The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II Part 3

Marriage between members of the same sept is prohibited, and also between first cousins, except that a sister's son may marry a brother's daughter. Until recently marriage has been adult, but girls are now wedded as children, and betrothals are sometimes arranged before they are born. The ceremony resembles that of the Kunbis. Betrothals are arranged between October and December, and the weddings take place three or four months later, from January to April. If the bride is mature she goes at once to her husband's house. Polygamy is allowed; and as only a well-to-do man can afford to obtain more than one wife, those who have several are held to be wealthy, and treated with respect. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted, but the widow may not marry her husband's brother nor any member of his clan. If an unmarried girl becomes pregnant by a man of her own or a superior caste she is fined, and can then be married as a widow. Her feet are not washed nor besmeared with red powder at the wedding ceremony like those of other girls. In some localities Andh women detected in a criminal intimacy even with men of such impure castes as the Mahars and Mangs have been readmitted into the community. A substantial fine is imposed on a woman detected in adultery according to her means and spent on a feast to the caste. All the members thus have a personal interest in the detection and punishment of such offences. The dead are usually buried, and water and sugar are placed in a dying man's mouth instead of the sacred objects used by Hindus; nor are the dying urged to call on Rama. The dead are buried with the head to the south, in opposition to the Hindu custom. The Andhs will eat the flesh of fowls and pigs, and even cats, rats and snakes in some localities, though the more civilised have abjured these latter. They are very fond of pork, and drink liquor, and will take food from Kunbis, Malis and Kolis, but not from Gonds. They have a caste _panchayat_ or committee, with a headman called Mohtaria, and two officers known as Phopatia and Dukria. When a caste offence is committed the Dukria goes to call the offender, and is given the earthen pots used at the penalty-feast, while the Phopatia receives a new piece of cloth. The Mohtaria or headman goes from village to village to decide cases, and gets a share of the fine. The caste are _s.h.i.+karis_ or hunters, and cultivators. They catch antelope, hares, pig and nilgai in their nets, and kill them with sticks and stones, and they dam up streams and net fish. Birds are not caught. Generally, the customs of the Andhs clearly point to an aboriginal origin, but they are rapidly being Hinduised, and in some tracts can scarcely be distinguished from Kunbis.

They have Marathi names; and though only one name is given at birth, Mr. Slaney notes that this is frequently changed for some pet name, and as often as not a man goes regularly by some name other than his real one.

Arakh

_Arakh._--A small caste of cultivators and labourers found princ.i.p.ally in the Chanda District and Berar and scattered over other localities. The Arakhs are considered to be an offshoot of the Pasi or Bahelia caste of hunters and fowlers. Mr. Crooke [32] writes of them: "All their traditions connect them with the Pasis and Parasurama, the sixth Avatara of Vishnu. One story runs that Parasurama was bathing in the sea, when a leech bit his foot and caused it to bleed. He divided the blood into two parts; out of one part he made the first Pasi and out of the second the first Arakh. Another story is that the Pasis were made out of the sweat (_pasina_) of Parasurama. While Parasurama was away the Pasi shot some animals with his bow, and the deity was so enraged that he cursed the Pasi, and swore that his descendants should keep pigs. This accounts for the degradation of the Pasis. Subsequently Parasurama sent for some Pasis to help him in one of his wars; but they ran away and hid in an _arhar_ [33] field and were hence called Arakhs." This connection with the Pasis is also recognised in the case of the Arakhs of Berar, of whom Mr. Kitts writes: [34] "The Arakhs found in Morsi are a race akin to the Bahelias. Their regular occupation is bird-catching and _s.h.i.+kar_ (hunting). They do not follow Hindu customs in their marriages, but although they keep pigs, eat flesh and drink spirits, they will not touch a Chamar. They appear to be a branch of the Pasi tribe, and are described as a semi-Hinduised cla.s.s of aborigines." In the Chanda District, however, the Arakhs are closely connected with the Gond tribe, as is evident from their system of exogamy. Thus they say that they are divided into the Matia, Tekam, Tesli, G.o.dam, Madai, Sayam and Chorliu septs, wors.h.i.+pping respectively three, four, five, six, seven, eight and twelve G.o.ds; and persons who wors.h.i.+p the same number of G.o.ds cannot marry with one another. This system of divisions according to the different number of G.o.ds wors.h.i.+pped is found in the Central Provinces only among the Gonds and one or two other tribes like the Baigas, who have adopted it from them, and as some of the names given above are also Gondi words, no doubt need be entertained that the Arakhs of Chanda are largely of Gond descent. They are probably, in fact, the offspring of irregular connections between the Gonds and Pasis, who, being both frequenters of the forests, would naturally come much into contact with each other. And being disowned by the true Pasis on account of their defective pedigree, they have apparently set up as a separate caste and adopted the name of Arakh to hide the deficiencies of their ancestry.

