The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume IV Part 21

Meo

_Meo, Mewati._--The Muhammadan branch of the Mina tribe belonging to the country of Mewat in Rajputana which is comprised in the Alwar, Bharatpur and Jaipur States and the British District of Gurgaon. A few Meos were returned from the Hoshangabad and Nimar Districts in 1911, but it is doubtful whether any are settled here, as they may be wandering criminals. The origin of the Meo is discussed in the article on the Mina tribe, but some interesting remarks on them by Mr. Channing and Major Powlett in the _Rajputana Gazetteer_ may be reproduced here. Mr. Channing writes: [256]

"The tribe, which has been known in Hindustan according to the Kutub Tawarikh for 850 years, was originally Hindu and became Muhammadan. Their origin is obscure. They themselves claim descent from the Rajput races of Jadon, Kachhwaha and Tuar, and they may possibly have some Rajput blood in their veins; but they are probably, like many other similar tribes, a combination from ruling and other various stocks and sources, and there is reason to believe them very nearly allied with the Minas, who are certainly a tribe of the same structure and species. The Meos have twelve clans or _pals_, the first six of which are identical in name and claim the same descent as the first six clans of the Minas. Intermarriage between them both was the rule until the time of Akbar, when owing to an affray at the marriage of a Meo with a Mina the custom was discontinued. Finally, their mode of life is or was similar, as both tribes were once notoriously predatory. It is probable that the original Meos were supplemented by converts to Islam from other castes. It is said that the tribe were conquered and converted in the eleventh century by Masud, son of Amir Salar and grandson of Sultan Mahmud Subaktagin on the mother's side, the general of the forces of Mahmud of Ghazni. Masud is still venerated by the Meos, and they swear by his name. They have a mixture of Hindu and Muhammadan customs. They practise circ.u.mcision, _nikah_ [257] and the burial of the dead. They make pilgrimages to the tomb of Masud in Bahraich in Oudh, and consider the oath taken on his banner the most binding. They also make pilgrimages to Muhammadan shrines in India, but never perform the _Haj_. Of Hindu customs they observe the Holi or Diwali; their marriages are never arranged in the same _got_ or sept; and they permit daughters to inherit. They call their children indiscriminately by both Muhammadan and Hindu names. They are almost entirely uneducated, but have bards and musicians to whom they make large presents. These sing songs known as Ratwai, which are commonly on pastoral and agricultural subjects. The Meos are given to the use of intoxicating drinks, and are very superst.i.tious and have great faith in omens. The dress of the men and women resembles that of the Hindus. Infanticide was formerly common among them, but it is said to have entirely died out. They were also formerly robbers by avocation; and though they have improved they are still noted cattle-lifters."

In another description of them by Major Powlett it is stated that, besides wors.h.i.+pping Hindu G.o.ds and keeping Hindu festivals, they employ a Brahman to write the Pili Chhitthi or yellow note fixing the date of a marriage. They call themselves by Hindu names with the exception of Ram; and Singh is a frequent affix, though not so common as Khan. On the Amawas or monthly conjunction of the sun and moon, Meos, in common with Hindu Ahirs and Gujars, cease from labour; and when they make a well the first proceeding is to erect a _chabutra_ (platform) to Bhaironji or Hanuman. However, when plunder was to be obtained they have often shown little respect for Hindu shrines and temples; and when the sanct.i.ty of a threatened place has been urged, the retort has been, '_Tum to Deo, Ham Meo_' or 'You may be a Deo (G.o.d), but I am a Meo.'

Meos do not marry in their _pal_ or clan, but they are lax about forming connections with women of other castes, whose children they receive into the community. As already stated, Brahmans take part in the formalities preceding a marriage, but the ceremony itself is performed by a Kazi. As agriculturists Meos are inferior to their Hindu neighbours. The point in which they chiefly fail is in working their wells, for which they lack patience. Their women, whom they do not confine, will, it is said, do more field-work than the men; indeed, one often finds women at work in the crops when the men are lying down. Like the women of low Hindu castes they tattoo their bodies, a practice disapproved by Musalmans in general. Abul Fazl writes that the Meos were in his time famous runners, and one thousand of them were employed by Akbar as carriers of the post.

