The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume I (of IV)

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When a girl is one or two years old the lobes of her ears are bored. By
degrees other holes are bored along the edge of the ear and even
in the centre, till by the time she has attained the age of two or
three years she has thirteen holes in the right ear and twelve in the
left. Little silver rings and various kinds of earrings are inserted
and worn in the holes. But the practice of boring so many holes has
now been abandoned by the better-class Muhammadans.

12. Birthdays.

The child's birthday is known as _sal-girah_ and is celebrated by a
feast. A knot is tied in a red thread and annually thereafter a fresh
knot to mark his age, and prayers are offered in the child's name to
the patriarch Noah, who is believed to have lived to five hundred or
a thousand years, and hence to have the power of conferring longevity
on the child. When a child is four years, four months and four days
old the ceremony of Bismillah or taking the name of God is held,
which is obligatory on all Muhammadans. Friends are invited, and the
child is dressed in a flowered robe (_sahra_) and repeats the first
chapters of the Koran after his or her tutor. [313]

13. Circumcision, and maturity of girls.

A boy is usually circumcised at the age of six or seven, but among
some classes of Shiahs and the Arabs the operation is performed a few
days after birth. The barber operates and the child is usually given
a little _bhang_ or other opiate. Some Muhammadans leave circumcision
till an age bordering on puberty, and then perform it with a pomp and
ceremony almost equalling those of a marriage. When a girl arrives
at the age of puberty she is secluded for seven days, and for this
period eats only butter, bread and sugar, all fish, flesh, salt and
acid food being prohibited. In the evening she is bathed, warm water
is poured on her head, and among the lower classes an entertainment
is given to friends. [314]

14. Funeral rites.

The same word _janazah_ is used for the corpse, the bier and the
funeral. When a man is at the point of death a chapter of the Koran,
telling of the happiness awaiting the true believer in the future life,
is read, and some money or sherbet is dropped into his mouth. After
death the body is carefully washed and wrapped in three or five cloths
for a male or female respectively. Some camphor or other sweet-smelling
stuff is placed on the bier. Women do not usually attend funerals, and
the friends and relatives of the deceased walk behind the bier. There
is a tradition among some Muhammadans that no one should precede the
corpse, as the angels go before. To carry a bier is considered a very
meritorious act, and four of the relations, relieving each other
in turn, bear it on their shoulders. Muhammadans carry their dead
quickly to the place of interment, for Muhammad is stated to have
said that it is good to carry the dead quickly to the grave, so as
to cause the righteous person to attain the sooner to bliss; and, on
the other hand, in the case of a bad man it is well to put wickedness
away from one's shoulders. Funerals should always be attended on foot,
for it is said that Muhammad once rebuked people who were following
a bier on horseback, saying, "Have you no shame, since God's angels
go on foot and you go upon the backs of quadrupeds?" It is a highly
meritorious act to attend a funeral whether it be that of a Muslim,
a Jew or a Christian. The funeral service is not recited in the
cemetery, this being too polluted a place for so sacred an office,
but either in a mosque or in some open space close to the dwelling of
the deceased person or to the graveyard. The nearest relative is the
proper person to recite the service, but it is usually said by the
family priest or the village Kazi. The grave sometimes has a recess
at the side, in which the body is laid to prevent the earth falling
upon it, or planks may be laid over the body slantwise or supported on
bricks for the same purpose. Coffins are only used by the rich. When
the body has been placed in the grave each person takes up a clod
of earth and pronouncing over it a verse of the Koran, 'From earth
we made you, to earth we return you and out of earth we shall raise
you on the resurrection day,' places it gently in the grave over the
corpse. [315] The building of stone or brick tombs and writing verses
of the Koran on them is prohibited by the Traditions, but large masonry
tombs are common in all Muhammadan countries and very frequently they
bear inscriptions. On the third day a feast is given in the morning
and after it trays of flowers with a vessel containing scented oil
are handed round and the guests pick flowers and dip them into the
oil. They then proceed to the grave, where the oil and flowers are
placed. Maulvis are employed to read the whole of the Koran over the
grave, which they accomplish by dividing it into sections and reading
them at the same time. Rich people sometimes have the whole Koran
read several times over in this manner. A sheet of white or red cloth
is spread over the grave, green being usually reserved for Fakirs or
saints. On the evening of the ninth day another feast is given, to
which friends and neighbours, and religious and ordinary beggars are
invited, and a portion is sent to the Fakir or mendicant in charge of
the burying-ground. Some people will not eat any food from this feast
in their houses but take it outside. [316] On the morning of the tenth
day they go again to the grave and repeat the offering of flowers and
scented oil as before. Other feasts are given on the fortieth day,
and at the expiration of four, six and nine months, and one year from
the date of the death, and the rich sometimes spend large sums on
them. None of these observances are prescribed by the Koran but have
either been retained from pre-Islamic times or adopted in imitation of
the Hindus. For forty days all furniture is removed from the rooms and
the whole family sleep on the bare ground. Sometimes a cup of water and
a wheaten cake are placed nightly for forty days on the spot where the
deceased died, and a similar provision is sent to the mosque. When a
man dies his mother and widow break their glass bangles. The mother
can get new ones, but the widow does not wear glass bangles or a
nose-ring again unless she takes a second husband. For four months
and ten days the widow is strictly secluded and does not leave the
house. Prayers for ancestors are offered annually at the Shab-i-Barat
or Bakr-Id festival. [317] The property of a deceased Muhammadan is
applicable in the first place to the payment of his funeral expenses;
secondly, to the discharge of his debts; and thirdly, to the payment
of legacies up to one-third of the residue. If the legacies exceed
this amount they are proportionately reduced. The remainder of the
property is distributed by a complicated system of shares to those of
the deceased's relatives who rank as sharers and residuaries, legacies
to any of them in excess of the amount of their shares being void. The
consequence of this law is that most Muhammadans die intestate. [318]

