The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume III Part 39

6. First pregnancy.

In the fifth or seventh month of the first pregnancy of a Kasbi woman 108 fried wafers of flour and sugar, known as gujahs, are prepared, and are eaten by her as well as distributed to friends and relatives who are invited to the house. After this they in return prepare similar wafers and send them to the pregnant woman. Some little time before the birth the mother washes her head with gram flour, puts on new clothes and jewels, and invites all her friends to the house, feasting them with rice boiled in milk, cakes and sweetmeats.

7. Different cla.s.ses of women.

Though the better-cla.s.s Kasbis appear to have a sort of caste union, this is naturally quite indefinite, inasmuch as marriage, at present the essential bond of caste-organisation, is absent. The sons of Kasbis take up any profession that they choose; and many of them marry and live respectably with their wives. Others become musicians and a.s.sist at the performances of the dancing-girls, as the Bhadua who beats the cymbals and sings in chorus and also acts as a pimp, and the Sarangia, one who performs on the sarangi or fiddle. The girls themselves are of different cla.s.ses, as the Kasbi or Gayan who are Hindus, the Tawaif who are Muhammadans, and the Bogam or Telugu dancing-girls. Gond women are known as Deogarhni, and are supposed to have come from Deogarh in Chhindwara, formerly the headquarters of a Gond dynasty. The Sarangias or fiddlers are now a separate caste. In the northern Districts the dancing-girls are usually women of the Beria caste and are known as Berni. After the spring harvest the village headman hires one or two of these girls, who dance and do acrobatic feats by torchlight. They will continue all through the night, stimulated by draughts of liquor, and it is said that one woman will drink two or three bottles of the country spirit. The young men of the village beat the drum to accompany her dancing, and take turns to see how long they can go on doing so without breaking down. After the performance each cultivator gives the woman one or two pice (farthings) and the headman gives her a rupee. Such a celebration is known as Rai, and is distinctive of Bundelkhand.

In Bengal this cla.s.s of women often become religious mendicants and join the Vaishnava or Bairagi community, as stated by Sir H. Risley: [408] "The mendicant members of the Vaishnava community are of evil repute, their ranks being recruited by those who have no relatives, by widows, by individuals too idle or depraved to lead a steady working life, and by prost.i.tutes. Vaishnavi, or Baishtabi according to the vulgar p.r.o.nunciation, has come to mean a courtesan. A few undoubtedly join from sincere and worthy motives, but their numbers are too small to produce any appreciable effect on the behaviour of their comrades. The habits of these beggars are very unsettled. They wander from village to village and from one akhara (monastery) to another, fleecing the frugal and industrious peasantry on the plea of religion, and singing songs in praise of Hari beneath the village tree or shrine. Members of both s.e.xes smoke Indian hemp (ganja), and although living as brothers and sisters are notorious for licentiousness. There is every reason for suspecting that infanticide is common, as children are never seen. In the course of their wanderings they entice away unmarried girls, widows, and even married women on the pretence of visiting Sri Kshetra (Jagannath) Brindaban or Benares, for which reason they are shunned by all respectable natives, who gladly give charity to be rid of them."

In large towns prost.i.tutes belong to all castes. An old list obtained by Rai Bahadur Hira Lal of registered prost.i.tutes in Jubbulpore showed the following numbers of different castes: Barai six, Dhimar four, and Nai, Khangar, Kachhi, Gond, Teli, Brahman, Rajput and Bania three each. Each woman usually has one or two girls in training if she can obtain them, with a view to support herself by their earnings in the same method of livelihood when her own attractions have waned. Fatherless and orphan girls run a risk of falling into this mode of life, partly because their marriages cannot conveniently be arranged, and also from the absence of strict paternal supervision. For it is to be feared that a girl who is allowed to run about at her will in the bazar has little chance of retaining her chast.i.ty even up to the period of her arrival at adolescence. This is no doubt one of the princ.i.p.al considerations in favour of early marriage. The caste-people often subscribe for the marriage of a girl who is left without support, and it is said that in former times an unmarried orphan girl might go and sit dharna, or starving herself, at the king's gate until he arranged for her wedding. Formerly the practice of obtaining young girls was carried on to a much greater extent than at present. Malcolm remarks: [409] "Slavery in Malwa and the adjoining provinces is chiefly limited to females; but there is perhaps no part of India where there are so many slaves of this s.e.x. The dancing-girls are all purchased, when young, by the Nakins or heads of the different sets or companies, who often lay out large sums in these speculations, obtaining advances from the bankers on interest like other cla.s.ses." But the attractions of the profession and the numbers of those who engage in it have now largely declined.

