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

R >> R.V. Russell >> The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume I (of IV)

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39. Of the Dravidian tribes.

The Dravidian languages, Gondi, Kurukh and Khond, are of one family
with Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Canarese, and their home is the
south of India. The word Dravida comes from an older form Damila
or Dramila, and was used in ancient Pali and Jain literature as a
name for the people of the Tamil country. [75] Afterwards it came to
signify generally the people of southern India as opposed to Gaur or
northern India.

As stated by Sir Edward Gait there is at present no evidence to
show that the Dravidians came to southern India from any other
part of the world, and for anything that is known to the contrary
the languages may have originated there. The existence of the small
Brahui tribe in Baluchistan who speak a Dravidian language but have no
physical resemblance to other Dravidian races cannot be satisfactorily
explained, but, as he points out, this is no reason for holding that
the whole body of speakers of Dravidian languages entered India from
the north-west, and, with the exception of this small group of Brahuis,
penetrated to the south and settled there without leaving any traces
of their passage.

The Dravidian languages occupy a large area in Madras, Mysore and
Hyderabad, and they extend north into the Central Provinces and Chota
Nagpur where they die out, practically not being found west and north
of this tract. As the languages are more highly developed and the
culture of their speakers is far more advanced in the south, it is
justifiable to suppose, pending evidence to the contrary, that the
south is their home and that they have spread thence as far north as
the Central Provinces. The Gonds and Oraons, too, have stories to the
effect that they came from the south. The belief has hitherto been,
at least in the Central Provinces, that both the Gonds and Baigas have
been settled in this territory for an indefinite period, that is, from
prior to any Aryan or Hindu immigration. Mr. H.A. Crump, C.S., has
however pointed out that if this was the case the Munda or Kolarian
tribes, which have lost their own languages, should have adopted
Dravidian and not Hindu forms of speech. As already seen, numerous
Kolarian tribes, as the Binjhwar, Bhaina, Bhuiya, Baiga, Bhumij,
Chero, Khairwar and the Kols themselves in the Central Provinces have
entirely lost their own languages, as well as the Bhils and Kolis,
if these are held to be Kolarian tribes. None of them have adopted a
Dravidian language, but all speak corrupt forms of the ancient Aryan
vernaculars derived from Sanskrit. The fact seems to indicate that
at the time when they abandoned their own languages these tribes were
in contact with Hindus, and were not surrounded by Gonds, as several
of them are at present. The history of the Central Provinces affords
considerable support to the view that the Gond immigration occurred at
a comparatively late period, perhaps in the ninth or tenth century,
or even later, after a considerable part of the Province had been
governed for some centuries by Rajput dynasties. [76] The Gonds
and Oraons still have well-defined legends about their immigration,
which would scarcely be the case if it had occurred twenty centuries
or more ago.

Any further evidence or argument as to the date of the Dravidian
immigration would be of considerable interest.

40. Origin of the impure castes.

The fifth or lowest group in the scheme of precedence is that of the
impure castes who cannot be touched. If a high-caste Hindu touches one
of them he should bathe and have his clothes washed. These castes are
not usually allowed to live inside a Hindu village, but have a hamlet
to themselves adjoining it. The village barber will not shave them,
nor the washerman wash their clothes. They usually have a separate
well assigned to them from which to draw water, and if the village
has only one well, one side of it is allotted to them and the Hindus
take water from the other side. Formerly they were subjected to more
humiliating restrictions. In Bombay a Mahar might not spit on the
ground lest a Hindu should be polluted by touching it with his foot,
but had to hang an earthen pot round his neck to hold his spittle. He
was made to drag a thorny branch with him to brush out his footsteps,
and when a Brahman came by had to lie at a distance on his face lest
his shadow might fall on the Brahman. [77] Even if the shadow of a
Mahar or Mang fell on a Brahman he was polluted and dare not taste
food and water until he had bathed and washed the impurity away. In
Madras a Paraiyan or Pariah pollutes a high-caste Hindu by approaching
within a distance of 64 feet of him. [78] The debased and servile
position of the impure castes corresponds to that which, as already
seen, attached to the Sudras of the classical period. The castes
usually regarded as impure are the tanners, bamboo-workers, sweepers,
hunters and fowlers, gipsies and vagrants, village musicians and
village weavers. These castes, the Chamars, Basors, Mahars, Koris,
Gandas and others are usually also employed as agricultural and
casual labourers. Formerly, as already seen, they were not allowed to
hold land. There is no reason to doubt that the status of impurity,
like that of the Sudra, was originally the mark of a subjugated and
inferior race, and was practically equivalent to slavery. This was the
position of the indigenous Indians who were subjugated by the Aryan
invaders and remained in the country occupied by them. Though they
were of different races, and the distinction was marked and brought
home to themselves by the contrast in the colour of their skins,
it seems probable that the real basis for their antagonism was not
social so much as religious. The Indians were hated and despised by
the immigrants as the worshippers of a hostile god. They could not join
in the sacrifices by which the Aryans held communion with their gods,
and the sacrifice itself could not even be held, in theory at least,
except in those parts of India which were thoroughly subdued and
held to have become the dwelling-place of the Aryan gods. The proper
course prescribed by religion towards the indigenous residents was
to exterminate them, as the Israelites should have exterminated the
inhabitants of Canaan. But as this could not be done, because their
numbers were too great or the conquerors not sufficiently ruthless,
they were reduced to the servile condition of impurity and made
the serfs of their masters like the Amalekites and the plebeians
and helots.

