



Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project
Gutenberg.









        THE TRIBES AND CASTES OF THE CENTRAL PROVINCES OF INDIA

                                   By

                              R.V. RUSSELL
   Of the Indian Civil Service Superintendent of Ethnography, Central
                               Provinces
                              Assisted by
                          Rai Bahadur Hira Lal
                      Extra Assistant Commissioner


   Published Under the Orders of the Central Provinces Administration

                            In Four Volumes
                               Vol. III.

        Macmillan and Co., Limited St. Martin's Street, London.

                                  1916







CONTENTS OF VOLUME III

Articles on Castes and Tribes of the Central Provinces in Alphabetical
Order

The articles which are considered to be of most general interest are
shown in capitals


                                                             Page
    Gadaria (Shepherd)                                          3
    Gadba (Forest tribe)                                        9
    Ganda (Weaver and labourer)                                14
    Gandhmali (Uriya village priests and temple servants)      17
    Garpagari (Averter of hailstorms)                          19
    Gauria (Snake-charmer and juggler)                         24
    Ghasia (Grass-cutter)                                      27
    Ghosi (Buffalo-herdsman)                                   32
    Golar (Herdsman)                                           35
    Gond (Forest tribe and cultivator)                         39
    Gond-Gowari (Herdsman)                                    143
    Gondhali (Religious mendicant)                            144
    Gopal (Vagrant criminal caste)                            147
    Gosain (Religious mendicant)                              150
    Gowari (Herdsman)                                         160
    Gujar (Cultivator)                                        166
    Gurao (Village priest)                                    175
    Halba (Forest tribe, labourer)                            182
    Halwai (Confectioner)                                     201
    Hatkar (Soldier, shepherd)                                204
    Hijra (Eunuch, mendicant)                                 206
    Holia (Labourer, curing hides)                            212
    Injhwar (Boatman and fisherman)                           213
    Jadam (Cultivator)                                        217
    Jadua (Criminal caste)                                    219
    Jangam (Priest of the Lingayat sect)                      222
    Jat (Landowner and cultivator)                            225
    Jhadi Telenga (Illegitimate, labourer)                    238
    Jogi (Religious mendicant and pedlar)                     243
    Joshi (Astrologer and village priest)                     255
    Julaha (Weaver)                                           279
    Kachera (Maker of glass bangles)                          281
    Kachhi (Vegetable-grower)                                 285
    Kadera (Firework-maker)                                   288
    Kahar (Palanquin-bearer and household servant)            291
    Kaikari (Basket-maker and vagrant)                        296
    Kalanga (Soldier, cultivator)                             302
    Kalar (Liquor vendor)                                     306
    Kamar (Forest tribe)                                      323
    Kanjar (Gipsies and prostitutes)                          331
    Kapewar (Cultivator)                                      342
    Karan (Writer and clerk)                                  343
    Kasai (Butcher)                                           346
    Kasar (Worker in brass)                                   369
    Kasbi (Prostitute)                                        373
    Katia (Cotton-spinner)                                    384
    Kawar (Forest tribe and cultivator)                       389
    Kayasth (Village accountant, writer and clerk)            404
    Kewat (Boatman and fisherman)                             422
    Khairwar (Forest tribe; boilers of catechu)               427
    Khandait (Soldier, cultivator)                            436
    Khangar (Village watchman and labourer)                   439
    Kharia (Forest tribe, labourer)                           445
    Khatik (Mutton-butcher)                                   453
    Khatri (Merchant)                                         456
    Khojah (Trader and shopkeeper)                            461
    Khond (Forest tribe, cultivator)                          464
    Kir (Cultivator)                                          481
    Kirar (Cultivator)                                        485
    Kohli (Cultivator)                                        493
    Kol (Forest tribe, labourer)                              500
    Kolam (Forest tribe, cultivator)                          520
    Kolhati (Acrobat)                                         527
    Koli (Forest tribe, cultivator)                           532
    Kolta (Landowner and cultivator)                          537
    Komti (Merchant and shopkeeper)                           542
    Kori (Weaver and labourer)                                545
    Korku (Forest tribe, labourer)                            550
    Korwa (Forest tribe, cultivator)                          571
    Koshti (Weaver)                                           581





ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME III


                                                               Page
65. Gond women grinding corn                                     42
66. Palace of the Gond kings of Garha-Mandla at Ramnagar         46
67. Gonds on a journey                                           62
68. Killing of Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon, from whom the
    Gonds are supposed to be descended                          114
69. Woman about to be swung round the post called Meghnath      116
70. Climbing the pole for a bag of sugar                        118
71. Gonds with their bamboo carts at market                     122
72. Gond women, showing tattooing on backs of legs              126
73. Maria Gonds in dancing costume                              136
74. Gondhali musicians and dancers                              144
75. Gosain mendicant                                            150
76. Alakhwale Gosains with faces covered with ashes             152
77. Gosain mendicants with long hair                            154
78. Famous Gosain Mahant. Photograph taken after death          156
79. Gujar village proprietress and her land agent               168
80. Guraos with figures made at the Holi festival called
    Gangour                                                     176
81. Group of Gurao musicians with their instruments             180
82. Ploughing with cows and buffaloes in Chhattisgarh           182
83. Halwai or confectioner's shop                               202
84. Jogi mendicants of the Kanphata sect                        244
85. Jogi musicians with sarangi or fiddle                       250
86. Kaikaris making baskets                                     298
87. Kanjars making ropes                                        332
88. A group of Kasars or brass-workers                          370
89. Dancing girls and musicians                                 374
90. Girl in full dress and ornaments                            378
91. Old type of sugarcane mill                                  494
92. Group of Kol women                                          512
93. Group of Kolams                                             520
94. Korkus of the Melghat hills                                 550
95. Korku women in full dress                                   556
96. Koshti men dancing a figure, holding strings and beating
    sticks                                                      582







PRONUNCIATION


    a has the sound of u in but or murmur.
    a has the sound of a in bath or tar.
    e has the sound of e in ecarte or ai in maid.
    i has the sound of i in bit, or (as a final letter) of y in sulky.
    i has the sound of ee in beet.
    o has the sound of o in bore or bowl.
    u has the sound of u in put or bull.
    u has the sound of oo in poor or boot


The plural of caste names and a few common Hindustani words is formed
by adding s in the English manner according to ordinary usage, though
this is not, of course, the Hindustani plural.

Note.--The rupee contains 16 annas, and an anna is of the same value
as a penny. A pice is a quarter of an anna, or a farthing. Rs. 1-8
signifies one rupee and eight annas. A lakh is a hundred thousand,
and a krore ten million.







                                PART III

                     ARTICLES ON CASTES AND TRIBES

                            GARARDIA--KOSHTI






Gadaria


List of Paragraphs


    1. General notice.
    2. Subdivisions.
    3. Marriage customs.
    4. Religion and funeral rites.
    5. Social customs.
    6. Goats and sheep.
    7. Blanket-weaving.
    8. Sanctity of wool.




1. General notice.

Gadaria, Gadri. [1]--The occupational shepherd caste of northern
India. The name is derived from the Hindi gadar and the Sanskrit
gandhara, a sheep, the Sanskrit name being taken from the country of
Gandhara or Kandahar, from which sheep were first brought. The three
main shepherd castes all have functional names, that of the Dhangars
or Maratha shepherds being derived from dhan, small stock, while the
Kuramwars or Telugu shepherds take their name like the Gadarias from
kuruba, a sheep. These three castes are of similar nature and status,
and differ only in language and local customs. In 1911 the Gadarias
numbered 41,000 persons. They are found in the northern Districts,
and appear to have been amongst the earliest settlers in the Nerbudda
valley, for they have given their name to several villages, as
Gadariakheda and Gadarwara.




2. Subdivisions.

The Gadarias are a very mixed caste. They themselves say that their
first ancestor was created by Mahadeo to tend his rams, and that he
married three women who were fascinated by the sight of him shearing
the sheep. These belonged to the Brahman, Dhimar and Barai castes
respectively, and became the ancestors of the Nikhar, Dhengar and
Barmaiyan subcastes of Gadarias. The Nikhar subcaste are the highest,
their name meaning pure. Dhengar is probably, in reality, a corruption
of Dhangar, the name of the Maratha shepherd caste. They have other
subdivisions of the common territorial type, as Jheria or jungly,
applied to the Gadarias of Chhattisgarh; Desha from desh, country,
meaning those who came from northern India; Purvaiya or eastern,
applied to immigrants from Oudh; and Malvi or those belonging to
Malwa. Nikhar and Dhengar men take food together, but not the women;
and if a marriage cannot be otherwise arranged these subcastes will
sometimes give daughters to each other. A girl thus married is no
longer permitted to take food at her father's house, but she may eat
with the women of her husband's subcaste. Many of their exogamous
groups are named after animals or plants, as Hiranwar, from hiran,
a deer; Sapha from the cobra, Moria from the peacock, Nahar from the
tiger, Phulsungha, a flower, and so on. Others are the names of Rajput
septs and of other castes, as Ahirwar (Ahir) and Bamhania (Brahman).