8. Dancing and singing.

The better cla.s.s of Kasbi women, when seen in public, are conspicuous by their wealth of jewellery and their shoes of patent leather or other good material. Women of other castes do not commonly wear shoes in the streets. The Kasbis are always well and completely clothed, and it has been noticed elsewhere that the Indian courtesan is more modestly dressed than most women. No doubt in this matter she knows her business. A well-to-do dancing-girl has a dress of coloured muslin or gauze trimmed with tinsel lace, with a short waist, long straight sleeves, and skirts which reach a little below the knee, a shawl falling from the head over the shoulders and wrapped round the body, and a pair of tight satin trousers, reaching to the ankles. The feet are bare, and strings of small bells are tied round them. They usually dance and sing to the accompaniment of the tabla, sarangi and majira. The tabla or drum is made of two half-bowls--one bra.s.s or clay for the ba.s.s, and the other of wood for the treble. They are covered with goat-skin and played together. The sarangi is a fiddle. The majira (cymbals) consist of two metallic cups slung together and used for beating time. Before a dancing-girl begins her performance she often invokes the aid of Saraswati, the G.o.ddess of music. She then pulls her ear as a sign of remembrance of Tansen, India's greatest musician, and a confession to his spirit of the imperfection of her own sense of music. The movements of the feet are accompanied by a continual opening and closing of henna-dyed hands; and at intervals the girl kneels at the feet of one or other of the audience. On the festival of Basant Panchmi or the commencement of spring these girls wors.h.i.+p their dancing-dress and musical instruments with offerings of rice, flowers and a cocoanut.

Katia

1. General notice.

Katia, Katwa, Katua.--An occupational caste of cotton-spinners and village watchmen belonging to the Satpura Districts and the Nerbudda valley. In 1911 they numbered 41,000 persons and were returned mainly from the Hoshangabad, Seoni and Chhindwara Districts. The caste is almost confined to the Central Provinces. The name is derived from the Hindi katna, to spin thread, and the Katias are an occupational group probably recruited from the Mahars and Koris. They have a tradition, Mr. Crooke states, [410] that they were originally Bais Rajputs, whose ancestors, having been imprisoned for resistance to authority, were released on the promise that they would follow a woman's occupation of spinning thread. In the Central Provinces they are sometimes called Renhta Rajputs or Knights of the Spinning Wheel. The tradition of Rajput descent need not of course be taken seriously. The drudgery of spinning thread was naturally imposed on any widow in the household, and hence the saying, 'It is always moving, like a widow's spinning-wheel.' [411]