Mina

1. The Minas locally termed Deswa

_Mina, Deswali, Maina._--A well-known caste of Rajputana which is found in the Central Provinces in the Hoshangabad, Nimar and Saugor Districts. About 8000 persons of the caste were returned in 1911. The proper name for them is Mina, but here they are generally known as Deswali, a term which they probably prefer, as that of Mina is too notorious. A large part of the population of the northern Districts is recruited from Bundelkhand and Marwar, and these tracts are therefore often known among them as 'Desh' or native country. The term Deswali is applied to groups of many castes coming from Bundelkhand, and has apparently been specially appropriated as an _alias_ by the Minas. The caste are sometimes known in Hoshangabad as Maina, which Colonel Tod states to be the name of the highest division of the Minas. The designation of Pardes.h.i.+ or 'foreigner' is also given to them in some localities. The Deswalis came to Harda about A.D. 1750, being invited by the Maratha Amil or governor, who gave one family a grant of three villages. They thus gained a position of some dignity, and this reaching the ears of their brothers in Jaipur they also came and settled all over the District. [258] In view of the history and character of the Minas, of which some account will be given, it should be first stated that under the _regime_ of British law and order most of the Deswalis of Hoshangabad have settled down into steady and honest agriculturists.

2. Historical notice of the Mina tribe

The Minas were a famous robber tribe of the country of Mewat in Rajputana, comprised in the Alwar and Bharatpur States and the British District of Gurgaon. [259] They are also found in large numbers in Jaipur State, which was formerly held by them. The Meos and Minas are now considered to be branches of one tribe, the former being at least nominally Muhammadans by religion and the latter Hindus. A favourite story for recitation at their feasts is that of Darya Khan Meo and Sasibadani Mini, a pair of lovers whose marriage led to a quarrel between the tribes to which they belonged, in the time of Akbar. This dispute caused the cessation of the practice of intermarriage between Meos and Minas which had formerly obtained. Both the Meos and Minas are divided into twelve large clans called _pal_, the word _pal_ meaning, according to Colonel Tod, 'a defile in a valley suitable for cultivation or defence.' In a sandy desert like Rajputana the valleys of streams might be expected to be the only favourable tracts for settlement, and the name perhaps therefore is a record of the process by which the colonies of Minas in these isolated patches of culturable land developed into exogamous clans marrying with each other. The Meos have similarly twelve _pals_, and the names of six of these are identical with those of the Minas. [260]

The names of the _pals_ are taken from those of Rajput clans, [261]

but the recorded lists differ, and there are now many other _gots_ or septs outside the _pals_. The Minas seem originally to have been an aboriginal or pre-Aryan tribe of Rajputana, where they are still found in considerable numbers. The Raja of Jaipur was formerly marked on the forehead with blood taken from the great toe of a Mina on the occasion of his installation. Colonel Tod records that the Amber or Jaipur State was founded by one Dholesai in A.D. 967 after he had slaughtered large numbers of the Minas by treachery. And in his time the Minas still possessed large immunities and privileges in the Jaipur State. When the Rajputs settled in force in Rajputana, reducing the Minas to subjection, illicit connections would naturally arise on a large scale between the invaders and the women of the conquered country. For even when the Rajputs only came as small isolated parties of adventurers, as into the Central Provinces, we find traces of such connections in the survival of castes or subcastes of mixed descent from them and the indigenous tribes. It follows therefore that where they occupied the country and settled on the soil the process would be still more common. Accordingly it is generally recognised that the Minas are a caste of the most mixed and impure descent, and it has sometimes been supposed that they were themselves a branch of the Rajputs. In the Punjab when one woman accuses another of illicit intercourse she is said '_Mina dena_,' or to designate her as a Mina. [262] Further it is stated [263] that "The Minas are of two cla.s.ses, the Zamindari or agricultural and the Chaukidari or watchmen. These Chaukidari Minas are the famous marauders." The office of village watchman was commonly held by members of the aboriginal tribes, and these too furnished the criminal cla.s.ses. Another piece of evidence of the Dravidian origin of the tribe is the fact that there exists even now a group of Dhedia or impure Minas who do not refuse to eat cow's flesh. The Chaukidari Minas, dispossessed of their land, resorted to the hills, and here they developed into a community of thieves and bandits recruited from all the outcastes of society. Sir A. Lyall wrote [264] of the caste as "a Cave of Adullam which has stood open for centuries. With them a captured woman is solemnly admitted by a form of adoption into one circle of affinity, in order that she may be lawfully married into another." With the conquest of northern India by the Muhammadans, many of the Minas, being bound by no ties to Hinduism, might be expected to embrace the new and actively proselytising religion, while their robber bands would receive fugitive Muhammadans as recruits as well as Hindus. Thus probably arose a Musalman branch of the community, who afterwards became separately designated as the Meos. As already seen, the Meos and Minas intermarried for a time, but subsequently ceased to do so. As might be expected, the form of Islam professed by the Meos is of a very b.a.s.t.a.r.d order, and Major Powlett's account of it is reproduced in a short separate notice of that tribe.

