List Group 9

Kanjari - Kanphatta - Karohlas - Kathak (Kathik) - Kaththiravândlu - Kattu Marathi - Kaur - Kavarai - Kawar (Kanwar, Kaur) - Kéla - Képumâri - Khairwâr (Kharwâr, Khaira, Khairwa) - Khambas - Khangâr (Khagâr) - Kharia - Kha¡riâ - Kharwis - Khója - Khond (Kandh) - Khumras - Killékyâtâ - Killekyatas - Kopâ (Korâ) - Kol (Munda, Ho) - Kol (Kâmâli or Kâlahâ) - Kolâm - Kolhati (Dandewala, Bansberia, Kabutari) - Kólhâtí

Kanjari.: -The name Kanjar is used to denote an aggregate of vagrant tribes[1]. Mr W. Crooke, in his Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, states that they are probably of Dravidian origin. He further remarks that "there can be little doubt that the Kanjars are a branch of the great nomadic race which includes the Sânsiya, Hâbîra, Beriya Bhâtu, and more distant kindred, such as the Nat, Banjâra, Baheliya."

Many of them live in the forests, "where they subsist by hunting wolves, hares, and any kind of animal they can kill or catch, by gathering such roots and vegetable products as require no cultivation, and by extracting juice from the palm tree, which, after it has been fermented, is the favourite beverage of almost all the wandering and low-caste tribes of India They are clever at trapping birds and squirrels, and any other kind of vermin which chance may throw in the way, all of which they eat indiscriminately. The arts of the Kanjars are making mats of the sirkí reed, baskets of wattled cane, fans of palm leaves, and rattles of plaited straw. From the stalks of the mînj grass and from the roots of the palâs``a tree they make ropes, which are sold or bartered to villagers in exchange for grain, milk, pigs, etc. They prepare the skins out of which drums are made, and sell them to Hindu musicians. They make plates of broad leaves which are ingeniously stitched together by the stalks; and plates of this kind are very widely used by the inferior Indian castes and by confectioners and sellers of sweetmeats. They are among the chief stone-cutters of Upper India, especially in the manufacture of the grinding-stone, which is largely used. They gather the white wool-like fibre which grows in the pods of the s`almali or Indian cotton tree, and twist it into thread for the use of weavers. In the manufacture of brushes for the cleaning of cotton yarn, they enjoy an almost entire monopoly, and another complete or almost complete monopoly enjoyed by Kanjars is the collection and sale of the roots or khaskhas grass, which are afterwards made up by others into door screens and used as refrigerators during the hottest months of the year. At the same time many Kanjars are now taking to a more settled life: some are cultivators and field labourers; others live in towns and make door screens, baskets, sieves, and the like, and some of them in this way have considerably raised their social status."

Name of the tribe

No satisfactory explanation of the word Kanjar has as yet been given. It has been derived from Sanskrit kânanachara, "wanderer in the jungle," but this etymology is hardly possible from a philological point of view. It is more likely that kanjar is a shorter form of the word kâjaró, man, which is used by many Kanjars, and which is related to Sêsí kajjâ, Natí kâjâ and ¸óm kâjwâ . We do not know whether this word is Aryan or not. It is probably identical with Romani gâjó .

Number.

The Kanjars are most numerous in the United Provinces in which, according to the Census of 1911, they numbered 18,345. Elsewhere there were 5,638, giving a total of 23,983.

Language.

We are very insufficiently informed about the language of the Kanjars, and it is possible that in most districts they use the dialect of their surroundings. During the preliminary operations of this Survey a dialect Kanjarí was returned from the following districts.:

United Provinces 6,735

Aligarh 800

Farrukhabad 435

Sitapur 3,000

Kheri 2,500

Central India 350

Gwalior 350

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TOTAL 7,085

These figures are only loose estimates. Thus the number of Kanjars in Sitapur, where the estimated number of speakers was 3,000, was only 814 at the Census of 1901. On the other hand, specimens of Kanjar¡i have been forwarded form Etawah and Belgaum, where no such dialect was reported to exist.

[1] See the Linguistic Survey of India.

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The state of affairs is similar to that which we find in the case of other vagrant tribes. The Kanjars largely adopt the dialect of their neighbours. If they want to avoid being understood, however, they, or at least some of them, avail themselves of an artificial argot, in which there is a certain number of peculiar words and where, in addition to these, ordinary words are used, but often in an altered shape, so as to become unintelligible to outsiders. So far as we can judge from the specimens, however, Kanjarí differs from other Gypsy argots such as Natí in having a more uniform base. The prevailing language in Aligarh, Farrukhabad, and Etawah is Western Hindí and in Sitapur is Kheri Eastern Hindí, while Kanarese and Marâthí predominate in Belgaum. The specimens received from all these districts, however, agree in so many particulars that we are almost justified in talking of a separate dialect. This dialect is, however, not a clearly defined form of speech, but a mixture of various languages, just as we should expect in the case of a vagrant tribe. But the mixture seems to be old and to have acquired a certain degree of constancy. The specimen received from Kheri, it is true, is written in Western Hindí, and only forms such as dilâme§§, in the heart; basindâ, an inhabitant, show that the Kanjars from whose lips the specimen was taken down were not quite versed in the grammar of that language. It seems likely that the Kheri specimen represents an attempt at talking Hindóstâni and not Kanjarí, and we can safely leave it out of consideration when trying to define the position of the latter. Also the Farrukhabad specimen is strongly influenced by Hindóstâní.

Grammar

The inflexion of nouns in many respects differs from Hindóstâni. The oblique base of weak nouns sometimes ends in â; thus, garâ-sé, to the neck (Aligarh); garâ-mâ, on the neck (Etawah). Similarly the oblique plural ends in â or ê; thus, naukar-chakrê-sé, to the servants (Aligarh); rarsê-sé, years from (Sitapur); naukrê-ku, to the servants (Belgaum). Such forms agree with Marâthí, the singular ones also with Bihârí and the plural ones with Râjasthâní. An ó often added to weak bases and kept in the oblique form; thus, ribó-ké, of the house (Aligarh, Sitapur); bihârô-mé, in the property (Etawah); dâmo-dé, of value (Farrukhabad); bâpó-né, by the father (Belgaum). This ó is different from the final ó of strong masculine bases, which becomes â in the oblique form and in the plural; thus, chîbkó, son; chîbkâ, sons; baphélâ-sé, to the father, in the Sitapur specimens and similar forms in the materials forwarded from the other districts. Ordinary Hindóstâní forms are used as well. The Râjasthâní affinities acquire some significance if we remember that we find a similar state of affairs in other argots such as ¸óm, Natí and Sêsí. The case suffixes are mainly Hindóstâní. The dative suffix ku, kî, kó also reminds us of Dravidian. The ablative suffix is commonly sé, in Farrukhabad, however, also sû as in Mârwârí, Jaipurí and Mâlví. In Belgaum we find dé, from, which perhaps has something to do with the genitive suffix dâ,dí, which is used in addition to kâ, kí, in Farrukhabad. It will be seen that this latter suffix is identical with the Punjabi one. It is, however, possible that it 1 has something to do with Tamil udeiya, Kanarese da . [1]

In many of the specimens we will find that the final ó of adjectives is often kept before an inflected noun; thus, khachchhó najaî-kû, to a good man (Sitapur); óchhó batrâ-né, by the younger son (Etawah); apnó kaurí paisâ, his money (Farrukhabad); téro naukrí, they service (Belgaum). Such instances point to the conclusion that the sense of gender is weak and that adjectives are not inflected, a state of affairs which would be natural if the Kanjars were not originally Aryans. With regard to pronouns we may note the use of the base jó, ji, as a demonstrative pronoun, just as is the case in Râjasthâní, and further, the curious forms uró-né, by him (Aligarh); uró-kâ, his (Etawah); ígal, this matter; kégal, what matter (Farrukhabad); îr, biró, he; uró-kó his (Sitapur); yó thou; yuró-ku,uró-ku, to the; uró-ku, to him. These and similar forms remind us of Dravidian; compare Tuu ír, Kui and Old Telugu íru, you; Tamil Kanarese avar Góndí ór, he, etc. The conjugation of verbs presents some peculiar features. There are several additions to the base which do not appear to modify the meaning.

[1] Compare, however, the Western Pahârí ablative postposition dó , which is certainly Indo-Aryan

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Thus an r is frequently suffixed; compare hubbâr rai-r-í, is going on (Aligarh); lugai-r-ó, he beats (Sitapur); rah-r-ó, he remained (Aligarh); â-r-ó, he came; sun-r-ó, he heard (Etawah); â-r-ó, he came; lugai-r-ô, I had beaten (Sitapur); kut-r-ó, I struck; gaug-r-ó, I went; dusâ-r-ó, I said; hu-r-ó, I became (Belgaum). this r is sometimes followed by the termination s of the past; thus, kai-r-s, did; said; khâ-r-s, ate; pí-r-s, drank; karí-gu-r-sé, having done gone, hast done, etc. (Aligarh).[1] Often the syllable wâr or bâr is added; compare Myânwâlé wâd, ¸óm uar. Thus, bht-wâr, dividing; jabbâr-ó, come to life (Sitapur); sun-wâr-ko, having heard; kar-wâr-ó, hast made (Belgaum); bat-bâr, having divided; li-bbâr-ké, having taken; ra-bbâr-ó, wast (Aligarh), and so forth. in the Belgaum specimens we sometimes find wâd instead of wâr; thus, mil-wâd-ó hé, mil-wâd-dó, and mil-wâr-ó, he is found; tud-wâd-ó, broke; pad-wâd-kó, having fallen, and so forth. It seems probable that we should compare the Mârwârí termination ró, which is so frequently added pleonastically. We may also compare the causal terminations Mâewârí wâw, Jaipurí âd, Gujarâtí âw, âd . Forms such as khanétó karwâró hai, thou hast made a feast; charwârdó, grazing; bandwâr línó, I have taken, having caused it to be attached to me, I have committed, in the Belgaum specimen, are perhaps actually causals. In most cases, however, the addition of wâr does not seem to affect the meaning. Thus use of added r,wâr, bâr is accordingly perhaps another point in which Kanjari agrees with Râjasthâní. Broadly speaking, the conjugation of verbs is the same as in that form of speech. In the past tense, however, the termination is ó and not yó; compare karó, did; lagó, began (Etawah). Forms such as dínó, gave; línó, took, are well known from Mârwârí and Jaipurí. The l in manâló, entreated (Aligarh); pîchhló, asked (Etawah), may be comparable, or else it may be another form of the r mentioned above. The s which occurs in several forms such as dís, gave; lís, took; sunígulís ' heard; lakhârs, said (Aligarh); línhis, took; dínis, gave (Etawah); lakhâis, said riîchhis, asked; kaughis, said (Sitapur), on the other hand, belongs to Eastern Hindí. Such forms are especially common in the Sitapur specimen, and the prevailing language in Sitapur is Awadhí. They are not met with in the Belgaum texts. In the future tense we find s forms in Aligarh and Sitapur and g forms in Farrukhabad and Belgaum. Compare kahsû, I will say; karugasê, we will do (Aligarh); lakhâwsû, I will say; lugaoghasí, thou wilt beat, he will beat (Sitapur ); huggâ, it will be; jâwêgâ, I shall go (Farrukhabad); hówungâ, I shall be; kutungó, I shall beat (Belgaum). Similar forms are found in Mârwârí, but more properly belong to Eastern Râjasthâní. In Etawah we find forms such as jânô, I shall go; kahnô, I shall say. They may be compared with the Jaipurí forms ending in ló . Compare also Naipâlí. So far as we have seen hitherto Kanjarí conjugation broadly agrees with Râjasthâní, especially Eastern Râjasthâní. Another feature seems to point in a different direction. Kanjarí seems to possess a participle the characteristic element of which is d . Compare tíldó, giving; augadó,coming; jaugadó, jêdó, gone (Aligarh); maddó, dying; kaddó, doing; rahandô-m§§e, among the inhabitants (Etawah); lugaôdó,beating; jaughadó, going (Sitapur); hóndó, being; nikhardó, going; awardó, coming; margódó, dead (Belgaum). It will be seen that such forms are used as present and also as past participles. They are also contained in verbal forms. Some of these belong to present time; thus, chalgudau, I go; dîtda§e, they eat (Aligarh); lugdaû, I die; aughadó, he is coming (Sitapur); maradî, I die; déndî, I give; ândî, I come; nikhardai, we, you they go (Belgaum). Others have the meaning of past tenses. Compare handó, was(Aligarh); jêdó, was sent (Etawah); ândâ, came; kaindâ, said (Farrukhabad); hûdó, was lugaôdó, struck (Sitapur); handó, was; bharwâr-léndó, would have filled; gawândé-gaudó,was lost (Belgaum). It would be possible to compare the suffix ndó of the present participle of Sindhí and Naipâli. The fact, however, that these forms are also used in the past perhaps points in a different direction.

[1] The termination ró may also be a contraction of rahó and rs of rahe¢s, both meaning 'was,' and the latter being the Awadhí form. in many dialects, especially in Western Pahârí, this is added t the conjunctive participle to form a past tense. thus âró may be for â-rahó , and so for the others. According to native grammarians, rahnâ is the 'sister' of honó .-G. A. G.

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It will be seen from my remarks on page 296 of Volume IV of this Survey that there is a d-suffix which forms the indefinite present participle in Dravidian languages, and that one of the forms of the corresponding suffix of the past participle in Tamil is ndu . We have already found other possible traces of a Dravidian substratum in Kanjarí, and the d -suffix may be of the same kind. In this connexion I may also mention the verbal suffixes ir and gir in forms such as lagiró, began (Aligarh, Etawah, Sitapur); âgógiró, came; augiró, came; gaigaró, went; lugaighiró, I have beaten; jaoghiró, went (Belgaum), and so on, which look like compounds with the Dravidian iru, is; kiri, am. The r -suffix mentioned above may have a similar origin. The extensive use of relative participles and the apparent tendency to form a negative verb in Belgaum is of less significance, because the predominant language of the district is Kanarese. The facts drawn attention to above show that the dialect of the Kanjars is a mixed form of speech, and that the most important ingredient is Eastern Râjasthâní. Some characteristics point to the conclusion that there is, in addition, a certain Dravidian element. In anything can be inferred from this state of affairs about the original home of the Kanjars, it would be that they lived somewhere in Eastern Rajasthan or Central India. At the present day we find Gónd dialects spoken in Bhopal, and there can be no doubt that Dravidian forms of speech once extended farther to the west. It must, however, be remembered that the speech of a vagrant tribe like the Kanjars at the present day can hardly show where their original home is, but only, at the utmost, that they have come into contact with those languages which can be traced in their own speech. Kanjarí contains some peculiar words of the same kind as similar forms of speech. Such are lug, die; lugai, beat (Sitapur); chîbkó, son (Aligarh and Sitapur); tipuí, bread (Aligarh and Sitapur); jhûkil, dog (Sitapur); dît, eat (Aligarh and Sitapur); thîr, eat (Belgaum); jhuraí, fire (Sitapur); gundâlé, foot (Belgaum); gurâró, foot (Aligarh and Sitapur); tiîr, give (Sitapur); kídó, give (Belgaum); rib, house (Aligarh and Sitapur); nandó, house (Belgaum); kêjaró, man (Ftawah); kâjaró, man(Belgaum); najaî, man (Sitapur); tig, see (Aligarh and Sitapur); nímâní, water (Sitapur); niwâni, water (Belgaum), and so forth. Some of the words in use among Kanjars have a Dravidian look. Compare pâdó, bull; awaró, comes; kídó, give, in the Belgaum specimens, with Tamil Mâdu, bull; vara, come; kodu, give, respectively, and tiîr, give (Sitapur), with Tamil tara, give. Mr. Kirkpatrick mentions several more such words, such as dhímrí, bread; ghamélâ, sun; khainch, thief; khuth, night; kîrch, drink; míkatch, death; nighâr, ghee; rikâ, rupee; tigro, see; tîbargo, swim; tîrrak, sleeping, and so forth. Of these ghamélâ, sun, is of some interest, as being evidently connected with Romani kham, sun, lit . heat. With regard to the word jhûkil, dog, in the Sitapur texts, and jhîkal in Mr. Kirkpatrick's list, it should be noted that this word likewise presents a marked similarity with the European Gypsy word jukel, dog. Such words appear to belong to the original vocabulary of the Kanjars, and many of them are no doubt unintelligible to outsiders. The case is a little different with the Arabic numerals which are used by the Kanjars of Belgaum, just as is the case with the Qa∆âís of the Panjab. The numerals in question will be found in the Standard List of Words and Sentences on pp. 180ff, and their Arabic origin is self-evident. Like other tribes of the same kind the Kanjars use certain devices for disguising their words and making them unintelligible. the beginning of a word is often changed. Thus kó is prefixed in kóhath, hand (Sitapur); kh is prefixed or substituted for another initial in many cases. Compare khachchâ, good; khakâl, famine; khyârô-ké, of the friends (Aligarh); khamâl, property (Kheri); khãgélé, before; khâdmí, man; khawâj, sound; khakkâl, famine (Sitapur); khandar, inside; khîpar, above (Belgaum). Ch, chh are apparently only prefixed to or substituted for labials; compare chibarwâ-kî, to fill (Aligarh); chibró,bit; chibhâí, brother; chhîkâ-sé, from hunger; chhitar, inside (Sitapur); chait, sit; chibadªdó, bit; chaulâ-ké, having called (Belgaum). Cerebrals are use as disguising letters in words such as takhnâ, eye; dharíb, poor; dhilâp, against (Urdî khilâf); dhusí, merry (Sitapur); dharró, big (Aligarh). N only occurs as a substitute for k or kh in the texts. Compare nét, field (Aligarh and Sitapur); najaî, man; compare kêjaró (Sitapur).

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Labials do not appear to be much used in this way. Compare pâdó, bull (Belgaum), which may be Tamil Mâdu ir Hindóstâní sêd; bék, one; baur, and; biró, that(Sitapur). R is of more common occurrence. Compare rakriâ-kó rachchâ, a goat's young(Aligarh); rahnâó, put on; rarmésur, God; rusâk, cloth; riîchhis, asked; ranâi, make; rahut, much; rîlak, country; runjârê-kî, to the servants (Sitapur). In all these instances r has replaced an old labial. It is, however, occasionally also used instead of other sounds; compare ruâb, answer; ramâ, together; rarsâ-sé, from years, all in the Sitapur texts. An l is prefixed in lakhâwsû, I will say (Sitapur); lakhârs, said (Aligarh), and it has been substituted for an n in likâró, bring out. Words are also disguised by means of additions at the end, and such additions are very common in Kanjarí, just as is the case in ¸óm. Some of them such as ó and r have already been mentioned above. With regard to r I may add that it is also added after nouns and adjectives. Compare gurâró, foot; bhaiyârâ, brother (Aligarh); chhutâró, small. thurârâ, few (Sitapur); phalâri, fruit (Belgaum). Several other additions are used, and most of them are well-known from similar argots. The principal ones are, so far as we can judge from the materials available: g or gh is used in words such as aogh, come; liîghis, took; haughé, is (Sitapur); gaugró, went (Belgaum). The initial consonant of the suffix gir (ghir) mentioned above is perhaps of the same kind. An element etó or éthó is comparatively often added. Thus, papétó, sin; maléthó, property (Aligarh); hattétó, hand; khanétó, food (Belgaum). A dental has been added in words such as ramtâ, pity (Sitapur); chamakdé, lustre; bahutdé, many (Belgaum). A common suffix is éló; thus, khatélâ-me§§, on the hand; batélí, words (Aligarh); hisélî, share; papéló, sin (Sitapur); khakélé, eye; jibélí, tongue (Belgaum). Instead of éló we also find béló and héló; thus, dubélî, two; tibélî, three; bap-héló, father; bhus-hélí, chaff; chum-héló, kissed, all in the Sitapur specimens. The preceding remarks will be sufficient for removing the difficulties in the way of understanding the specimens of Kanjarí which follow. The first is a version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son received from the Sitapur district. It will be seen from the Parable and from the Standard List of Words and Sentences printed below on pp. 180ff. that there are comparatively few traces of the influence of Awadhí, the chief language of the district.

Kanphatta.: -They live in Rajasthan. They are snake-charmers.

Karohlas.: -See Jashodhis.

Kathak.: -Kathik. (Sanskrit kathika, "a professional story-teller.") [1] -A caste of storytellers, singers, and musicians.

Traditions Of Origin.

According to one story they are really Gaur Brâhmans, who used originally to sing dance in the temples of the gods, and a certain Muhammadan Emperor of Delhi once heard them and was so pleased with their skill that he ordered them in future to perform in public. Another story connects them with king Prithu, "who was son of Vena, son of Anga. He was the first king, and from him the earth received her name Prithivi.

[1] See Crooke. Based on enquiries at Mirzapur, and a note by Munshi Bhagwân Dâs, Tahsíldâr , Allahâbâd.

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The Vishnu Purâna says that the Rishis 'inaugurated Vena monarch of the earth,' but he was wicked by nature and prohibited worship and sacrifices. Incensed at the decay of religion, pious sages beat Vena to death with blades of holy grass. In the absence of a king, robbery and anarchy arose, and the Munis, after consultation, proceeded to rub the thigh of the dead king in order to produce a son. There came forth a man like a charred log with flat face and extremely short. This man became a Nishâda, and with him came out the sins of he departed king. The Brâhmans then rubbed the right arm of the corpse and from it sprang the majestic Prithu, Vena's son, resplendent in body, glowing like the manifested Agni. At his birth all creatures rejoiced; and through the birth of this virtuous son, Vena, delivered from the hell called Put, ascended to heaven." [1]This monarch found that the art of the Udgatri, or chanter of the Vedic hymns, had fallen into disuse, so he performed a rite (yaksha) and out of the sacred fire-pits (agni-kunda) came out three men, Mâgadha, Sîta, and Bandijad, from the first of whom are descended the Kathaks, from the second the Bhâts, and from the third the Maithila Brâhmans.

Tribal Organisation.

The Kathaks themselves profess to be divided into sixteen sections, which all seem to be of local origin and derived from the places which they used to occupy in former times. Of these the names of fifteen have been ascertained at Mirzapur: Bhadohiya, from Pargana Bhadohi in the Mirzapur District; Mathapati, whose ancestors are said to have been heads of a monastery (matha); Mahuâri; Bhunsaiha; Gonraha, from Gonds; Usari; Mandik; Rajaipur; Matepur; Naikan; Jangali and Mangali, who are chiefly found in the direction of Azamgarh and Gorakhpur, Mohânw; Thakurahân; and Mâlik. Each of these again is divided into gotras, but of these it has been, in consequence of the general ignorance prevailing among the caste, impossible to procure a list. All they can say is that their gotras correspond with those of the Kanaujiya and Sarwariya Brâhmans. Their law of exogamy is the same as that of the Brâhmans, and a man cannot marry in his section or in his own gotra until at least seven generations have passed. In their marriage, birth and death ceremonies they follow the usages of Brâhmans. The complete Census returns give 378 sections names of the usual type. Side by side with Brâhmanical terms such as Misr, Dikshit, or Bhâradwâja, we find numerous others derived from those of well-known tribes, such as, Bâchal, Bagheli, Bais, Bargîjar, Bundel, Chauhân, Chhatri, Dhârhi, Dhobi, Gadariya, Gaharwâr, Gaur, Hurakiya, Jâdon, Kâyasth, Khatri, Koliya, Lodh, Mehtariya, Niyâriya, Panwâr, Paturiya, Raghubansi, Raikwâr, Râthaur, Râwat, Sengar, Sîrajbansi, and Tomra. Besides these are numerous purely local terms, such as Ajudhyabâsi, Bahâdurpuriya, Baksariya, Bishnpuriya, Dakkhinâha, Hasanapuri, Kanaujiya, Madhupuriya Mathurabâsi, Pachhwâhân, Purabiya, Sâranpuriya, Sarwariya.

Religion And Social Status.

Kathaks are popularly regarded by low caste Hindus as equal to Brâhmans, and all castes, including Râjputs, salute them and beg a blessing. The only practical difference between them is that they cannot receive the gifts of piety (dâna) which are taken by Brâhmans. Widow marriage is prohibited. In addition to all the ordinary Hindu gods the Kathaks worship Ghâzi Miyân and offer to him sweet cakes (pakwân) in the months of Kuâr and Chait. They employ Brâhmans for ceremonial purposes, and such Brâhmans are received on terms of equality with other Brâhmans. They eat fish, goats, sheep, but, of course, not beef, and they do not drink. But while they hold a fairly respectable position, their business degrades them to some extent. Their women are secluded; but the men are known as Bharuas or the attendants of the ordinary dancing girls, who are often prostitutes, and from this occupation many of them are believed to be negligent as regards the strict caste rules of eating, drinking, etc. They play on the small drum (dhol) and the cymbals (majíra), and they also act at the respectable houses at marriages and similar occasions and receive half their earnings. Their clan deity is the goddess Saraswati, whom they worship at the Basant Panchami festival on the fifth day of Phâlgun with offerings of sweetmeats, flowers, burnt offerings (homa), and incense (dhîpa). On this occasion an image of Saraswati or Gauri is made of cowdung and worshipped. The Census returns show 5,311 worshippers of Saraswati.

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

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Mr. Baillie writes: "It is probable that these are due less to her position as a river goddess than to those attributes which she acquired as the patroness of the ceremonies performed on the margin of her holy waters, and subsequently as the inspírer of the hymns recited at these ceremonies. She is now known as the goddess of speech and learning, the inventer of the Sanskrit language and patroness of arts and sciences." [1] Those who are less particular worship Mahâbir and the Panchonpir.

Kaththiravândlu.: -(scissors) Concerning this section of the criminal classes,[2] Mr. F.S. Mullaly writes to me as follows. "This is purely a Nellore name for this class of professional pick-pockets. The appellation seems to have been given to them from the fact that they frequent fairs and festivals, and busy railway platforms, offering knives and scissors for sale. And, when an opportunity presents itself, they are used for cutting strings of beads and ripping open bags, etc. Several of these light-fingered theives have been found with small scissors in their mouths. Most of them wear shoes of a peculiar shape, and these form a convenient receptacle for the scissors. Bits of broken glass (to act as knives) are frequently found in their mouths. In different districts they are known by different appellations. such as Donga Dâsaris in North Arcot and parts of Cuddapah; Golla Woddars, Donga Woddars, and Muheri Kalas in Cuddapah, Bellary, and Kurnool; Pachupus in Kistna and Godâvari; Alagiris, Ena or Thogamalai Koravas in the southern districts. Individuals belonging to this class of thieves have been traced, since the opening of the East Coast Railway, as far as Midnapore. An important way of identifying them is the fact that everyone of them, male and female, is branded at the corners of the eyebrows and between the eyes in childhood, as a safeguard against convulsions."

For the following additional information I am indebted to an official of the Police department, "I am not aware of these people using any particular shoes. They use sandals such as are generally worn by ryots and the lower classes. These they get by stealing. They pick them up from houses during the daytime, when they go from house to house on the pretence of begging, or they steal them at nights along with other property. These sandals are made in different by Kathiras are generally of different kinds, being stolen from various parts of the country. They have no shoes of any peculiar make, nor do they get any made at all. Kathiras do not generally wear any shoes. They walk and run faster with bare feet. They wear shoes when walking through the jungle, and entrust them to one of their comrades when walking through the open country. They sometimes throw them off when closely pursued, and run away. In 1899, when we arrested one on the highway, he had with him five or six pairs of shoes of different kinds and sizes, and he did not account satisfactorily for being in possession of so many. I subsequently learnt that some supernumeraries were hiding in the jungle close to the place where he was arrested. "About marks of branding on the face, it is not only Kathiras, but almost all nomadic tribes who have these marks. As the gangs move on, exposed to changes of weather, the children sometimes get a disease called sandukatlu or palakurkura. They generally get this disease from the latter part of the first year up to the fifth year. The symptoms are similar to those which children sometimes have at the time of teething. It is when children get this disease that they are branded on the face between the eyebrows, on the outer corners of the eyes, and sometimes on the belly. The brand-marks on the face and corners of the eyes are circular, and those on the belly generally horizontal. The circular brand-marks are made with a long piece of turmeric, one end of which is burnt for the purpose, or with an indigocoloured cloth rolled like a pencil and burnt at one end. The horizontal marks are made with a hot needle. Similar brand-marks are made by some caste Hindus on their children."