If the whole of India had been thoroughly subjugated and settled like
the Punjab and Hindustan, it may be supposed that the same status
of impurity would have been imposed upon all the indigenous races;
but this was very far from being the case. In central and southern
India the Aryans or subsequent immigrants from Central Asia came at
first at any rate only in small parties, and though they may have
established territorial states, did not regularly occupy the land nor
reduce the indigenous population to a condition of servitude. Thus
large bodies of these must have retained a free position, and on
their acceptance of the new religion and the development of the caste
system, became enrolled in it with a caste status on the basis of
their occupation. Their leaders were sometimes admitted to rank as
Kshatriyas or Rajputs, as has been stated.

Subsequently, as the racial distinction disappeared, the impure
status came to attach to certain despised occupations and to customs
abhorrent to Hinduism, such as that of eating beef. But, as already
seen, the tribes which have continued to live apart from the Hindus
are not usually regarded as impure, though they may eat beef and even
skin animals. The Dhimars, who keep pigs, still have a higher status
than the impure castes because they are employed as water-bearers and
household servants. It is at least doubtful whether at the time when
the stigma of impurity was first attached to the Sudras the Hindus
themselves did not sacrifice cows and eat beef. [79] The castes noted
below are usually regarded as impure in the Central Provinces.

The Dhobi (washerman) and Kumhar (potter) are sometimes included among
the impure castes, but, as already noted, their status is higher than
that of the castes in this list.

Audhelia: Labouring caste of mixed descent who keep pigs.

Balahi: Weavers and village messengers and watchmen.

Basor: Bamboo basket-makers and village musicians.

Chamar: Tanners and labourers.

Ganda: Weavers and village musicians.

Ghasia: Grass-cutters, labourers and sweepers.

Kaikari: Vagrant basket-makers.

Kanjar, Beria, Sansia: Gipsies and thieves.

Katia: Cotton-spinners.

Kori: Weavers and labourers.

Madgi: Telugu tanners and hide-curriers.

Mahar: Weavers and labourers.

Mala: Telugu weavers and labourers.

Mang: Broom- and mat-makers and village musicians. They also castrate
cattle.

Mehtar: Sweepers and scavengers.

Certain occupations, those of skinning cattle and curing hides, weaving
the coarse country cloth worn by the villagers, making baskets from
the rind of the bamboo, playing on drums and tom-toms, and scavenging
generally are relegated to the lowest and impure castes. The hides of
domestic animals are exceedingly impure; a Hindu is defiled even by
touching their dead bodies and far more so by removing the skins. Drums
and tom-toms made from the hides of animals are also impure. But in
the case of weaving and basket-making the calling itself entails no
defilement, and it would appear simply that they were despised by the
cultivators, and as a considerable number of workers were required to
satisfy the demand for baskets and cloth, were adopted by the servile
and labouring castes. Basket- and mat-making are callings naturally
suited to the primitive tribes who would obtain the bamboos from the
forests, but weaving would not be associated with them unless cloth
was first woven of tree-cotton. The weavers of the finer cotton and
silk cloths, who live in towns, rank much higher than the village
weavers, as in the case of the Koshtis and Tantis, the latter of whom
made the famous fine cotton cloth, known as _abrawan_, or 'running
water,' which was supplied to the imperial Zenana at Delhi. On one
occasion a daughter of Aurangzeb was reproached on entering the room
for her immodest attire and excused herself by the plea that she had on
seven folds of cloth over her body. [80] In Bengal Brahmans will take
water from Tantis, and it seems clear that their higher status is a
consequence of the lucrative and important nature of their occupation.