The social customs of the Arakhs resemble those of other low Hindu castes, and need not be given in detail. Their weddings are held near a temple of Maroti, or if there be none such, then at the place where the Holi fire was lit in the preceding year. A bride-price varying from Rs. 25 to Rs. 40 is usually paid. In the case of the marriage of a widow, the second husband goes to the house of the woman, where the couple are bathed and seated on two wooden boards, a branch of a cotton-plant being placed near them. The bridegroom then ties five strings of black gla.s.s beads round the woman's neck. The dead are mourned for one day only, and a funeral feast is given to the caste-fellows. The Arakhs are a very low caste, but their touch does not convey impurity.

Atari

1. General notice.

_Atari, [35] Gandhi, Bukekari._--A small Muhammadan caste of retailers of scent, incense, tooth-powder and _kunku_ or pink powder. Atari is derived from _atar_ or _itra_, attar of roses. Gandhi comes from _gandh_, a Sanskrit word for scent. Bukekari is a Marathi word meaning a seller of powder. The Ataris number about two hundred persons in Nagpur, Wardha and Berar. Both Hindus and Muhammadans follow the profession, but the Hindu Ataris are not a separate caste, and belong to the Teli, Gurao and Beldar castes. The Muhammadan Ataris, to whom this article refers, may marry with other Muhammadans, with the exception of low-cla.s.s tradesmen like the Pinjaras, Kasais and Kunjras. One instance of an Atari marrying a Rangrez is known, but usually they decline to do so. But since they are not considered to be the equals of ordinary Muhammadans, they const.i.tute more or less a distinct social group. They are of the same position as Muhammadan tin-workers, bangle-makers and pedlars, and sometimes intermarry with them. They admit Hindu converts into the community, but the women refuse to eat with them, and the better-cla.s.s families will not intermarry with converts. A new convert must be circ.u.mcised, but if he is of advanced age, or if his foreskin is wanting, as sometimes happens, they take a rolled-up betel-leaf and cut it in two in subst.i.tution for the rite.

2. Marriage customs.

It is essential that a girl should be married before adolescence, as it is said that when the signs of p.u.b.erty appear in her before wedlock her parents commit a crime equivalent to the shedding of human blood. The father of the boy looks for a bride, and after dropping hints to the girl's family to see if his proposal is acceptable, he sends some female relatives or friends to discuss the marriage. Before the wedding the boy is presented with a _chhap_ or ring of gold or silver with a small cup-like attachment. A _mehar_ or dowry must be given to the bride, the amount of which is not below Rs. 50 or above Rs. 250. The bride's parents give her cooking vessels, bedding and a bedstead. After the wedding, the couple are seated on a cot while the women sing songs, and they see each other's face reflected in a mirror. The procession returns after a stay of four days, and is received by the women of the bridegroom's family with some humorous ceremonies bearing on the nature of marriage. A feast called Tamm Walima follows, and the couple are shut up together in an inner room, even though they may be under age. The marriage includes some Hindu customs, such as the erection of the _pandal_ or shed, rubbing the couple with turmeric and oil, and the tying on of _kankans_ or wrist-bands. A girl going wrong before marriage may be wedded with full rites so long as she has not conceived, but after conception until her child is born she cannot go through the ceremony at all. After the birth of the child she may be married simply with the rite for widows. She retains the child, but it has no claim to succeed to her husband's property. A widow may marry again after an interval of forty days from her first husband's death, and she may wed her younger brother-in-law. Divorce is permitted at the instance of either party, and for mere disagreement. A man usually divorces his wife by vowing in the presence of two witnesses that he will in future consider intercourse with her as incestuous in the same degree as with his mother. A divorced woman has a claim to her _mehar_ or dowry if not already paid, but forfeits it if she marries again. A man can marry the daughter of his paternal uncle. The services of a Kazi at weddings are paid for with a fee of Rs. 1-4, and well-to-do persons also give him a pair of turbans.