[1] Census report, North-West Provinces and Oudh, 234; Panjab Census Report 105; Monier Williams, Hinduism and Brâhmanism, 429.

[2] See Thurston

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To Mr. P.B. Thomas I am indebted for specimens of the chaplet, made of strips of rolled pith, worn by Kaththira women when begging, and of the cotton bags, full of false pockets, regularly carried by both men and women, in which they secret the little sharp knife and other articles constituting their usual equipment. In this "History of Railway Thieves," Mr. M. Paupa Rao Naidu, writing about the pick-pockets or Thetakars, says that "most of them wear shoes called chadâvs, and, if the articles stolen are very small, they put them at once into their shoes, which form very convenient receptacles from their peculiar shape; and, therefore, when a pick-pocket with such a shoe on is suspected of having stolen a jewel, the shoes must be searched first, then the mouth and the other parts of the body."

Kattu Marathi.: -The Vagiri are also called Kattu Marathi by the Marathas. See Vagiri.

Kaur.: -See Kawar.

Kaura: -Sub-Caste of Doms in Bengal who breed pigs and act as Scavengers (see Risley)

Kavarai.: -Kavarai is the name for Balijas (Telugu trading caste), who have settled in the Tamil country [1] . The name is said to be a corrupt form of Kauravar or Gauravar, descendants of Kuroo of Kauravar or Gauravar, of the Mahâbaratha, or to be the equivalent of Gauravalu, sons of Gauri, the wife of Siva. Other suggested derivatives are: (1) a corrupt form of the Sanskrit Kvaryku, meaning badness or reproach, or Arya, i.e., deteriorated Aryans; (2) Sanskrit Kavara, mixed, or Kavaraha, a braid of hair, i.e., a mixed class, as many of the Telugu professional belong to this caste; (3) Kavarai or Gavaras, buyers or dealers in cattle. The Kavarai call themselves Balijas, and derive the name from bali, fire, and jaha , sprung, i.e., "men sprung from fire." Like other Telugu castes, they have exogamous septs, e.g., tupâki (gun), jetti (wrestler), pagadâla (coral), bandi (cart), símaneli, etc. The Kavarais of Srívilliputtîr, in the Tinnevelly district, are believed to be the descendants of a few families, which emigrated there from Manjakuppam (Cuddalore) along with one Dora Krishnamma Nâyudu. About the time of Tirumal Nâyak, one Râmaswâmi Râju, who had five sons, of whom the youngest was Dora Krishnamma, was reigning near Manjakuppam. Dora Krishnamma, who was of wandering habits, having received some money from his mother, went to Trichinopoly, and, when he was seated in the main bazar, an elephant rushed into street. The beast was stopped in its stampede, and tamed by Dora Krishnamma. Vijayaranga Chokkappa sent his retinue and ministers to escort him to his palace. While they were engaged in conversation, news arrived that some chiefs in the Tinnevelly district refused to pay their taxes, and Dora Krishnamma volunteered to go and subdue them. Near Srívilliputtîr he passed a ruined temple dedicated to Krishna, which he thought of rebuilding if he should succeed in subduing the chiefs. When he reached Tinnevelly, they, without raising any objection, paid their dues, and Dora Krishnamma returned to Srívilliputtîr, and settled there.

1 See Thurston.

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Marriage

Their marriage ceremonies are based on the type common to many Telugu castes, but those who belong to the Símaneli sept, and believe themselves to be direct descendants of Krishnamma, have two special forms of ceremonial, viz., Krishnamma pérantâlu, and the carrying of pots (gurigelu) on the heads of the bride and bridegroom when they go to the temple before the Kâsiyatra ceremony. The Krishnamma pérantâlu is performed on the day prior to the muhîrtam (tâli-tying), and consists in the worship of the soul of Krishnamma, a married woman. A new cloth is purchased and presented to a married woman, together with money, betel, etc., and she is fed before the rest. It is practically a form of srâdh ceremony, and all the formalities of the srâdh, except the hómam (sacred fire) and repeating of mantras from the Védas, are gone through. This is very commonly observed by Brâhmans, and a few castes which engage a Brâhman priest for their ceremonies. The main idea is the propitiation of the soul of the dead married woman. If such a woman dies in a family, every ceremony of an auspicious nature must be preceded by sumangali-prarthana, or worship of this married woman (sumangali). Orthodox females think that, if the ceremony is not performed, she will do them some harm. Another customs, now dying out, is the tying of a dagger to the waist of the bridegroom.

Occupation and social customs

It the Madura district, the Kavarais are described [1] as being "most commonly manufacturers and sellers of bangles made of a particular kind of earth, found only in one or two parts of the district. Those engaged in this traffic usually call themselves Chettis or merchants. When otherwise employed as spinners, dyers, painters, and the like, they take the title of Nâyakkan. It is customary with these, as with other Nâyakkans, to wear the sacred thread: but the descendants of the Nâyakkan kings, who are now living at Vellei-kuricchi, do not conform to this usage, on the ground that they are at present in a state of impurity and degradation, and consequently ought not to wear the sacred emblem." The bulk of the Kavarais in Tanjore are said [2] "to bear the title Nâyak. Some that are engaged in trade, more especially those who sell glass bangles, are called Settis, and those who originally settled in agriculture are called Reddis. The title of Nâyak, like Pillai, Mudali, and Setti, is generally sought after. As a rule, men of the Palli or cooly class, when they enter the Government service, and shepherds, when they grow rich in trade or otherwise, assume this title, wear the nâmam (the trident mark on the forehead emblematic of the Vaishnava persuasion), and call themselves Kavarais or Vadugars, though they cannot speak Telugu, much less point to any part of the Telugu country as the seat of their forefathers." One of the largest sub-divisions of the Kavarais is Valaiyal, the Tamil equivalent of Gazula, both words meaning a glass or lac bangle. [3]

Kawar.: -Kanwar, Kaur (honorific title, Sirda¡r)[4]- A Primitive tribe living in the hills of the Chhatti¡sgarh District north of the Maha¡nadi. The hill-country comprised in the northern zami¡nda¡ri estates of Bila¡spur and the adjoining Feudatory States of Jashpur, Udaipur, Sargu¡ja, Cha¡ng Bhaka¡r and Korea is the home of the Kawars, and is sometimes known after them as the Kamra¡n. Eight of the Bila¡spur zami¡nda¡rs are of the Kawar tribe. The total numbers of the tribe are nearly 2000,000, practically all of whom belong to the Central Provinces. In Bila¡spur the name is always pronounced with a nasal as Kanwar. The Kawars trace their origin from the Kauravas of the Maha¡bha¡rata, who were defeated by the Pa¡ndavas at the great battle of Hastina¡pur. They say that only two pregnant women survived and fled to the hills of Central India, where they took refuge in the houses of a Ra¡wat (grazier) and a Dhobi (washerman) respectively, and the boy and girl children who were born to them became the ancestors of the Kawar tribe.

[1] Manual of the Madura district.

[2] Manual of the Tanjore district.

[3] Madras Census Report, 1891.

[4] See Russell This article is based almost entirely on a monograph contributed by Mr. Híra La¡l.

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Consequently, the Kawars will take food from the hands of Ra¡wats, especially those of the Kauria subcaste, who are in all probability descended from Kawars. And when a Kawar is put out of caste for having maggots in a wound, a Dhobi is always employed to readmit him to social intercourse. These facts show that the tribe has some close ancestral connection with the Ra¡wats and Dhobis, though the legend of descent from the Kauravas is, of course, a myth based on the similarity of the names. The tribespeople have lost their own language, if they ever had one, and now speak a corrupt form of the Chhatti¡sgarhi dialect of Hindi. It is probable that they belong to the Dravidian tribal family.

Tribal Subdivisions.

The Kawars have the following eight endogamous divisions: Tanwar, Kamalbansi, Paikara, Du¡dh-kawar, Rathia, Cha¡nti, Caerwa and Rautia. The Tanwar group, also known as Umrao, is that to which the zami¡nda¡rs belong, and they now claim to be Tomara Ra¡jpu¡ts, and wear the sacred thread. They prohibit widow-remarriage, and do not eat fowls or drink liquor; but they have not yet induced Bra¡hmans to take water from them or Ra¡jpîts to accept their daughters in marriage. The name Tanwar is not improbably simply a corruption of Kawar, and they are also altering their sept names to make them resemble those of eponymous Bra¡hmanical gotras . Thus Dhangur, the name of a sept, has been altered to Dhananjaya, and Sarvaria to Sa¡ndilya. Tela¡si is the name of a sept to which four zami¡nda¡rs belong, and is on this account sometimes returned as their caste by other Kawars, who consider it as a distinction. The zami¡nda¡ri families have now, however, changed the name Tela¡si to Kairava. The Paikaras are the most numerous subtribe, being three-fifths of the total. They derive their name from Pa¡ik, a foot-soldier, and formerly followed this occupation, being employed in the armies of the Haihaivansi Ra¡jas of Ratanpur. They still worship a two-edged sword, known as the jhagra khand, or 'Sword of strife,' on the day of Dasahra. The Kamalbansi, or 'Stock of the Lotus,' may be so called as being the oldest subdivision; for the lotus is sometimes considered the root of all things, on account of the belief that Brahma, the creator of the world, was himself born from this flower. In Bila¡spur the Kamalbansis are considered to rank next after the Tanwars or zami¡nda¡rs' group. Colonel Dalton states that the term Du¡dh or 'Milk Kawar' has the signification of 'Cream of the Kawars' and he considered this subcaste to be the highest. The Rathias are a territorial group, being immigrants from Ra¡th, a wild tract of the Raigarh State. The Rautias are probably the descendants of Kawar fathers and mothers of the Ra¡wat (herdsman) caste. The traditional connection of the Kawars with a Ra¡wat has already been mentioned, and even now if a Kawar marries a Ra¡wat girl she will be admitted into the tribe, and the children will become full Kawars. Similarly, the Ra¡wats have a Kauria subcaste, who are also probably the offspring of mixed marriages; and if a Kawar girl is seduced by a Kauria Ra¡wat, she is not expelled from the tribe, as she would be for a liaison with any other man who was not a Kawar. This connection is no doubt due to the fact that until recently the Kawars and Ra¡wats, who are themselves a very mixed caste, were accustomed to intermarry. At the census, persons returned as Rautia were included in the Kol tribe, which has a subdivision of that name. But Mr. Híra La¡l's inquiries establish the fact that in Chhatti¡sgarh they are undoubtedly Kawars. The Cherwas are probably another group descended from connections formed by Kawars with girls of the Chero tribe of Chota Na¡gpur. The Cha¡nti, who derive their name from the ant, are considered to be the lowest group, as that insect is the most insignificant of living things. Of the above subcastes the Tanwars are naturally the highest, while the Cha¡nti, Cherwa and Rautia, who keep pigs, are considered as the lowest. The others occupy an intermediate position. None of the subcastes will eat together, except at the houses of their zamíndârs, from whom they will all take food. But the Kawars of the Chhuri estate no longer attend the feasts of their zamíndâr, for the following curious reason.

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One of the latter's village thekâdârs or farmers had got the hide taken off a dead buffalo so as to keep it for his own use, instead of making the body over to a Chamâr (tanner). The caste fellows saw no harm in this act, but it offended the zamíndâr's more orthodox Hindu conscience. Soon afterwards, at some marriage-feast of his family, when the Kawars of his zamíndâri attended in accordance with the usual custom, he remarked, 'Here come our Chamârs,' or words to that effect. The Chhuri Kawars were insulted, and the more so because the Pendar zamíndâr and other outsiders were present. So they declined to take food any longer from their zamíndâr. They continued to accept it, however, from the other zamíndârs, until their master of Chhuri represented to them that this would result in a slur being put upon his standing among his fellows. So they have now given up taking food from any zamíndâr.

Exogamous Groups.

The tribe have a large number of exogamous septs, which are generally totemistic or named after plants and animals. The names of 117 septs have been recorded, and there are probably even more. The following list gives a selection of the names:

Andíl Born from an egg.

Bâgh Tiger.

Bichhi Scorpion.

Bilwa Wild cat.

Bokra Goat.

Chandrama Moon.

Chanwar A whisk.

Chíta Leopard.

Chuva A well.

Champa A sweet-scented flower.

Dhenki A pounding-lever.

Darpan A mirror.

Gobíra A dung insect.

Hundâr A wolf.

Jânta Grinding-mill.

Kothi A store-souse.

Khumari A leaf-umbrella.

Lodha A wild dog.

Mâma Maternal uncle.

Mahâdeo The deity.

nînmutaria A packet of salt.

Sendur Vermilion.

Sua A parrot.

Telâsi Oily.

Generally it may be said that every common animal or bird and even articles of food of dress and household implements have given their names to a sept. In the Paikara subcaste a figure of the plant or animal after which the sept is named is made by each party at the time of marriage. Thus a bridegroom of the Bâgh or tiger sept prepares a small image of a tiger with flour and bakes it in oil; this he shows to the bride's family to represent, as it were, his pedigree, or prove his legitimacy; while she on her part, assuming that she is, say, of the Bilwa or cat sept, will bring a similar image of a cat with her in proof of her origin. The Andíl sept make a representation of a hen sitting on eggs. They do not worship the totem animal or plant, but when they learn of the death of one of the species, they throw away and earthen cooking-pot as a sign of mourning. They generally think themselves descended from the totem animal of plant, but when the sept is called after some inanimate object, such as a grinding-mill or pounding-lever, they repudiate the idea of descent from it, and are at a loss to account for the origin of the name.

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Those whose septs are named after plants or animals usually abstain from injuring or cutting them, but where this rule would cause too much inconvenience it is transgressed; thus the members of the Karsâyal or deer sept find it too hard for them to abjure the flesh of that animal, nor can those of the Bokra sept abstain from eating goats. In some cases new septs have been formed by a conjunction of the names of two others, as Bâgh-Daharia, Gauriya-Sonwâni, an so on. These may possibly be analogous to the use of double names in English, a family of one sept when it has contracted a marriage with another of better position adding the latter's name to its own as a slight distinction. But it may also simply arise from the constant tendency to increase the number of septs in order to remove difficulties from the arrangement of matches.

Betrothal And Marriage.

Marriage within the same sept is prohibited and also between the children of brothers and sisters. A man may not marry his wife's elder sister but he can take her younger one in her lifetime. Marriage is usually adult and, contrary to the Hindu rule, the proposal for a match always comes from the boy's father, as a man would think it undignified to try and find a husband for his daughter. The Kawar says, 'Shall my daughter leap over the wall to get a husband?' In consequence of this girls not infrequently remain unmarried until a comparatively late age, especially in the zamíndâri families where the provision of a husband of suitable rank may be difficult. Having selected a bride for his son the boy's father sends some friends to her village, and they address a friend of the girl's family, saying, " So-and-so (giving his name and village) would like to have a cup of pej (boiled rice-water) from you; what do you say ?" The proposal is communicated to the girl's family, and if they approve of it they commence preparing the rice-water, which is partaken of by the parties and their friends. If the bride's people do not begin cooking the pej, it is understood that the proposal is rejected. The ceremony of betrothal cones next, when the boy's party go to the girl's house with a present of bangles, clothes, and fried cakes of rice and urad carried by a Kaurai Râwat. They also take with them the bride-price, known as Suk, which is made up of cash, husked or unhusked rice, pulses and oil. It is a fixed amount, but differs for each subcaste, and the average value is about Rs. 25. To this is added three or four goats to be consumed at the wedding. If a widower marries a girl, a larger bride-price is exacted. The wedding follows, and in many respects conforms to the ordinary Hindu ratual, but Brâhmans are not employed. The bridegroom's party is accompanied by tomtom-players on its way to the wedding, and as each village is approached plenty of noise is made, so that the residents may come out and admire the dresses, a great part of whose merit consists in their antiquity, while the wearer delights in recounting to any who will listen the history of his garb and of his distinguished ancestors who have worn it. The marriage is performed by walking round the sacred pole, six times on one day and once on the following day. After the marriage the bride's parents wash the feet of the couple in milk, and then drink it in atonement for the sin committed in bringing their daughter into the world. The couple then return home to the bridegroom's house, where all the ceremonies are repeated, as it is said that otherwise his courtyard would remain unmarried. On the following day the couple go and bathe in a tank, where each throws five pots full of water over the other. And on their return the bridegroom shoots arrows at seven straw images of deer over his wife's shoulder, and after each shot she puts a little sugar in his mouth. This is a common ceremony among the forest tribes, and symbolises the idea that the man will support himself and his wife by hunting. On the fourth day the bride returns to her father's house. She visits her husband for two or three months in the following month of Asârh (june-july), but again goes home to play what is known as 'the game of Gauri,' Gauri being the name of Siva's consort. The young men and girls of the village assemble round her in the evening, and the girls sing songs while the men play on drums. An obscene representation of Gauri is make, and some of them pretend to be possessed by the deity, while the men beat the girls with ropes of grass. After she has enjoyed this amusement with her mates for some three months, the bride finally goes to her husband's house.

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Other Customs Connected With Marriage.

The wedding expenses come to about seventy rupees on the bridegroom's part in an ordinary marriage, while the bride's family spends the amount of the bride-price and a few rupees more. It the parties are poor the ceremony can be curtailed so far as to provide food for only guest. It is permissible for two families to effect an exchange of girls in lieu of payment of the bride-price, this practice being known as Gunrâwat. Or a prospective bridegroom may give his services for three or four years instead of a price. The system of serving for a wife is known as Gharjiân, and is generally resorted to by widows having daughters. A girl going wrong with a Kawar or with a Kaurai Râwat before marriage may be pardoned with the exaction of a feast from her parents. For a liaison with any other outsider she is finally expelled, and the exception of the Kaurai Râwats shows that they are recognised as in reality Kawars. Widow-remarriage is permitted except in the Tanwar subcastes. The pair stand under the eaves of the house; the bridegroom touches the woman's ear or puts a rolled mango-leaf into it, and she becomes his wife. If a widower marries a girl for his third wife it is considered unlucky for her. An earthen image of a woman is therefore made, and he goes through the marriage ceremony with it; he then throws the image to the ground so that it is broken, when it is considered to be dead and its funeral ceremony is performed. After this the widower may marry the girl, who becomes his fourth wife. Such cases are naturally very rare. If a widow marries her deceased husband's younger brother, which is considered the most suitable match, the children by her first husband rank equally with those of the second. If she marries outside the family her children and property remain with her first husband's relatives.

Dalton [1] records that the Kawars of Sargîja had adopted the practice of sati: "I found that the Kawars of Sargîja encouraged widows to become Satis and greatly venerated those who did so. Sati shrines are not uncommon in the Tributary Mahâls. Between Partâbpur and Jhilmili in Sargîja I encamped in a grove sacred to a Kauraini Sati. Several generations have elapsed since the self-sacrifice that led to her canonisation, but she is now the principal object of worship in the village and neighbourhood, and I was informed that every year a fowl was sacrificed to her, and every third year a black goat. The Hindus with me were intensely amused at the idea of offering fowls to a Sati!" Polygamy is permitted, but is not common. Members of the Tanwar subtribe, when they have occasion to do so, will take the daughters of Kawars of other groups wives, though they will not give their daughters to them. Such marriages are generally made clandestinely, and it has become doubtful as to whether some families are true Tanwars. The zamíndârs have therefore introduced a rule that no family can be recognised as a Tanwar for purposes of marriage unless it has a certificate to that effect signed by the zamíndâr. Some of the zamíndârs charge considerable sums for these certificates, and all cannot afford them; but in that case they are usually unable to get husbands for their daughters, who remain unwed. Divorce is permitted for serious disagreement or bad conduct on the part of the wife.

Childbirth.

During childbirth the mother sits on the ground with her legs apart, and her back against the wall or supported by another woman. The umbilical cord is cut by the midwife: if the parents wish the boy to become eloquent she buries it in the village Council-place; or if they wish him to be a good trader, in the market; or if they desire him to be pious, before some shrine; in the case of a girl the cord is usually buried in a dung-heap, which is regarded as an emblem of fertility. As is usual in Chhattísgarh, the mother receives no food or water for three days after the birth of a child. On the fifth day she is given regular food and on that day the house is purified. Five months after birth the lips of the child are touched with rice and milk and it is named.

1 Ethnology ,p. 158.

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When twins are born a metal vessel is broken to sever the connection between them, as it is believed that otherwise they must die at the same time. If a boy is born after three girls he is called titura , and a girl after three boys, tituri . There is a saying that 'A titura child either fills the storehouse or empties it'; that is, his parents either become rich or penniless. To avert ill-luck in this case oil and salt are thrown away, and the mother gives one of her bangles to the midwife.

Disposal Of The Dead. The dead are usually buried, though well-to-do families have adopted cremation. The corpse is laid on its side in the grave, with head to the north and face to the east. A little til, cotton, urad and rice are thrown on the grave to serve as seed-grain for the dead man's cultivation in the other world. A dish, a drinking vessel and a cooking-pot are placed on the grave with the same ides, but are afterwards taken away by the Dhobi (washerman). They observe mourning for ten days for a man, nine days for a woman, and three days for children under three years old. During the period of mourning the chief mourner keeps a knife beside him, so that the iron may ward off the attacks of evil spirits, to which he is believed to be particularly exposed. The ordinary rules of abstinence and retirement are observed during mourning. In the case of cremation the ceremonies are very elaborate and generally resemble those of the Hindus. When the corpse is half burnt, all the men present throw five pieces of wood on to the pyre, and a number of pieces are carried in a winnowing fan to the dead man's house, where they are touched by the women and then brought back and thrown on to the fire. After the funeral the mourners bathe and return home walking one behind the other in Indian file. When they come to a cross-road, the foremost man picks up a pebble with his left foot, and it is passed from hand to hand down the line of men until the hindmost throws it away. This is supposed to sever their connection with the spirit of the deceased and prevent it from following them home. On the third day they return to the cremation ground to collect the ashes and bones. A Brâhman is called who cooks a preparation of milk and rice at the head of the corpse, boils urad pulse at its feet, and bakes eight wheaten chapâtis ant the sides. This food is placed in leaf-cups at two corners of the ground. The mourners sprinkle cow's urine and milk over the bones, and picking them up with a palâs (Butes frondosa) stick, put them in milk and deposit them in a new earthen pot until such time as they can be carried to the Ganges. The bodies of men dying of smallpox must never be burnt, because that would be equivalent to destroying the goddess, incarnate in the body. The corpses of cholera patients are buried in order to dispose of them at once, and are sometimes exhumed subsequently within a period of six months and cremated. In such a case the Kawars spread a layer of unhusked rice in the grave, and address prayer to the earth-goddess stating that the body has been placed with her on deposit, and asking that she will give it back intact when they call upon her for it. They believe that in such cases the process of decay is arrested for six months.

Laying Spirits.

When a man has been killed by a tiger they have a ceremony called 'Breaking the string,' or the connection which they believe the animal establishes with a family on having tasted its blood. Otherwise they think that the tiger would gradually kill of all the remaining members of the family of his victim, and when he had finished with the would proceed to other families in the same village. This curious belief is no doubt confirmed by the tiger's habit of frequenting the locality of a village from which it has once obtained a victim, in the natural expectation that others may be forthcoming from the same source. In this ceremony the village Baiga or medicine-man is painted with red ochre and soot to represent the tiger, and proceeds to the place where the victim was carried off. Having picked up some of the blood-stained earth, he tries to run away to the jungle, but the spectators hold him back until he spits out the earth. This represents the tiger being forced to give up his victim.

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The Baiga then ties a string round all the members of the dead man's family standing together; he places some grain before a fowl saying, 'if my charm has worked, eat of this'; and as soon as the fowl has eaten some grain the Baiga states that his efforts have been successful and the attraction of the man-eater has been broken; he then breaks the string and all the party return to the village. A similar ceremony is performed when a man has died of snake-bite.

Religion.

The religion of the Kawars is entirely of an animistic character. They have a vague idea of a supreme deity whom they call Bhagwân and identify with the sun. They bow to him in reverence, but do no more as he does not interfere with men's concerns. They also have a host of local and tribal deities, of whom the principal is the Jhagra Khand or two-edged sword, already mentioned. The tiger is deified as Bagharra Deo and worshipped in every village for the protection of cattle from wild animals. They are also in great fear of a mythical snake with a red crest on its head, the mere sight of which is believed to cause death. It lives in deep pools in the forest which are known as Shesh Kund ,and when it moves the grass along its track takes fire. If a man crosses its track his colour turns to black and he suffers excruciating pains which end in death, unless he is relieved by the Baiga. In one village where the snake was said to have recently appeared, the proprietor was so afraid of it that he never went out to his field without first offering a chicken. They have various local deities, of which the Mandwa Râni or goddess of the Mandwa hill in Korba zamíndâri may be noted as an example. She is a mild-hearted maiden who puts people right when they have gone astray in the forest, or provides them with food for the night and guides them to the water-springs on her hill. Recently a wayfarer had lost his path when she appeared and, guiding him into it, gave him basket of brinjâls. [1] As the traveller proceeded he felt his burden growing heavier and heavier on his head, and finally on inspecting it found that the goddess had played a little joke on him and the brinjâls had turned into stones. The Kawars implicitly believe this story. Rivers are tenanted by a set of goddesses called the Sat Bahini or seven sisters. They delight in playing near waterfalls, holding up the water and suddenly letting it drop. Trees are believed to be harmless sentient beings, except when occasionally possessed by evil spirits, such as the ghosts of man-eating tigers. Sometimes a tree catches hold of a cow's tail as the animal passes by and winds it up over a branch, and many cattle have lost their tails in this way. Every tank in which the lotus grows is tenanted by Purainha, the godling who tends this plant. The sword, the gun, the axe, the spear have each a special deity, and, in fact, in the Bangawân, the tract where the wilder Kawars dwell, it is believed that every article of household furniture is the residence of a spirit, and that if any one steals or injures it without the owner's leave, the spirit will bring some misfortune on him in revenge. Theft is said to be unknown among them, partly on this account and partly, perhaps, because no one has much property worth stealing. Instances of deified human beings are Kolin Sati, a Kol concubine of a zamíndâr of Pendra who died during pregnancy, and Sârangarhni, a Ghasia women who was believed to have been the mistress of a Râja of Sârangarh and was murdered. Both are now Kawar deities. Thâkur Deo is the deity of agriculture, and is worshipped by the whole village in concert at the commencement of the rains. Rice is brought by each cultivator and offered to the god, a little being sown at his shrine and the remainder taken home and mixed with the seed-grain to give it fertility. Two bachelors carry water round the village and sprinkle it on the brass plates of the cultivators or the roofs of their houses in imitation of rain.

Magic And Witchcraft.

The belief in witchcraft is universal and every village has its tonhi or witch, to whom epidemic diseases, sudden illnesses and other calamities are ascribed. The witch is nearly always some unpopular old woman, and several instances are known of the murder of these unfortunate creatures, after their crimes had been proclaimed by the Baiga or medicine-man. In the famine of 1900 an old woman from another village came and joined one of the famine-kitchens.

[1] Fruit of the egg-plant.