2. Subcastes and exogamous groups.

The Katias have several subcastes, with names generally derived from places in the Central Provinces, as Pathari from a village in the Chhindwara District, Mandilwar from Mandla, Gadhewal from Garha, near Jubbulpore, and so on. The Dulbuha group consist of those who were formerly palanquin-bearers (from doli, a litter). They have also more than fifty exogamous septs, with names of the usual low-caste type, derived from places, animals or plants, or natural objects. Some of the septs are subdivided. Thus the Nagotia sept, named after the cobra, is split up into the Nagotia, Dirat [412] Nag, Bharowar [413] Nag, Kosam Karia and Hazari [414] Nag groups. It is said that the different groups do not intermarry; but it is probable that they do, as otherwise there seems to be no object in the subdivision. The Kosam Karias wors.h.i.+p a cobra at their weddings, but not the others. The Singhotia sept, from singh, a horn, is divided into the Bakaria (goat) and Ghagar-bharia (one who fills an earthen vessel) subsepts. The Bakarias offer goats to their G.o.ds; and the Ghagar-bharias on the Akti [415] festival, just before the breaking of the rains, fill an earthen vessel and wors.h.i.+p it, and consider it sacred for that day. Next day it is brought into ordinary use. The Dongaria sept, from dongar, a hill, revere the chheola tree. [416] They choose any tree of this species outside the village, and say that it is placed on a hill, and go and wors.h.i.+p it once a year. In this case it would appear that a hill was first venerated as an animate being and the ancestor of the sept. When hills were no longer so regarded, a chheola tree growing on a hill was subst.i.tuted; and now the tree only is revered, probably a good deal for form's sake, and so far as the hill is concerned, the mere pretence that it is growing on a hill is sufficient.

3. Marriage customs.

A man must not take a wife from his own sept nor from that of his mother or grandmother. Girls are commonly married between eight and twelve years of age; and a customary payment of Rs. 9 is made to the father of the bride, double this amount being given by a widower. An unmarried girl seduced by a man of the caste is united to him by the ceremony used for a widow, and a fine is imposed on her parents; if she goes wrong with an outsider she is expelled from the community. In the marriage ceremony the customary ritual of the northern Districts is followed, [417] and the binding portion of it consists in the bride and bridegroom walking seven times around the bhanwar or sacred pole. While she does this it is essential that the bride should wear a string of black beads round her neck and bra.s.s anklets on her feet. After the ceremony the bride's mother and other women dance before the company. Whether the bride be a child or young woman she always returns home after a stay of a few days at her husband's house, and at her subsequent final departure the Gauna or going-away ceremony is performed. If the bridegroom dies after the wedding and before the Gauna, his younger brother or cousin or anybody else may come and take away the bride after performing this ceremony, and she will be considered as fully married to him. She is known as a Gonhyai wife, as distinguished from a Byahta or one married in the ordinary manner, and a Karta or widow married a second time. But the children of all three inherit equally. A widow may marry again, and take any one she pleases for her second husband. Widow-marriages must not be celebrated in the rainy months of Shrawan, Bhadon and Kunwar. No music is allowed at them, and the husband must present a fee of a rupee and a cocoanut to the malguzar (proprietor) of the village and four annas to the kotwar or watchman. A bachelor who is to marry a widow first goes through a formal ceremony with a cotton plant. Divorce is permitted for mutual disagreement. The couple stand before the caste committee and each takes a stick, breaks it in two halves, and throws them apart, saying, "I have no further connection with my husband (or wife), and I break my marriage with him (or her) as I break this stick."

4. Funeral rites.

The dead may be either buried or burnt, as convenient, and mourning is always observed for three days. Before the corpse is removed a new earthen pot filled with rice is placed on the bier. The chief mourner raises it, and addressing the deceased informs him that after a certain period he will be united to the sainted dead, and until that day his spirit should abide happily in the pot and not trouble his family. The mouth of the pot is then covered, and after the funeral the mourners take it home with them. When the day appointed for the final ceremony has come, a miniature platform is made from sticks tied together, and garlands and offerings of cakes are hung on to it. A small heap of rice is made on the platform, and just above it a clove is suspended from a thread. Songs are sung, and the princ.i.p.al relative opens the pot in which the spirit of the deceased has been enclosed. The spirit is called upon to join the sacred company of the dead, and the party continue to sing and to adjure it with all their force. The thread from which the clove is suspended begins to swing backwards and forwards over the rice; and a pig and two or three chickens are crushed to death as offerings to the soul of the deceased. Finally the clove touches the rice, and it is believed that the spirit of the dead man has departed to join the sainted dead. The Katias consider that after this he requires nothing more from the living, and so they do not make the annual offerings to the souls of the departed.