3. Their robberies

The crimes and daring of the Minas have obtained for them a considerable place in history. A Muhammadan historian, Zia-ud-din Bami, wrote of the tribe: [265] "At night they were accustomed to come prowling into the city of Delhi, giving all kinds of trouble and depriving people of their rest, and they plundered the country houses in the neighbourhood of the city. Their daring was carried to such an extent that the western gates of the city were shut at afternoon prayer and no one dared to leave it after that hour, whether he travelled as a pilgrim or with the display of a king. At afternoon prayer they would often come to the Sarhouy, and a.s.saulting the water-carriers and girls who were fetching water they would strip them and carry off their clothes. In turn they were treated by the Muhammadan rulers with the most merciless cruelty. Some were thrown under the feet of elephants, others were cut in halves with knives, and others again were flayed alive from head to foot." Regular campaigns against them were undertaken by the Muhammadans, [266] as in later times British forces had to be despatched to subdue the Pindaris. Babar on his arrival at Agra described the Mewati leader Raja Hasan Khan as 'the chief agitator in all these confusions and insurrections'; and Firishta mentions two terrible slaughters of Mewatis in A.D. 1259 and 1265. In 1857 Major Powlett records that in Alwar they a.s.sembled and burnt the State ricks and carried off cattle, though they did not succeed in plundering any towns or villages there. In British territory they sacked Firozpur and other villages, and when a British force came to restore order many were hanged. Sir D. Ibbetson wrote of them in the Punjab: [267]

"The Minas are the boldest of our criminal cla.s.ses. Their headquarters so far as the Punjab is concerned are in the village of Shahjahanpur, attached to the Gurgaon District but surrounded on all sides by Rajputana territory. There they until lately defied our police and even resisted them with armed force. Their enterprises are on a large scale, and they are always prepared to use violence if necessary. In Marwar they are armed with small bows which do considerable execution. They travel great distances in gangs of from twelve to twenty men, practising robbery and dacoity even as far as the Deccan. The gangs usually start off immediately after the Diwali feast and often remain absent the whole year. They have agents in all the large cities of Rajputana and the Deccan who give them information, and they are in league with the carrying castes of Marwar. After a successful foray they offer one-tenth of the proceeds at the shrine of Kali Devi."

Like other criminals they were very superst.i.tious, and Colonel Tod records that the partridge and the _maloli_ or wagtail were their chief birds of omen. A partridge clamouring on the left when he commenced a foray was a certain presage of success to a Mina. Similarly, Mr. Kennedy notes that the finding of a dried goatskin, either whole or in pieces, among the effects of a suspected criminal is said to be an infallible indication of his ident.i.ty as a Mina, the flesh of the goat's tongue being indispensable in connection with the taking of omens. In Jaipur the Minas were employed as guards, as a method of protection against their fellows, for whose misdeeds they were held responsible. Rent-free lands were given to them, and they were always employed to escort treasure. Here they became the most faithful and trusted of the Raja's servants. It is related that on one occasion a Mina sentinel at the palace had received charge of a basket of oranges. A friend of the same tribe came to him and asked to be shown the palace, which he had never seen. The sentinel agreed and took him over the palace, but when his back was turned the friend stole one orange from the basket. Subsequently the sentinel counted the oranges and found one short; on this he ran after his friend and taxed him with the theft, which being admitted, the Mina said that he had been made to betray his trust and had become dishonoured, and drawing his sword cut off his friend's head. The ancient treasure of Jaipur or Amber was, according to tradition, kept in a secret cave in the hills under a body of Mina guards who alone knew the hiding-place, and would only permit any part of it to be withdrawn for a great emergency. Nor would they accept the orders of the Raja alone, but required the consent of the heads of the twelve princ.i.p.al n.o.ble families of Amber, branches of the royal house, before they would give up any part of the treasure. The criminal Minas are said to inhabit a tract of country about sixty-five miles long and forty broad, stretching from Shahpur forty miles north of Jaipur to Guraora in Gurgaon on the Rohtak border. The popular idea of the Mina, Mr. Crooke remarks, [268] is quite in accordance with his historical character; his n.i.g.g.ardliness is shown in the saying, 'The Meo will not give his daughter in marriage till he gets a mortar full of silver'; his pugnacity is expressed in, 'The Meo's son begins to avenge his feuds when he is twelve years old'; and his toughness in, 'Never be sure that a Meo is dead till you see the third-day funeral ceremony performed.'