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A few days afterwards the village watchman got ill, and when the Baiga was called in he said the old woman was a witch who had vowed the lives of twenty children to her goddess, and had joined the kitchen to kill them. The woman was threatened with a beating with castor-oil plants if she did not leave the village, and as the kitchen officer refused to supply her with food, she had to go. The Baiga takes action to stop and keep off epidemics by the methods common in Chhatísgarh villages. When a woman asks him to procure her offspring, the Baiga sits dharna in front of Devi's shrine and fasts until the goddess, wearied by his importunity, descends on him and causes him to prophesy the birth of a child. They have the usual belief in imitative and sympathetic magic. If a person is wounded by an axe he throws it first into fire and then into cold water. By the first operation he thinks to dry up the wound and prevent its festering, and by the second to keep it cool. Thin and lean children are weighed in a balance against moist cowdung with the idea that they will swell out as the dung dries up. In order to make a bullock's hump grow, a large grain-measure is placed over it. If cattle go astray an iron implement is placed in a pitcher of water, and it is believed that this will keep wild animals off the cattle, though the connection of ideas is obscure. To cure intermittent fever a man walks through a narrow passage between two houses. If the children in a family die, the Baiga takes the parents outside the village and breaks the stem of some plant in their presence. After this they never again touch that particular plant, and it is believed that their children will not die. Tuesday is considered the best day for weddings, Thursday and Monday for beginning field-word and Saturday for worshipping the gods. To have bats in one's granary is considered to be fortunate, and there is a large harmless snake which, they say, produces fertilty when it makes its home in a field. If a crow caws on the house-top they consider that the arrival of a guest is portended. A snake or a cat crossing the road in front and a man sneezing are bad omens.

Dress.

The dress of the Kawars presents no special features calling for remark. Women wear pewter ornaments on the feet, and silver or pewter rings on the neck. They decorate the ears with silver pendants, but as a rule do not wear nose-rings. Women are tattooed on the breast with a figure of Krishna, on the arms with that of a deer, and on the legs with miscellaneous patterns. The operation is carried out immediately after marriage in accordance with the usual custom in Chhattísgarh.

Occupation And Social Rules.

The tribe consider military service to be their traditional occupation, but the bulk of them are now cultivators and labourers. Many of them are farmers of villages in the zamíndârs. Rautias weave ropes and make sleeping-cots, but the other Kawars consider such work to be degrading. They have the ordinary Hindu rules of inheritance, but a son claiming partition in his father's lifetime is entitled to two bullocks and nothing more. When the property is divided on the death of the father, the eldest son receives an allowance known as jithai over and above his share, this being a common custom in the Chhattísgarh country where the Kawars reside. The tribe do not admit outsiders with the exception of Kaurai Râwat girls married to Kawars. They have a tribal panchâyat or committee, the head of which is known as Pardhân. Its proceedings are generally very deliberate, and this has led to the saying: "The Gand's panchâyat always ends in a quarrel; the Gond's panchâyat cares only for the feast; and the Kawar's panchâyat takes a year to make up its mind." But when the Kawars have decided, they act with vigour. They require numerous goats as fines for the caste feast, and these, with fried urad, form the regular provision. Liquor, however, is only sparingly consumed. Temporary exclusion from caste is imposed for the usual offences, which include going to jail, getting the ears split, or getting maggots in a wound. The last is the most serious offence, and when the culprit is readmitted to social intercourse the Dhobi (washerman) is employed to eat with him first from five different plates, thus taking upon himself any risk of contagion from the impurity which may still remain.

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The Kawar eats flesh, fowls and pork, but abjures beef, crocodiles, monkeys and reptiles. From birds he selects the parrot, dove, pigeon, quail and partridge as fit for food. He will not eat meat sold in market because he considers it halâli or killed in the Muhammadan fashion, and therefore impure. He also refuses a particular species of fish called rechha, which is black and fleshy and has been nicknamed 'The Telí's bullock.' The Kawars will take food only from a Gond or a Kaurai Râwat, and Gonds will also take food from them. In appearance and manners they greatly resemble the Gonds, from whom they are hardly distinguished by the Hindus. Dalton [1] described them as "A dark, coarse-featured, broad-nosed, wide-mouthed and thick-lipped race, decidedly ugly, but taller and better set than most of the other tribes. I have also found them a clean, well-to-do, industrious people, living in comfortable, carefully-constructed and healthily-kept houses and well dressed." On their method of dancing Ball [2] writes as follows: "In the evening some of the villagers-- Kaurs they were I believe--entertained us with a dance, which was very different from anything seen among the Santâls or Kols. A number of men performed a kind of ladies' chain, striking together as they passed one another's pronged sticks which they carried in their hands. By foot, hand and voice the time given by a tom-tom is most admirably kept."

Kéla.: -A small class of Oriya jugglers and mountebanks, whose women, like the Dommara females, are often prostitutes. The name is derived from kéli, dancing, or khél to play [3]

Képumâri.: -It is noted, in Gazetteer of South Arcot, that "the Képumâris [4] are one of the several foreign communities from other districts, who help to swell the total of the criminal classes in South Arcot. Their head-quarters is at Tiruvallîr in the Chingleput district, but there is a settlement of them at Mâriyân-kuppam (not far from Porto Novo), and another large detachment at Kunisampet in French territory. They commit much the same class of crime as the Donga Dâsaris, frequenting railway trains and crowded gatherings, and they avert suspicion by their respectable appearance and pleasant manners. Their house-language is Telugu. They call themselves Alagiri Képumâris. The etymology of the second of these two words is not free from doubt, but the first of them is said to be derived from Alagar, the god of the Kallans, whose temple at the foot of the hills about twelve miles north of Madura town is a well-known place of pilgrimage, and to whom these people and other criminal fraternities annually offer a share of their ill-gotten gains." Information concerning the criminal methods of these people, under the name Capemari, will be found in Mr. F. S. Mullaly's 'Notes on Criminal Classes of the Madras Presidency.'

Khairwâr.: -Kharwâr, Khaira, Khairwa. [5] - A primitive tribe of the Chota Nâgpur plateau and Bihâr. Nearly 20,000 Khairwârs are now under the jurisdiction of the Central Provinces, of whom two-thirds belong to the recently acquired Sargîja State, and the remainder to the adjoining States and the Bilâspur District. A few hundred Khairwârs or Khairwas are also returned from the Damoh District in the Bundelkhand country. Colonel Dalton considers the Khairwârs to be closely connected with the Cheros.

[1] Ethnology , pp. 136,137

[2] Jungle Life in India , pp. 315, 316.

[3] See Thurston.

[4] See Thurston.

[5] See Russell. This article is based on Mr. Crooke's and Colonel Dalton's accounts, and some notes taken by Mr. Híra Lâl at Raigarh.

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He relates that the Cheros, once dominant in Gorakhpur and Shâhâbâd, were expelled from these tracts many centuries ago by the Gorkhas and other tribes, and came into Palâmau. "It is said that the Palâmau population then consisted of Kharwârs, Gonds, Mârs, Korwas, Parheyas and Kisâns. Of these the Kharwârs were the people of most consideration. The Cheros conciliated them and allowed them to remain in peaceful possession of the hill tracts bordering on Sargîja; all the Cheros of note who assisted in the expedition obtained military service grants of land, which they still retain. It is popularly asserted that at the commencement of the Chero rule in Palâmau they numbered twelve thousand families and the Kharwârs eighteen thousand, and if an individual of one or the other is asked to what tribe he belongs, he will say not that he is a Chero or a Kharwâr, but that he belongs to the twelve thousand or the eighteen thousand, as the case may be. Intermarriage between Chero and Kharwâr families have taken place. A relative of the Palâmau Râja married a sister of Maninâth Singh, Râja of Râmgarh, and this is among themselves an admission of identity of origin, as both claiming to be Râjpîts they could not intermarry till it was proved to the satisfaction of the family priest that the parties belonged to the same class. The Râjas of Râmgarh and Jashpur are members of this tribe, who have nearly succeeded in obliterating their Turanian traits by successive intermarriages with Aryan families. The Jashpur Râja is wedded to a lady of pure Râjpît blood, and by liberal dowries has succeeded in obtaining a similar union for three of his daughters. It is a costly ambition, but there is no doubt that the liberal infusion of fresh blood greatly improves the Kharwâr physique." [1] This passage demonstrates the existence of a close connection between the Cheros and Khairwârs. Elsewhere Colonel Dalton connects the Santâls with the Khairwârs as follows: [2] "Ahiri Pipri laid two eggs. From these two eggs a male and female were produced, who were the parents of the Santâls race. From Ahiri Pipri our (Santâl) ancestors migrated to Hara Dutti, and there they greatly increased and multiplied and were called Kharwâr." This also affords some reason for supposing that the Khairwârs are an offshoot of the Cheros and Santâls. Mr. Crooke remarks that in Mírzâpur "the people themselves derive their name either from their occupation as makers of catechu (khair) or on account of their emigration from some place called Khairâgarh, regarding which there is a great difference of opinion. If the Santâl tradition is to be accepted, Khairâgarh is in the Hazâribâgh District; but the Mírzâpur tradition seems to point to some locality in the south or west, in which case Khairâgarh may be identified with the most important of the Chhattísgarh Feudatory States, or with the pargana of the name in the Allahâbâd District." .[3] According to their own traditions in Chota Nâgpur, Sir H. Risley states that [4] "The Kharwârs declare their original seat to have been the fort of Rohtâs, so called as having been the chosen abode of Rohitâswa, son of Haríschandra, of the family of he Sun. From this ancient house they also claim descent, calling themselves Sîrajvansis, and wearing the Janeo or caste thread distinguishing the Râjpîts. A less flattering tradition makes them out to be the offspring of a marriage between a Kshatriya man and a Bhar woman contracted in the days of King Ben, when distinctions of caste were abolished and men might marry whom they would." A somewhat similar story of themselves is told by the tribe in the Bâmra State. Here they say that their original ancestors were the Sun and a daughter of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, who lived in the town of Sara . She was very beautiful and the Sun desired her, and began blowing into a conch-shell to express his passion. While the girl was gaping at the sight and sound, a drop of the spittle fell into her mouth and impregnated her. Subsequently a son was born from her arm and a daughter from her thigh, who were known as Bhujbalrai and Janghrai. [5]

[1] Ethnology of Bengal , pp. 128, 129.

[2] Ibidem , pp. 209, 210.

[3] Tribes and Castes , art. Kharwâr.

[4] Tribes and Castes of Bengal.

[5] From bhuj , an arm, jangh , a thigh. These are Hindi words, and the whole story is obviously a Brâhmanical legend. Balrai seems a corruption of Balarâm, the brother of Krishna.

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Bhujbalrai was given great strength by the Sun, and the fought with the people of the country, and became king of Râthgarh. But in consequence of this he and his family grew worthy of the riches she had given them. So she came in the guise of a beggar to the door, but was driven without alms. On this she cursed them, and said that their descendants, the Khairwârs, should always be poor, and should eke out a scanty subsistence from the forests. And in consequence the Khairwârs have ever since been engaged in boiling wood for catechu. Mr. Hira Lâl identifies the Râthgarh of this story with the tract of Râth in the north of the Raigarh State and the town of Sara, where Lakshmi's daughter lived and her children were born, with Saria in Sârangarh.

Its Origin.

On the information available as to the past history of the tribe it seems probable that the Khairwârs may, as suggested by Sir H. Risley, be an offshoot from some other group. The most probable derivation of the name seems to be from the khair or catechu tree (Acacia catechu ); and it may be supposed that it was the adoption as a calling of he making of catechu which led to their differentiation. Mr. Crooke derives their name either from the khair tree or a place called Khairâgarh; but this latter name almost certainly means 'The fort of the khair tress.' The Khairwâs or Khairwârs of the Kaimur hills, who are identified by Colonel Dalton and in the India Census of 1901 with the Khairwârs of Chota Nâgpur, are certainly named after the tree; they are generally recognised as being Gonds who have taken to the business of boiling catechu, and are hence distinguished, being a little looked down upon by other Gonds. Mr. Crooke describes them in Mírzâpur as "a compound of various jungle tribes who have taken to this special occupation; while according to another account they are the offspring of the Saharias or Saonrs, with whom their sept names are said to be identical." He also identifies them with the Kathkâris of Bombay, whose name means 'makers of katha or prepared catechu.' The Khairwârs of Chota Nâgpur have everywhere a subdivision which makes catechu, this being known as Khairchîra in the Central Provinces, Khairi in Bengal and Khairaha in the United Provinces. This group is looked down upon by the other Khairwârs, who consider their occupation to be disreputable and do not marry with them. Possibly the preparation of catechu, like basket-and mat-making, is despised as being a profession practised by primitive dwellers in forests, and so those Khairwârs who have become more civilised are now anxious to disclaim it. Sir H. Risley has several times pointed out the indeterminate nature of the constitution of the Chota Nâgpur tribes, between several of whom intermarriage is common. And it seems certain that the tribes as we know them now must have been differentiated from one or more common stocks much in the same fashion as castes, though rather by the influence of local settlement than by differences of occupation, and at a much earlier date. And on the above facts it seems likely that the Khairwârs of Chota Nâgpur are an occupational offshoot of the Cheros and Santâls, as those of the Kaimur hills are of the Gonds and Savars.

Tribal Subdivisions.

Colonel Dalton states that the tribe had four subdivisions, Bhogta, Matho, Râwat and Mânjhi. Of these Matho simply means a village headman, and is used as a title by many castes and tribes; Râwat is a term meaning chief, and is in common use as a title; and Mânjhi too is a title, being specially applied to boatman, and also means a village headman among the Santâls. These divisions, too, afford some reason for considering the tribe to be a mixed group. Other occupational subtribes are recorded by Sir H. Risley, and are found in the Central Provinces, but these apparently have grown up since Colonel Dalton's time. The most important group in Bengal are the Bhogtas, who are found, says Colonel Dalton, " In the hills of Palâmau skirting Sargîja, in Tori and Bhanwar Pahâr of Chota Nâgpur and other places. They have always had an indifferent reputation. The head of the clan in Palâmau was a notorious freebooter, who, after having been outlawed and successfully evaded every attempt to capture him, obtained a jârír [1] on his surrendering and promising to keep the peace. He kept to his engagement and died in fair repute."

[1] Estate held on feudal tenure.

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Mr. Crooke notes that the Khairwârs, since adopting Hinduism, performed human sacrifices to Kâli. Some of our people who fell into their hands during the Mutiny were so dealt with. [1]

In the Central Provinces there is a group known as Sîrajvansi or Descendants of the Sun, or Janeodhâri, 'those who wear the sacred thread.' This is the aristocratic division of the caste, to which the chiefs and zamíndârs belong, and according to the usual practice they have consolidated their higher position by marrying only among themselves. Other groups are the Duâlbandhi, who say that they are so called because they make a livelihood by building he earthen diwâls or walls for houses and yards; but in Mirzâpur they derive the name from duâl, a leather belt which is supposed to have been the uniform of their forefathers when serving as soldiers.[2] The Pâtbandhi or silk-makers, according to their own story, are thus named because their ancestors were once very rich and wore silk; but a more probable hypothesis is that they were rearers of tasar silk cocoons. The Beldâr or Matkora work as navvies, and are also known as Kawarvansi or 'descendants of the Kawars,' another tribe of the locality; and last come the Khairchîra, who take their name from the khair tree and are catechu-makers.

Exogamous Septs.

The tribe has a large number of exogamous groups named after plants and animals. Members of the mouse, tortoise, parrot, pig, monkey, vulture, banyan tree and date-palm septs worship their totem animal or tree, and when they find the dead body of the animal they throw away an earthen cooking-pot to purify themselves, as is done when a member of the family dies. Those of the Dhân (rice), Non (salt), Dila (plough) and Dhenki (rice pounding-lever) septs cannot dispense with the use of these objects, but make a preliminary obeisance before employing them. Those of the Kânsi sept sprinkle water mixed with kâns [3] grass over the bride and bridegroom at the marriage ceremony, and those of the Chandan or sandalwood sept apply sandal-paste to their foreheads. They cannot clearly explain the meaning of these observances, but some of them have a vague idea that they are descended from the totem object.

Marriage.

Marriage is either infant or adult, and in the latter case the girl is not disposed of without her consent. A bride-price varying from five to ten rupees is paid, and in the case of a girl given to a widower the amount is doubled. The Hindu ceremonial has been adopted for the wedding, and an auspicious day is fixed by a Brâhman. In Bengal Sir H. Risley notes that "Remnants of non-Aryan usage may be discerned in the marriage ceremony itself. Both parties must first go through the form of marriage to a mango tree or at least a branch of the tree; and must exchange blood mixed with sindur, though in the final and binding act sindur alone is smeared by the bridegroom upon the bride's forehead and the parting of her hair." As has been pointed out by Mr. Crooke, the custom of smearing vermilion on the bride's forehead is a substitute for an earlier anointing with blood; just as the original idea underlying the offering of a cocoanut was that of substitution for a human head. In some cases blood alone is still used. Thus Sir H. Risley notes that among the Birhors the marriage rite is performed by drawing blood from the little finger of each of them. [4] The blood-covenant by which a bride was admitted to her husband's sept by being smeared with his blood is believed to have been a common rite among primitive tribes.

[1] Religion a d Folklore of Northern India , vol. ii. p. 170.

[2] Crooke, Tribes and Castes.

[3] Saccharum spontaneum.

[4] Tribes and Castes , art. Birhor.

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Disposal Of The Dead.

As a rule, the tribe bury the dead, though the Hindu custom of cremation is coming into fashion among the well-to-do. Before the internment they carry the corpse seven times round the grave, and it is buried with the feet pointing to the north. They observe mourning for ten days and abstain from animal food and liquor during that period. A curious custom is reported from the Bilâspur District, where it is said that children cut a small piece of flesh from the finger of a dead parent and swallow it, considering this as a requital for the labour of the mother in having carried the child for nine months in her womb. So in return they carry a piece of her flesh in their bodies. But the correct explanation as given by Sir. J. G. Frazer is that they do it to prevent themselves from being haunted by the ghosts of their parents." Thus Orestes, [1] after he had gone mad from murdering his mother, recovered his wits by biting off one of his own fingers; since his victim was his own mother it might it might be supposed that the tasting of his own blood was the same as hers; and the furies of his murdered mother, which had appeared black to him before, appeared white as soon as he had mutilated himself in this way. The Indians of Guiana believe that an avenger of blood who has slain his man must go mad unless he tastes the blood of his victim, the notion apparently being that the ghost drives him crazy. A similar custom was observed by the Maoris in battle. When a warrior had slain his foe in combat, he tasted his blood, believing that this preserved him from the avenging spirit (atua ) of his victim; for they imagined that 'the moment a slayer had tasted the blood of the slain, the dead man became a part of his being and placed him under the protection of the atua or guardian-spirit of he deceased.' Some of the North American Indians also drank the blood of their enemies in battle. Strange as it may seem, this truly savage superstition exists apparently in Italy to this day. There is a widespread opinion in Calabria that if a murderer is to escape he must suck his victim's blood from the reeking blade of the dagger with which he did the deed."

Religion.

The religion of the tribe is of the usual animistic type. Colonel Dalton notes that they have, like the Kols, a village priest, known as Pahan or Baiga. He is always one of the impure tribes, a Bhuiya, a Kharwâr or a Korwa, and he offers a great triennial sacrifice of a buffalo in the sacred grove, or on a rock near the village. The fact that the Khairwârs employed members of the Korwa and Bhuiya tribes as their village priests may be taken to indicate that the latter are the earlier residents of the country, and are on this account employed by the Khairwârs as later arrivals for the conciliation of the indigenous deities. Colonel Dalton states that the Khairwârs made no prayers to any of the Hindu gods, but when in great trouble they appealed to the sun. In the Central Provinces the main body of the tribe, and particularly those who belong to the landholding class, profess the Hindu religion.

Inheritance.

The Khairwârs have now also adopted the Hindu rule of inheritance, and have abandoned the tribal custom which Sir H. Risley records as existing in Bengal. "Here the eldest son of the senior wife, even if younger than one of the sons of the second wife, inherits the entire property, subject tot the obligation of providing for all other legitimate children. If the inheritance consists of land, the heir is expected to create separate maintenance grants in favour of his younger brothers. Daughters can never inherit, but are entitled to live in the 2 ancestral home till they are married." [2]

[1] The above instances are reproduced from Sir J. G. Frazer's Psyche's Task (London, 1909). These cases are all of homicide, but it seems likely that the action of the Khairwârs may be based on the same motives, as the fear of ghosts is strong among these tribes.

[2] Risley , loc. cit.

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The Khairwas Of Damoh.

The Khairwas or Khairwârs of the Kaimur hills are derived, as already seen, from the Gonds and Savars, and therefore are ethnologically a distinct from those of the Chota Nâgpur plateau, who have been described above. But as nearly every caste is made up of diverse ethnological elements held together by the tie of a common occupation, it does not seem worthwhile to treat these groups separately. Colonel Dalton, who also identifies them with the main tribe, records an interesting notice of them at an earlier period:[1] "There is in the seventh volume of the Asiatic Researches a notice of the Kharwârs of the Kaimur hills in the Mírzâpur District, to the north of the Son river, by Captain J.P. Blunt, who in his journey from Chunâr to Ellora in A.D. 1794, met with them and describes them as a very primitive tribe. He visited one of their villages consisting of half a dozen poor huts, and though proceeding with the utmost caution, unattended, to prevent alarm, the inhabitants fled at his approach. The women were seen, assisted by the men, carrying off their children and moving with speed to hide themselves in the woods. It was observed that they were nearly naked, and the articles of domestic use found in the deserted huts were a few gourds for water-vessels, some bows and arrows, and some fowls as wild as their masters. With great difficulty, by the employment of Kols as mediators, some of the men were induced to return. They were nearly naked, but armed with bows and arrows and a hatchet."

In Damoh the Khairwârs are said to come from Panna State. During the working season they live in temporary sheds in the forest, and migrate from place to place as the supply of tress is exhausted. Having cut down a tree they strip off the bark and cut the inner and tender wood into small pieces, which are boiled for two or three days until a thick black paste is obtained. From this the water is allowed to drain off, and the residue is made into cakes and dried in the sun. it is eaten in small pieces with betel-leaf and areca-nut. Duty is levied by the Forest Department at the rate of a rupee per handi or pot in which boiling is carried on. In Bombay various superstitious observances are connected with the manufacture of catechu; and Mr. Crooke quoted the following description of them from the Bombay Gazetteer:[2] "Every year on the day after the Holi the chîlha ceremony takes place. In a trench seven feet long by three, and about three deep, khair logs are carefully stacked and closely packed till they stand in a heap about three feet above ground. The pile is then set on fire and allowed to burn to the level of the ground. The village sweeper breaks a cocoanut, kills a couple of fowls and sprinkles a little liquor near the pile. Then, after washing their feet, the sweeper and the village headman walk barefoot hurriedly across the fire. After this, strangers come to fulfil vows, and giving one anna and a half cocoanut to the sweeper, and the other half cocoanut to the headman, wash their feet, and turning to the left, walk over the pile. The fire seems to cause none of them any pain.' The following description of the Kathkâris as hunters of monkeys is also taken by Mr. Crooke from the Bombay Gazetteer [3] "The Kathkâris represent themselves as descended from the monkeys of Râma. Now that their legitimate occupation of preparing catechu (kath ) has been interfered with, they subsist almost entirely by hunting, and habitually kill and eat monkeys, shooting them with bows and arrows. In order to approach within range they're obliged to have recourse to stratagems, as the monkeys at once recognise them in their ordinary costume. The ruse usually adopted is for one of the best shots to put on a woman's robe (sâri), under the ample folds of which he conceals his murderous weapons. Approaching the tree in which the monkey are seated, the sportsman affects the utmost unconcern, and busies himself with some innocent occupation he is enabled to get a sufficiently close shot to render success a certainty."

[1] Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 128, 129.

[2] Crooke's Tribes and Castes , art. Khairwa. Quoting from Bombay Gazetteer, x. 48 and iii. 310.

[3] Loc. cit.

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Khambas.: -They live in small tents and move around together. They are professional beggars. They are Tibetans.

Khangâr.: -Khagâr.[1] - A tribe of thieves and village watchmen practically confined to Bundelkhand. They are also known as Râo Khangâr in relation to their alleged Râjput descent, or râwat. When they hold the post of village watchmen, they are called Kotwâl or Kotwâr, "head policeman." There is much controversy as to the meaning of the name. According to some it is connected with the Hindi Khankh . Sanskrit Karkara, "Withered or degraded." Others derive it from Khadga. "a sword."

Tribal Legends.

The tradition of the caste is that they were formerly Râjputs of the Khagâr sept and were degraded. One tradition tells that they entered Bundelkhand from somewhere to the north of Kâlpi, and took service with the Bundela Râjputs. Their chief settlement was at Kurârgarh in the Bhíkamgarh State. They failed to pay their revenue, and by the orders of the Emperor Akbar, the Bundela Râja, with the help of some Gaharwâr Râjputs from Kâshi or Benares, destroyed them by giving them drugged wine to drink, and then massacred them. It is needless to say that this is a legend common to many of the degraded tribes, such as the Bhars and others. Their Râja at the time was Nâga Râja, and, after the massacre of his followers he and his Râni escaped. He cut off half his mustache, and she took off half her jewelry, which they swore not to wear again until they wreaked their revenge on the Bundelas. By another legend only the Râni escaped the massacre of the tribe. She took refuge in a field of saffron (kusum), whence she was rescued by some Parihâr Râjputs, and bore a son, who was the ancestor of the present Khangârs. All this is, of course, is mere folklore, and this escape of the pregnant mother is one of the stock incidents in the folk-tales. It is said that no Khangâr is, even to the present day, allowed to enter the fort of Kurâr, and that, in memory of the birth of their ancestor in the saffron field, no Khangâr will wear cloth dyed with saffron. Another legend runs that the Bundela Râja had a son by a Khangâr woman, who was called Baghel, and received Kurâr as his inheritance. His descendants are now known as Bimhar, and until lately they were not acknowledged by the Khangârs; this has been lately allowed after a tribal council. By another account they were the descendants of Râja Bijay Sinh of Gurnâl, and were exterminated by the Gaharwâr Râjputs from Kashi, because their Râja dared to propose to marry a Gaharwâr girl. This legend is also common to a number of tribes of the same social rank. They also say that one of the Bhadauriya Râjputs once married in their sept, and to this day, whenever there is a marriage among the Bhadauriyas, the house-master sends for a Khangâr and marks his back with his hand steeped in turmeric before he pays the same mark of respect to his other guests. As a further mark of their Kshatriya descent, they say that to this day they give a sword as a marriage gift, as other Râjputs do. Further, whenever a new Bundela Râja of Datiya is enthroned, a model of the Kurâr fort and of the last Khangâr Râja is made in clay, which the Bundle breaks as part of the ceremony. Still another story tells that one of their Râjas once offered his head to Devi and the goddess replied, "Wash it." (khangârna). From this they were called Khangâr.

All these legends are an interesting example of a process which has undoubtedly gone towards the formation of many Râjput septs. That there is a large body of tradition in corroboration of the Râjput descent of the tribe is quite certain. It may also be assumed as true that the Khangârs were once lords of that part of the country; but when we examine their system of gotras, it seems plain that their claim to Râjput lineage cannot be accepted. They have, in fact, a well-developed totemistic series of gotras which marks them down at once to be of Dravidian origin.

Tribal Organisation.

One list of these is as follows: Sârdu; Bhârta; Parsaniya; Bisora; Hathogotiya; Maltiya; Kurariya; Ghorgotiya; Bilgotiya; Bijaniya; Bharda; Nâhargotiya; Nâggotiya; Kusumgotiya; and Bargotiya.

[1] See Crooke. Based on notes by Mr. J. S., Meston, C. S., Settlement Officer, Jhânsi ; Mr. W. Cockburn, Deputy Collector, Jâlaun ; and M. Karam Ahmad, Deputy Collector, Jhânsi.

