The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II Part 51

[214] _Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies_, p. 70.

[215] _Monograph_, p. 19.

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

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

[218] _Semecarpus Anacardium._

[219] Malcolm, _Memoir of Central India_, ii. p. 296.

[220] c.u.mberlege, p. 16.

[221] Small double sh.e.l.ls which are still used to a slight extent as a currency in backward tracts. This would seem an impossibly c.u.mbrous method of carrying money about nowadays, but I have been informed by a comparatively young official that in his father's time, change for a rupee could not be had in Chhattisgarh outside the two princ.i.p.al towns. As the cowries were a form of currency they were probably held sacred, and hence sewn on to clothes as a charm, just as gold and silver are used for ornaments.

[222] _Jungle Life in India_, p. 516.

[223] Brewer's _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_ contains the following notice of horns as an article of dress: "Mr. Buckingham says of a Tyrian lady, 'She wore on her head a hollow silver horn rearing itself up obliquely from the forehead. It was some four inches in diameter at the root and pointed at the extremity. This peculiarity reminded me forcibly of the expression of the Psalmist: "Lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff neck. All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted"

(Ps. lxxv. 5, 10).' Bruce found in Abyssinia the silver horns of warriors and distinguished men. In the reign of Henry V. the horned headgear was introduced into England and from the effigy of Beatrice, Countess of Arundel, at Arundel Church, who is represented with the horns outspread to a great extent, we may infer that the length of the head-horn, like the length of the shoe-point in the reign of Henry VI., etc., marked the degree of rank. To cut off such horns would be to degrade; and to exalt and extend such horns would be to add honour and dignity to the wearer." Webb (_Heritage of Dress_, p. 117) writes: "Mr. Elworthy in a paper to the British a.s.sociation at Ipswich in 1865 considered the crown to be a development from horns of honour. He maintained that the symbols found in the head of the G.o.d Serapis were the elements from which were formed the composite head-dress called the crown into which horns entered to a very great extent." This seems a doubtful speculation, but still it may be quite possible that the idea of distinguis.h.i.+ng by a crown the leader of the tribe was originally taken from the antlers of the leader of the herd. The helmets of the Vikings were also, I believe, decorated with horns.

[224] _Monograph_, p. 40.

[225] _Melia indica._

[226] Author of the _Nimar Settlement Report_.

[227] _Sesamum._

[228] _Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies_, p. 21.

[229] _Report on the Badhak or Bagri Dacoits_, p. 310.

[230] Colonel Mackenzie's notes.

[231] Mr. W. F. Sinclair, C.S., in _Ind. Ant._ iii. p. 184 (1874).

[232] _Notes on Criminal Tribes frequenting Bombay, Berar and the Central Provinces_ (Bombay, 1882).

[233] _Berar Census Report_ (1881), p. 151.

[234] This notice is compiled princ.i.p.ally from a good paper by Mr. M. C. Chatterji, retired Extra a.s.sistant Commissioner, Jubbulpore, and from papers by Professor Sada s.h.i.+va Jai Ram, M.A., Government College, Jubbulpore, and Mr. Bhaskar Baji Rao Deshmukh, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Nagpur.

[235] Sherring, _Hindu Tribes and Castes_, i. p. 330. Nesfield, _Brief View_, p. 15. _N.W.P. Census Report_ (1891), p 317.

[236] The name of a superior revenue office; under the Marathas, now borne as a courtesy t.i.tle by certain families.

[237] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Agarwal.

[238] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Barui.

[239] Blochmann, _Ain-i-Akbari_, i. p. 72, quoted in Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Tamboli.

[240] _Rajasthan_, ii. p. 210.

[241] _Ficus glomerata._

[242] _Hindu Castes_, i. p. 316.

[243] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Bari.

[244] Vishnu.

[245] Sherring, _Tribes and Castes_, i. pp. 403, 404.

[246] This article is compiled from papers by Mr. W. N. Maw, Deputy Commissioner, Damoh, and Murlidhar, Munsiff of Khurai in Saugor.

[247] _Bombay Gazetteer_, xvii. p. 108.

[248] About 100 lbs.

[249] Compiled from papers by Mr. Ram Lal, B. A., Deputy Inspector of Schools, Saugor; Mr. Vishnu Gangadhar Gadgil, Tahsildar, Narsinghpur; Mr. Devi Dayal, Tahsildar, Hatta; Mr. Kanhya Lal, B. A., Deputy Inspector of Schools, Betul; Mr. Keshava Rao, Headmaster, Middle School, Seoni; and Bapu Gulab Singh, Superintendent, Land Records, Betul.

[250] Chapter x. 37, and Shudra Kamlakar, p. 284.

[251] A Vaideha was the child of a Vaishya father and a Brahman mother.

[252] Based on a paper by Rao Sahib Dhonduji, retired Inspector of Police, Akola, and information collected by Mr. Aduram Chaudhri of the Gazetteer office.

[253] Mr. Marten's _C. P. Census Report_ (1911), p. 212.

[254] This article is based on papers by Mr. A. K. Smith, C.S., Mr. Khande Rao, Superintendent of Land Records, Raipur, and Muns.h.i.+ Kanhiya Lal, of the Gazetteer office.

[255] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, art. Beldar.

[256] _The Castes and Tribes of Southern India_, art. Odde.

[257] _Akola District Gazetteer_ (Mr. C. Brown), pp. 132, 133.

[258] _Amraoti District Gazetteer_ (Messrs. Nelson and Fitzgerald), p. 146.

[259] See article on Badhak.

[260] Kennedy, p. 247.

[261] Crooke, art. Beria.

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

[263] This article is based princ.i.p.ally on a paper by Panna Lal, Revenue Inspector, Bilaspur, and also on papers by Mr. Syed Sher Ali, Naib-Tahsildar, Mr. Hira Lal and Mr. Aduram Chaudhri of the Gazetteer office.