15. Muhammadan sects. Shiah and Sunni.

Of the two main sects of Islam, ninety-four per cent of the Muhammadans
in the Central Province were returned as being Sunnis in 1911 and three
per cent as Shiahs, while the remainder gave no sect. Only the Cutchi,
Bohra and Khoja immigrants from Gujarat are Shiahs and practically
all other Muhammadans are Sunnis. With the exception of Persia,
Oudh and part of Gujarat, the inhabitants of which are Shiahs, the
Sunni sect is generally prevalent in the Muhammadan world. The main
difference between the Sunnis and Shiahs is that the latter think
that according to the Koran the Caliphate or spiritual headship of
the Muhammadans had to descend in the Prophet's family and therefore
necessarily devolved on the Lady Fatimah, the only one of his children
who survived him, and on her husband Ali the fourth Caliph. They
therefore reject the first three Caliphs after Muhammad, that is Abu
Bakr, Omar and Othman. After Ali they also hold that the Caliphate
descended in his family to his two sons Hasan and Hussain, and the
descendants of Hussain. Consequently they reject all the subsequent
Caliphs of the Muhammadan world, as Hussain and his children did not
occupy this position. They say that there are only twelve Caliphs,
or Imams, as they now prefer to call them, and that the twelfth
has never really died and will return again as the Messiah of whom
Muhammad spoke, at the end of the world. He is known as the Mahdi, and
the well-known pretender of the Soudan, as well as others elsewhere,
have claimed to be this twelfth or unrevealed Imam. Other sects of
the Shiahs, as the Zaidiyah and Ismailia, make a difference in the
succession of the Imamate among Hussain's descendants. The central
incident of the Shiah faith is the slaughter of Hussain, the son
of Ali, with his family, on the plain of Karbala in Persia by the
sons of Yazid, the second Caliph of the Umaiyad dynasty of Damascus,
on the 10th day of the month Muharram, in the 61st year of the Hijra
or A.D. 680. The martyrdom of Hussain and his family at Karbala is
celebrated annually for the first ten days of the month of Muharram by
the Shiahs. Properly the Sunnis should take no part in this, and should
observe only the tenth day of Muharram as that on which Adam and Eve
and heaven and hell were created. But in the Central Provinces the
Sunnis participate in all the Muharram celebrations, which now have
rather the character of a festival than of a season of mourning. The
Shiahs also reject the four great schools of tradition of the Sunnis,
and have separate traditional authorities of their own. They count the
month to begin from the full moon instead of the new moon, pray three
instead of five times a day, and in praying hold their hands open by
their sides instead of folding them below the breast. The word Shiah
means a follower, and Sunni one proceeding on the _sunnah_, the path
or way, a term applied to the traditions of the Prophet. The two words
have thus almost the same signification. Except when otherwise stated,
the information in this article relates to the Sunnis.