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Of these, the Sârdu are said to be the highest, and will not drink spirits, in memory of the catastrophe which fell upon the clan at the hands of the Bundelas. The Hathogotiya claim kindred with the elephant (hâthi), and at marriages mount the bridegroom on an elephant; The Ghorgotiya similarly respect the horse (ghora); the Nâhargotiya are of the kindred of the lion (nâhar); the Bargotiya with the bar or banyan tree, which they worship; the Nâggotiya with the nâga or serpent; and the Kusumgotiya with the safflower(kusum). Another list gives the Khargotiya and Sangotiya, who are connected in the same way with the grass (khar) and hemp plant (san). A third list gives as one of their gotras Basor, which is the name of a Dom sub-caste; Nímgotiya, sprung from the nâm tree; Gohiya from the goh or iguana; and Bâmhan Rautiya, who claim to be half Brâhmans and half Râjputs; and to these apparently totemistic names may be added from the Census lists: Chhachhîndar, "Muskrat"; Gajgoti. "the kindred of the elephant"; Hirangot, "the kindred of the deer"; Pipariya, "of the Pípal tree." Besides this there is a tribal legend that they are the forefathers of the Arakhs, a distinctly Dravidian caste, who are said to be an offshoot from them. This totemistic tribal structure clearly shows their Dravidian origin, and disposes of their claim to Râjput descent. They are, in short, on the same level as the Benbans Râjputs, who are Kharwârs, and the Pâsi and Bhar tribes of Oudh, some of whom have almost certainly succeeded in establishing a fictitious Râjput connection. It was out of such elements doubtless that many of the Râjput tribes were formed, and in the case of the Khangârs it is only from the fact that they have as yet been unable to shed off their totemistic sections that we are able actually to ascertain their real origin. The lesson is a useful one in dealing with the pretensions of many now degraded tribes to a higher origin, and it would not be perhaps too much to say that while we have instances in plenty of tribes who have raised themselves in the social scale, it would be difficult to point to one undoubted instance of a tribe which having once arrived at that stage of culture to enable them to assert the rank of Râjputs, ever fell back into the grade of landless labourers and thieves such as the Khangârs are at present.

Marriage Rules.

The rule of exogamy is that a man does not marry in the gotra of his father or mother until three generations have passed, and they have the usual formula known as dîdh bachâké, or avoidance of blood relations, which is common to them and all ordinary Hindus, and is intended to reinforce the gotra law of exogamy and prevent intermarriage, which, without it, would still be possible. In their ceremonies there is a line drawn between the more respectable Khangârs, who ape a Râjput descent, and the Kotwâr or village watchman class, who retain many usages of a more primitive type. Thus, the higher class Khangârs profess to have only quite recently adopted the custom of widow marriage and the levirate, which is admittedly authorised among those of the lower class. Among the Nâhargotiyas the clothes of the bridegroom are dyed with turmeric, and with saffron among the other sections. The lower members of the tribe employ no barber or Brâhman except for the actual ceremony, while among the higher class the preliminary negotiations and ceremony are performed in the orthodox way. The more respectable Khangârs are now prohibiting concubinage with women of other tribes, but a low-grade man may keep a concubine of a caste other than his own, provided it be of a grade superior the his own. A man cannot marry a second wife without the distinct leave of the first wife. At a marriage among respectable Khangârs the bridegroom is expected to send five rupees by the barber who arranges the match; the same sum when the lagan or fixing of the wedding day comes off. On the other hand, the father of the bridegroom receives a present of one rupee when he enters the village of the bride, ten rupees when he reaches her door; her mother gives him a rupee when he goes to her room after the marriage: besides which all the bride's relations are expected to give something. All the other ceremonies at a respectable wedding are of the normal character.

Birth Rites.

The birth rites are of the usual kind. When a boy is born the mark of the Swâstika is made on the wall of the house, and on the thirteenth day a cow-dung Swâstika is made and taken to a tank, into which it is flung. Laddu (sweets made of rice) are distributed, which are known as chhathi kâ chânwal . or "The rice of the sixth day."

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There is no sign of the couvade, but it is contrary to etiquette for the father to talk about the birth of his child or to receive the congratulations of his friends. He leaves the grandfather of the child to receive and interview friends who call this purpose.

Religion.

Khangârs are all Hindus, and by preference worshippers of Devi. In addition, they worship the sainted forefathers of the tribe, Nâga Bâba and Kaneriya Bâba. The worship of the latter seems to be confined to the lower section of the tribe. They also make periodical pilgrimage to Kurâr, the original home of the tribe. where they worship Gidwânsa Mâta, a tribal mother who has a shrine on the embankment of the lake. Each family among the lower class Khangârs makes a platform to Kaneriya Bâba at his house, and offers eggs and cocoanuts on the occasions of domestic ceremonies, such as birth or marriage. The worship is performed at night, and is kept secret: only members of the family can receive a share of offerings (prasâd). At marriages the women do the mysterious Mehra Pîja, or woman worship, at which only members of the family on the paternal side are allowed to attend.

Tree Worship.

Tree worship is very well developed among the tribe. The Rajauriya section worship the gunj tree (abrus precatorius); the Jacheriyas, the jacher tree; the Sanauriyas, the nandi tree; the Beliyas, the bel or agle marmelos; just as the Baguliyas worship the bagula or paddy-bird and the Magariyas the magar or alligator. All Khangârs worship the anola (phyllanthus emblica) on the ninth day of the waxing moon of Kârttik. The worship of the bar or banyan tree by the Bargotiya subdivision has been already referred to .

Social Life And Occupation.

Unlike the higher castes, they have a tribal council (panchâyat), with a president (mukhiya), who is appointed from time to time on the ground of fitness for the post. They have some connection with eunuchs. One of their women, they say, was once saved by an eunuch, and to this day eunuchs call Khangârs bhânja or sister's son. The higher class Khangârs will eat only the food which is permitted to Râjputs; those of the lower sort no doubt eat jungle animal, and, it is said, various kinds of vermin; but if they do so, they do not care to admit the fact. There rules of eating are uncertain. According to one account they will eat pakki and kachchi with Kurmis; according to another they will eat kachchi cooked by any Brâhman, Râjput, or Banya, and pakki from the hand of any one but a Chamâr, Dhobi, Mehtar, Kori, or Basor. They will not smoke with any caste but their own. The Nâi is said to be the highest caste which will eat pakki with them. The Kori will eat kachchi and Brâhmans will drink water drawn by them; but it is not quite certain how far these rules apply to the whole caste, or only to the more respectable branch. The Khangârs are landless labourers, except in very few instances. They serve the Bundelas as servants, and as they have a very indifferent reputation, they are very often appointed village watchmen on the same principle that Pâsis very often hold the same position in Oudh and the Eastern Districts of the Province. Though not exactly a criminal tribe, they are prone to commit thefts and Burglaries.

Kharia.: -A primitive Kolarian tribe, of which about 900 persons were returned from the Central Provinces in 1911. [1] They belong to the Bilâspur District and the Jashpur and Raigarh States. The Kharias are one of the most backward of the Kolarian tribes, and appear to be allied to the Mundas and Savars. Colonel Dalton says of them: "In the Chota Nâgpur estate they are found in large communities, and the Kharias belonging to these communities are far more civilised than those who live apart.

[1] See Russell. This article is mainly based on notes taken by Rai Bahâdur Híra Lâl at Raigarh, with extracts from Colonel Dalton's and Sir H. Risley's accounts of the tribe.

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Their best settlements lie near the southern Koel river, which stream they venerate as the Santâls do the Dâmudar, and into it they throw the ashes of their dead." Chota Nâgpur is the home of the Kharias, and their total strength is over a lakh. They are found elsewhere only in Assam, where they have probably migrated to the tea-gardens.

Legend Of Origin.

The Kharia legend of origin resembles that of the Mundas, and tends to show that they are an elder branch of that tribe. They say that a child was born to a woman in the jungle, and she left it to fetch a basket in which to carry it home. On her return she saw a cobra spreading its hood over the child to protect it from the sun. On this account the child was called Nâgvansi (of the race of the cobra), and became the ancestor of the Nâgvansi Râjas of Chota Nâgpur. The Kharias say this child had an elder brother, and the two brothers set out on a journey, the younger riding a horse and the elder carrying a kâwar or banghy with their luggage. When they came to Chota Nâgpur the younger was made king, on which the elder brother also asked for a share of the inheritance. They people then put two caskets before him and asked him to choose one. One of the caskets contained silver and the other only some earth. The elder brother chose that which contained earth, and on this he was told that the fate of himself and his descendants would be to till the soil, and carry banghys as he had been doing. The Kharias say that they are descended from the elder brother, while the younger was the ancestor of the Nâgvansi Râjas, who are really Mundas. They say that they can never enter the house of the Nâgvanis Râjas because they stand in the relation of elder brother-in-law to the Rânis, who are consequently prohibited from looking on the face of a Kharia. This story is exactly like that of the Parjas in connection with the Râjas of Bastar. And as the Parjas are probably an older branch of the Gonds, who were reduced to subjection by the subsequent Râj-Gond immigrants under the ancestors of the Bastar Râjas, so it seems a reasonable hypothesis that the Kharias stood in a similar relationship to the Mundas or Kols. This theory derives some support from the fact that, according to Sir H. Risley, the Mundas will take daughters in marriage from the Kharias, but will not give their daughters to them, and the Kharias speak of the Mundas as their elder brethren.[1] Mr. Híra Lal suggests that the name Kharia is derived from kharkhari, a palanquin or litter, and that the original name Kharkharia has been contracted into Kharia. He states that in the Uriya country Oraons, who carry litters, are also called Kharias. This derivation is in accordance with the tradition of the Kharias that their first ancestor carried a banghy, and with the fact that the Kols are the best professional dhoolie -bearers.

Subcastes.

In Raigarh the Kharias have only two subtribes, the Dîdh, or milk Kharias, and the Delki. Of these the Delki are said to be of mixed origin. They take food from Brâhmans, and explain that they do so because an ancestress went wrong with a Brâhman. It seems likely that they may be descended from the offspring of immigrant Hindus in Chota Nâgpur with Kharia women, like similar subdivisions in other tribes. The Delkis look down on the Dîdh Kharias, saying that the latter eat the flesh of tigers and monkeys, from which the Delkis abstain. In Bengal the tribe have two other divisions, the Erenga and Munda Kharias.

Exogamy And Totemism.

The tribe is divided, like others, into totemistic exogamous septs, which pay reverence to their totems. Thus members of the Kulu (tortoise), Kiro (tiger), Nâg (cobra), Kankul (leopard) and Kuto (crocodile) septs abstain from killing their totem animal, fold their hands in obeisance when they meet it, and taking up some dust from the animal's track place it on their heads as a mark of veneration. Certain septs cannot wholly abstain from the consumption of their sept totem, so they make a compromise. Thus members of the Baa, or rice sept, cannot help eating rice, but they will not eat the scum which gathers over the rice as it is being boiled. Those of the Bilum or salt sept must not take up a little salt on one finger and suck it, but must always use two or more fingers for conveying salt to the mouth, presumably as a mark of respect.

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

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Members of the Suren or stone sept will not make ovens with stones but only with clods of earth. The tribe do not now think they are actually descended from their totems, but tell stories accounting for the connection. Thus the Katang Kondai or bamboo sept say that a girl in the family of their ancestors went to cut bamboos and never came back. Her parents went to search for her and heard a voice calling out from the bamboos, but could not find their daughter. Then they understood that the bamboo was of their own family and must not be cut by them. The supposition is apparently that the girl was transformed into a bamboo.

Marriage.

Marriage between members of the same sept is forbidden, but the rule is not always observed. A brother's daughter may marry a sister's son, but not vice versa. Marriage is always adult, and overtures come from the boy's father. The customary bride-price is twelve bullocks, but many families cannot afford this, and resort is then made to a fiction. The boy's party make twelve models of bullocks in earth, and placing each in a leaf-plate send them to the girl's party, who throw away two, saying that one has been eaten by a tiger, and the other has fallen into a pit and died. The remaining the are returned to the bridegroom's party, who throw away two, saying that they have been sold to provide liquor for the Panch. For two of the eight now left real animals are substituted, and for the other six one rupee each, and the two cattle and six rupees are sent back to the bride's party as the real bride-price. Poor families, however, give four rupees instead of the two cattle, and ten rupees in among them considered as the proper price, though even this is reduced on occasion. The marriage party goes from the bride's to the bridegroom's house, and consists of women only. The men do not go, as they say that on one occasion all the men of a Kharia wedding procession were turned into stones, and they fear to undergo a similar fate. The real reason may probably be that the journey of the bride is a symbolic reminiscence of the time when she was carried off by force, and hence it would be derogatory for the men to accompany her. The bridegroom comes out to meet the bride riding on the shoulders of his brother-in-law or paternal. aunt's husband, who is known as Dherha. He touches the bride, and both of them perform a dance. At the wedding the bridegroom stands on a plough-yoke, and the bride on a grinding-slab. and the Dherha walks seven times round them, sprinkling water on them from a mango leaf. The couple are shut up alone for the night, and next morning the girl goes to the river to wash her husband's clothes. On her return a fowl is killed, and the couple drink two drops of its blood in water mixed with turmeric, as a symbol of the mixing of their own blood. A goat is killed, and they step in its blood and enter their house. The caste-people say to them, "Whenever a Kharia comes to your house, give him a cup of water and tobacco and food if you have it," and the wedding is over.

Taboos As To Food.

After a girl is married her own mother will not eat food cooked by her, as no two Kharias will take food together unless they are of the same sept. When a married daughter goes back to the house of her parents she cooks her food separately, and does not enter their cook-room; if she did all the earthen pots would be defiled and would have to be thrown away. A similar taboo marks the relations of a woman towards her husband's elder brother, who is known as Kura Sasur. She must not enter his house nor sit on a cot or stool before him, nor touch him, nor cook food for him. If she touches him a fine of a fowl with liquor is imposed by the caste, and for his touching her a goat and liquor. This idea may perhaps have been established as a check on the custom of fraternal polyandry, when the idea of the eldest brother taking the father's place as head of the joint family became prevalent.

Widow-Marriage And Divorce.

Widow-marriage is permitted at the price of a feast to the caste, and the payment of a small sum to the woman's family. A widow must leave her children with her first husband's family if requested to do so. If she takes them with her they become entitled to inherit her second husband's property, but receive only a half-share as against a full share taken by his children. Divorce is permitted by mutual agreement or for adultery of the woman.

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But the practice is not looked upon with favour, and a divorced man or woman rarely succeeds in obtaining another mate.

Religion.

The principal deity of the Kharias is a hero called Banda. They say that an Oraon had vowed to give his daughter to the man who would clear the kâns [1]grass of a hillock. Several men tried, and at last Banda did it by cutting out the roots. He then demanded the girl's hand, but the Oraon refused, thinking that Banda had cleared the grass by magic. Then Banda went away and the girl died, and on learning of this Banda went and dug her out of her grave, when she came to life and they were married. Since then Banda has been worshipped. The tribe also venerate their ploughs and on the day of Dasahra they make offerings to the sun.

Funeral Rites.

The tribe bury the dead, placing the head to the north, When the corpse is taken out of the house two grains of rice are thrown to each point of the compass to invite the ancestors of the family to the funeral. And on the way, where two roads meet, the corpse is set down and a little rice and cotton-seed sprinkled on the ground as a guiding mark to the ancestors. Before burial the corpse is anointed with turmeric and oil, and carried seven times round the grave, probably as a symbol of marriage to it. Each relative puts a piece of cloth in the grave, and the dead man's cooking-pots, his axe, stick, pipe and other belongings, and a basketful of rice are buried with him. The mourners set thee plants of orai or khas -khas grass on the grave over the dead man's head, middle and feet, and then they go to a tank and bathe, chewing the roots of this grass. It would appear that the orai grass may be and agent of purification or means of severance from the dead man's ghost, like the leaves of the sacred ním [2] tree.

Bringing Back The Souls Of The Dead.

On the third day they bathe and are shaved, and catch a fish, which is divided among all the relatives however small it may be, and eaten raw with salt, turmeric and garlic. It seems likely that this fish may be considered to represent the dead man's spirit, and is eaten in order to avoid being haunted by his ghost or for some other object, and the fish may be eaten as a substitute for the dead man's body, itself consumed in former times. On the tenth night after the death the soul is called back, a lighted wick being set in a vessel at the cross-roads where the rice and cotton had been sprinkled. They call on the dead man, and when the flame of the lamp wavers in the wind they break the vessel holding the lamp, saying that his soul has come and joined them, and go home. On the following Dasahra festival, when ancestors are worshipped, the spirit of the deceased is mingled with the ancestors. A cock and hen are fed and let loose, and the headman of the sept calls on the soul to come and join the ancestors and give his protection to the family. When a man is killed by a tiger the remains are collected and burnt on the spot. A goat is sacrificed and eaten by the caste, and thereafter, when a wedding takes place in that man's family, a goat is offered to his spirit. The Kharias believe that the spirits of the dead are reborn in children, and on the Bârhi day, a month after the child's birth, they ascertain which ancestor has been reborn by the usual method of divination with grains of rice in water.

Social Customs.

The strict taboos practised by the tribe as regards food have already been mentioned. Men will take food from one another, but not women. Men will also accept food cooked without water from Brâhmans, Râjputs and Bhuiyas. The Kharias will eat almost any kind of flesh, including crocodile, rat, pig, tiger and bear; they have now generally abandoned beef in deference to Hindu prejudice, and also monkeys, though they formerly ate these animals, the Topno sept especially being noted on this account.

[1] Saccharum spontaneum . This grass infests cultivated fields and is very difficult to eradicate.

[2] Melia indica

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Caste Rules And Organisation.

Temporary expulsion from caste is imposed for the usual offences, and also for getting shaved or having clothes washed by a barber or washerman other than a member of the caste. This rule seems to arise either from an ultra-strict desire for social purity or from a hostile reaction against the Hindus for the low estimation in which the Kharias are held. Again it is a caste offence to carry the palanquin of a Kâyasth, a Muhammadan, a Koshta (weaver) or a Nai (barber), or to carry the tâzias or representations of the tomb of Husain in the Muharram procession. The caste have a headman who has the title of Pardhân, with an assistant called Negi and a messenger who is known as Gânda. The headman must always be of the Samer sept, the Negi of the Suren sept, and the Gânda of the Bartha or messenger sept. The headman's duty is to give water for the first time to caste offenders on readmission, the Negi must make all arrangements for the caste feast, and the Gânda goes and summons the tribesmen. In addition to the penalty feast, a cash fine is imposed on an erring member; of this rather more than half is given to the assembled tribesmen for the purpose of buying murra or fried grain on their way home on the following morning. The remaining sum is divided between the three officers, the Pardhân and Negi getting two shares each and the Gânda one share. But the division is only approximate, as the Kharias are unable to do the necessary calculation for an odd number of rupees. The men have their hair tied in a knot on the right side of the head, and women on the left. The women are tattooed, but not the men. Colonel Dalton writes of the tribal dances: [1] "The nuptial dances of the Kharias are very wild, and the gestures of the dancers and the songs all bear more directly than delicately on what is evidently considered the main object of the festivities, the public recognition of the consummation of the marriage. The bride and bridegroom are carried through the dances seated on the hips of two of their companions. Dancing is an amusement to which the Kharias, like all Kolarians, are passionately devoted. The only noticeable difference in their style is that in the energy, vivacity and warmth of their movements they excel all their brethren."

Occupation And Character.

The Kharias say that their original occupation is to carry dhoolies or litters, and this, as well as the social rules prohibiting them from carrying those of certain castes, is in favour of the derivation of the name from kharkhari , a litter. They are also cultivators, and collect forest produce. They are a wild and backward tribe, as shown in the following extracts from an account by Mr. Ball:[2] "The first Kharias I met with were encamped in the jungle at the foot of some hills. The hut was rudely made of a few sâl branches, its occupants being one man, an old and two young women, besides three or four children. At the time of my visit they were taking their morning meal; and as they regarded my presence with the utmost indifference, without even turning round or ceasing from their occupations, I remained for some time watching them. They had evidently recently captured some small animal, but what it was, as they had already eaten the skin, I could not ascertain. As I looked on, the old woman distributed to the others, on plates of sâl leaves, what appeared to be the entrails of the animal, and wrapping up her own portion between a couple of leaves threw it on the fire in order to give it a very primitive cooking. With regard to their ordinary food the Kharias chiefly depend on the jungle for a supply of fruits, leaves and roots. "The Kharias never make iron themselves, but are altogether dependent on the neighbouring bazârs for their supplies. Had they at any period possessed a knowledge of the art of making iron, conservative of their customs as such races are, it is scarcely likely that they would have forgotten it.

[1] Ethnology of Bengal . Jungle Life in India , p. 89.

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It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that there was a period prior to the advent of the Hindus when iron was quite unknown to them--when, owing to the absence of cultivation in the plains, they were even more dependent on the supply of jungle food than they are at present. In those times their axes and their implements for grubbing up roots were in all probability made of stone, and their arrows had tips of the same material. "In their persons the Kharias are very dirty, seldom if ever washing themselves. Their features are decidedly of a low character, not unlike the Bhumij, but there seemed to me to be an absence of any strongly marked type in their faces or build, such as enables one to know a Santâl and even a Kurmi at a glance."

Language.

Of the Kharia dialect Sir George Grierson states that it is closely allied to Savara, and has also some similarity to Korku and Juâng:[1] "Kharia grammar has all the characteristics of a language which is gradually dying out and being superseded by dialects of quite different families. The vocabulary is strongly Aryanised, and Aryan principles have pervaded the grammatical structure. Kharia is no longer a typical Munda language. It is like a palimpsest, 2 the original writing on which can only be recognised with some difficulty." [2] An account of the Kharia dialect has been published in Mr. F. B. Banerjee's Introduction to the Kharia Language (Calcutta. 1894)

Khâriâ.: -Khariâ is the dialect of a cultivating tribe in Chota Nagpur [3] . The number of speakers is about 80,000.

Name of the language.

Khariâ is properly the name of the tribe, and not of the language. We do not known the original meaning of the word. It is possible that it has something to do with the common word for 'man' in the Mundâ language.

Area within which spoken.

The Khariâs are found over a wide tract of country, from Bankura in the east to the Chhattisgarh Feudatory States in the west. They are divided into several sub-tribes, and are mainly cultivators. We do not known anything with certainty about their origin and old wanderings. Many Khariâs have abandoned their original language for some Aryan or Dravidian form of speech. The territory within which Khariâ is spoken does not, therefore, coincide with the home of the tribe. The stronghold of the Khariâ language is the southwestern corner of Ranchi and the adjoining portions of Jashpur and Gangpur. Speakers are also scattered over Udaipur, Raigarh, and Sarangarh. The Khariâs of the Orissa Tributary States, of Bonai and Sambalpur, and probably also those in Bamra, Rairakhol, and Patna, speak Kurukh. Those living in Manbhum and Bankura speak a corrupt Bengali, and those in Sarguja speak Chhattísgarhí. The members of the tribe living in the Sarguja State, however, are able to translate some words into Mundâri which they apparently consider as their old home-tongue. Some of the Khariâs of the Jashpur State have been returned under the head of Bírhar, i .e ., 'wood -men.' Their language is, however, Khariâ, and Bírhar is probably the name given to them by their Mundâ neighbours. Their own word for 'man' is lebu as in Khariâ. Khariâ is a dying language, and it is probably very corrupt in those districts where it is only spoken by very few individuals. In Ranchi, Jashpur, Raigarh, and Sarangarh, the dialect is everywhere the same.

[1] Linguistic Survey , Vol. iv. Munda and Dravidian Languages , p. 22.

[2] lbidem , p. 129

[3] Linguistic Survey of India.

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Number of speakers.

The number of speakers has been estimated as follows for the purposes of this Survey:

A.- Spoken at home-

Bengal Presidency-

Bankura 156

Ranchi 68,321

Jashpur State 2,500

Udaipur State 79

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Total Bengal 71,056

Central Provinces-

Sarangarh 496

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Total 71,552

Kharwis.: -They live in Gujarat and they are merchants from Rajasthan.

Khója.: -In the Madras Census Report of 1901, eleven Khójas are recorded as belonging to a Mussalman tribe of traders from Bombay[1] . For the following note on the Khójas of Southern India, I am indebted to an article by Dr. J. Shortt. [2]"The true Kojahs, or eunuchs, are not numerous in Southern India. They are chiefly to be seen in the houses of wealthy Mussalman nobles, by whom they are placed at the head of their zenanas or harems.

Castration

The Kojahs are properly divided into two classes: (1) Kojahs; (2) Hijras. Sometimes Hindus, Sîdras, and Brâhmans subject themselves to the operation (of castration), of their own accord from a religious impression. Others, finding themselves naturally impotent, consider it necessary to undergo the operation, to avoid being born again at a future birth in the same helpless state. The operation of castration is generally performed by a class of barbers, sometimes by some of the more intelligent of the eunuchs themselves, in the following manner. The patient is made to sit on an upturned new earthen pot, being previously well drugged with opium or bhang. The entire genitals being seized by the left hand, an assistant, who has a bamboo lath slot into which the whole of the genitals are firmly inserted at the root, when the operator, with a sharp razor, runs it down along the face of the lath, and removes penis, testicles and scrotum in one swoop, leaving a large clean open wound behind, in which boiling gingelly (Sesamum indicum) oil is poured to staunch the bleeding, and the wound covered over with a soft rag steeped in warm oil. This is the only dressing applied to the wound, which is renewed daily, while the patient is confined in a supine position to his bed, and lightly fed with conjee (rice gruel), milk, etc. During the operation, the patient is urged to cry out 'Dín' (the faith in Mahomet) three times.

Traditional and modern occupations

"Of the two classes, the Kojahs are the artificially created eunuchs, in comparison to the Hijras (impotents) or natural eunuchs. Some years ago there were three Kojahs at the head of the State prison or Royal Mahal at Vellore, and in charge of some of the wives, descendants, and other female connections of Tippoo Sultan. Tales were often repeated that the zenana women (slaves and adopted girls) were in the habit of stripping them naked, and poking fun at their helplessness. There were two Kojahs in the employment of the late Nobob of the Carnatic.

[1] See Thurston

[2] Journ. Anthrop. Inst., II, 1873.

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They were both Africans. On the death of the Nabob, the Government allowed one of them a pension of fifteen rupees a month. "The second class, Hijras or natural eunuchs as they are termed, are not so, strictly speaking, but are said to be impotent. While some are naturally so from birth, others are impressed with a belief in childhood, and are dressed up in women's clothes, taught to ape their speech and manners, whilst a few adopt it as a profession in after-life. They are chiefly Mussalmans. The hair of the thrown back, tied into a knot, and shelved to the left side, sometimes plaited, ornamented, and allowed to hang down the back. They wear the cholee or short jacket, the saree or petticoat, and put on abundance of nose, ear, finger, and toe rings. They cultivate singing, play the dhol (a drum), and attitudinise.

They go about the bazaars in groups of half a dozen or more, singing songs with the hope of receiving a trifle. [Such a group I saw at Sandîr, who, on hearing that I wished to photograph them, made tracks for another place.-E. T. ] They are not only persistent, but impudent beggars, singing filthy, obscene, and abusive songs, to compel the bazaarmen to give them something. Should they not succeed, they would create a fire and throw in a lot of chillies, the suffocating and irritative smoke producing violent coughing, etc., so that the bazaarmen are compelled to yield to their importunity, and give them a trifle to get rid of their annoyance. While such were the pursuits in the day, at nightfall they resorted to debauchery and low practices by hiring themselves out to a dissipated set of Moslems, who are in the habit of resorting to these people for the purpose, whilst they intoxicate themselves with a preparation termed majoon, being a confection of opium, and a drink termed boja, a species of country beer manufactured from râgi (Eleusine Coracana), which also contains bhang (Indian hemp). In addition to this, they smoke bhang. The Hijras are met with in most of the towns of Southern India, more especially where a large proportion of Mussalmans is found." 1 In Hyderabad, castration used to be performed at about the age of sixteen. A pit, 3^1/2 - feet deep, was dug in the ground, and filled with ashes. After the operations, the patient had to sit on the ashes, with crossed legs, for three days. The operation was performed, under the influence of narcotics, by a Pír-- the head of the Khója community.