Another more ambitious legend derives their origin from the Bania
caste. They say that once a Bania was walking along the road with a
cocoanut in his hand when Vishnu met him and asked him what it was. The
Bania answered that it was a cocoanut. Vishnu said that it was not
a cocoanut but wool, and told him to break it, and on breaking the
cocoanut the Bania found that it was filled with wool. The Bania asked
what he should do with it, and Vishnu told him to make a blanket out
of it for the god to sit on. So he made a blanket, and Vishnu said
that from that day he should be the ancestor of the Gadaria caste,
and earn his bread by making blankets from the wool of sheep. The
Bania asked where he should get the sheep from, and the god told him
to go home saying 'Ehan, Ehan, Ehan,' all the way, and when he got
home he would find a flock of sheep following him; but he was not to
look behind him all the way. And the Bania did so, but when he had
almost got home he could not help looking behind him to see if there
were really any sheep. And he saw a long line of sheep following him
in single file, and at the very end was a ram with golden horns just
rising out of the ground. But as he looked it sank back again into
the ground, and he went back to Vishnu and begged for it, but Vishnu
said that as he had looked behind him he had lost it. And this was
the origin of the Gadaria caste, and the Gadarias always say 'Ehan,
Ehan,' as they lead their flocks of sheep and goats to pasture.




3. Marriage customs.

Marriage within the clan is forbidden and also the union of first
cousins. Girls may be married at any age, and are sometimes united to
husbands much younger than themselves. Four castemen of standing carry
the proposal of marriage from the boy's father, and the girl's father,
being forewarned, sends others to meet them. One of the ambassadors
opens the conversation by saying, 'We have the milk and you have the
milk-pail; let them be joined.' To which the girl's party, if the
match be agreeable, will reply, "Yes, we have the tamarind and you
have the mango; if the panches agree let there be a marriage." The
boy's father gives the girl's father five areca-nuts, and the latter
returns them and they clasp each other round the neck. When the
wedding procession reaches the bride's village it is met by their
party, and one of them takes the sarota or iron nut-cutter, which
the bridegroom holds in his hand, and twirls it about in the air
several times. The ceremony is performed by walking round the sacred
pole, and the party return to the bridegroom's lodging, where his
brother-in-law fills the bride's lap with sweetmeats and water-nut
as an omen of fertility. The maihar or small wedding-cakes of wheat
fried in sesamum oil are distributed to all members of the caste
present at the wedding. While the bridegroom's party is absent at
the bride's house, the women who remain behind enjoy amusements of
their own. One of them strips herself naked, tying up her hair like
a religious mendicant, and is known as Baba or holy father. In this
state she romps with her companions in turn, while the others laugh
and applaud. Occasionally some man hides himself in a place where
he can be a witness of their play, but if they discover him he is
beaten severely with belnas or wooden bread-rollers. Widow-marriage
and divorce are permitted, the widow being usually expected to marry
her late husband's younger brother, whether he already has a wife or
not. Sexual offences are not severely reprobated, and may be atoned
for by a feast to the caste-fellows.




4. Religion and funeral rites.

The Gadarias worship the ordinary Hindu deities and also Dishai Devi,
the goddess of the sheep-pen. No Gadaria may go into the sheep-pen with
his shoes on. On entering it in the morning they make obeisance to the
sheep, and these customs seem to indicate that the goddess Dishai Devi
[2] is the deified sheep. When the sheep are shorn and the fleeces are
lying on the ground they take some milk from one of the ewes and mix
rice with it and sprinkle it over the wool. This rite is called Jimai,
and they say that it is feeding the wool, but it appears to be really
a sacrificial offering to the material. The caste burn the dead when
they can afford to do so, and take the bones to the Ganges or Nerbudda,
or if this is not practicable, throw them into the nearest stream.