3. Religion.

The Ataris are Muhammadans of the Sunni sect. They revere the Muhammadan saints, and on the night of Shabrat they let off fireworks in honour of their ancestors and make offerings of _halwa_ [36] to them and place lamps and scent on their tombs. They swear by the pig and abstain from eating its flesh. The dog is considered an unclean animal and its tail, ears and tongue are especially defiling. If the hair of a dog falls on the ground they cannot pray in that place because the souls of the prophets cannot come there. To see a dog flapping its ears is a bad omen, and a person starting on a journey should postpone his departure. They esteem the spider, because they say it spread its web over the mouth of the cave where Hasan and Husain lay concealed from their enemies and thus prevented it from being searched. Some of them have Pirs or spiritual preceptors, these being Muhammadan beggars, not necessarily celibate. The ceremony of adhesion is that a man should drink sherbet from the cup from which his preceptor has drunk. They do not observe impurity after a death nor bathe on returning from a funeral.

4. Social customs.

Liquor is of course prohibited to the Ataris as to other Muhammadans, but some of them drink it nevertheless. Some of them eat beef and others abstain. The blood of animals killed must flow before death according to the rite of _halal_, but they say that fish are an exception, because when Abraham was offering up his son Ishmael and G.o.d subst.i.tuted a goat, the goat bleated before it was killed, and this offended Abraham, who threw his sacrificial knife into the sea: the knife struck and killed a fish, and on this account all fish are considered to be _halal_ or lawful food without any further rite. The Ataris observe the Hindu law of inheritance, and some of them wors.h.i.+p Hindu deities, as Mata the G.o.ddess of smallpox. As a rule their women are not secluded. The Ataris make _missi_ or tooth-powder from myrobalans, cloves and cardamoms, and other const.i.tuents. This has the effect of blackening the teeth. They also sell the _kunku_ or red powder which women rub on their foreheads, its const.i.tuents being turmeric, borax and the juice of limes. They sell scent and sometimes deal in tobacco. The scents most in demand are _gulab-pani_ or rose-water and _phulel_ or essence of tilli or sesamum. Scents are usually sold by the tola of 18 annas silver weight, [37] and a tola of attar may vary in price from 8 annas to Rs. 80. Other scents are made from _khas-khas_ gra.s.s, the mango, henna and musk, the _bela_ flower, [38] the champak [39] and cuc.u.mber. Scent is manufactured by distillation from the flowers boiled in water, and the drops of congealed vapour fall into sandalwood oil, which they say is the basis of all scents. Fragrant oils are also sold for rubbing on the hair, made from orange flowers, jasmine, cotton-seed and the flowers of the _aonla_ tree. [40] Scent is sold in tiny circular gla.s.s bottles, and the oils in little bottles made from thin leather. The Ataris also retail the little black sticks of incense which are set up and burnt at the time of taking food and in temples, so that the smell and smoke may keep off evil spirits. When professional exorcists are called upon to clear any building, such as a hospital, supposed to be haunted by spirits or the ghosts of the dead, they commence operations by placing these sticks of incense at the entrance and setting them alight as in a temple.

Audhelia

1. Origin.

_Audhelia (Audhalia)._--A small hybrid caste found almost exclusively in the Bilaspur District, where they number about 1000 persons. The name is derived from the word Udharia, meaning a person with clandestine s.e.xual intimacies. The Audhelias are a mixed caste and trace their origin from a Daharia Rajput ancestor, by one Bhuri Bandi, a female slave of unknown caste. This couple is supposed to have resided in Ratanpur, the old capital of Chhattisgarh, and the female ancestors of the Audhelias are said to have been prost.i.tutes until they developed into a caste and began to marry among themselves. Their proper avocation at present is the rearing of pigs, while some of them are also tenants and farm-labourers. Owing to the base descent and impure occupation of the caste they are held in very low esteem, and their touch is considered to convey pollution.