Religious rite

I am informed by Mr. G.T. Paddison that, at the annual festival of the Gadabas of Vizagapatam, thorns are set on a swing outside the shrine of the goddess. On these the priest or priestess sits without harm. If the priest is masculine, he has been made neuter. But, if the village is not fortunate enough to possess a eunuch, a woman performs the ceremony. The following notes were recorded by me on the occasion of an interview with some eunuchs living in the city of Madras: "Hindu, aged about 30. Generative organs feebly developed. Is a natural eunuch. Speaks and behaves like a female. Keeps a stall, at which he sells cakes. Goes out singing and dancing with four other eunuchs, and earns from ten annas to a rupee in a night. There are in Madras, about thirty eunuchs, who go about dancing. Others keep shops, or are employed as domestic servants. One well acquainted with the Hindu eunuchs of Madras stated that, when a boy is born with ill-developed genitalia, his unnatural condition is a source of anxiety to his family Such boys run away from home, and join the eunuchs. They are taught to sing and dance, and carry on abominable practices. They are employed by dancing-girls, to decoy paramours to them. For this purpose, they dress up as dancing-girls, and go about the streets. At times of census, they return themselves as males in singing and dancing.

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Khond.: -Kandh. [1] --A Dravidian tribe found in the Uriya-speaking tract of the Sambalpur District and the adjoining Feudatory States of Patna and Kâlâhandi, which up to 1905 were included in the Central Provinces, but now belong to Bihâr and Orissa. The Province formerly contained 168,000, residing mainly in the Khariâr zamíndâri to the southeast of the Raipur District and the Sârangarh State. The tract inhabited by the Khonds was known generally as the Kondhân. The tribe call themselves Kuiloka, or Kuienju, which may possible be derived from ke or kî, a Telugu word for a mountain. [2] Their own traditions as to their origin are of little historical value, but they were almost certainly at one time the rulers of the country in which they now reside. It was the custom until recently for the Râja of Kâlâhandi to sit on the lap of a Khond on his accession while he received the oaths of fealty. The man who held the Râja was the eldest member of a particular family, residing in the village of Gugsai Patna, and had the title of Patnaji. The coronation of a new Râja took place in this village, to which all the chiefs repaired. The Patnaji would be seated on a large rock, richly dressed, with a cloth over his knees on which the Râja sat. The Díwân or minister then tied the turban of state on the Râja's head, while all the other chiefs present held the ends of the cloth. The ceremony fell into abeyance when Raghu Kesari Deo was made Râja on the deposition of his predecessor for misconduct, as the Patnaji refused to install a second Râja, while one previously consecrated by him was still living. The Râja was also accustomed to marry a Khond girl as one of his wives, though latterly he did not allow her to live in the palace. These customs have lately been abandoned; they may probably be interpreted as recognition that the Râjas of Kâlâhandi derived their rights from the Khonds. Many of the zamíndâri estates of Kâlâhandi and Sonpur are still held by members of the tribe.

Tribal Divisions.

There is no strict endogamy within the Khond tribe. It has two main division: the Kutia Khonds who are hillmen and retain their primitive tribal customs, and the plains-dwelling Khonds who have acquired a tincture of Hinduism. The Kutia or hill Khonds are said to be so-called because they break the skulls of animals when they kill them for food; the word kutia meaning one who breaks or smashes. The plain-dwelling Khonds have a number of subdivision which are supposed to be endogamous, though the rule is not strictly observed. Among these the Râj Khonds are the highest, and are usually landed proprietors. A man, however, is not considered to be a Râj Khond unless he possesses some land, and if a Râj Khond takes a bride from another group he descends to it. A similar rule applies among some of the other groups, a man being relegated to his wife's division when he marries into one which is lower than his own. The Dal Khonds may probably have been soldiers, the word dal meaning an army. They are also known as Adi Kandh or the superior Khonds, and as Bâlîsudia or 'Shaven.' At present they usually hold the honourable position of village priest, and have to a certain extent adopted Hindu usages, refusing to eat fowls or buffaloes, and offering the leaves of the tulsi (basil) to their deities. The Kandhanas are so called because they grow turmeric, which is considered rather a low thing to do, and the Pâkhia because they eat the flesh of the por or buffalo. The Gauria are graziers, and the Nâgla or "naked ones" apparently take their name from their paucity of clothing. The Utâr or Satbhuiyân are a degraded group, probably of illegitimate descent; for the other Khonds will take daughters from them, but will not give their daughters to them.

Exogamous Septs.

Traditionally the Khonds have thirty-two exogamous septs, but the number has now increased. All the members of one sept live in the same locality about some central village. Thus the Tîpa sept are collected round the village of Teplagarh in the Patna State, the Loa sept round Sindhekala, the Borga round Bangomunda, and so on. The names of the septs are derived either from the names of villages or from titles or nicknames.

[1] See Russell. Khandh is the Uriya spelling, and Khond or Khond that of the Telugus.

[2] Linguistic survey of India.

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Each sept is further divided into a number of subsepts whose names are of a totemistic nature, being derived from animals, plants, Chhatra umbrella, Hikoka horse, Kelka the kingfisher, Konjaka the monkey, etc. It is a fact that while the names of the septs appear to belong to the Khond language, those of the subsepts are all Uriya words, and this affords some ground for the supposition that they are more recent than the septs, an opinion to which Sir H. Risley inclines. On the other hand, the fact that the subsepts have totemistic names appears difficult to explain under this hypothesis. Members of the subsepts regard the animal or plant after which it is named as sacred. Those of the Kadam group will not stand under the tree of that name. Those of the Narsingha [1] sept will not kill a tiger or eat the meat of any animal wounded or killed by this animal. The same subsept will be found in several different septs, and a man may not marry a woman belonging either to the same sept or subsept as his own. But kinship through females is disregarded, and he may take his maternal uncle's daughter to wife, and in Kâlâhandi is not debarred from wedding his mother's sister. [2]

Marriage.

Marriage is adult and a large price, varying from 12 to 20 head of cattle, was formerly demanded for the bride. This has now, however, been reduced in some localities to two or three animals and a rupee each in lieu of the other, or cattle may be entirely dispensed with and some grain given. If a man cannot afford to purchase a bride, he amy serve his father-in-law for seven years as the condition of obtaining her. A proposal for marriage is made by placing a brass cup and three arrows at the door of the girl's father. He will remove these once to show his reluctance, and they will be again replaced. If he removes them a second time, it signifies his definite refusal of the match, but if he allows them to remain, the bridegroom's friends go to him and say, 'We have noticed a beautiful flower in passing through your village and desire to pluck it.' The wedding procession goes from the bride's to the bridegroom's house as among the Gonds; this custom, as remarked by Mr. Bell, is not improbably a survival of marriage by capture, when the husband carried off his wife and married her at his own house. At the marriage the bride and bridegroom come out, each sitting on the shoulders of one of their relatives. The bridegroom pulls the bride to his side, when a piece of cloth is thrown over them, and they are tied together with a string of new yarn wound round them seven times. A cock is sacrificed, and the cheeks of the couple are singed with burnt bread. They pass the night in a veranda, and next day are taken to a tank, the bridegroom being armed with a bow and arrows. He shoots through each of seven cowdung cakes, the bride after each shot washing his forehead and giving him a green twig for a tooth-brush and some sweets. This is symbolical of their future course of life, when the husband will procure food by hunting, while the wife will wait on him and prepare his food. Sexual intercourse before marriage between a man and girl of the tribe is condoned so long as they are not within the prohibited degrees of relationship, and in Kâlâhandi such liaisons are a matter of ordinary occurrence. If a girl is seduced by one man and subsequently married to another, the first lover usually pays the husband a sum of seven to twelve rupees as compensation. In Sambalpur a girl may choose her own husband, and the couple commonly form an intimacy while engaged in agricultural work. Such unions are know as Udhlia or 'Love in the fields.' If the parents raise any objection to the match the couple elope and return as man and wife, when they have to give a feast to the caste, and if the girl was previously betrothed to another man the husband must pay him compensation. In the last case the union is called Paisa moli or marriage by purchase. A trace of fraternal polyandry survives in the custom by which the younger brothers are allowed access to the elder brother's wife till the time of their own marriage. Widow-marriage and divorce are recognised.

[1] Narsingha means a man-lion and is one of Vishnu's incarnations ; this subsept would seem, therefore, to have been formed since the Khonds adopted Hinduism.

[2] In Orissa, however, relationship through females is a bar to marriage, as recorded in Sir H. Risley's article.

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Customs At Birth.

For one day after a child has been born the mother is allowed no food. On the sixth day she herself shaves the child's head and bites his nails short with her teeth, after which she takes a bow and arrows and stands with the child facing successively to the four points of the compass. The idea of this is to make the child a skilful hunter when he grows up. Children are named in their fifth or sixth year. Names are sometimes given after some personal peculiarity, as Lammudia, long-headed, or Khanja, one having six-fingers; or after some circumstance of the birth, as Ghosian, in compliment to the Ghasia (grass-cutter) woman who acts as midwife; Jugi, because some holy mendicant (Yogi) was halting in the village when the child was born; or a child may be named after the day of the week or month on which it was born. The tribe believe that the souls of the departed are born again as children, and boys have on occasion been named Majhiân Budhi or the old head-woman, whom they suppose to have been born again with a change of sex. Major Macpherson observed the same belief:[1] "To determine the best name for the child, the priest drops grains of rice into a cup of water, naming with each grain a deceased ancestor. He pronounces, from the movements of the seed in the fluid, and form observation made on the person of the infant, which of his progenitors has reappeared in him, and the child generally, but not uniformly, receives the name of that ancestor." When the children are named, they are made to ride a goat or a pig, as a mark of respect, it is said, to the ancestor who has been reborn in them. Names usually recur after the third generation.

Disposal Of The Dead.

The dead are buried as a rule, but the practice of cremating the bodies of adults is increasing . When a body is buried a rupee or a copper coin is tied in the sheet, so that the deceased may not go penniless to the other world. Sometimes the dead man's clothes and bows and arrows are buried with him. On the tenth day the soul is brought back. Outside the village, where two roads meet, rice is offered to a cock, and if it eats, this is a sign that the soul has come. The soul is then asked to ride on a bowstick covered with cloth, and is brought to the house and placed in a corner with those of other relatives. The souls are fed annually with rice on the harvest and Dasahra festivals. In Sambalpur a ball of powdered rice is placed under a tree with a lamp near it, and the first insect that settles on the ball is taken to be the soul, and is brought home and worshipped. The souls of infants who die before the umbilical cord has dropped are not brought back, because they are considered to have scarcely come into existence; and Sir E. Gait records that one of the causes of female infanticide was the belief that the souls of girl-children thus killed would not be born again, and hence the number of future female births would decrease. This belief partially conflicts with that of the change of sex on rebirth mentioned above; but the two might very well exist together. The souls of women who die during pregnancy or after a mis-carriage, or during the monthly period of impurity are also not brought back, no doubt because they are held to be malignant spirits.

Occupation.

The Khond traditionally despises all occupations except those of husbandry, hunting and war. "In Orissa," Sir H. Risley states, "they claim full rights of property in the soil in virtue of having cleared the jungle and prepared the land for cultivation. In some villages individual ownership is unknown, and the land is cultivated on a system of temporary occupation subject to periodical redistribution under the orders of the headman or mâlik." Like the other forest tribes they are improvident and fond of drink. Macpherson [2] described the Khonds as faithful to friends, devoted to their chiefs, resolute, brave, hospitable and laborious; but these high qualities meet with no recognition among the Uriya Hindus, who regard their stupidity as the salient attribute of the Khonds and have various tales in derision of them, like those told of the weavers.

[1] Report on the Khonds, p. 56.

[2] Report, p.59

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They consider the Khonds as only a little superior to the impure Doms (musicians and sweepers), and say, 'Kandh ghare Domna Mantri,' or 'In a Kandh house the Dom is Prime Minister.' This is paralleled by the similar relation between the Gonds and Pardhâns. The arms of the Khonds were a light, long-handled sword with a blade very curiously carved, the bow and arrow, and the sling, no shields being used. The axe also was used with both hands, to strike and parry, its handle being partly defended by brass plates and wire for the latter purpose. The following description of a battle between rival Khond clans was recorded by Major Macpherson as having been given to him by an eye-witness, and may be reproduced for its intrinsic interest; the fight was between the hostile tribes of Bora Mîta and Bora Des in the Gumsur territory:

A Khond Combat.

"At about 12 o'clock in the day the people of Bora Des began to advance in a mass across the S¡âlki river, the boundary between the Districts, into the plain Kurmíngia, where a much smaller force was arrayed to oppose them. The combatants were protected from the neck to the loins by skins, and cloth was wound round their legs down to the heel, but the arms were quite bare. Round the heads of many, too, cloth was wound, and for distinction the people of Bora Mîta wore peacock's feathers in their hair, while those of Bora Des had cock's tail plumes. They advanced with horns blowing, and the gongs beat when they passed a village. The women followed behind carrying pots of water and food for refreshments, and the old men who were past bearing arms were there, giving advice and encouragement. As the adverse parties approached, showers of stones, handed by the women, flew from slings form either side, and when they came within range arrows came in flights and many fell back wounded. At length single combats sprang up betwixt individuals who advanced before the rest, and when the first man fell all rushed to dip their axes in his blood, and hacked the body to pieces. The first man who himself unwounded slew his opponent, struck off the latter's right arm and rushed with it to the priest in the rear, who bore it off as an offering to Loha Pennu (the Iron God or the God of Arms) in his grove. The right arms of the rest who fell were cut off in like manner and heaped in the rear beside the women, and to them the wounded were carried for care, and the fatigued men constantly retired for water. The conflict was at length general. All were engaged hand-to-hand, and now fought fiercely, now paused by common consent for a moment's breathing. In the end the men of Bora Des, although superior in numbers, began to give way, and before four o'clock they were driven across the Sâlki, leaving sixty men dead on the field, while the killed on the side of the Bora Mîta did not exceed thirty. And from the entire ignorance of the Khonds of the simplest healing processes, at least an equal number of the wounded died after the battle. The right hands of the slain were hung up by both parties on the trees of the villages and the dead were carried off to be burned. The people of Bora Des the next morning flung a piece of bloody cloth on the field of battle, a challenge to renew the conflict which was quickly accepted, and so the contest was kept up for three days." The above account could, of course, find no place in a description of the Khonds of this generation, but has been thought worthy of quotation, as detailed descriptions of the manner of fighting of these tribes, now weaned form war by the British Government, are so rarely to be found.

Social Customs.

The Khonds will admit into the community a male orphan child of any superior caste, including the Binjhwârs and Gonds. A virgin of any age of one of these castes will also be admitted. a Gond man who takes a Khond girl to wife can become a Khond by giving a feast. As might be expected the tribe are closely connected with the Gaurs or Uriya shepherds, whose business leads them to frequent the forests. Either a man or woman of the Gaurs can be taken into the community on marrying a Khond, and if a Khond girl marries a Gaur her children, though not herself can become members of that caste. The Khonds will eat all kinds of animals, including rats, snakes and lizards, but with the exception of the Kutia Khonds they have now given up beef. In Kâlâhandi social delinquencies are punished by a fine of so many field-mice, which the Khond considers a great delicacy. The catching of twenty to forty field-mice to liquidate the fine imposes on the culprit a large amount of trouble and labour, and when his task is completed his friends and neighbours fry the mice and have a feast with plenty of liquor, but he himself is not allowed to participate.

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Khond women are profusely tattooed with figures of tress, flowers, fishes, crocodiles, lizards and scorpions on the calf of the leg and the arms, hands and chest, but seldom on the face. This is done for purposes of ornament. Husband and wife do not mention each other's names, and a woman may not speak the names of any of her husband's younger brothers, as, if left a widow, she might subsequently have to marry one of them. A paternal or maternal aunt may not name her nephew, nor a man his younger brother's wife.

Festivals.

The tribe have three principal festivals, known as the Semi Jâtra, the Mâhul Jâtra and the Châwal Dhîba Jâtra. The Semi Jâtra is held on the tenth day of the waning moon of Aghan (November) when the new semi or country beans are roasted, a goat or fowl is sacrificed, and some milk or water is offered to the earth god. From this day the tribe commence eating the new crop of beans. Similarly the Mâhul Jâtra is held on the tenth of the waning moon of Chait (March), and until this date a Khond may eat boiled mahua flowers, but not roasted ones. The principal festival is the Dasahra or Châwal (boiled rice) on the tenth day of the waning moon of Kunwâr (September), which, in the case of the Khonds, marks the rice-harvest. The new rice is washed and boiled and offered to the earth god with the same accompaniment as in the case of the Semi Jâtra, and until this date the Khond may not clean the new rice by washing it before being boiled, though this rule and that regarding the mahua flowers have certain concessions to convenience.

Religion.

The Khond pantheon consists of eighty-four gods, of whom Dharni Deota, the earth god, is the chief. In former times the earth goddess was apparently female and was known as Târi Pennu or Bera Pennu. To her were offered the terrible human sacrifices presently to be described. There is nothing surprising in the change of sex of the divine being, for which parallels are forthcoming. Thus in Chhattísgarh the deity of the earth, who also received human sacrifices, is either Thâkur Deo, a god, or Thakurâni Mai, a goddess. Deota is an Aryan term, and the proper Khond name for a god of Pennu. The earth god is usually accompanied by Bhâtbarsi Deota, the god of hunting. Dharni Deota is represented by a rectangular peg of wood driven into the ground, while Bhâtbarsi has a place at his feet in the shape of piece of conglomerate stone covered with circular granules. Once in four or five years a buffalo is offered to the earth god, in lieu of the human sacrifice which was formerly in vogue. The animal is predestined for sacrifice from its birth, and is allowed to wander loose and graze on the crops at its will. The stone representing Bhâtbarsi is examined periodically, and when the granules on it appear to have increased, it is decided that the time has come for the sacrifice. In Kâlâhandi a lamb is sacrificed every year, and strips of its flesh distributed to all the villagers, who bury it in their fields as a divine agent of fertilisation, in the same way as the flesh of the human victim was formerly buried. The Khond worships his bow and arrows before he goes out hunting, and believes that every hill and valley has its separate deity, who must be propitiated with the promise of a sacrifice before his territory is entered, or he will hide the animals within it from the hunter, and enable them to escape when wounded. These deities are closely related to each other, and it is important when arranging for an expedition to know the connection between them all; this information can be obtained from any one on whom the divine afflatus from time to time descends.

Human Sacrifice.

The following account of the well-known system of human sacrifice, formerly in vogue among the Khonds, is contained in Sir James Frazer's Golden Bough, having been compiled by him from the accounts of Major Macpherson and Major-General John Campbell, two of the officers deputed to suppress it: "The best known case of human sacrifices systematically offered to ensure to ensure good crops is supplied by the Khonds or Kandhs, another Dravidian race in Bengal.

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Our knowledge of them is derived from the accounts written by the British who, forty or fifty years ago, were engaged in putting them down. The sacrifices were offered to the Earth-Goddess, Târi Pennu or Bera Pennu, to keep themselves free from all disease and accidents. In particular they were considered necessary in the cultivation of turmeric, the Khonds arguing that the turmeric could not have a deep red colour without the shedding of blood. The victim or Meriâh was acceptable to the goddess only if he had been purchased, or had been devoted as a child by his father or guardian. Khonds in distress often sold their children for victims, 'considering the beatification of their souls certain, and their death, for the benefit of mankind, the most honourable possible.' A man of the Panua (Pân) tribe was once seen to load a Khond with curses, and finally to spit in his face, because the Khond had sold for a victim his own child, whom the Panua had wished to marry. A party of Khonds, who saw this, immediately pressed forward to comfort the seller, saying, 'Your child has died that all the world may live, and the Earth-Goddess herself will wipe that spittle from your face.' The victims were often kept for years before they were sacrificed. Being regarded as consecrated beings, they were treated with extreme affection, mingled with deference, and were welcomed wherever they went. A Meriâh youth, on attaining maturity, was generally given a wife, who was herself usually a Meriâh or victim, and with her he received a portion of land and farm-stock. Their offspring were also victims. Human sacrifices were offered to the Earth-Goddess by tribes, branches of tribes, or villages, both at periodical festivals and on extraordinary occasions. The periodical sacrifices were generally so arranged by tribes and divisions of tribes that each head of a family was enabled, at least once a year, to procure a shred of flesh for his fields, generally about the time when his chief crop was laid down. The mode of performing these tribal sacrifices was as follows. Ten or twelve days before the sacrifice, the victim was devoted unshorn. Crowds of men and women assembled to witness the sacrifice; none might be excluded, since the sacrifice was declared to be for all mankind. It was preceded by several days of wild revelry and gross debauchery. On the day before the sacrifice the victim, dressed in a new garment, was led forth from the village in solemn procession, with music and dancing, to the Meriâh grove, a clump of high forest tress standing a little way from the village and untouched by the axe. Here they two plants of the sankissâr shrub. He was then anointed with oil, ghee and turmeric, and adorned with flowers; and a species of reverence, which it is not easy to distinguish from adoration, was paid to him throughout the day. A great struggle now arose to obtain the smallest relic from his person; a particle of the turmeric paste with which he was smeared, or a drop of his spittle, was esteemed of sovereign virtue, especially by the women. The crowd danced round the post to music, and addressing the Earth said, 'O God, we offer this sacrifice to you; give us good crops, seasons, and health.' "On the last morning the orgies, which had been scarcely interrupted during the night, were resumed and continued till noon, when they ceased, and the assembly proceeded to consummate the sacrifice. The victim was again anointed with oil, and each person touched the anointed part, and wiped the oil on his own head. In some places they took the victim in procession round the village, from door to door, where some plucked hair from his head, and other begged for a drop of his spittle, with which they anointed their heads. As the victim might not be bound nor make any show of resistance, the bones of his arms and, if necessary, his legs were broken; but often this precaution was rendered unnecessary by stupefying him with opium. The mode of putting him to death varied in different places. One of the commonest modes seems to have been strangulation, or squeezing to death. The branch of a green tree was cleft several feet down the middle; the victim's neck(in other places, his chest) was inserted in the cleft, which the priest, aided by his assistants, strove with all his force to close. Then he wounded the victim slightly with his axe, whereupon the crowd rushed at the wretch and cut the flesh from the bones, leaving the head and bowels untouched. Sometimes he was cut up alive. In Chinna Kimedy he was dragged along the fields, surrounded by the crowd, who, avoiding his head and intestines, hacked the flesh from his body with their knives till he died. Another very common mode of sacrifice in the same district was to fasten the victim to the proboscis of a wooden elephant, which revolved on a stout post, and, as it whirled round, the crowed cut the flesh from the victim while life remained.

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In some villages Major Campbell found as many as fourteen of these wooden elephants, which had been used at sacrifices. [1] In one district the victim was put to death slowly by fire. A low stage was formed, sloping on either side like a roof; upon it they laid the victim, his limbs wound round with cords to confine his struggles. Fires were then lighted and hot brands applied, to make him roll up and down the slopes of the stage as long as possible; for the more tears he shed the more abundant would be the supply of rain. The next day the body was cut to pieces. "The flesh cut form the victim was instantly taken home by the persons who had been deputed by each village to bring it. To secure its rapid arrival it was sometimes forwarded by relays of men, and conveyed with postal fleetness fifty or sixty miles. In each village all who stayed at home fasted rigidly until the flesh arrived. The bearer deposited it in the place of public assembly, where it was received by the priest and the heads of families. The priest divided it into two portions, one of which he offered to the Earth-Goddess by burying it in a hole in the ground with his back turned, and without looking. Then each man added a little earth to bury it, and the priest poured water on the spot from a hill gourd. The other portion of flesh he divided into as many shares as there were heads of houses present. Each head of a house rolled his shred of flesh in leaves and buried it in his favourite field, placing it in the earth behind his back without looking. In some places each man carried his portion of flesh to the stream which watered his fields, and there hung it on a pole. For three days thereafter no house was swept; and, in one district, strict silence was observed, no fire might be given out, on wood cut, and no strangers received. The remains of the human victim (namely, the head, bowels and bones) were watched by strong parties the night after the sacrifice, and next morning they were burned along with a whole sheep, on a funeral pile. The ashes were scattered over mixed with the new corn to preserve it from insects. Sometimes, however, the head bones were buried, not burnt. After the suppression of the human sacrifices, a goat took the place of a human victim. "In these Khond sacrifices the Meriâhs are represented by our authorities as victims offered to propitiate the Earth-Goddess. But from the treatment of the victims both before and after death it appears that the custom cannot be explained as merely a propitiatory sacrifice. A part of the flesh certainly was offered to the Earth-Goddess, but the rest of the flesh was buried by each householder in his fields, and the ashes of the other parts of the body were scattered over the fields, laid as paste on the granaries, or mixed with the new corn. These latter customs imply that to the body of the Meriâh there was ascribed a direct or intrinsic power of making the crops to grow, quite independent of the indirect efficacy which it might have as an offering to secure the good-will of the deity. In other words, the flesh and ashes of the victim were believed to be endowed with a magical or physical power of fertilising the land. The same intrinsic power was ascribed to the blood and tears of the Meriâh, his blood causing the redness of the turmeric, and his tears producing rain; for it can hardly be doubted that, originally at least, the tears were supposed to bring down the rain, not merely to prognosticate it. Similarly the custom of pouring water on the buried flesh of the Meriâh was no doubt a rain-charm. Again, magical power as an attribute of the Meriâh appears in the came from his person, as his hair or spittle. The ascription of such power to the Meriâh indicates that he was much more than a mere man sacrificed to propitiate a deity. Once more, the extreme reverence paid him points to the same conclusion. Major Campbell speaks of the Meriâh as 'being regarded as something more than mortal,' and Major Macpherson says: 'A species of reverence, which it is not easy to distinguish from adoration is paid to him.' In short, the Meriâh appears to have been regarded as divine. As such, he may originally have represented the Earth-Goddess, or perhaps a deity of vegetation, though in later times he came to be regarded rather as a victim offered to a deity than as himself an incarnate god. This later view of the Meriâh as a victim rather than a divinity may perhaps have received undue emphasis from the European writers who have described the Khond religion.

[1] . Sir H. Risley notes that the elephant represented the earth-goddess herself, who here conceived in elephant form. In the hill tracts of Gumsur she was represented in pea-cock form, and the post to which the victim was bound bore the effigy of a peacock. Macpherson also records that when the Khonds attacked the victim they shouted, ' No sin rests on us ; we have bought you with a price.

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Habituated to the later idea of sacrifice as an offering made to a god for the purpose of conciliating his favour, European observers are apt to interpret all religious slaughter in this sense, and to suppose that wherever such slaughter takes place, there must necessarily be a deity to whom the carnage is believed by the slayers to be acceptable. Thus their preconceived ideas unconsciously colour and warp their descriptions of savage rites." [1]

Last Human Sacrifices.

In this Ethnographic Notes in Southern India Mr. Thurston states: [2] "The last recorded Meriâh sacrifice in the Ganjam Mâliâhs occurred in 1852, and there are still Khonds alive who were present at it. Twenty-five descendants of persons who were reserved for sacrifice, but were rescued by Government officers, returned themselves as Meriâh at the Census of 1901. The Khonds have now substituted a buffalo for a human being. The animal is hewn to pieces while alive, and the villagers rush home to their villagers to bury the flesh in the soil, and so secure prosperous crops. The sacrifice is not unaccompanied by risk to the performers, as the buffalo, before dying, frequently kills one or more of its tormentors. It was stated by the officers of the Mâliâh Agency that there was reason to believe that the Râja of Jaipur (Madras), when he was installed upon his father's decease in 1860-61, sacrificed a girl thirteen years of age at the shrine of the Goddess Durga in the town of Jaipur. The last attempted human sacrifice (which was nearly successful) in the Vizagâpatam District, among the Kutia Khonds, was, I believe, in 1880. But the memory of the abandoned practice is kept for which we are indebted to Mr. J. E. Friend-Pereira: [3]

At the time of the great Kiâbon (Campbell) Sâhib's coming, the country was in darkness, it was enveloped in mist.

