospitable spot, and their lives are spent in wandering from jungle to jungle . They commence the struggle with nature, and after the first and most difficult victory over disease and wild beasts, leave it to the Kurmis and Ahírs to gather the fruits of their desultory energy. They are very timid, very honest and keen sportsmen, untiring in pursuit, and excellent shots with their long guns. They show the influence of orthodox Hinduism in sparing the nilgâi, but are fond of the flesh of pigs, washing down their feasts with copious draughts of spirits of rice or mahua." They offer goats to Samai, and decapitate chickens before the snake god Kâré Deo. Their worship of Banspati Mâi is more Hindu in its character, and their pure offering of grain and clarified butter are handed over to be eaten by a Brâhman. The worshippers of Banspati Mâi according to the last Census returns amounted to 16,489 persons. Marriages are contracted without the intervention of a Pandit, and with the rites in use among other low castes, such as Koris and Chamârs. With a magnificent assumption of rights not recognised by our law, a bride's father makes over in 2 gift (sankalap) to the bridegroom a small patch of forest to clear and cultivate. [2]

Bharatri: -They are wandering bards, actors, singers and dancers.

Bharbhunjas: -They sell and transport grains but also tobacco and fireworks. In Chhattisgarh they are called Dhuri. See Bhunjas.