5. Social customs.

Well-to-do members of the caste employ Brahmans for ceremonial
purposes, but others dispense with their services. The Gadarias
eat flesh and drink liquor, but abstain from fowls and pork. They
will take food cooked with water from a Lodhi or a Dangi, members
of these castes having formerly been their feudal chieftains in the
Vindhyan Districts and Nerbudda valley. Brahmans and members of the
good cultivating castes would be permitted to become Gadarias if
they should so desire. The head of the caste committee has the title
of Mahton and the office is hereditary, the holder being invariably
consulted on caste questions even if he should be a mere boy. The
Gadarias rank with those castes from whom a Brahman cannot take water,
but above the servile and labouring castes. They are usually somewhat
stupid, lazy and good-tempered, and are quite uneducated. Owing to
their work in cleaning the pens and moving about among the sheep, the
women often carry traces of the peculiar smell of these animals. This
is exemplified in the saying, 'Ek to Gadaria, dusre lahsan khae,' or
'Firstly she is a Gadaria and then she has eaten garlic'; the inference
being that she is far indeed from having the scent of the rose.




6. Goats and sheep.

The regular occupations of the Gadarias are the breeding and grazing
of sheep and goats, and the weaving of country blankets from sheep's
wool. The flocks are usually tended by the children, while the men
and women spin and weave the wool and make blankets. Goats are bred
in larger numbers than sheep in the Central Provinces, being more
commonly used for food and sacrifices, while they are also valuable
for their manure. Any Hindu who thinks an animal sacrifice requisite,
and objects to a fowl as unclean, will choose a goat; and the animal
after being sacrificed provides a feast for the worshippers, his head
being the perquisite of the officiating priest. Muhammadans and most
castes of Hindus will eat goat's meat when they can afford it. The
milk is not popular and there is very little demand for it locally,
but it is often sold to the confectioners, and occasionally made into
butter and exported. Sheep's flesh is also eaten, but is not so highly
esteemed. In the case of both sheep and goats there is a feeling
against consuming the flesh of ewes. Sheep are generally black in
colour and only occasionally white. Goats are black, white, speckled
or reddish-white. Both animals are much smaller than in Europe. Both
sheep and goats are in brisk demand in the cotton tracts for their
manure in the hot-weather months, and will be kept continually on
the move from field to field for a month at a time. It is usual to
hire flocks at the rate of one rupee a hundred head for one night;
but sometimes the cultivators combine to buy a large flock, and
after penning them on their fields in the hot weather, send them to
Nagpur in the beginning of the rains to be disposed of. The Gadaria
was formerly the bete noir of the cultivator, on account of the
risk incurred by the crops from the depredations of his sheep and
goats. This is exemplified in the saying:


    Ahir, Gadaria, Pasi,
    Yeh tinon satyanasi,


or, 'The Ahir (herdsman), the Gadaria and the Pasi, these three are
the husbandmen's foes.' And again:


    Ahir, Gadaria, Gujar,
    Yeh tinon chahen ujar,


or 'The Ahir, the Gadaria and the Gujar want waste land,' that is for
grazing their flocks. But since the demand for manure has arisen, the
Gadaria has become a popular personage in the village. The shepherds
whistle to their flocks to guide them, and hang bells round the necks
of goats but not of sheep. Some of them, especially in forest tracts,
train ordinary pariah dogs to act as sheep-dogs. As a rule, rams and
he-goats are not gelt, but those who have large flocks sometimes resort
to this practice and afterwards fatten the animals up for sale. They
divide their sheep into five classes, as follows, according to the
length of the ears: Kanari, with ears a hand's length long; Semri,
somewhat shorter; Burhai, ears a forefinger's length; Churia, ears
as long as the little finger; and Neori, with ears as long only as
the top joint of the forefinger. Goats are divided into two classes,
those with ears a hand's length long being called Bangalia or Bagra,
while those with small ears a forefinger's length are known as Gujra.