Having sent pâiks to collect the people of the land, they, having surrounded them, caught the Meriâh sacrificers.

Having caught the Meriâh sacrificers, they brought them; and again they went and seized the evil councillors.

Having seen the chains and shackles, the people were afraid; murder and bloodshed were quelled.

Then the land became beautiful; and a certain Mokodella (Macpherson) Sâhib came. He destroyed the lairs of the tigers and bears in the hills and rocks, and taught wisdom to the people.

After the lapse of a month he built bungalows and schools; and he advised them to learn reading and law.

They learnt wisdom and reading; they acquired silver and gold. Then all the people became wealthy.

Khond Rising In 1882.

In 1882 an armed rising of the Khonds of the Kâlâhandi State occurred as a result of agrarian trouble. The Feudatory Chief had encouraged the settlement in the state of members of the Kolta caste who are excellent cultivators and keenly acquisitive of land. They soon got the Khonds heavily indebted to them for loans of food and seed-grain, and began to oust them from their villages. The Khonds, recognising with some justice that this process was likely to end on their total expropriation from the soil, organized a conspiracy, and in May 1882 rose and murdered the Koltas of a number of villages. The signal for the outbreak was given by passing a knotted string from village to village; other signals were a bent arrow and a branch of a mahua tree. When the Khond leaders were assembled an axe was thrown on to the ground and each of them grasping it in turn swore to join in rising and support his fellows. The taint of cruelty in the tribe is shown by the fact that the Kutia Khonds, on being requested to join in the rising, replied that if the Koltas were to be murdered, they would agree. Some of the murdered Koltas were anointed with turmeric and offered at temples, the Khonds calling them their goats, and in one case a Kolta is believed to have been made a Meriâh sacrifice to the earth god.

[1] Golden Bough , 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 241 sq.

[2] Pages 517-519. Published 1906.

[3] Journal, A. S. of Bengal, 1898.

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The Khonds appeared before the police, who were protecting a body of refugees at the village of Norla, with the hair and scalps of their murdered victims tied to their bows. To the Political Officer, who was sent to suppress the rising, the Khonds complained that the Koltas had degraded them from the position of lords of the soil to that of servants, and justified their plundering of the Koltas on the ground that they were merely taking back the produce of their own land, which the Koltas had stolen form them. They said that if they were not to have back their land Government might either drive them out of the country or exterminate them, and that Koltas and Khonds could no more live together than tigers and goats. Another grievance was that a new Râja of K¡âlâhandi had been installed without their consent having been obtained. The Political Officer, Mr. Berry, hanged seven of the Khond ringleaders and effected a settlement of their grievances. Peace was restored and has not since been broken. At a later date in the same year, 1882, and independent of the uprising, a Khond landholder was convicted and executed for having offered a five-year-old girl as a Meriâh sacrifice.

Language.

The Khond or Kandh language, called Kui by the Khonds themselves, is spoken by rather more than half of the total body of the tribe. It is much more nearly related to Telugu than is Gondi and had no written characters. [1]

Khumras.: -They make mill-stones and provide villages with domestic goods. They live in North and Central India.

Killékyâtâ.: -The Killékyâtas are a Marâthi-speaking people, who amuse villagers with their marionette shows in the Telugu and Canarese countries [2]. "They travel round the villages, and give a performance wherever they can secure sufficient patronage. Contributions take the form of money, or oil for the foot-lights." [3] "Their profession," Mr. S. M. Natesa Sastri writes, [4] "is enacting religious dramas before the village public (whence their name, meaning buffoon). The black kambli (blanket) is their screen, and any mandapa or village châvadi, or open house is their stage. Night is them time for giving the performance. They carry with them pictures painted in colours on deer skins, which are well tanned, and made fine like parchment. The several body are attached to each other by thin iron wires, and the parts are made to move by the assistance of him bamboo splits, and thus the several actions and emotions are represented to the public, to the accompaniment of songs. Their pictures are in most cases very failure painted, with variety and choice of colours. The stories chosen for representation are generally from the Râmâyana and the Mahâbhâratâ, which they however call Râvanyakathâ and Pândavakathâ-the stories of Râvana and the Pândavas." The dead are buried in a seated posture. Some of the women are engaged as professional tattooers.

Killekyatas.: -They live in Maharashtra and Andra Pradesh. They are marionette and puppet showman. Their stories are taken from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and retold in popular languages.

[ 1] Sir. G. A. Grierson's Linguistic Survey, Munda and Dravidian Languages.

[ 2] See Thurston.

[ 3] Gazetteer of the Anantapur district.

[ 4] Indian Review, VII, 1906.

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Kodâ.: -or Korâ. The various Census reports mention a dialect called Kódâ or Kórâ.[1] According to local estimates it is spoken by about 9,000 individuals.

Name Of The Dialect.

The Kódas are constantly confounded with other tribes, and it is often impossible to distinguish them. Their name is given in many various forms such as Kódâ, Kórâ, Khairâ, Khayrâ, and so forth. It cannot have anything to do with the Mundâ word for 'man,' which is har in those districts where most members of the tribe are found. The form Kódâ seems to be the original one. It is probably an Aryan word and means simply 'digger.' This supposition well agrees with the actual facts. The principal occupations of the Kódâs are tank-digging, road-making, and earthwork generally. The Kódâs of Sambalpur and the neighbouring tributary States, Sarangarh, Bamra, and Rairakhol, are mostly cultivators, and they are commonly known as Kisâns, i.e. cultivators. Moreover, the Kódâs do not speak the same language everywhere. In the Central Provinces they mostly speak the Dravidian Kurukh, in the Bengal Presidency some of them speak Mundârí, others Kurukh, and others perhaps Santâlí, and so forth. Kódâ is not, therefore, the name of a language, but of a profession. In Sarguja 569 speakers have been returned under the head of Kódârí. Kódârí simply means the language of the Kódâs, i .e . diggers. The form Kórâ is only the Bengali way of pronouncing the common Kódâ. It has, however, often been confused with the Mundâ word kórâ, a boy, and the Kódâs are therefore often mixed up with the Kîrkîs, the Korwâs, and other connected tribes. Thus the Kódâs, like the Korwâs, are not always distinguished from the Khariâs, and the names Khairâ or Khayrâ mentioned above are probably due to this fact. It has already been remarked that the Kódâs of the Central Provinces speak Kurukh, and the figures referring to these will therefore be shown under the head of that language. It is of course possible that some of the Kódâs of the Central Provinces use a Mundâ form of speech. We have not, however, any facts to corroborate such a supposition. In this place I shall therefore only deal with the Mundâ Kódâs.

The honorific title which the Mundâ Kódâs use to denote themselves is Mudi, and their language is, hence, sometimes called Kórâ-mudi thâr . They are divided into four sub-castes, bearing the names Dhaol, Molo, Sikhariâ, and Bâdâmiâ. According to Mr. Risley, 'The Dhalo sub-caste say that they came from Dhalbhum, the eastern pargana of Singbhum; the Molo from Manbhum; and the Sikhariâ from the tract of country between the Damodar and Barakar rivers bounded on the east by Samet Sikhar or Parasnath Hill. In Bankura, again, besides the Sikhariâ we find three other groups- Sonârekhâ, Jhetiâ, and Guri-Bâwâ, of which the first is associated with the Sonarekha or Subarnarekha river, which rises in the Mundârí country, while the second bears the same name as one of the sub-castes of the Bâgdis.'

Occupation

'The caste believe tank-digging, road-making and earthwork generally to be their characteristic profession, and it may be surmised that their adoption of a comparatively degraded occupation, necessarily involving a more or less wandering manner of life, may have been the cause which led to their separation from the Mundâs who are above all things settled agriculturists, conspicuous for their attachment to their original villages.'

Area within which spoken.

The Kódâs are spread over a rather large area in the central portion of the Bengal Presidency. Their old home is, according to their own traditions, Dhalbhum, Manbhum, and the neighbouring localities, i.e. the tracts now inhabited by the Bhumij and Mundârí tribes. To a great extent, the Kódâs lead a wandering life, and it is not, therefore, possible to draw up exact boundaries of the area within which they are found.

[1] Linguistic Survey of India

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Sub-Dialects.

The language of the Kódâs is not a uniform dialect, and the materials forwarded for the purposes of this Survey are not sufficient for judging its nature in all the various localities. One excellent specimen of Kódâ has been prepared by the Rev. P.O. Bodding. It represents the dialect as spoken in Birbhum. The Kódâs of that district aver that they have come from Singbhum. They are now found on the frontier of the Sonthal Parganas. Their language is almost pure Mundârí. The same is also, according to the Rev. A. Campbell, the case in Manbhum. The Kódâs returned at the last Census from the Sonthal Parganas are not settled inhabitants. They have probably come from Birbhum or Manbhum. One section of them call themselves Dahangâr. The Kódâs of Bankura state that they have come from Nagpur, and that they speak a dialect of Santâlí. One specimen has been forwarded from the district. It is written in a very corrupt form of speech, but seems originally to have been a dialect of the same kind as that spoken in Birbhum, with a tinge of Santâlí. We have no information about the dialect of the Kódâs of other districts. In Athmallik they are said to speak Kurukh, and the same is perhaps the case everywhere in the Orissa Tributary States. It seems as if the Mundâ originally spoke a dialect of Mundârí, but are gradually abandoning their old language for that of their neighbours in districts in which they are only found in small numbers. On the other hand, they have entered their dialect as Kódâ.

Number of Speakers According to information forwarded for the purposes of this Survey, the mundâ dialect Kódâ was spoken in the following districts:

Spoken at home - Burdwan 2,309

Bankura 830

Manbhum 4,043

Sarguja 569

Morbhanj 276

Pal Lahera 215

Talcher 103

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Total 8,345

Spoken abroad-

Angul and Khondmals 604

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Grand Total 8,949

The speakers in Sarguja were returned under the head of Ko¹ârí, and it is not certain that

they are really Kódâs. They are said to speak a Kól dialect.

The corresponding figures at the last Census of 1901 were as follows:

Bengal Presidency- Burdwan 5,115

Birbhum 5,756

Bankura 867

Midnapore 3,853

Hoogly 60

Murshidabad 505

Rajshahi 5

Dinajpur 202

Jalpaiguri 6

Bogra 5

Dacca 22

Sonthal Parganas 2,559

Balasore 707

Manbhum 2,229

Singbhum 32

Orissa Tributary States 1,848

Chota Nagpur Tributary States 56

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Total Bengal Presidency 23,827

Assam 46

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The Kódâs are constantly confused with other tribes. Thus the speakers in Burdwan and Manbhum were reported in the preliminary operations of the Survey as speaking Korwâ but they have turned out to be Kódâs. On the other hand, it is probable that some of the returns under the head of Kódâ in reality belong to some other dialect. Moreover, the Kódâs lead a wandering life, which is only what we should expect when we find them now in one district, and now in another.

Language.

The Kódâ dialect of Birbhum is well illustrated by the specimen printed below. It has been prepared by the Rev. P. O. Bodding of Mohulpahari. It will be seen that the dialect is almost pure Mundârí.

Pronunciation.

The phonetical system is the same as in Mundârí. Compare hara man; nâm, get; chímín, how many; upun-íâ, four;bírít , arise; â-bî, we; lél, see; dîp ', sit; dâl-kích '-â-ñ, I struck him, etc. Final ñ and n are usually retained unchanged; thus íñ, I; ín-kín, they two. Note also forms such as hûdíních ', the young one.

Inflexional system.

The inflexion of nouns and pronouns is the same as in Mundârí. The suffixes of the genitive rén and ak ' are used promiscuously. The form tâkó -ak ' shows that the pronominal genitive inflexes are used as independent words. Compare am -⪪ñ-mé tíñ-ak ', give me, give me my share; anda dahan ken-ak ' tâe-ak ' tahâs-nahâs-ket '-â-e tâe-ak '. On the other hand we also find the usual suffixed forms; thus, tusín-tâe-pé, put -on-his-ye, etc. Note pronouns such as aªní, he; ânâ, that; ník 'í, this, and so forth. The numerals are the same as in Mundârí. Aryan loan-words are used for the numerals six and following; thus, chha six; sât, seven; a™™t, eight; la, nine; das ten. Mí-ñ-at ' means 'one only.' 'One' is míat', mít ',as in Mundârí. The conjugation of verbs is mainly the same as in Mundârí. The pronominal infix and suffix of the third person singular is often ích ' instead of e; thus, dâl-ed-ích '-tan-â-ñ, I strike him. The copula or verb substantive is tan-â-ñ am; tâhan -ken-â-ñ, I was. the suffix et '(passive en) is used to denote past time; thus, dâl-et '-â-ñ, I struck. Note also forms such as bírít '-ketâch ', having arisen; kâ-e-ak '-ken-â , would not.

Kol.: -Munda, Ho[1]-A great tribe of Chota Nâgpur, which has given its name to the Kolarian family of tribes and languages. A part of the District of Singhbhîm near Chaibâsa is named the Kolhân as being the special home of the Larka Kols, but they are distributed all over Chota Nâgpur, whence they have spread to the United Provinces, Central Provinces and Central India.

[1] See Russell.

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It seems probable also that the Koli tribe of Gujarât may be an offshoot of the Kols, who migrated there by way of central India. If the total of the Kols, Mundas and Hos or Larka Kols be taken together they number about a million persons in India. The real strength of the tribe is, however, much greater than this. As shown in the article on that tribe, the Santâls are a branch of the Kols, who have broken off from the parent stock and been given a separate designation by the Hindus. They numbered two million in 1911. The 1 Bhumij (400,000) are also probably a section of the tribe. Sir H. Risley states that they are closely allied to if not identical with the Mundas. In some localities they intermarry with the 2 Mundas and are known as Bhumij Munda. [2] If the Kolis also be taken as an offshoot of the Kol tribe, a further addition of nearly three millions is made to the tribes whose parentage can be traced to this stock. There is little doubt also that other Kolarian tribes, as the Kharias, Khairwars, Korwas and Korkus, whose tribal languages closely approximate to Mundâri, were originally one with the Mundas, but have been separated for so long a period that their direct connection can no longer be proved. The disintegrating causes, which have split up what was originally one into a number of distinct tribes, are probably no more than distance and settlement in different parts of the country, leading to cessation of intermarriage and social intercourse. The tribes have then obtained some variation in the original name or been given separate territorial or occupational designations by the Hindus and their former identity has gradually been forgotten.

Names Of The Tribe.

"The word Kol is probably the Santâli hâr, a man. This word is used under various forms, such as har, hâra, ho and koro by most Munda tribes in order to denote themselves. The change of r to l is familiar and does not give rise to any difficulty." [3] The word Korku is simply a corruption of Kodaku, young men, and there is every probability that the Hindus, hearing the Kol tribe call themselves hor or horo, may have corrupted the name to a form more familiar to themselves. An alternative derivation from the Sanskrit word kola, a pig, is improbable. But it is possible, as suggested by Sir G. Grierson, that after the name had been given, its Sanskrit meaning of pig may have added zest to its employment by the Hindus. The word Munda, Sir H. Risley states, is the common form employed by the Kols for the headman of a village, and has come into general use as an honorific title, as the Santâls call themselves Mânjhi, the Gonds Bhoi, and the Bhangis and other sweepers Mehtar. Munda, like Mehtar, originally a title, has become a popular alternative name for the caste. In Chota Nâgpur those Kols who have partly adopted Hinduism and become to some degree civilised are commonly Known as Munda, while the name Ho or Larka Kol is reserved for the branch of the tribe in Singhbhîm who, as stated by Colonel Dalton, "From their jealous isolation for so many years, their independence, their long occupation of one territory, and their contempt for all other classes that come in contact with them, especially the Hindus, probably furnish the best illustration, not of the Mundâris in their present state, but of what, if left to themselves and permanently located, they were likely to become. Even at the present day the exclusiveness of the old Hos is remarkable. They will not allow 'foreigners' to hold land near their villages; and indeed if it were left to them no strangers would be permitted to settle in the Kolhân." It is this branch of the tribe whose members have come several times into contact with British troops, and on account of their bravery and warlike disposition they are called the Larka or fighting Kols. The Mundas on the other hand appear now to be a very mixed group. The list of their subcastes given [4] by Sir H. Risley includes the Khangâr, Kharia, Mahali, Oraon and Savar Mundas, all of which are the names of separate tribes, now considered as distinct, akin to them; whole the Bhuinhâr or landholders and Nâgvansi or Mundas of the royal house are apparently the aristocracy of the original tribe.

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

[2] The Mundas and their country , p. 400.

[3] Linguistic Survey, Munda and Dravidian Languages, vol. vi. p. 7.

[4] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Munda.

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Origin Of The Kolarian Tribes.

The Munda languages have been shown by Sir G. Grierson to have originated from the same source as those spoken in the Indo-Pacific islands and the Malay Peninsula. "The Mundas, the Mon-Khmer, the wild tribes of the Malay Peninsula and the Nicobarese all use forms of speech which can be traced back to a common source though they mutually differ widely from each other." [ 1] It would appear therefore that the Mundas, the oldest known inhabitants of India, perhaps came originally from the south-east, the islands of the Indian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, unless India was their original home and these countries were colonised from it. Sir E. Gait states: "Geologists tell us that the Indian Peninsula was formerly cut off from the north of Asia by sea, while a land connection existed on the one side with Madagascar and on the other with the Malay Archipelago; and though there is nothing to show that India was then inhabited we know that it was so in Palaeolithic times, when communication was probably still easier with the countries to the north-east and south-west than with those beyond the Himalayas." [ 2] In the south of India, however, no traces of Munda languages remain at present, and it seems therefore necessary to conclude that the Mundas of the Central Provinces and Chota Nâgpur have been separated from the tribes of Malaysia who have spoken cognate languages for an indefinitely long period, or else that they did not come through southern India to these countries, but by way of Assam and Bengal or by sea through Orissa. There is good reason to believe from the names of places and from local tradition that the Munda tribes were once spread over Bihâr and parts of the Ganges valley; and if the Kolis are an offshoot of the Kols, as is supposed, they also penetrated across Central India to the sea in Gujarât and the hills of the Western Ghâts. It is presumed that the advance of the Aryans or Hindus drove the Mundas from the open country to the seclusion of the hills and forests. The Munda and Dravidian languages are shown by Sir G. Grierson to be distinct groups without any real connection.

The Kolarians And Dravidians.

Though the physical characteristics of the two sets of tribes display no marked points of difference, it has been generally held by ethnologists who know them that they represent two distinct waves of immigration, and the absence of connection between their languages bears out this view. It has always been supposed that the Mundas were in the country of Chota Nâgpur and the Central Provinces first, and that the Dravidians, the Gonds, Khonds and Oraons came afterwards. The grounds for this view are the more advanced culture of the Dravidians; the fact that where the two sets of tribes are in contact those of the Munda group have been ousted from the more open and fertile country, of which according to tradition they were formerly in possession; and the practice of the Gonds and other Dravidian tribes of employing the Baigas, Bhuiyas and other Munda tribes for their village priests, which is an acknowledgment that the latter as the earlier residents have a more familiar acquaintance with the local deities, and can solicit their favour and protection with more prospect of success. Such a belief is the more easily understood when it is remembered that these deities are not infrequently either the human ancestors of the earliest residents or the local animals and plants from which they supposed themselves to be descended.

Date Of The Dravidian Immigration. The Dravidian languages, Gondi, Kurukh and Khond, are of one family with Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Canarese, and their home is the south of India. As state [ 3] by Sir E. Gait, there is at present no evidence to show that the Dravidians came to southern India from any other part of the world, and the languages may have originated there.

[1] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, p. 15.

[2] Introduction to The Mundas and their Country, p. 9.

[3] Introduction to The Mundas and their Country , p. 9.

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The existence of the small Brahui tribe in Baluchistân, who speak a Dravidian language but have no physical resemblance to other Dravidian races, cannot be satisfactorily explained, but as he points out this is no reason for holding that the whole body of speakers of Dravidian languages entered India from the north-west, and, with the exception of this small group of Brahuis, penetrated to the south of India and settled there without leaving any traces of their passage. The Dravidian languages occupy a large area in Madras, Mysore and Hyderâbâd, and they extend north into the Central Provinces and Chota Nâgpur, where they die out, practically not being found west and north of this tract. As the languages are more highly developed and the culture of their speakers is far more advanced in the south, it is justifiable to suppose, pending evidence to the country, that the south is their home and that they have spread thence as far north as the Central Provinces. The Gonds and Oraons too have stories to the effect that they came from the south. It has hitherto been believed, at least in the Central Provinces, that both the Gonds and Baigas have been settled in this territory for an indefinite period, that is, from prior to any Aryan or Hindu immigration. Mr. H.A. Crump, however, has questioned this assumption. He points out that the Baiga tribe have entirely lost their own language and speak a dialect of Chhattísgarhi Hindi in Mandla, while half the Gonds still speak Gondi. If the Baigas and Gonds were settled here together before the arrival of any Hindus, how is it that the Baigas do not speak Gondi instead of Hindi? A comparison of the caste and language tables of the census of 1901 shows that several of the Munda tribes have entirely lost their own language, among these being the Binjhwâr, Baiga. Bhaina, Bhuiya, Bhumij. Chero and Khairwâr, and the Bhíls and Kolis if these are held to be Munda tribes. None of these tribes have adopted a Dravidian languages, but all speak corrupt forms of the current Aryan vernaculars derived from Sanskrit. The Mundas and Hos themselves with the Kharias, Santâls and Korkus retain Munda languages. On the other hand half of the Gonds, nearly all the Oraons and three-fourths of the Khonds still preserve their own Dravidian speech. It would therefore seem that the Munda tribes who speak Aryan vernaculars must have been in close contact with Hindu peoples at the time they lost their own language and not with Gonds or Oraons. In the Central Provinces it is known that Râjpît dynasties were ruling in Jubbulpore form the sixth to the twelfth century, in Seoni about the sixth century and in Bhândak near Chânda from an early period as well as at Ratanpur in Chhattísgarh. From about the twelfth century these disappear and there is a blank till the fourteenth century century or later, when Gond kingdoms are found established at Kherla in Betul, at Deogarh in Chhindwâra, at Garha-mandla [1] including the Jubbulpore country, and at Chânda fourteen miles from Bhândak. It seems clear then that the Hindu dynasties were subverted by the Gonds after the Muhammadan invasions of northern India had weakened or destroyed the central powers of the Hindus and prevented any assistance being afforded to the outlying settlements. But it seems prima facie more likely that the Hindu kingdoms of the Central Provinces should have been destroyed by an invasion of barbarians from without rather than by successful risings of their own subjects once thoroughly subdued. The Haihaya Râjpît dynasty of Ratanpur was the only one which survived, all the others being supplanted by Gond states. If then the Gond incursion was subsequent to the establishment of the old Hindu kingdoms, its probable date may be placed from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, the subjugation of the greater part of the Province being no doubt a gradual affair. In favour of this it may be noted that some recollection still exists of the settlement of the Oraons in Chota Nâgpur being later than that of the Mundas, while had it taken place long before this time all tradition of it would probably have been forgotten. In Chhindwâra the legend still remains that the founder of the Deogarh Gond dynasty, Jâtba, slew and supplanted the Gaoli kings Ransur and Ghansur, who were previously ruling on the plateau. And the Bastar Râj-Gond Râjas have a story that they came from Warangal in the south so late as the fourteenth century, accompanied by the ancestors of some of the existing Bastar tribes. Jadu Rai, the founder of the Gond-Râjpît dynasty of Garha-Mandla, is supposed to have lived near the Godâvari.

[1] Garha is six miles from Jubbulpore.

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A large section of the Gonds of the Central Provinces are known as Râwanvansi or of the race of Râwan, the demon king of Ceylon, who was conquered by Râma. The Oraons also claim to be descended from Râwan. [1] This name and story must clearly have been given to the tribes by the Hindus, and the explanation appears to be that the Hindus considered the Dravidian Gonds and Oraons to have been the enemy encountered in the Aryan expedition to southern India and Ceylon, which is dimly recorded in the legend of Râma. On the other hand the Bhuiyas, a Munda tribe, call themselves Pâwan-ka-put or Children of the Wind, that is of the race of Hanumân, who was the Son of the Wind; and this name would appear to show, as suggested by Colonel Dalton, that the Munda tribes gave assistance to the Aryan expedition and accompanied it, an alliance which has been preserved in the tale of the exploits of Hanumân and his army of apes. Similarly the name of the Râmosis caste of Berâr is a corruption of Râmvansi or of the race of Râma; and the Râmosis appear to be an offshoot of the Bhíls or Kolis, both of whom are not improbably Munda tribes. A Hindu writer compared the Bhíl auxiliaries in the camp of the famous Chalukya Râjpît king Sidhrâj of Gujarât to Hanumân and his apes, on account of 2 their agility. [2] These instances seem to be in favour of the idea that the Munda tribes assisted the Aryans, and if this were the case it would appear to be a legitimate inference that at the same period the Dravidian tribes were still in southern India and not mixed up with the Munda tribes in the Central Provinces and Chota Nâgpur as at present. Though the evidence is perhaps not very strong, the hypothesis, as suggested by Mr. Crump, that the settlement of the Gonds in the Central Provinces is comparatively recent and subsequent to the early Râjpît dynasties, is well worth putting forward.

Strength Of The Kols In The Central Provinces.

In the Central Provinces the Kols and Mundas numbered 85,000 persons in 1911. The name Kol is generally used except in the Chota Nâgpur States, but it seems probable that the Kols who have immigrated here really belong to the Munda tribe of Chota Nâgpur. About 52,000 Kols, or nearly a third of the total number, reside in the Jubbulpore District, and the remainder are scattered over all Districts and States of the Province.

Legend Of Origin.

The Kol legend of origin is that Sing-Bonga or the Sun created a boy and a girl and put them together in a cave to people the world; but finding them to be too innocent to give hope of progeny he instructed them in the art of making rice-beer, which inflames the passions, and in course of time they had twelve sons and twelve daughters. The divine origin ascribed by the Kols, in common with other peoples, to their favourite liquor may be noticed. The children were divided into pairs, and Sing-Bonga set before them various kinds of food to choose for their sustenance before starting out into the world; and the fate of their descendants depended on their choice. Thus the first and second pairs took the flesh of bullocks and buffaloes, and from them are descended the Kols and Bhumij; one pair took shell-fish and became Bhuiyas, two pairs took pigs and were the ancestors the Brâhman and Râjpît castes, and other pairs took goats and fish, from whom the various Sîdra castes are sprung. One pair got nothing, and seeing this the Kol pair gave them of their superfluity and the descendants of these became the Ghasias, who are menials in Kol villages and supported by the cultivators. The Larka Kols attribute their strength and fine physique to the fact that they eat beef. When they first met English soldiers in the beginning of the nineteenth century the Kols were quickly impressed by their wonderful fighting powers, and finding that the English too ate the flesh of bullocks, paid them the high compliment of assigning to them the same pair of ancestors as themselves. The Nâgvansi Râjas of Chota Nâgpur say that their original ancestor was a snake-god who assumed human form and married a Brâhman's daughter. But, like Lohengrin, the condition of his remaining a man was that he should not disclose his origin, and when he was finally brought to satisfy the incessant curiosity of his wife, he reverted to his first shape, and she burned herself from remorse.

[1] The Mundas and their Country , p. 124.

[2] Râsmâla , i. p. 113.