4. The Deswalis of the Central Provinces

As already stated, the Deswalis of the Central Provinces have abandoned the wild life of their ancestors and settled down as respectable cultivators. Only a few particulars about them need be recorded. Girls are usually married before they are twelve years old and boys at sixteen to twenty. A sum of Rs. 24 is commonly paid for the bride, and a higher amount up to Rs. 71 may be given, but this is the maximum, and if the father of the girl takes more he will be fined by the caste and made to refund the balance. A triangle with some wooden models of birds is placed on the marriage-shed and the bridegroom strikes at these with a stick; formerly he fired a gun at them to indicate that he was a hunter by profession. A Brahman is employed to celebrate the marriage. A widow is usually taken by her late husband's younger brother, but if there be none the elder brother may marry her, contrary to the general rule among Hindus. The object is to keep the woman in the family, as wives are costly. If she is unwilling to marry her brother-in-law, however, no compulsion is exercised and she may wed another man. Divorce is allowed, and in Rajputana is very simply effected. If tempers do not a.s.similate or other causes prompt them to part, the husband tears a shred from his turban which he gives to his wife, and with this simple bill of divorce, placing two jars of water on her head, she takes whatever path she pleases, and the first man who chooses to ease her of her load becomes her future lord. '_Jehur nikala_,' 'Took the jar and went forth,' is a common saying among the mountaineers of Merwara. [269]

The dead are cremated, the corpse of a man being wrapped in a white and that of a woman in a coloured cloth. They have no _shraddh_ ceremony, but mourn for the dead only on the last day of Kartik (October), when they offer water and burn incense. Deswalis employ the Parsai or village Brahman to officiate at their ceremonies, but owing to their mixed origin they rank below the cultivating castes, and Brahmans will not take water from them. In Jaipur, however, Major Powlett says, their position is higher. They are, as already seen, the trusted guards of the palace and treasury, and Rajputs will accept food and water from their hands. This concession is no doubt due to the familiarity induced by living together for a long period, and parallel instances of it can be given, as that of the Panwars and Gonds in the Central Provinces. The Deswalis eat flesh and drink liquor, but abstain from fowls and pork. When they are invited to a feast they do not take their own bra.s.s vessels with them, but drink out of earthen pots supplied by the host, having the liquor poured on to their hands held to the mouth to avoid actual contact with the vessel. This is a Marwari custom and the Jats also have it. Before the commencement of the feast the guests wait until food has been given to as many beggars as like to attend. In Saugor the food served consists only of rice and pulse without vegetables or other dishes. It is said that a Mina will not eat salt in the house of another man, because he considers that to do so would establish the bond of _Nimak-khai_ or salt-eating between them, and he would be debarred for ever from robbing that man or breaking into his house. The guests need not sit down together as among other Hindus, but may take their food in batches; so that the necessity of awaiting the arrival of every guest before commencing the feast is avoided. The Deswalis will not kill a black-buck nor eat the flesh of one, but they a.s.sign no reason for this and do not now wors.h.i.+p the animal. The rule is probably, however, a totemistic survival. The men may be known by their manly gait and harsh tone of voice, as well as by a peculiar method of tying the turban; the women have a special ornament called _rakhdi_ on the forehead and do not wear spangles or toe-rings. They are said also to despise ornaments of the baser metals as bra.s.s and pewter. They are tattooed with dots on the face to set off the fair-coloured skin by contrast, in the same manner as patches were carried on the face in Europe in the eighteenth century. A tattoo dot on a fair face is likened by a Hindu poet to a bee sitting on a half-opened mango.

Mirasi

_Mirasi._--A Muhammadan caste of singers, minstrels and genealogists, of which a few members are found in the Central Provinces. General Cunningham says that they are the bards and singers of the Meos or Mewatis at all their marriages and festivals. [270] Mr. Crooke is of opinion that they are undoubtedly an offshoot of the great Dom caste who are little better than sweepers. [271] The word Mirasi is derived from the Arabic _miras_, inheritance, and its signification is supposed to be that the Mirasis are the hereditary bards and singers of the lower castes, as the Bhat is of the Rajputs. _Miras_ as a word may, however, be used of any hereditary right, as that of the village headman or Karnam, or even those of the village watchman or temple dancing-girl, all of whom may have a _mirasi_ right to fees or perquisites or plots of land held as remuneration for service. [272]