5. Social rules.

The caste sometimes employ a Brahman for the marriage ceremony; but generally his services are limited to fixing an auspicious date, and the functions of a priest are undertaken by members of the family. They invite a Brahman to give a name to a boy, and call him by this name. They think that if they changed the name they would not be able to get a wife for the child. They will eat any kind of flesh, including pork and fowls, but they are not considered to be impure. They are generally illiterate, and dirty in appearance. Unmarried girls wear gla.s.s bangles on both hands, but married women wear metal bracelets on the right hand and gla.s.s on the left. Girls are twice tattooed: first in childhood, and a second time after marriage. The proper avocations of the Katias were the spinning of cotton thread and the weaving of the finer kinds of cloth; but most of them have had to abandon their ancestral calling from want of custom, and they are now either village watchmen or cultivators and labourers. A few of them own villages. The Katias think themselves rather knowing; but this opinion is not shared by their neighbours, who say ironically of them, "A Katia is eight times as wise as an ordinary man, and a Kayasth thirteen times. Any one who pretends to be wiser than these must be an idiot."

KAWAR [418]

List of Paragraphs

1. Tribal legend.

2. Tribal subdivisions.

3. Exogamous groups.

4. Betrothal and marriage.

5. Other customs connected with marriage.

6. Childbirth.

7. Disposal of the dead.

8. Laying spirits.

9. Religion.

10. Magic and witchcraft.

11. Dress.

12. Occupation and social rules.

1. Tribal legend.

Kawar, Kanwar, Kaur (honorific t.i.tle, Sirdar).--A primitive tribe living in the hills of the Chhattisgarh Districts north of the Mahanadi. The hill-country comprised in the northern zamindari estates of Bilaspur and the adjoining Feudatory States of Jashpur, Udaipur, Sarguja, Chang Bhakar and Korea is the home of the Kawars, and is sometimes known after them as the Kamran. Eight of the Bilaspur zamindars are of the Kawar tribe. The total numbers of the tribe are nearly 200,000, practically all of whom belong to the Central Provinces. In Bilaspur the name is always p.r.o.nounced with a nasal as Kanwar. The Kawars trace their origin from the Kauravas of the Mahabharata, who were defeated by the Pandavas at the great battle of Hastinapur. 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 Rawat (grazier) and a Dhobi (washerman) respectively, and the boy and girl children who were born to them became the ancestors of the Kawar tribe. Consequently, the Kawars will take food from the hands of Rawats, 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 have some close ancestral connection with the Rawats and Dhobis, though the legend of descent from the Kauravas is, of course, a myth based on the similarity of the names. The tribe have lost their own language, if they ever had one, and now speak a corrupt form of the Chhattisgarhi dialect of Hindi. It is probable that they belong to the Dravidian tribal family.

2. Tribal subdivisions.

The Kawars have the following eight endogamous divisions: Tanwar, Kamalbansi, Paikara, Dudh-Kawar, Rathia, Chanti, Cherwa and Rautia. The Tanwar group, also known as Umrao, is that to which the zamindars belong, and they now claim to be Tomara Rajputs, and wear the sacred thread. They prohibit widow-remarriage, and do not eat fowls or drink liquor; but they have not yet induced Brahmans to take water from them or Rajputs 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 Brahmanical gotras. Thus Dhangur, the name of a sept, has been altered to Dhananjaya, and Sarvaria to Sandilya. Telasi is the name of a sept to which four zamindars belong, and is on this account sometimes returned as their caste by other Kawars, who consider it as a distinction. The zamindari families have now, however, changed the name Telasi to Kairava. The Paikaras are the most numerous subtribe, being three-fifths of the total. They derive their name from Paik, a foot-soldier, and formerly followed this occupation, being employed in the armies of the Haihaivansi Rajas of Ratanpur. They still wors.h.i.+p 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,'