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Their child was 4found by some wood-cutters lying in the forest beneath a cobra's extended hood, and was brought up in their family. He subsequently became king, and his seven elder brother attended him as banghy-bears when he rode abroad. The Mundas are said to be descended from the seven brothers, and their sign-manual is kawar or banghy.[1] Hence the Râjas of Chota Nâgpur regard the Mundas as their elder brothers, and the Rânis veil their faces when they meet a Munda as to a husband's elder brother. The probable explanation of the story is that the Hos or Mundas, from whom the kings are sprung, were a separate section of the tribe who subdued the older Mundas. In memory of their progenitor the Nâgvansi Râjas were a turban folded to resemble the coils of a snake with a projection over the brow for its head.[2]

Tribal Subdivisions.

The subcastes of the Kols in the Central Provinces differ entirely from those in Chota Nâgpur. Of the important subcastes here the Rautia and Rautele take their name from Râwat, a prince, and appear to be a military or landholding group. In Chota Nâgpur the Rautias are a separate caste, holding land. The Rautia Kols practise hypergamy with the Rauteles, taking their daughters in marriage but not giving daughters. They will eat with Rauteles at wedding feasts only and not on any other occasion. The Thâkuria, from thâkur, a lord, are said to be the progeny of Râjput fathers and Kol mothers; and the Kagwaria to be named from kagwâr, an offering made to ancestors in the month of Kunwâr. The Desâha, from desh, native country, belong principally to Rewah. In some localities Bharias, Savars and Khairwârs are found who call themselves Kols and appear to be included in the tribe. The Bharias may be an offshoot of the Bhar tribe of northern India. It has already been that several groups of other tribes have amalgamated with the Mundas of Chota Nâgpur, probably in a great measure from intermarriage, and a similar fusion seems to have occurred in the Central Provinces. Intermarriage between the different subtribes, though nominally prohibited, not infrequently takes place, and a girl forming a liaison with a man of another division may be married to him and received into it. The Rautias, however, say that they forbid this practice.

Totemism.

The Mandla Kols have a number of totemistic septs. The Bargaiyan are really called after a village Bargaon, but they connect their name with the bar or banyan tree, and revere it. At their weddings a branch of this tree is laid on the roof of the marriage-shed, and the wedding-cakes are cooked in a fire made of the wood of the banyan tree and served to all the relations of the sept on its leaves. At other times they will not pluck a leaf or a branch from a banyan tree or even go beneath its shade. The Kathotia sept is named after kathota, a bowl, but they revere the tiger. Bagheshwar Deo, the tiger-god, resides on a little platform in their verandas. They may not join in a tiger-beat nor sit up for a tiger over a kill. In the latter case they think that the tiger would not come and would be deprived of his food, and all the members of their family would get ill. If a tiger takes one of their cattle, they think there has been some neglect in their worship of him. They say that if one of them meets a tiger in the forest he will fold his hands and say, 'Mahârâj, let me pass,' and the tiger will then get out of his way. If a tiger is killed within the limits of his village a Kathotia Kol will throw away his earthen pots as in mourning for a relative, have his head shaved and feed a few men of his sept. The Katharia sept take their name from kathri, a mattress. A member of this sept must never have a mattress in his house nor wear clothes sewn in cross-pieces as mattresses are sewn. The word kathri should never be mentioned before him as he thinks some great misfortune would thereby happen to his family, but this belief is falling into abeyance. The name of the Mudia or Mudrundia sept is said to mean shaven head, but they apparently revere the white kumhra or gourd, perhaps because it has some resemblance to a shaven head. They give a white gourd to a woman on the third day after she has borne a child, and her family then do not eat this vegetable three years.

[1] Two baskets slung from a stick across the shoulders.

[2] Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal , p. 166.

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At the expiration of the period the head of the family offers a chicken to Dulha Deo, frying it with the feathers left on the head, and eating the head and feet himself. Women may not join in this sacrifice. The Kumraya sept revere the brown kumhra or gourd. They grow this vegetable on the thatch of their roof, and from the time of planting it until the fruits have been plucked they do not touch it. The Bhuwar sept are named after bhu or bhumi, the earth. They must always sleep on the earth and not on cots. Other sept are Nathunia, a nose-ring; Karpatia, a kind of grass; and Binjhwâr, from the tribe of that name. From Raigarh a separate group of septs is reported, the names of which further demonstrate the mixed nature of the tribe. Among these are Bandi, a slave; Kawar, Gond, Dhanuhâr, Birjhia, all of which are the name of distinct tribes; Sonwâni, gold-water; Keriâri, or bridle; Khînta, a peg; and Kapât, a shutter.

Marriage Customs.

Marriage within the sept is prohibited, but violations of this rule are not infrequent. Outside the sept a man may marry any woman except the sisters of his mother or step-mother. Where, is some localities, the septs have been forgotten, marriage is forbidden between those relatives to whom the sacramental cakes are distributed at a wedding. Among the Mundas, before a father sets out to seek a bride for his son, he invites three or four relatives, and at midnight taking bottle or liquor pours a little over the household god as a libation and drinks the rest with them. They go to the girls village, and addressing her father say that they have come to hunt. He asks them in what jungle the bones of his ancestors are buried. If the girl's father is satisfied with the match, he then agrees to it. A bride-price of Rs. 10-8 is paid in the Central Provinces. Among the Hos of Chota Nâgpur so large a number of cattle was formerly demanded in exchange for a bride that many girls were never married. Afterwards it was reduced to ten head of cattle, and it was decided that one pair of bullocks, one cow and seven rupees should be equivalent to ten head, while for poor families Rs. 7 was to be the whole price. [ 1] Among the Mundas of Raigarh the price is three or four bullocks, but poor men may give Rs. 12 or Rs. 18 in substitution. Here weddings may only be held in the three months of Aghan, Mâgh and Phâgun [ 2] and preferably in Mâgh. Their marriage ceremony is very simple, the bridegroom simply smearing vermilion on the bride's forehead, after which water is poured over the heads of the pair. Two pots of liquor are placed beside them during the ceremony. It is also a good marriage if a girl of her own accord goes and lives in a man's house and he shows his acceptance by dabbing vermilion on her. But her offspring are of inferior status to those of a regular marriage. The Kols of Jubbulpore and Mandla have adopted the regular Hindu ceremony.

Divorce And Widow-Marriage.

Divorce and widow-marriage are permitted. In Raigarh the widow is bound to marry her deceased husband's younger brother, but not elsewhere. Among these Mundas, if divorce is effected by mutual consent, the husband must give his wife a pair of loin-cloths and provisions for six months. Polygamy is seldom practised, as women can earn their own living, and if a wife is superseded she will often run away home or set up in a house by herself. In Mandla a divorce can be obtained by party, the person in fault having to pay a fee of Rs. 1-4 to the panchâyat; the woman then breaks her bangles and the divorce is complete.

Religion.

At the head of the Munda pantheon, Sir H. Risley states, [3] stands Sing-Bonga or the sun, a beneficent but in-effective deity who concerns himself but little with human affairs. But he may be invoked to avert sickness or calamity, and to this end sacrifices of white goats or white cocks are offered to him. Next to him comes Marang Buru, the mountain god, who resides on the summit of the most prominent hill in the neighbourhood. Animals are sacrificed to him here, and the heads left and appropriated by the priest.

[1] Dalton, p. 152.

[2] November, January and February.

[3] Tribes and Castes, art. Munda.

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He controls the rainfall, and is appealed to in time of drought and when epidemic sickness is abroad. Other deities preside over rivers, tanks, wells and springs, and it is believed that when offended they cause people who bathe in the water to be attacked by leprosy and skin diseases. Even the low swampy rice-fields are haunted by separate spirits. Deswâli is the god of the village, and he lives with his wife in the Sarna or sacred grove, a patch of the primeval forest left intact to afford a refuge for the forest gods. Every village has its own Deswâli, who is held responsible for the crops, and receives an offering of a buffalo at the agricultural festival. The Jubbbulpore Kols have entirely abandoned their tribal gods and now worship Hindu deities. Devi is their favourite goddess, and they carry her iron tridents about with them wherever they go. Twice in the year, when the baskets of wheat or Gardens of Adonis are sown in the name of Devi, she descends on some of her worshippers, and they become possessed and pierce their cheeks with the trident, sometimes leaving it in the face for hours, with one or two men standing beside to support it. When the trident is taken out a quid of betel is given to the wounded man, and the wound is believed to heal up at once. These Kols also employ Brâhmans for their ceremonies. Before sowing their fields they say- Thuiya, Bhuiya, [ 1] Dharti Mâta, Thâkur Deo, Bhainsa Sur; khîb paida kariye Mahârâj; that is, they invoke Mother Earth, Thâkur Deo, the corn-god, and Bhainsâsur, the buffalo demon, to give them good crops; and as they say this they throw a handful of grain in the air in the name of each god.

Witchcraft.

"Among the Hos," Colonel Dalton states, "all disease in men or animals is attributed to one of two causes-- the wrath of some evil spirit who has to be appeased, or the spell of some witch or sorcerer who should be destroyed or driven out of the land. In the latter case a sokha or witch-finder is employed to ascertain who has cast the spell, and various methods of divination are resorted to. It is believed that witches breed witches and sorcerers. The taint is in the blood. When, during the Mutiny, Singhbhîm District was left for a short time without officers, a terrible raid was made against all who had been suspected for years of dealing with the evil one, and the most atrocious murders were committed. Young men were told off for the duty by the elders; neither age nor sex were spared. When order was restored, these crimes were brought to light, and the actual perpetrators punished; and since then we have not only had no recurrence of witch murders, but the superstition itself is dying out in the Kolhân." Mr. H.C. Streat-feild states that among the Mundas witches used to be hung head downwards from a pípal tree over a slow fire, the whole village dancing as they were gradually roasted, but whether this ceremony was purely vindictive or had any other significance there is nothing to show [ 2]

Funeral Rites.

The Hos of Chota Nâgpur were accustomed to place large slabs of stone as tombstones over their graves, and a collection of these massive gravestones indelibly marks the site of every Ho or Mundâri village, being still found in parts of the country where there have been no Kols for ages. In addition to this slab, a megalithic monument is set up to the deceased in some conspicuous spot outside the village; the pillars vary in height from five or six to fifteen feet, and apparently fragments of rock of the most fantastic shape are most favoured. All the clothes, ornaments and agricultural implements of the dead man were buried with the body. The funeral rites were of a some-what touching character:[3] "When all is ready, a funeral party collects in front of the deceased's house, three or four men with very deep-toned drums, and a group of about eight young girls. The chief mourner comes forth, carrying the bones exposed on a decorated tray, and behind him the girls form two rows, carrying empty or broken pitchers or battered brass vessels, while the men with drums bring up the rear. The procession advances with a ghostly dancing movement, slow and solemn as a minuet, in time to the beat of the deep-toned drums, not straight forward, but mysteriously gliding-now right, now marking time, all in the same mournful cadence.

[1] Thuiya, Bhuiya is a mere jingle.

[2] J. A. S. B. , No. 1 of 1903, p. 31.

[3] Dalton, ibidem.

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In this manner the remains are taken to the house of every friend and relative of the deceased within a circle of a few miles, and to every house in the village. As the procession approaches each house in the manner described, the inmates all come out, and the tray having been placed on the ground at their door, they kneel over it and mourn. The bones are also thus conveyed to all his favourite haunts, the fields he cultivated, the grove he planted, the tank he excavated, the threshing-floor where he worked with his people, the Akhâra or dancing-arena where he made merry with them, and each spot which is hallowed with reminiscences of the deceased draws forth fresh tears." In Sambalpur [1] the dead body of a Munda is washed in wine before interment, and a mark of vermilion is made on the forehead. The mourners drink wine sitting by the grave. They then bathe, and catch a small fish and roast it on a fire, smearing their hands with oil and warming them at the fire. It would appear that this last rite is a purification of the hands after contact with the dead body, but whether the fish is meant to represent the deceased and the roasting of it is a substitute for the rite of cremation is not clear. During the eight days of mourning the relatives abstain from flesh, but they eat fish. The Kols of Jubbulpore now bury or burn the dead, and observe mourning exactly like ordinary Hindus.

Inheritance.

Succession among the Mundas passes to sons only. Failing these, the property goes to the father or brothers if any. At partition the eldest son as a rule gets a slightly larger share than the other sons, a piece of land, and in well-to-do families a yoke of plough cattle, or only a bullock or a goat, and sometimes a bundle of paddy weighing from 10 to 16 maunds.[2] Partition cannot usually be made till the youngest son is of age. Daughters get no share in the inheritance, and are allotted among the sons just like live-stock. Thus if a man dies leaving three sons and three daughters and thirty head of cattle, on a division each son would get ten head of cattle and one sister; but should there be only one sister, they wait till she marries and divide the bride-price. A father may, however, in his life-time make presents of cash or movables to a daughter, though not of land. It is doubtful whether these rules still obtain among the Hinduised Kols.

Physical Appearance.

"The Mundas," Colonel Dalton states, "are one of the finest of the aboriginal tribes. The men average something like 5 feet 6 inches, and many of them are remarkably well developed and muscular. Their skin is of the darkest brown, almost black in many cases, and their features coarse, with broad flat noses, low foreheads and thick lips, presenting as a rule a by no means prepossessing appearance. The women are often more pleasing, the coarseness of the features being less accentuated or less noticeable on account of the extreme good-nature and happy carelessness that seldom fail to mark their countenance. They are fond of ornament, and a group of men and girls fully decked out for a festival makes a fine show. Every ornament in the shape of bead necklace, silver collar, bracelet, armlet and anklet would seem to have been brought out for the occasion. The head-dress is the crowning point of the turn-out. The long black hair is gathered up in a big coil, most often artificially enlarged, the whole being fastened at the right-hand side of the back of the head just on a level with and touching the right ear. In this knot are fastened all sorts of ornaments of brass and silver, and surmounting it, stuck in every available space, are gay plumes of feathers that nod and wave bravely with the movements of the dance. The ears are distorted almost beyond recognition by huge earrings that pierce the lobe and smaller ones that ornament them all round." In Mandla women are tattooed with the figure of a man or a man on horseback, and on the legs behind also with the figure of a man. They are not tattooed on the face. Men are never tattooed.

[1] Mr. B. C. Mazumdâr's Monograph.

[2] Roy, ibidem , p. 428.

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Dances.

"Dancing is the inevitable accompaniment of every gathering, and they have a great variety suitable to the special times and seasons The motion is slow and graceful, a monotonous singsong being kept up all through. The steps are in perfect time and the action wonderfully even and regular. This is particularly noticeable in some of the variations of the dances representing the different seasons and the necessary acts of cultivation that each brings with it. In one the dancers bending down make a motion with their hands as though they were sowing the grain, keeping step with their feet all the time. Then come the reaping of the crop and the binding of the sheaves, all done in perfect time and rhythm, and making with the continuous droning of the voice a quaint and picturesque performance.' In the Central Provinces the Kols now dance the Karma dance of the Gonds, but they dance it in more lively fashion. The step consists simply in advancing or withdrawing one foot and bringing the other up or back beside it. The men and women stand opposite each other in two lines, holding hands, and the musicians alternately face each line and advance and retreat with them. Then the liens move round in a circle with the musicians in the centre.

Social Rules And Offences.

Munda boys are allowed to eat food cooked by other castes, except the very lowest, until they are married, and girls until they let their hair grow long, which is usually at the age of six or seven. After this they do not take food as a tribe from any other caste, even a Brâhman, though some subtribes accept it from certain castes as the Telis (oil-pressers) and Sundis or liquor-vendors. In Jubbulpore the Kols take food from Kurmis, Dhímars and Ahírs. The Mundas will eat almost all kinds of flesh, including tigers and pigs, while in Raigarh they consider monkey as a delicacy, hunting these animals with dogs. In the Central Provinces they have generally adjured beef, in deference to Hindu prejudice, and sometimes refuse field-mice. In Sambalpur a woman is finally expelled from caste for a liaison with one of the impure Gândas, Ghasias or Doms, and a man is expelled for taking food from a woman of these castes, but adultery with her may be expiated by a big feast. Other offences are much the same as among the Hindus. A woman who gets her ear torn through where it is pierced is put out of caste for six months or a year and has to give two feats on readmission.

The Caste Panchâyat.

In Mandla the head of the panchâyat is known as Gaontia, a name for a village headman, and he is always of the Bargaiya sept, the office being usually hereditary. When a serious offence is committed the Gaontia fixes a period of six months to a year for the readmission of the culprit, or the latter begs for reinstatement when he has obtained the materials for the penalty feast. A feast for the whole Rautele subcaste will entail 500 seers or nearly 9 cwt. of kodon, costing perhaps Rs. 30, and they say there would not be enough left for a cold breakfast for the offender's family in the morning. When a man has a petition to make to the Gaontia, he folds his turban round his neck, leaving the head bare, takes a piece of grass in his mouth, and with four prominent elders to support him goes to the Gaontia and falls at his feet. The others stand on one leg behind him and the Gaontia asks them for their recommendation. Their reverence for the caste panchâyat is shown by their solemn form of 1 oath, 'Sing-Bonga on high and the Panch on earth.' [1] The Kols of Jubbulpore and Mandla are now completely conforming to Hindu usage and employ Brâhmans for their ceremonies. They are most anxious to be considered as good Hindus and ape every high-caste custom they get hold of. On one occasion I was being carried on a litter by Kol coolies and accompanied by a Râjpît chuprâssie and was talking to the Kols, who eagerly proclaimed their rigid Hindu observances. Finally the chuprâssie said that Brâhmans and Râjpîts must have three separate brushes of date-palm fibre for their houses, one to sweep the cook-room which is especially sacred, one for the rest of the house, and one for the yard. Lying gallantly, the Kols said that they also kept three palm brushes for cleaning their houses, and when it was pointed out that there were no date-palms within several miles of their village, they said they sent periodical expeditions to the adjoining District to bring back fibre for brushes.

[1] The Mundas and their Country, p. 121.

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Names.

Colonel Dalton notes that the Kols, like the Gonds, give names to their children after officers visiting the village when they are born. Thus Captain, Major, Doctor are common names in the Kolhân. Mr. Mazumdâr gives an instance of a Kol servant of the Râja of Bâmra who greatly admired some English lamp-chimneys sent for by the Râja and called his daughter 'Chimney.' They do not address any relative or caste-man by his name if he is older than themselves, but use the term of relationship to a relative and to others the honorific title of Gaontia.

Occupation.

The Mundâri language has no words for the village trades nor for the implements of cultivation, and so it may be concluded that prior to their contact with the Hindus the Mundas lived on the fruits and roots of the forests and the pursuit of game and fish. Now, however, they have taken kindly to several kinds of labour. They are much in request on the Assam tea-gardens owing to their good physique and muscular power, and they make the best bearers of dhoolies or palanquins. Kol bearers will carry a dhoolie four miles and hour as against the best Gond pace of about three, and they shake the occupant less. They also make excellent than the other jungle tribes. A Munda seldom comes into a criminal court.

Language. The Kols of the Central Provinces have practically abandoned their own language, Mundâri being retained only by about 1000 persons in 1911. The Kols and Mundas now speak the Hindu vernacular current in the tracts where the reside. Mundâri, Santâli, Korwa and Bhumij 1 are practically all forms of one language which Sir G. Grierson designates as Kherwâri. [1]

Kol.: -Kâmâlí or Kâlahâ. [2] There is a large caste of iron smelters in the Sonthal Parganas, Hazaribagh, and Manbhum which is known as the Kols or Kâlh⣣. They call themselves har, men. The Hindîs call them Kol. In Manbhum and Hazaribagh, they also call themselves Kârmâlés. Their language has hitherto been classed as a dialect of Hó or Kol, and it is quite possible that some of the Kols enumerated in the districts in question do really speak that language. This must be inferred from the fact that specimens of Hó have been forwarded from the Sonthal Parganas. Most of the Kâlh⣣s in the Sonthal Parganas, Manbhum, and Hazaribagh, however, have nothing to do with the Hós, but speak a dialect of Santâlí. That dialect will in this Survey be called Kârmâlí in order to avoid confusion with Hó or Kol. It is quite different from Kurmâlí, the dialect of the Kurmís if Hazaribagh, Manbhum, and other districts, which is a form of Magahí. See Vol. V., Part ii, 145 and ff.

[1] Linguistic Survey, vol. iv., Munda and Dravidian Languages, p. 27.

[ 2] See Grierson. This part is, mainly, about Kol Language of the Munda Family.

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Kârmâlí has been returned for the purposes of this Survey from the following districts:

Sonthal Parganas 22,821

Hazaribagh 10,239

Manbhum 11,000

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Total 44,060

The local returns give the name of the dialects as Kol, and it is possible that the figures may include some stray Hó immigrants. Their number cannot, however, be important.

At the last Census of 1901 Kârmâlí was returned from the following districts:

Birbhum 23

Midnapore 647

Rajshahi 130

Pabna 1,949

Monghyr 83

Sontal Parganas 8,117

Angul and Khondmals 13

Hazaribagh 2,610

Manbhum 3,770

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Total 17,342

The principal home of the Kârmâlés is the south of the Sonthal Parganas and the north of Manbhum. In Hazaribagh they are found in scattered settlements in the south of the district. The Kârmâlí dialect does not much differ from ordinary Santâlí. One good specimen, prepared by the Rev. A. Campbell, will be found below. It represents the language of the Kâlhâs of a Manbhum. According to a list of Standard Words and Phrases prepared by the Rev. P.O. Bodding, the dialect is essentially the same in the Sonthal Parganas. The same is the case in Hazaribagh, to judge from a corrupt list forwarded from the district.

Pronunciation

The sounds a and o or a and e, respectively, are distinguished as in standard Santâlí. The neutralizing power of i and u is not so strong as in Standard Santâlí; thus, buba and baba, father. Diphthongs such as ae, ae, ao, are commonly simplified. Thus, am-é-ém, Standard am-ae-me, give him; aka-ran hapan, whose son chala-en-é, Standard chalao-en-a-e, he went, etc. The change of d to r, is common in the Sonthal Parganas; thus, huriñ, Manbhum hudiñ, small, etc. The Kâlhas of the Sonthal Parganas have the same tendency as the Mâhlés to substitute a for ae and so compare thus, ura-para, squander, in Manbhum udai-padaí . Note also tahao-kan and taha-kan, in Hazaribagh tahi-kan, was; halar, Standard haral, male being, a man, and so forth. The most important phonological peculiarities of the dialect are the changes of r to r; of initial n to n and l; and, in some cases, of r to l . Thus, har, Standard har, man; órak ', Standard órak ', house; nír, Standard nír, run; nam, Standard n™ãm, get; lel, Standard nal, see; luar, Standard ruar, return, and so forth.

Inflexion.

The inflexion of nouns and pronouns is regular. The genitive suffixes ích' and ak ' are in common use. Thus, aní-ích ' hâpân, his son; iñ-ak mâtrân-re, before me, bîbâ-k , of a father. [1] Note forms such as íní, this; âní, îní, that one; Ska, who, chétak' what, and so forth. The numerals six to ten are Aryan loan-words. 'Twenty' is mít kîrí, and hundred mSra kîrí .

The categorical a in verbal forms is generally dispensed with in the singular; thus, taha-kan- íñ , I was; gîjîk'-íñ, I die. The causative particle is cho; thus, dâl-chók '-kân-íñ, I am beaten. The pronominal infix of the dative is sometimes replaced by the accusative infix; thus, meta- ked-e-y-e and met-ad-e-a, said to him; ema-akad-iñ-am, thou hast given to me. Meta and ema are fuller forms of man and am, respectively, which are also used in Standard Santâlí before the dative infixes. Forms such as meta-ked -e-y-e, he said to him, are not used by the Kalhas of the Sonthal Parganas, who say meta-ud-i-e or meta-w-ad-e-e instead. The pronominal suffixes denoting the subject are often added to the verb and not to the word preceding it. The suffix len of the past tense occurs in the form nen; thus châló-en-íñ and châlo-nen-íñ, I went. Note also forms such as mén-íñ-â, I am hénâm-gi-â, thou art, and so forth.

[ 1] Note bubañ , my father ; babu-m , thy father ; babu-t-tet 'his father. The ( Kalhas ?) of the Sonthal Parganas use buba throughout ; thus, buba-m , they father. 'My father' is, however bañ

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Kolâm.:-A Dravidian tribe residing principally in the Wîn Tâluk of the Yeotmâl District . [1] They number altogether about 25,000 persons, of whom 23,000 belong to Wîn and the remainder to the adjoining tracts of Wardha and Hyderâbâd. They are not found elsewhere. The tribe are generally considered to be akin to the Gonds [2] on the authority of Mr. Hislop. He wrote of them: "The Kolâms extend all along the Kandi Konda or Pindi Hills on the south of the Wardha river and along the table-land stretching east and north of Mânikgad and thence south to Dântanpalli, running parallel to the western bank of the Prânhíta. The Kolâms and the common Gonds do not intermarry, but they are present at each other's nuptials and eat from each other's hand. Their dress is similar, but the Kolâm women wear fewer ornaments, being generally content with a few black beads of glass round their neck. Among their deities, which are the usual objects of Gond adoration, Bhímsen is chiefly honoured." Mr. Hislop was, however, not always of this opinion, because he first excluded the Kolâms from the Gond tribes and afterwards included them. [3] In Wardha they are usually distinguished from the Gonds. They have a languages of their own, called after Kolâmi. Sir G. Grierson [4] describes it as "A minor dialect of Berâr and the Central Provinces which occupies a position like that of Gondi between Canarese, Tamil and Telugu. The so-called Kolâmi, the Bhíli spoken in the Pusad tâluk of Bâsim and the so-called Naikei of Chânda agree in so many particulars that they can almost be considered as one and the same dialect. They are closely related to Gondi. The points in which they differ from that language are, however, of sufficient importance to make it necessary to separate them from that form of speech. The Kolâmi dialect differs widely from the language of the neighbouring Gonds. In some points it agrees with Telugu, in other characteristics with Canarese and connected forms of speech. There are also some interesting points of analogy with the Toda dialect of the Nílgiris, and the Kolâms must, from a philological point of view, be considered as the remnants of an old Dravidian tribe who have not been involved in the development of the principal Dravidian languages, or a tribe who have not originally spoken a Dravidian form of speech."

The family names of the tribe also are not Gondi, but resemble those of Marâtha castes. Out of fifty sept names recorded, only one, Tekm, is found among the Gonds. "All their songs and ballads," Colonel Mackenzie says, "are borrowed from the Marâthas; even their women when grinding corn sing Marâthi songs." In Wîn their dress and appearance resembles that of the Kunbis, but in some respects they retain very primitive customs. Colonel Mackenzie states that until recently in Berâr they had the practice of capturing husbands for women who would otherwise have gone unwedded, this being apparently a survival of the matriarchate. It does not appear that the husbands so captured were ever unphilosophical enough to rebel under the old regime, though British enlightenment has taught them otherwise. Widows and widowers were exempt from capture and debarred from capturing. In view of the connection mentioned by Sir G. Grierson between the Kolâmi dialect and that of the Todas of the Nílgiri hills who are a small remnant of an ancient tribe and still practise polyandry, Mr. Híra Lâl suggests that the Kolâms may be connected with the Kolas, [5] a tribe akin to the Todâs and as low in the scale of civilisation, who regard the Kolamallai hills as their original home. [6]

[ 1] See Russell. This article includes some extracts from notes made by Colonel Mackenzie when Commissioner of Berâr, and subsequently published in the Pioneer newspaper ; and information collected for the District Gazetteers in Yeotmâl and Wardha.

[ 2] Papers relating to the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, p. 10.

[ 3] Ibidem, Editor's Note.

[ 4] Linguistic Survey, vol. iv., Munda and Dravidian Languages, p. 561.

[ 5] India Census Report (1901), p. 287.

[ 6] Hunter's Imperial Gazetteer, art Kolamallai hills.

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He further notes that the name of the era by which the calendar is reckoned on the Malabar coast is Kolamba. In view of Sir G. Grierson's statement that the Kolâmi dialect is the same as that of the Nâik Gonds of Chânda it may be noted that the headman of a Kolâm village is known as Nâik, and it is possible that the Kolâms may be connected with the so-called Nâik Gonds.