The Mirasis are also known as Pakhawaji, from the _pakhawaj_ or timbrel which they play; as Kawwal or one who speaks fluently, that is a professional, story-teller; and as Kalawant or one possessed of art or skill. The Mirasis are most numerous in the Punjab, where they number a quarter of a million. Sir D. Ibbetson says of them: [273] "The social position of the Mirasi as of all minstrel castes is exceedingly low, but he attends at weddings and similar occasions to recite genealogies. Moreover there are grades even among Mirasis. The outcaste tribes have their Mirasis, who though they do not eat with their clients and merely render their professional services are considered impure by the Mirasis of the higher castes. The Mirasi is generally a hereditary servant like the Bhat, and is notorious for his exactions, which he makes under the threat of lampooning the ancestors of him from whom he demands fees. The Mirasi is almost always a Muhammadan." They are said to have been converted to Islam in response to the request of the poet Amir Khusru, who lived in the reign of Ala-ud-din Khilji (A.D. 1295). The Mirasi has two functions, the men being musicians, storytellers and genealogists, while the women dance and sing, but only before the ladies of the zenana. Mr. Nesfield [274] says that they are sometimes regularly entertained as jesters to help these ladies to kill time and reconcile them to their domestic prisons. As they do not dance before men they are reputed to be chaste, as no woman who is not a prost.i.tute will dance in the presence of men, though singing and playing are not equally condemned. The implements of the Mirasis are generally the small drum (_dholak_), the cymbals (_majira_) and the gourd lute (_kingri_). [275]

Mochi [276]

List of Paragraphs

1. _General notice_.

2. _Legends of origin_.

3. _Art among the Hindus_.

4. _Antagonism of Mochis and Chamars_.

5. _Exogamous groups_.

6. _Social customs_.

7. _Shoes_.

1. General notice

_Mochi, Muchi, Jingar, Jirayat, Jildgar, Chitrakar, Chitevari, Musabir._--The occupational caste of saddlers and cobblers. In 1911 about 4000 Mochis and 2000 Jingars were returned from the Central Provinces and Berar, the former residing princ.i.p.ally in the Hindustani and the latter in the Marathi-speaking Districts. The name is derived from the Sanskrit _mochika_ and the Hindustani _mojna_, to fold, and the common name _mojah_ for socks and stockings is from the same root (Platts). By origin the Mochis are no doubt an offshoot of the Chamar caste, but they now generally disclaim the connection. Mr. Nesfield observes [277] that, "The industry of tanning is preparatory to and lower than that of cobblery, and hence the caste of Chamar ranks decidedly below that of Mochi. The ordinary Hindu does not consider the touch of a Mochi so impure as that of the Chamar, and there is a Hindu proverb to the effect that 'Dried or prepared hide is the same thing as cloth,' whereas the touch of the raw hide before it has been tanned by the Chamar is considered a pollution. The Mochi does not eat carrion like the Chamar, nor does he eat swine's flesh; nor does his wife ever practise the much-loathed art of midwifery." In the Central Provinces, as in northern India, the caste may be considered to have two branches, the lower one consisting of the Mochis who make and cobble shoes and are admittedly descended from Chamars; while the better-cla.s.s men either make saddles and harness, when they are known as Jingar; or bind books, when they are called Jildgar; or paint and make clay idols, when they are given the designation either of Chitrakar, Chitevari or Murtikar. In Berar some Jingars have taken up the finer kinds of iron-work, such as mending guns, and are known as Jirayat. All these are at great pains to dissociate themselves from the Chamar caste. They call themselves Thakur or Rajput and have exogamous sections the names of which are identical with those of the Rajput septs. The same people have a.s.sumed the name of Ris.h.i.+ in Bengal, and, according to a story related by Sir H. Risley, claim to be debased Brahmans; while in the United Provinces Mr. Crooke considers them to be connected with the Srivastab Kayasths, with whom they intermarry and agree in manners and customs. The fact that in the three Provinces these workers in leather claim descent from three separate high castes is an interesting instance of the trouble which the lower-cla.s.s Hindus will take to obtain a slight increase in social consideration; but the very diversity of the accounts given induces the belief that all Mochis were originally sprung from the Chamars. In Bombay, again, Mr. Enthoven [278] writes that the caste prefers to style itself Arya Somavansi Kshatriya or Aryan Kshatriyas of the Moon division; while they have all the regular Brahmanical _gotras_ as Bharadwaja, Vasishtha, Gautam and so on.