16. Leading religious observances. Prayer.

The five standard observances of the Muhammadan religion are the
Kalima, or creed; Sula, or the five daily prayers; Roza, or the
thirty-day fast of Ramazan; Zakab, the legal alms; and Hajj, the
pilgrimage to Mecca, which should be performed once in a lifetime. The
Kalima, or creed, consists simply in the sentence, 'There is but
one God and Muhammad is His prophet,' which is frequently on the
lips of Muhammadans. The five periods for prayer are Fajr ki namaz,
in the morning before sunrise; Zohar, or the midday prayer, after the
sun has begun to decline; Asur, or the afternoon prayer, about four;
Maghrib, or the evening prayer, immediately after sunset; and Aysha,
or the evening prayer, after the night has closed in. These prayers
are repeated in Arabic, and before saying them the face, hands and
feet should be washed, and, correctly speaking, the teeth should
also be cleaned. At the times of prayer the Azan or call to prayer is
repeated from the mosque by the _muezzan_ or crier in the following
terms: "God is great, God is great, God is great, God is great! I
bear witness that there is no God but God! (twice). I bear witness
that Muhammad is the Apostle of God! (twice). Come to prayers! Come
to prayers! Come to salvation! Come to salvation! God is great! There
is no other God but God." In the early morning the following sentence
is added, 'Prayers are better than sleep.' [319]

17. The fast of Ramazan.

The third necessary observance is the fast in the month of Ramazan,
the ninth month of the Muhammadan year. The fast begins when the new
moon is seen, or if the sky is clouded, after thirty days from the
beginning of the previous month. During its continuance no food or
water must be taken between sunrise and sunset, and betel-leaf, tobacco
and conjugal intercourse must be abjured for the whole period. The
abstention from water is a very severe penance during the long days of
the hot weather when Ramazan falls at this season. Mr. Hughes thinks
that the Prophet took the thirty days' fast from the Christian Lent,
which was observed very strictly in the Eastern Church during the
nights as well as days. In ordaining the fast he said that God 'would
make it an ease and not a difficulty,' but he may not have reflected
that his own action in discarding the intercalary month adopted by the
Arabs and reverting to the simple lunar months would cause the fast
to revolve round the whole year. During the fast people eat before
sunrise and after sunset, and dinner-parties are held lasting far
into the night.

It is a divine command to give alms annually of money, cattle, grain,
fruit and merchandise. If a man has as much as eighty rupees, or forty
sheep and goats, or five camels, he should give alms at specified
rates amounting roughly to two and a half per cent of his property. In
the case of fruit and grain the rate is one-tenth of the harvest for
unirrigated, and a twentieth for irrigated crops. These alms should
be given to pilgrims who desire to go to Mecca but have not the means;
and to religious and other beggars if they are very poor, debtors who
have not the means to discharge their debts, champions of the cause
of God, travellers without food and proselytes to Islam. Religious
mendicants consider it unlawful to accept the _zakat_ or legal alms
unless they are very poor, and they may not be given to Saiyads or
descendants of the Prophet.