Marriage.

The Kolâms have no subtribes, but are divided for purposes of marriage into number of exogamous groups. The name of these are in the Marâthi form, but he tribe do not know their meaning. Marriage between members of the same group is forbidden, and a man may not marry two sisters. Marriage is usually adult, and neither a betrothal nor a marriage can be concluded in the month of Poush (December), because in this month ancestors are worshipped. Colonel Mackenzie states that marriage should be celebrated on Wednesdays and Saturdays at sundown, and Monday is considered a peculiarly inauspicious day. If a betrothal, once contracted, is broken, a fine of five or ten rupees must be paid to the caste-fellows together with a quantity of liquor. Formerly, as stated above, the tribe sometimes captured husbands, and they still have a curious method of seizing a wife when they still cannot procure a mate for his son. The latter, attended by his comrades, resorts to the jungle with relations and friends. It is a custom of the tribe that the sexes should, as a rule, work in separate parties. On catching sight of her, the bridegroom pursues her, and unless he touches her hand before she gets back to her village, his friends will afford him no assistance. If he can get hold of the girl a struggle ensues between the two parties for her possession, the girl being sometimes only protected by women, while on other occasions her male relatives hear of the fray and come to her assistance. In the latter case a fight ensues with sticks, in which, however, no combatant may hit another on the head. If the girl is captured the marriage is subsequently performed, and even if she rescued the matter is often arranged by the payment of a few rupees to the girl's father. Nowadays the whole affair tends to degenerate into a pretence and is often arranged beforehand by the parties. The marriage ceremony resembles that of the Kunbis except that the bridegroom takes the bride on his lap and their clothes are tied together in two places. After the ceremony each of the guests takes a few grains of rice, and after touching the feet, knees and shoulders of the bridal couple with the rice, throws it over his own back. The idea may be to remove any contagion of misfortune or evil spirits who may be hovering about them. A widow can remarry only with her parents' consent, but if she takes a fancy to a man and chooses to enter his house with a pot of water on her head he cannot turn her out. A man cannot marry a widow unless he has been regularly wedded once to a girl, and once having espoused a widow by what is known as the pât ceremony, he cannot again go through a proper marriage. A couple who wish to be divorced must go before the caste panchâyat or committee with a pot of liquor. Over this is laid a dry stick and the couple each hold an end of it. The husband then addresses her as his sister in the presence of the caste-fellows, and the wife calls her husband as brother-- then they break the stick and the divorce is complete.

Disposal Of The Dead.

The tribe bury their dead, and observe mourning for one to five days in different localities. The spirits of deceased ancestors are worshipped on any Monday in the month of Poush. The mourner goes and dips his head into a tank or stream, and afterwards sacrifices a fowl on the bank, and gives a meal to the caste-fellows. He then has the hair of his face and head shaved. Sons inherit equally, and if there are no sons the property devolves on daughters.

Religion And Superstitions.

The Kolâms, Colonel Mackenzie states, recognise no god as a principle of beneficence in the world; their principal deities are Síta, to whom the first-fruits of the harvest are offered, and Devi who is the guardian of the village, and is propitiated with offerings of goats and fowls to preserve it from harm. She is represented by two stones set up in the centre of the village when it is founded. They worship their implements of agriculture on the last day of Chait (April), applying turmeric and vermilion to them. In May they collect the stumps of juâri from a field, and, burning them to ashes, make an offering of the same articles.

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They have a curious ceremony for protecting the village from disease. All the men go outside the village and on the boundary at the four points north-east, north-west and opposite place four stones known as bandi, burying a fowl beneath each stone. The Nâik or headman then sacrifices a goat and other fowls to Síta, and placing four men by the stones, proceeds to sprinkle salt all along the boundary line, except across one path on which he lays his stick. He them calls out to the men that the village is closed and that they must enter it only by that path. This rule remains in force throughout the year, and if any stranger enters the village by any other than the appointed route, they consider that he should pay the expense of drawing the boundary circuit again. The rule is often applied only to carts, and relaxed in favour of travellers on foot. The line marked with salt is called bandesh, and it is believed that wild animals cannot cross it, while they are prevented from coming into the village along the only open road by the stick of the Nâik. Villagers with diseases or impurities are made to live in a hut in the fields outside the boundary line. The open road does not lead across the village, but terminates at the chauri or meeting-house.

Social Position.

Though the Kalâms retain some very primitive customs, those of Yeotmâl, as already stated, are hardly distinguishable from the Kunbis or Hindu cultivators. Colonel Mackenzie states that a Kolâm will take food from a Gond, but the latter will not return the compliment. They will eat the flesh of rats, tigers, snakes, squirrels and of almost any animals except dogs, donkeys and jackals. In another respect they are on a level with the lowest aborigines, as some of them do not use water to clean their bodies after performing natural functions, but only leaves. Yet as they are not considered as impure by the Hindus, they are permitted to enter Hindu temples, and hold themselves to be defiled by the touch of a Mahâr or a Mâng. A Kolâm is forbidden to beg by the rules of the tribe, and he looks down on the Mahârs and Mângs, who are often professional beggars. In Wardha, too, the Kolâms will not collect dead-wood for sale as fuel.

Miscellaneous Customs.

Here their houses contain only a single room with a small store-house, and all the family sleep together without privacy. Consequently there is no opportunity at night for conjugal intimacy, and husband and wife seek the solitude of the forest in the daytime. Colonel Mackenzie states: "All Kolâms are great smokers, but they are not allowed to smoke in their own houses, but only at the chauri or meeting-house, where pipes and fire are kept; and this rule is enforced so that the Nâik or headman can keep an eye on all male members of the community; if these do not appear at least once a day, satisfactory reasons are demanded for their absence, and from this rule only the sick and infirm are exempt. The Kolâms have two musical instruments: the tâpate or drum, and the wâss or flute, the name of which is probably derived from the Sanskrit wâunsh, meaning bamboo (of which the instrument is made). In old times all Kolâms could read and write, and it is probably only poverty which prevents them from having all their children educated now." This last statement must, however, have evidence on which it is based. At present they are, as a rule, quite illiterate. The Nâik or headman formerly had considerable powers, being entrusted with the distribution of land among the cultivators, and exercising civil and criminal jurisdiction with the assistance of the panchâyat. His own land was ploughed for him by the villagers. Even now they seldom enter a court of justice and their disputes are settled by the panchâyat. A strong feeling of clannishness exists among them, and the village unites to avenge an injury done to one of its members. Excommunication from caste is imposed for the usual offences, and the ceremony of readmission is as follows: the offender dips his head in a river or stream and the village barber shaves his head and moustache. He then sits beside a lighted pile of wood, being held to be purified by the proximity of the holy element, and afterward bathes, and drinks some water into which the caste-fellows have dipped their toes. A woman has to undergo the same ceremony and have her head shaved. If an unmarried girl becomes with child by a member of the caste, she is married to him by the simple rite used for widow-remarriage. A Kolâm must not swear by a dog or cat, and is expelled from caste for killing either of these two animals.

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A Kolâm does not visit a friend's house in the evening, as he would be suspected in such an event of having designs upon wife's virtue. The tribe are cultivators and labourers. They have not a very good reputation for honesty, and are said to be addicted to stealing the ripe cotton from the bolls. They never wear shoes, and the soles of their feet become nearly invulnerable and capable of traversing the most thorny ground without injury. They have an excellent knowledge of the medicinal and other uses of all tress, shrubs and herbs.

Kolhati.: -Dandewala, Bansberia, Kabutari.[1] - The name by which the Beria caste of Northern and Central India is Known in Berar. The Berias themselves, in Central India at any rate, are a branch of the Sansias, a vagrant and criminal class, whose traditional occupation was that of acting as bards and genealogists to the Jat caste. The main difference between the Sansias and Berias is that the latter prostitute their women, or those of them who are not married. [2] The Kolhatis of Berar, who also do this, appear to be a branch of the Beria caste who have settled in the Deccan and now have customs differing in several respects from those of the parent caste. It is therefore desirable to reproduce briefly the main heads of the information given about them in the works cited above. In 1901 the Kolhatis numbered 1300 persons in Berar. In the Central Provinces they were not shown separately, but were included with the Nats. But in 1891 a total of 250 Kolhatis were returned. The word Kolhati is said to be derived from the long bamboo poles which they use for jumping, known as Kolhat. The other names, Dandewala and Bansberia, meaning those who perform feats with a stick or bamboo, also have reference to this pole. Kabutari as applied to the women signifies that their dancing resembles the flight of a pigeon (kabutar). They say that once on a time a demon had captured some Kunbis and shut them up in a cavern. But the Kunbis besought Mahadeo to save them, and he created a man and a woman who danced before the demon and so pleased him that he promised them whatever they should ask; and they thus obtained the freedom of the Kunbis. The man and woman were named Kabutar and Kabutari on account of their skilful dancing, and were the ancestors of the kolhatis. The Kolhatis of the Central Provinces appear to differ in several respects from those of Berar, with whom the following article is mainly concerned.

Internal Structure.

The caste has two main divisions in Berar, the Dukar Kolhatis and the Kham or Pal Kolhatis. The name of the former is derived from dukar, hog, because they are accustomed to hunt the wild pig with dogs and spears when these animals become too numerous and damage the crops of the villagers. They also labour for themselves by cultivating land and taking service as village watchmen, and they are daring criminals and commit dacoity, burglary and theft; but they do not steal cattle. The Kham Kolhatis, on the other hand, are a lazy, good-for-nothing class of men, who, beyond making a few combs and shuttles of bone, will set their hands to no kind of labour, but subsist mainly by the immoral pursuits of their women. At every large fair may be seen some of the portable huts of this tribe, made of rusa grass, [3] the women decked in jewels and gaudy attire sitting at each door, while the men are lounging lazily at the back. The Dukar Kolhati women, Mr. Kitts states, also resort to the same mode of life, but take up their abode in villages instead of attending fairs. Among the Dukar Kolhatis the subdivisions have Rajput names; and just as a Chauhan Rajput may not marry another Chauhan so also a Chauhan Dukar Kolhati may not marry a person of his own clan.

[ 1] See Russell. Based partly on papers by Mr. Bihari Lal, Naib-Tahsildar, Bilaspur, and Mr. Aduram Chaudhri of the Gazetteer Office.

[ 2] For further information the articles on Sansia and Beria may be consulted.

[ 3] Andropagon Schoenanthus.

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In Bilaspur they are said to have four subcastes, the Marethi or those coming from the Maratha country, the Bansberia or pole-jumpers, the Suarwale or hunters of the wild pig, and the Muhammadan Kolhatis, none of whom marry or take food with each other. Each group is further subdivided into the Asal and Kamsal (Kam-asal), or the pure and mixed Kolhatis, who marry among themselves, outsiders being admitted to the Kamsal or mixed group.

Marriage.

The marriage ceremony in Berar [1] consists simply in a feast at which the bride and bridegroom, dressed in new clothes, preside. Much liquor is consumed and the dancing-girls of the tribe dance before them, and the happy couple are considered duly married according to Kolhati rites. Married women do not perform in public and are no less moral and faithful then those of other castes, while those brought up as dancing-girl do not marry at all. In Bilaspur weddings are arranged through the headman of the village, who receives a fee for his services, and the ceremony includes some of the ordinary Hindu rites. Here a widow is compelled to marry her late husband's younger brother on pain of exclusion from caste. People of almost any caste may become Kolhatis. When an outsider is admitted he must have a sponsor into whose clan he is adopted. A feast is given to the caste, and the applicant catches the right little finger of his sponsor before the assembly. Great numbers of Rajputs and Muhammadans join them, and on the other hand a large proportion of the fair but frail Kolhatis embrace the Muhammadan faith. [2]

Funeral Rites.

The bodies of children are buried, and those of the adult dead may be either buried or cremated. Mr. Kitts states that they bring back the skull and placing it on a bed offer to it powder, dates and betel-leaves; and after a feast lasting for three days it is again buried. According to Major Gunthorpe the proceedings are more elaborate: "Each division of the caste has its own burial-ground in some special spot, to which it is the heart's desire of every Kolhati to carry, when he can afford it, the bones of his deceased relatives. After the cremation of an adult the bones are collected and buried pending such time as they can be conveyed to the appointed cemetery, if this be at a distance. When the time comes, that is, when means can be found for the removal, the bones are disinterred and placed in two saddle-bags on a donkey, the skull and upper in the right bag and the leg and lower bones in the left. The ass is then led to the deceased's house, where the bags of bones are placed under a canopy made ready for their reception. High festival, as for a marriage, is held for three days, and at the end of this time the bags are replaced on the donkey, and with tomtoms beating and dancing-girls of the tribe dancing in front, the animal is led off to the cemetery. On arrival, the bags with the bones in them, are laid in a circular hole, and over it a stone is placed to mark the spot, and covered with oil and vermilion; and the spirit of the deceased is then considered to be appeased." They believe that the spirits of dead ancestors enter the bodies of the living and work evil to them, unless they are appeased with offerings. The Dukar Kolhatis offer a boar to the spirits of male ancestors and a sow to females. An offering of a boar is also made to Bhagwan (Vishnu), who is the principal deity of the caste and is worshipped with great ceremony every second year [3]

Other Customs.

Although of low caste, the Kolhatis refrain from eating the flesh of the cow and other animals of the same tribe. The wild cat, mongoose, wild and tame pig and jackal are considered as delicacies. The caste have the same ordeals as are described in the article on the Sansias. As might be expected in a class which makes a living by immoral practices, the women considerably outnumber the men. No one is permanently expelled from caste, and temporary exclusion is imposed only for a few offences, such as an intrigue with or being touched by a member of an impure caste. The offender gives a feast, and in the case of a man the moustache is shaved, while a woman has five hairs of her head cut off.

[1] Gunthorpe, loc. cit. VOL. iii

[2] Ibidem, p. 49. 2 M

[3] Kitts, loc. cit.

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The women have names meant to indicate their attractions, as Panna emerald, Munga coral, Mehtab, dazzling, Gulti flower, Moti a pearl, and Kesar saffron. If a girl is detected in an intrigue with a caste-fellow they are fined seven rupees and must give a feast to the caste, and are then married. When, however, a girl is suspected of unchastity and no man will take the responsibility on himself, she is put to an ordeal. She fasts all night, and next morning is dressed in a white cloth, and water is poured over her head from a new carthen pot. A piece of iron is heated red hot between cowdung cakes, and she must this take up in her hand and walk five steps with it, also applying it to the tip of her tongue. If she is burnt her unchastity is considered to be proved, and the idea is therefore apparently that if she is innocent the deity will intervene to save her.

Occupation.

The Dukar Kolhati males, Major Gunthorpe states, are a fine manly set of fellows. They hunt the wild boar with dogs, the men armed with spears and following on foot. They show much pluck in attacking the boar, and there is hardly a man of years who does not bear scars received in fights with these animals. The villagers send long distances for a gang to come and rid them of the wild pig, which play havoc with the crops, and pay them in grain for doing so. But they are also much addicted to crime, and when they have decided on a dacoity or house-breaking they have a good drinking-bout and start off with their dogs as if to hunt the boar. And if they are successful they bury the spoil, and return with the body of a pig or a hare as evidence of what they have been doing. Stolen property is either buried at some distance from their homes or made over to the safe keeping of men with whom the women of the caste may be living. Such men, who become intimate with the Kolhatis through their women, are often headmen of villages or hold other respectable positions, and are thus enabled to escape suspicion. Boys who are to become acrobats are taught to jump from early youth. The acrobats and dancing-girls go about to fairs and other gatherings and make a platform on a cart, which serves as a stage for their performances. The dancing-girl is assisted by her admirers, who accompany her with music. Some of them are said now to have obtained European instruments, as harmoniums or gramophones. They do not give their performances on Thursdays and Mondays, which are considered to be unlucky days. In Bombay they are said to make a practice of kidnapping girls, preferably of high caste, whom they sell or bring up as prostitutes. [ 1]

[ Bibliography: Mr. Kitts' Berar Report (1881); Major Gunthorpe's Criminal Tribes of Bombay, Berar and the Central Provinces (Times Press, Bombay).]

Kólhâtí.: -The Kólhâtís [2] are a tribe of rope dancers and tumblers in Bombay, Berar and the Hyderabad State. They are said [ 3] to take their name from kólhât, the bamboo on which they perform. The corresponding Kanarese form of the name, however, is kollatiga, which is a compound of kol-kól, a stick, a rod, and atiga, a player. In the Bombay Presidency they are also called ¸ómbârí or ¸ómbhârí, which word must have something to do with ¸om, the name of another Gypsy tribe. According to Mr. Balfour they call themselves Bhatî; compare bhattî, the name used by Sêsís to indicate a man of their tribe.

Occupation.

In the Bombay Presidency the Kólhâtís are also makers of the small buffalo horn pulleys which are used with cart ropes in fastening loads. They also make hide combs and gunpowder flasks. When a girl comes of age, she is called to choose between marriage and prostitution.

[ 1] Ind. Ant. iii. P,185. Satara Gazetteer, P 119

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

[3. Bombay Gazeiteer, xii, 123ff.

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If, with her parents' consent, she wishes to lead a married life, she is well taken care of and carefully watched. If she chooses to be a tumbler and a prostitute, she is taken before the caste council, a feast is given, and with the consent of the council she is declared a prostitute. The prostitutes are not allowed to eat with other Kólhâtís, except with their own children. Still, when they grow old, their caste-fellows support them. [ 1] According to Major Gunthorpe [ 2] the Kólhâtís of the Dekhan "belong to the great Sânsya family of robbers and claim their descent from Mallanîr, the brother of Sânsmal. There are two tribes. Dukar Kólhâtís and Kam or Pâl Kólhâtís. The former are a non-wandering criminal tribe, whereas the latter are a non-wandering criminal class. Depraved in morals, the males of both tribes subsist to great extent on the prostitution of some of their females, though let it be said to the credit of the former that they are not so bad as the latter. They labour for themselves by cultivating land, by taking service as village watchmen, or by hiring themselves to villages to destroy that pest of Indian farmers, the wild dog, and above all they are professional robbers. Kam Kólhâtís, on the other hand, are a lazy, good-for-nothing class of men who, beyond making a few combs and shuttles of bone, will set their hands to no class of labour, but subsist mainly by the immoral pursuits of their women."

Koli.:-A primitive tribe akin to the Bhíls [3], who are residents of the western Satpîra hills. They have the honorific title of Nâik. They numbered 36,000 persons in 1911, nearly all of whom belong to Berâr, with the exception of some 2000 odd, who live in the Nimâr District. These have hitherto been confused with the Kori caste. The Koris or weavers are also known as Koli, but in Nimâr they have the designation of Khangâr Koli to distinguish them from the tribe of the same name. The Kolis proper are found in the Burhânpur tahsíl, where most villages are said to possess one or two families, and on the southern Satpîra hills adjoining Berâr. They are usually village servants, their duties being to wait on Government officers, cleaning their cooking-vessels and collecting carts and provisions. The duties of village watchman or kotwâr were formerly divided between two officials, and while the Koli did the most respectable part of the work, the Mahâr or Balâhi carried baggage, carried messages, and made the prescribed reports to the police. In Berâr the Kolis acted for a time as guardians of the hill passes. A chain of outposts or watch towers ran along the Satpîra hills to the north of Berâr, and these were held by Kolis and Bhíls, whose duties were to restrain the predatory inroads of their own tribesmen, in the same manner as the Khyber Rifles now guard the passes on the North-west Frontier. And again along the Ajanta hills to the south of the Berâr valley a tribe of Kolis under their Nâiks had charge of the ghâts or gates of the ridge, and acted as a kind of local militia paid by assignments of land in the villages.[4] In Nimâr the Kolis, like the Bhíls, made a trade of plunder and dacoity during the unsettled times of the eighteenth century, and the phrase 'Nâhal, Bhíl, Koli' is commonly used in old Marâthi documents to designate the hillrobbers as a class. The priest of a Muhammadan tomb in Burhânpur still exhibits an imperial Parwâna or intimation from Delhi announcing the dispatch of a force for the suppression of the Kolis, dated A.D. 1637. In the Bombay Presidency, so late as 1804, Colonel Walker wrote: "Most Kolis are thieves by profession and embrace every opportunity to plunder either public or private property." [ 5] The tribe are 1 important in Bombay, where their numbers amount to more than 1.5 million. It is supposed that the common term 'coolie' is a corruption of Koli, [ 6] because the Kolis were usually employed as porters and carriers in western India, as 'slave' comes from Slav.

[1] Bombay Gazetteer, xx, 18f.

[2] Criminal Tribes , p. 46ff.

[ 3] See Russell.

[4] Lyall's Berâr Gazetteer, pp. 103-5.

[5] Kâthiawâr Gazetteer, p. 140.

[6] Crooke's edition of Hobson-Jobson, art, Koli.

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The tribe have also given their name to Colâba. [1] Various derivations have been given of the meaning of the word Koli, [2] and according to one account the Kolis and Mairs were originally the same tribe and came from Sind, while the Mairs were the same as the Meyds or Mihiras who entered India in the fifth century as one of the branches of the great White Hun horde. "Again, since the settlement of the Mairs in Gujarât," the writer of the Gujarât Gazetteer continues, "reverses of fortune, especially the depression of the Râjpîts under the yoke of the Muhammadans in the fourteenth century, did much to draw close the bond between the higher and middle grades of the warrior class. Then many Râjpîts sought shelter among the Kolis and married with them, leaving descendants who still claim a Râjpît descent and bear the names of Râjpît families. Apart from this, and probably as result of an original sameness of race, in some parts of Gujarât and Kâthiawâr intermarriage goes on between the daughters of Talabda Kolis and the sons of Râjpîts." Thus the Thâkur or Talpuri Mahi Kântha in Bombay calls himself a Prâmara Koli, and explains the term by saying that his ancestor, who was a Prâmara or Panwâr Râjpît, took water at a Koli's house. [3] As regards the origin of the Kolis, however, whom the author of the Gujarât Gazetteer derives from the White Huns, stating them to be immigrants from Sind, another and perhaps more probable theory is that they are simply a western outpost of the great Kol or Munda tribe, to which the Korkus and Nâhals and perhaps the Bhíls may also belong. Mr. Híra Lâl suggests that it is a common custom in Marâthi to add or alter so as to make names end in i. Thus Halbi for Halba, Koshti for Koshta, Patwi for Patwa, Wanjâri for Banjâra, Gowari for Goala; and in the same manner Koli from Kol. This supposition appears a very reasonable one though there is little direct evidence. The Nimâr Kolis have no tradition of their origin beyond the saying--

Siva ki jholi

Us men ka Koli,

or, 'The Koli was born from Siva's wallet.'

In the Central Provinces the tribe have the five subdivisions of Sîrajvansi, Malhâr, Bhilaophod, Singâde, and the Muhammadan Kolis. The Sîrajvansi or 'descendants of the sun' claim to be Râjpîts. The Malhâr or Pânbhari subtribe are named from their deity Malhâri Deo, while the alternative name of Pânbhari means water-carrier. The Bhilaophod extract the oil from bhilwa [4] nuts like the Nâhals, and the Singâde (sing, horn, and gâdna, to bury) are so called because when their buffaloes die they bury the horns in their compounds. As with several other castes in Burhânpur and Berâr, a number of Kolis embraced Islâm at the time of the Muhammadan domination and form a separate subcaste.

In Berâr the principal group is that of the Mahâdeo Kolis, whose name may be derived from the Mahâdeo or Pachmarhi hills. This would tend to connect them with the Korkus, and through them with the Kols. They are divided into the Bhâs or pure and the Akarâmâse or impure Kolis. [5] In Akola most of the Kolis are stated to belong to the Kshatriya group, while other divisions are the Nâiks or soldiers, the begging Kolis, and the Watandârs who are probably hereditary holders of the post of village watchman. [6]

[1] Bombay City Census Report (1901) (Edwards).

[2] Gujarât Gazetteer, p. 238.

[3] Golden Book of India, s.v.

[4] Semecarpus anacardium, the marking-nut tree.

[5] Kitts, Berâr Census Report (1881), p. 131.

[6] Akola Gazetteer (Mr. Brown), p. 116.

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Marriage and divorce

The tribe have exogamous septs of the usual nature, but they have forgotten the meaning of the names, and they cannot be explained. In Bombay their family names are the same as the Marâtha surnames, and the writer of the Ahmadnagar Gazetteer [1] considers that some connection exists between the two classes.

A man must not marry a girl of his own sept nor the daughter of his maternal uncle. Girls are usually married at an early age. A Brâhman is employed to conduct the marriage ceremony, which takes place at sunset: a cloth is held between the couple, and amid the clapping of the assembled guests. Afterwards they march seven times round a stone slab surrounded by four plough-yokes. Among the Rewa Kântha Kolis the boy's father must not proceed on his journey to find a bride for his son until on leaving his house he sees a small bírd called devi on his right hand; and consequently he is sometimes kept waiting for weeks, or even for months. When the betrothal is arranged the bridegroom and his father are invited to a feast at the bride's house, and on leaving the father must stumble over the threshold of the girl's door; without this omen no wedding can prosper. [2]

The remarriage of widows is permitted, and the ceremony consists simply in tying a knot in the clothes of the couple; in Ahmadâbâd all they need do is to sit on the ground while the bridegroom's father knocks their heads together. [3] Divorce is allowed for a wife's misconduct, and if she marries her fellow delinquent he must repay to the husband the expenses incurred by him on his wedding. Otherwise the cast committee may inflict a fine of Rs. 100 on him and put him out of caste for twelve years in default of payment, and order one side of his moustache to be shaved. In Gujarât a married woman who has an intrigue with another man is called savâsan, and it is said that a practice exists, or did exist, for her lover to pay her husband a price for the woman and marry her, though it is held neither respectable nor safe.[4] In Ahmadâbâd, if one Koli runs away with anther's wife, leaving his own wife behind him, the caste committee sometimes order the offender's relatives to supply the bereaved husband with a fresh wife. They produce one or more women, and he selects one and is quite content with her. [5]

Religous and burial practices

The Kolis of Nimâr chiefly revere the goddess Bhawâni, and almost every family has a silver image of her. An important shrine of the goddess is situate in Ichhâpur, ten or twelve miles from Burhânpur, and here members of the tribe were accustomed to perform the hook-swinging rite in honour of the goddess. Since this has been forbidden they have an imitation ceremony of swinging a bundle of bamboos covered with cloth in lieu of a human being.

The Kolis both bury and burn the dead, but the former practice is more common. They place the body in the grave with head to the south and face to the north. On the third day after the funeral they perform the ceremony called Kandhe kanchhna or 'rubbing the shoulder.' The four bearers of the corpse come to the house of the deceased and stand as if they were carrying the bier. His widow smears a little ghí (butter) on each man's shoulder and rubs the place with a small cake which she afterwards gives to him. The men go to a river or tank and throw the cakes into it, afterward bathing in the water. This ceremony is clearly designed to sever the connection established by the contact of the bier with their shoulders, which they imagine might otherwise render them likely to require the use of a bier themselves. On the eleventh day a Brâhman is called in, who seats eleven friends of the deceased in a row and applies sandal-paste to their foreheads. All the women whose husbands are alive then have turmeric rubbed on their foreheads, and a caste feast follows.

The Kolis eat flesh, including fowls and pork, and drink liquor. They will not eat beef, but have no special reverence for the cow.

They will not remove the carcase of a dead cow or a dead horse. The social status of the tribe is low, but they are not considered as impure. Their hair is shaved in the month of Mâgh following the birth, and on the first day of the next month Phâgun, a little oil is applied to the child's ear, after which it may be pierced at any time that is convenient.

1. p. 197

2. Hindus of Gujarât, l.c.

3. Indian Antiquary, vol. iii. p. 236.

4. Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarât, p. 250.

5. Indian Antiquary, vol. iii. p. 136.

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