2. Legends of origin

The following interesting legends as to the origin of the caste adduced by them in support of their Brahmanical descent are related [279] by Sir H. Risley: "One of the Praja-pati, or mind-born sons of Brahma, was in the habit of providing the flesh of cows and clarified b.u.t.ter as a burnt-offering (_Ahuti_) to the G.o.ds. It was then the custom to eat a portion of the sacrifice, restore the victim to life, and drive it into the forest. On one occasion the Praja-pati failed to resuscitate the sacrificial animal, owing to his wife, who was pregnant at the time, having clandestinely made away with a portion. Alarmed at this he summoned all the other Praja-patis, and they sought by divination to discover the cause of the failure. At last they ascertained what had occurred, and as a punishment the wife was cursed and expelled from their society. The child which she bore was the first Mochi or tanner, and from that time forth, mankind being deprived of the power of reanimating cattle slaughtered for food, the pious abandoned the practice of killing kine altogether. Another story is that Muchiram, the ancestor of the caste, was born from the sweat of Brahma while dancing. He chanced to offend the irritable sage Durvasa, who sent a pretty Brahman widow to allure him into a breach of chast.i.ty. Muchiram accosted the widow as mother, and refused to have anything to do with her; but Durvasa used the miraculous power he had acquired by penance to render the widow pregnant so that the innocent Muchiram was made an outcaste on suspicion. From her two sons are descended the two main branches of the caste in Bengal."

3. Art among the Hindus

In the Central Provinces the term Mochi is often used for the whole caste in the northern Districts, and Jingar in the Maratha country; while the Chitrakars or painters form a separate group. Though the trades of cobbler and book-binder are now widely separated in civilised countries, the connection between them is apparent since both work in leather. It is not at first sight clear why the painter should be of the same caste, but the reason is perhaps that his brushes are made of the hair of animals, and this is also regarded as impure, as being a part of the hide. If such be the case a senseless caste rule of ceremonial impurity has prevented the art of painting from being cultivated by the Hindus; and the comparatively poor development of their music may perhaps be ascribed to the same cause, since the use of the sinews of animals for stringed instruments would also prevent the educated cla.s.ses from learning to play them. Thus no stringed instruments are permitted to be used in temples, but only the gong, cymbal, horn and conch-sh.e.l.l. And this rule would greatly discourage the cultivation of music, which art, like all the others, has usually served in its early period as an appanage to religious services. It has been held that instruments were originally employed at temples and shrines in order to scare away evil spirits by their noise while the G.o.d was being fed or wors.h.i.+pped, and not for the purpose of calling the wors.h.i.+ppers together; since noise is a recognised means of driving away spirits, probably in consequence of its effect in frightening wild animals. It is for the same end that music is essential at weddings, especially during the night when the spirits are more potent; and this is the primary object of the continuous discordant din which the Hindus consider a necessary accompaniment to a wedding.

Except for this ceremonial strictness Hinduism should have been favourable to the development of both painting and sculpture, as being a polytheistic religion. In the early stages of society religion and art are intimately connected, as is shown by the fact that images and paintings are at first nearly always of deities or sacred persons or animals, and it is only after a considerable period of development that secular subjects are treated. Similarly architecture is in its commencement found to be applied solely to sacred buildings, as temples and churches, and is only gradually diverted to secular buildings. The figures sculptured by the Mochis are usually images for temples, and those who practise this art are called Murtikar, from _murti_, an image or idol; and the pictures of the Chitrakars were until recently all of deities or divine animals, though secular paintings may now occasionally be met with. And the uneducated believers in a polytheistic religion regularly take the image for the deity himself, at first scarcely conceiving of the one apart from the other. Thus some Bharewas or bra.s.s-workers say that they dare not make metal images of the G.o.ds, because they are afraid that the badness of their handiwork might arouse the wrath of the G.o.ds and move them to take revenge. The surmise might in fact be almost justifiable that the end to which figures of men and animals were first drawn or painted, or modelled in clay or metal was that they might be wors.h.i.+pped as images of the deities, the savage mind not distinguis.h.i.+ng at all between an image of the G.o.d and the G.o.d himself. For this reason monotheistic religions would be severely antagonistic to the arts, and such is in fact the case. Thus the Muhammadan commentary, the Hadith, has a verse: "Woe to him who has painted a living creature! At the day of the last judgment the persons represented by him will come out of the tomb and join themselves to him to demand of him a soul. Then that man, unable to give life to his work, will burn in eternal flames." And in Judaism the familiar prohibition of the Second Commandment appears to be directed to the same end.