18. The pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca is incumbent on all men and women
who have sufficient means to meet the expenses of the journey and
to maintain their families at home during their absence. Only a
very small proportion of Indian Muhammadans, however, now undertake
it. Mecca is the capital of Arabia and about seventy miles from the Red
Sea. The pilgrimage must be performed during the month Zu'l Hijjah,
so that the pilgrim may be at Mecca on the festival of Id-ul-Zoha
or the Bakr-Id. At the last stage near Mecca the pilgrims assume a
special dress, consisting of two seamless wrappers, one round the
waist and the other over the shoulders. Sandals of wood may also be
worn. Formerly the pilgrim would take with him a little compass in
which the needle in the shape of a dove pointed continually towards
Mecca in the west. On arrival at Mecca he performs the legal ablutions,
proceeds to the sacred mosque, kisses the black stone, and encompasses
the Kaaba seven times. The Kaaba or 'Cube' is a large stone building
and the black stone is let into one of its walls. He drinks the water
of the sacred well Zem-Zem from which Hagar and Ishmael obtained water
when they were dying of thirst in the wilderness, and goes through
various other rites up to the day of Id-ul-Zoha, when he performs
the sacrifice or _kurban_, offering a ram or he-goat for every member
of his family, or for every seven persons a female camel or cow. The
flesh is distributed in the same manner as that of the ordinary Bakr-Id
sacrifice. [320] He then gets himself shaved and his nails pared, which
he has not done since he assumed the pilgrim's garb, and buries the
cuttings and parings at the place of the sacrifice. The pilgrimage is
concluded after another circuit of the Kaaba, but before his departure
the pilgrim should visit the tomb of Muhammad at Medina. One who has
performed the pilgrimage to Mecca thereafter has the title of Haji.

19. Festivals. The Muharram.

The principal festivals are the Muharram and the two Ids. The month
of Muharram is the first of the year, and the first ten days, as
already stated, are devoted to mourning for the death of Hussain and
his family. This is observed indifferently by Sunnis and Shiahs in
the Central Provinces, and the proceedings with the Sunnis at any
rate have now rather the character of a festival than a time of
sorrow. Models of the tomb of Hussain, called _tazia_, are made of
bamboo and pasteboard and decorated with tinsel. Wealthy Shiahs have
expensive models, richly decorated, which are permanently kept in a
chamber of the house called the Imambara or Imam's place, but this is
scarcely ever done in the Central Provinces. As a rule the _tazias_
are taken in procession and deposited in a river on the last and
great day of the Muharram. Women who have made vows for the recovery
of their children from an illness dress them in green and send them to
beg; and men and boys of the lower classes have themselves painted as
tigers and go about mimicking a tiger for what they can get from the
spectators. It seems likely that the representations of tigers may
be in memory of the lion which is said to have kept watch over the
body of Hussain after he had been buried. In Persia a man disguised
as a tiger appears on the tomb of Hussain in the drama of his murder
at Karbala, which is enacted at the Muharram. In Hindu mythology the
lion and tiger appear to be interchangeable. During the tragedy at
Karbala, Kasim, a young nephew of Hussain, was married to his little
daughter Sakinah, Kasim being very shortly afterwards killed. It is
supposed that the cast shoe of Kasim's horse was brought to India,
and at the Muharram models of horse-shoes are made and carried fixed on
poles. Men who feel so impelled and think that they will be possessed
by the spirit of Kasim make these horse-shoes and carry them, and
frequently they believe themselves to be possessed by the spirit,
exhibiting the usual symptoms of a kind of frenzy, and women apply
to them for children or for having evil spirits cast out. [321]

20. Id-ul-Fitr.

The Id-ul-Fitr, or the breaking of the fast, is held on the first
day of the tenth month, Shawwal, on the day after the end of the
fast of Ramazan. On this day the people assemble dressed in their
best clothes and proceed to the Id-Gah, a building erected outside
the town and consisting of a platform with a wall at the western end
in the direction of Mecca. Here prayers are offered, concluding with
one for the King-Emperor, and a sermon is given, and the people then
return escorting the Kazi or other leading member of the community and
sometimes paying their respects in a body to European officers. They
return to their homes and spend the rest of the day in feasting and
merriment, a kind of vermicelli being a special dish eaten on this day.