7. Blanket-weaving.

While ordinary cultivators have now taken to keeping goats, sheep
are still as a rule left to the Gadarias. These are of course valued
principally for their wool, from which the ordinary country blanket
is made. The sheep [3] are shorn two or sometimes three times a year,
in February, June and September, the best wool being obtained in
February from the cold weather coat. Members of the caste commonly
shear for each other without payment. The wool is carded with a
kamtha, or simple bow with a catgut string, and spun by the women of
the household. Blankets are woven by men on a loom like that used for
cotton cloth. The fabric is coarse and rough, but strong and durable,
and the colour is usually a dark dirty grey, approaching black,
being the same as that of the raw material. Every cultivator has one
of these, and the various uses to which it may be put are admirably
described by 'Eha' as follows:  [4]

"The kammal is a home-spun blanket of the wool of black sheep, thick,
strong, as rough as a farrier's rasp, and of a colour which cannot
get dirty. When the Kunbi (cultivator) comes out of his hole in the
morning it is wrapped round his shoulders and reaches to his knees,
guarding him from his great enemy, the cold, for the thermometer is
down to 60 deg. Fahrenheit. By-and-by he has a load to carry, so he folds
his kammal into a thick pad and puts it on the top of his head. Anon
he feels tired, so he lays down his load, and arranging his kammal
as a cushion, sits with comfort on a rugged rock or a stony bank, and
has a smoke. Or else he rolls himself in it from head to foot, like a
mummy, and enjoys a sound sleep on the roadside. It begins to rain,
he folds his kammal into an ingenious cowl and is safe. Many more
are its uses. I cannot number them all. Whatever he may be called
upon to carry, be it forest produce, or grain or household goods,
or his infant child, he will make a bundle of it with his kammal and
poise it on his head, or sling it across his back, and trudge away."




8. Sanctity of wool.

Wool is a material of some sanctity among the Hindus. It is
ceremonially pure, and woollen clothing can be worn by Brahmans
while eating or performing sacred functions. In many castes the
bridegroom at a wedding has a string of wool with a charm tied round
his waist. Religious mendicants wear jatas or wigs of sheep's wool,
and often carry woollen charms. The beads used for counting prayers are
often of wool. The reason for wool being thus held sacred may be that
it was an older kind of clothing used before cotton was introduced,
and thus acquired sanctity by being worn at sacrifices. Perhaps the
Aryans wore woollen clothing when they entered India.






Gadba


1. Description and structure of the tribe.

Gadba, Gadaba. [5]--A primitive tribe classified as Mundari or Kolarian
on linguistic grounds. The word Gadba, Surgeon-Major Mitchell states,
signifies a person who carries loads on his shoulders. The tribe call
themselves Guthau. They belong to the Vizagapatam District of Madras,
and in the Central Provinces are found only in the Bastar State, into
which they have immigrated to the number of some 700 persons. They
speak a Mundari dialect, called Gadba, after their tribal name, and
are one of the two Mundari tribes found so far south as Vizagapatam,
the other being the Savars. [6] Their tribal organisation is not very
strict, and a Bhatra, a Parja, a Muria, or a member of any superior
caste may become a Gadba at an expenditure of two or three rupees. The
ceremony consists of shaving the body of the novice, irrespective of
sex, clean of hair, after which he or she is given to eat rice cooked
in the water of the Ganges. This is followed by a feast to the tribe
in which a pig must be killed. The Gadbas have totemistic exogamous
septs, usually named after animals, as gutal dog, angwan bear, dungra
tortoise, surangai tiger, gumal snake, and so on. Members of each sept
abstain from killing or injuring the animal or plant after which it is
named, but they have no scruple in procuring others to do this. Thus
if a snake enters the hut of a person belonging to the Gumal sept,
he will call a neighbour of another sept to kill it. He may not touch
its carcase with his bare hand, but if he holds it through a piece
of rag no sin is incurred.




2. Marriage.

Marriage is adult, but the rule existing in Madras that a girl is
not permitted to marry until she can weave her own cloth does not
obtain in the Central Provinces. [7] As a rule the parents of the
couple arrange the match, but the wishes of the girl are sometimes
consulted and various irregular methods of union are recognised. Thus
a man is permitted with the help of his friends to go and carry off a
girl and keep her as his wife, more especially if she is a relation
on the maternal side more distant than a first cousin. Another form
is the Paisa Mundi, by which a married or unmarried woman may enter
the house of a man of her caste other than her husband and become his
wife; and the Upaliya, when a married woman elopes with a lover. The
marriage ceremony is simple. The bridegroom's party go to the girl's
house, leaving the parents behind, and before they reach it are met and
stopped by a bevy of young girls and men in their best clothes from
the bride's village. A girl comes forward and demands a ring, which
one of the men of the wedding party places on her finger, and they
then proceed to the bride's house, where the bridegroom's presents,
consisting of victuals, liquor, a cloth, and two rupees, are opened
and carefully examined. If any deficiency is found, it must at once
be made good. The pair eat a little food together,  rice is
applied to their