2. Marriage.

The caste have at present no endogamous divisions and still admit members of other castes with the exception of the very lowest. But social gradations exist to a certain extent among the members according to the position of their male ancestors, a Daharia Audhelia, for instance, being reluctant to eat or intermarry with a Panka Audhelia. Under these circ.u.mstances it has become a rule among the Audhelias not to eat with their caste-fellows excepting their own relations. On the occasion of a caste feast, therefore, each guest prepares his own food, taking only uncooked grain from his host. At present seven _gotras_ or exogamous divisions appear to have been formed in the caste with the names of Pachbhaiya, Chhahri, Kalkhor, Bachhawat, Dhanawat, Bhainsa and Limuan. The following story exists as to the origin of these _gotras_: There were formerly three brothers, Sahasman, Budha and Mangal, who were Sansis or robbers. One evening the three brothers halted in a forest and went to look for food. One brought back a buffalo-horn, another a peac.o.c.k's feather and the youngest, Mangal, brought plums. The other brothers asked Mangal to let them share his plums, to which he agreed on condition that one of the brothers should give his daughter to him in marriage. As Mangal and his brothers were of one _gotra_ or section, and the marriage would thus involve splitting up the _gotra_, the brothers were doubtful whether it could be performed. They sought about for some sign to determine this difficult question, and decided that if Mangal succeeded in breaking in pieces an iron image of a cat simply by blows of his naked fist, it would be a sufficient indication that they might split up their _gotra_. Mangal was therefore put to the ordeal and succeeded in breaking the image, so the three brothers split up their _gotra_, the eldest a.s.suming the _gotra_ name of Bhainsa because he had found a buffalo-horn, the second that of Kalkhor, which is stated to mean peac.o.c.k, and the third that of Chhahri, which at any rate does not mean a plum. The word Chhahri means either 'shadow,' or 'one who washes the clothes of a woman in confinement.' If we a.s.sume it to have the latter meaning, it may be due to the fact that Mangal had to wash the clothes of his own wife, not being able to induce a professional washerman to do so on account of the incestuous nature of the connection. As the eldest brother gave his daughter in an incestuous marriage he was also degraded, and became the ancestor of the Kanjars or prost.i.tutes, who, it is said, to the present day do not solicit Audhelias in consideration of the consanguinity existing between them. The story itself sufficiently indicates the low and mixed descent of the Audhelias, and its real meaning may possibly be that when they first began to form a separate caste they permitted incestuous marriages on account of the paucity of their members. A curious point about the story is that the incestuous nature of the connection is not taken to be the most pressing objection to the marriage of Mangal with his own niece, but the violation of the caste rule prohibiting marriage within the same _gotra_. Bachhawat and Dhanawat are the names of sections of the Banjara caste, and the persons of these _gotras_ among the Audhelias are probably the descendants of illicit connections among Banjaras. The word Pachbhaiya means 'five brothers,' and this name possibly commemorates a polyandrous connection of some Audhelia woman. Limuan means a tortoise, which is a section of many castes. Several of the section-names are thus totemistic, and, as in other castes, some reverence is paid to the animal from whom the name is derived. At present the Audhelias forbid marriage within the same _gotra_ and also the union of first cousins. Girls are married between five and seven years of age as their numbers are scarce, and they are engaged as early as possible. Unless weddings are arranged by exchanging girls between two families, a high bride-price, often amounting to as much as Rs. 60, is paid. No stigma is incurred, however, if a girl should remain unmarried till she arrives at adolescence, but, on the contrary, a higher price is then obtained for her. s.e.xual licence either before or after marriage is considered a venial offence, but a woman detected in a _liaison_ with a man of one of the lowest castes is turned out of caste. Widow marriage and divorce are freely allowed.