21. Id-ul-Zoha

The Idu-l-Azha or Id-ul-Zoha, the feast of sacrifice, also called
the Bakr-Id or cow-festival, is held on the tenth day of the last
month, Zu'l Hijjah. It is the principal day of the Muhammadan year,
and pilgrims going to Mecca keep it there. [322] At this time also the
Arabs were accustomed to go to Mecca and offer animal sacrifices there
to the local deities. According to tradition, when Abraham (Ibrahim)
founded Mecca the Lord desired him to prepare a feast and to offer his
son Ishmael (Ismail). But when he had drawn the knife across his son's
throat the angel Gabriel substituted a ram and Ishmael was saved,
and the festival commemorates this. As already stated, the Arabs
believe themselves to be descended from Ishmael or Ismail. According
to a remarkable Hadis or tradition, related by Ayesha, Muhammad said:
"Man hath not done anything on the Id-ul-Zoha more pleasing to God
than spilling blood in sacrifice; for, verily, its blood reacheth
the acceptance of God before it falleth upon the ground, therefore
be joyful in it." [323] On this day, as on the other Id, the people
assemble for prayers at the Id-Gah. On returning home the head of a
family takes a sheep, cow or camel to the entrance of his house and
sacrifices it, repeating the formula, 'In the name of God, God is
great,' as he cuts its throat. The flesh is divided, two-thirds being
kept by the family and one-third given to the poor in the name of
God. This is the occasion on which Muhammadans offend Hindu feeling
by their desire to sacrifice cows, as camels are unobtainable or
too valuable, and the sacrifice of a cow has probably more religious
merit than that of a sheep or goat. But in many cases they abandon
their right to kill a cow in order to avoid stirring up enmity.

22. Mosques.

The entrance to a Muhammadan mosque consists of a stone gateway,
bearing in verse the date of its building; this leads into a paved
courtyard, which in a large mosque may be 40 or 50 yards long and
about 20 wide. The courtyard often contains a small tank or cistern
about 20 feet square, its sides lined with stone seats. Beyond this
lies the building itself, open towards the courtyard, which is on its
eastern side, and closed in on the other three sides, with a roof. The
floor is raised about a foot above the level of the courtyard. In
the back wall, which is opposite the courtyard to the west in the
direction of Mecca, is an arched niche, and close by a wooden or
masonry pulpit raised four or five feet from the ground. Against
the wall is a wooden staff, which the preacher holds in his hand
or leans upon according to ancient custom. [324] The walls are bare
of decorations, images and pictures having been strictly prohibited
by Muhammad, and no windows are necessary; but along the walls are
scrolls bearing in golden letters the name of the Prophet and the
first four Caliphs, or a chapter of the Koran, the Arabic script
being especially suitable for this kind of ornamental writing. [325]
The severe plainness of the interior of a mosque demonstrates the
strict monotheism of Islam, and is in contrast to the temples and
shrines of most other religions. The courtyard of a mosque is often
used as a place of resort, and travellers also stay in it.

23. The Friday service.

A service is held in the principal mosque on Fridays about midday, at
which public prayers are held and a sermon or _khutbak_ is preached or
recited. Friday is known as Jumah, or the day of assembly. Friday was
said by Muhammad to have been the day on which Adam was taken into
paradise and turned out of it, the day on which he repented and on
which he died. It will also be the day of Resurrection. The Prophet
considered that the Jews and Christians had erred in transferring
their Sabbath from Friday to Saturday and Sunday respectively. [326]

24. Priests, Mulla and Maulvi.

The priest in charge of a mosque is known as Mulla. Any one can be a
Mulla who can read the Koran and say the prayers, and the post is very
poorly paid. The Mulla proclaims the call to prayer five times a day,
acts as Imam or leader of the public prayers, and if there is no menial
servant keeps the mosque clean. He sometimes has a little school in the
courtyard in which he teaches children the Koran. He also sells charms,
consisting of verses of the Koran written on paper, to be tied round
the arm or hung on the neck. These have the effect of curing disease
and keeping off evil spirits or the evil eye. Sometimes there is a
mosque servant who also acts as sexton of the local cemetery. The funds
of the mosque and any endowment attached to it are in charge of some
respectable resident, who is known as Mutawalli or churchwarden. The
principal religious officer is the Maulvi, who corresponds to the
Hindu Guru or preceptor. These men are frequently intelligent and
well-educated. They are also doctors of law, as all Muhammadan law
is based on the Koran and Traditions and the deductions drawn from
them by the great commentators. The Maulvi thus acts as a teacher of
religious doctrine and also of law. He is not permanently attached
to a mosque, but travels about during the open season, visiting
his disciples in villages, teaching and preaching to them, and also
treating the sick. If he knows the whole of the Koran by heart he
has the title of Hafiz, and is much honoured, as it is thought that
a man who has earned the title of Hafiz frees twenty generations of
his ancestors and descendants from the fires of hell. Such a man is
much in request during the month of Ramazan, when the leader of the
long night prayers is expected to recite nightly one of the thirty
sections of the Koran, so as to complete them within the month. [327]

25. The Kazi.

The Kazi was under Muhammadan rule the civil and criminal judge,
having jurisdiction over a definite local area, and he also acted as
a registrar of deeds. Now he only leads the public prayers at the Id
festivals and keeps registers of marriages and divorces. He does not
usually attend marriages himself unless he receives a special fee, but
pays a deputy or _naib_ to do so. [328] The Kazi is still, however,
as a rule the leading member of the local Muhammadan community,
the office being sometimes elective and sometimes hereditary.

26. General features of Islam.

In proclaiming one unseen God as the sole supernatural being, Muhammad
adopted the religion of the Jews of Arabia, with whose sacred books
he was clearly familiar. He looked on the Jewish prophets as his
predecessors, he himself being the last and greatest. The Koran says,
"We believe in God, and that which hath been sent down to us, and that
which was sent down unto Abraham, and Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob,
and the tribes, and that which was delivered unto Moses, and Jesus and
the prophets from the Lord, and we make no distinction between any
of them." Thus Muhammad accepted the bulk of the Old but not of the
New Testament, which the Jews also do not receive. His deity was the
Jewish Jehovah of the Old Testament, though called Allah after the name
of a god worshipped at Mecca. The six prophets who brought new laws
were Adam, the chosen of God; Noah, the preacher of God; Abraham, the
friend of God; Moses, one who conversed with God; Jesus, the Spirit
of God; and Muhammad, the Messenger of God. His seven heavens and
his prophecy of a Messiah and Day of Judgment were Jewish beliefs,
though it is supposed that he took the idea of the Sirat or narrow
bridge over the midst of hell, sharper than the edge of a sword,
over which all must pass, while the wicked fall from it into hell,
from Zoroastrianism. Muhammad recognised a devil, known as Iblis,
while the Jinns or Genii of pagan Arabia became bad angels. The great
difference between Islam and Judaism arose from Muhammad's position
in being obliged continually to fight for his own existence and
the preservation of his sect This circumstance coloured the later
parts of the Koran and gave Islam the character of a religious and
political crusade, a kind of faith eminently fitted to the Arab nature
and training. And to this character may be assigned its extraordinary
success, but, at the same time, probably the religion itself might have
been of a somewhat purer and higher tenor if its birth and infancy
had not had place in a constant state of war. Muhammad accomplished
most beneficent reforms in abolishing polytheism and such abuses as
female infanticide, and at least regulating polygamy. In forbidding
both gambling and the use of alcohol he set a very high standard to his
disciples, which if adhered to would remove two of the main sources of
vice. His religion retained fewer relics of the pre-existing animism
and spirit-worship than almost any other, though in practice uneducated
Indian Muhammadans, at least, preserve them in a large measure. And
owing to the fact that the Muhammadan months revolve round the year,
its festivals have been dissociated from the old pagan observances of
the changes of the sun and seasons and the growth of vegetation. At the
same time the religious sanction given to polygamy and slavery, and the
sensual nature of the heaven promised to true believers after death,
must be condemned as debasing features; and the divine authority and
completeness ascribed to the Koran and the utterances of the Prophet,
which were beyond criticism or question, as well as the hostility
towards all other forms of religion and philosophy, have necessarily
had a very narrowing influence on Muhammadan thought. While the formal
and lifeless precision of the religious services and prayers, as well
as the belief in divine interference in the concerns of everyday life,
have produced a strong spirit of fatalism and resignation to events.