3. Religion, birth and death.

The Audhelias venerate Dulha Deo and Devi, to whom they usually offer pigs. Their princ.i.p.al festival is the Holi, at which their women were formerly engaged to perform as professional dancers. They usually burn their dead and remove the ashes on the third day, throwing them into the nearest stream. A few of the bones are picked up and buried under a pipal tree, and a pitcher with a hole in the bottom is hung on the tree so that water may trickle down on to them. On the tenth day the caste-people a.s.semble and are shaved and bathe and rub their bodies with oil under the tree. Unmarried men and persons dying of cholera are buried, the head being placed to the north. They consider that if they place the corpse in the reverse position it would be an insult to the Ganges equivalent to kicking the holy river, as the feet of the body would then be turned towards it.

Badhak

List of Paragraphs

1. _Introductory notice._ 2. _The Badhak dacoits._ 3. _Instances of dacoities._ 4. _Further instances of dacoities._ 5. _Disguise of religious mendicants._ 6. _Countenance and support of landowners._ 7. _Pride in their profession._ 8. _Caste rules and admission of outsiders._ 9. _Religion. Offerings to ancestors._ 10. _The wounded haunted by spirits._ 11. _Pious funeral observances._ 12. _Taking the omens._ 13. _Suppression of dacoity._ 14. _The Badhaks or Baoris at the present time._ 15. _Lizard-hunting._ 16. _Social observances._ 17. _Criminal practices._

1. Introductory notice.

_Badhak, Bagri, Baoria._--A famous tribe of dacoits who flourished up to about 1850, and extended their depredations over the whole of Northern and Central India. The Bagris and Baorias or Bawarias still exist and are well known to the police as inveterate criminals; but their operations are now confined to ordinary burglary, theft and cheating, and their more interesting profession of armed gang-robbery on a large scale is a thing of the past. The first part of this article is entirely compiled from the Report on their suppression drawn up by Colonel Sleeman, [41] who may be regarded as the virtual founder of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department. Some mention of the existing Bagri and Baoria tribes is added at the end.

2. The Badhak dacoits.

The origin of the Badhaks is obscure, but they seem to have belonged to Gujarat, as their peculiar dialect, still in use, is a form of Gujarati. The most striking feature in it is the regular subst.i.tution of _kh_ for _s_. They claimed to be Rajputs and were divided into clans with the well-known Rajput names of Solanki, Panwar, Dhundhel, Chauhan, Rathor, Gahlot, Bhatti and Charan. Their ancestors were supposed to have fled from Chitor on one of the historical occasions on which it was a.s.saulted and sacked. But as they spoke Gujarati it seems more probable that they belonged to Gujarat, a fertile breeding-place of criminals, and they may have been descended from the alliances of Rajputs with the primitive tribes of this locality, the Bhils and Kolis. The existing Bagris are of short stature, one writer stating that none of them exceed five feet two inches in height; and this seems to indicate that they have little Rajput blood. It may be surmised that the Badhaks rose into importance and found scope for their predatory instincts during the period of general disorder and absence of governing authority through which northern India pa.s.sed after the decline of the Mughal Empire. And they lived and robbed with the connivance or open support of the petty chiefs and landholders, to whom they gave a liberal share of their booty. The princ.i.p.al bands were located in the Oudh forests, but they belonged to the whole of northern India including the Central Provinces; and as Colonel Sleeman's Report, though of much interest, is now practically unknown, I have thought it not out of place to compile an article by means of short extracts from his account of the tribe.

In 1822 the operations of the Badhaks were being conducted on such a scale that an officer wrote: "No District between the Brahmaputra, the Nerbudda, the Satlej and the Himalayas is free from them; and within this vast field hardly any wealthy merchant or manufacturer could feel himself secure for a single night from the depredations of Badhak dacoits. They had successfully attacked so many of the treasuries of our native Sub-Collectors that it was deemed necessary, all over the North-Western Provinces, to surround such buildings with extensive fortifications. In many cases they carried off our public treasure from strong parties of our regular troops and mounted police; and none seemed to know whence they came or whither they fled with the booty acquired." [42]