The Katias are a caste of cotton-spinners, the name being derived
from _katna_, to cut or spin. But hand-spinning is now practically
an extinct industry and the Katias have taken to weaving or ordinary
manual labour for a subsistence. The Kanjars and Berias are the gipsy
castes of India. They are accustomed to wander about carrying their
grass-matting huts with them. Many of them live by petty thieving and
cheating. Their women practise palmistry and retail charms for the cure
of sickness and for exorcising evil spirits, and love-philtres. They
do cupping and tattooing and also make reed mats, cane baskets,
palm-leaf mats and fans, ropes from grass- and tree-fibre, brushes
for the cotton-loom, string-net purses and balls, and so on; and the
women commonly dance and act as prostitutes. There is good reason for
thinking that the Kanjars are the parents of the European gipsies,
while the Thugs who formerly infested the high-roads of India,
murdering solitary travellers and small parties by strangulation,
may also have been largely derived from this caste. [81]

41. Derivation of the impure castes from the indigenous tribes.

It can only be definitely shown in a few instances that the existing
impure occupational castes were directly derived from the indigenous
tribes. The Chamar and Kori, and the Chuhra and Bhangi, or sweepers
and scavengers of the Punjab and United Provinces, are now purely
occupational castes and their original tribal affinities have entirely
disappeared. The Chamars and Mehtars or sweepers are in some places
of a superior physical type, of comparatively good stature and light
complexion; [82] this may perhaps be due to a large admixture of
Hindu blood through their women, during a social contact with the
Hindus extending over many centuries, and also to the fact that they
eat flesh when they can obtain it, including carrion. Such types are,
however, exceptional among the impure castes, and there is no reason
to doubt their general origin from the non-Aryan tribes, which in
a few instances can be directly traced. Thus it seems likely that
the Kanjars, Berias, Sansias and other gipsy groups, as well as the
Mirasis, the vagrant bards and genealogists of the lower classes of
Hindus, are derived from the Dom caste or tribe of Bengal, who are
largely employed as sweepers and scavengers as well as on ordinary
labour. The evidence for the origin of the above groups from the
Doms is given in the article on Kanjar. Sir H.M. Elliot considered
the Doms to be one of the original tribes of India. Again, there is
no doubt that the impure Ganda caste, who are weavers, labourers and
village musicians in the Uriya country and Chhattisgarh Districts
of the Central Provinces, are derived from the Pan tribe of Chota
Nagpur. The Pans or Pabs are a regular forest tribe, and are sometimes
called Ganda, while the Gandas may be alternatively known as Pan. But
the section of the tribe who live among the Hindus and are regarded
as impure have now become a distinct caste with a separate name. The
Bhuiya tribe were once the rulers of Chota Nagpur; they still install
the Raja of Keonjhar, and have a traditional relation to other ruling
families. But in parts of Chota Nagpur and southern Bihar the Bhuiyas
living in Hindu villages have become a separate impure caste with
the opprobrious designation of Musahar or rat-eater. The great Mahar
caste of the Maratha country or Bombay are weavers and labourers,
and formerly cured hides, like the Chamars and Koris of northern
India. They are regarded as impure and were the serfs or villeins
of the Kunbis, attached to the land. An alternative name for them is
Dher, and this is supposed to be a corruption of Dharada a hillman,
a name applied in Manu to all the indigenous races of India. Though
the connection cannot be traced in all cases, there is thus no reason
to doubt that the existing impure castes represent the subjected or
enslaved section of the primitive non-Aryan tribes.

42. Occupation the basis of the caste system.

It has been seen that the old Aryan polity comprised four classes:
the Brahmans and Kshatriyas or priestly and military aristocracy;
the Vaishyas or body of the Aryans, who were ceremonially pure
and could join in sacrifices; and the Sudras or servile and impure
class of labourers. The Vaishyas became cultivators and herdsmen,
and their status of ceremonial purity was gradually transferred to
the cultivating members of the village community, because land was
the main source of wealth. Between the last two there arose another
class of village menials and craftsmen, originating principally from
the offspring of fathers of the Aryan classes and Sudra women, to
whom was left the practice of the village industries, despised by the
cultivators. In spite of the almost complete fusion of races which
the intercourse of centuries has effected, and the multiplication
and rearrangement of castes produced by the diversity of occupation
and other social factors, the divisions of the village community can
still be recognised in the existing social gradation.

It has been seen also that occupation is the real basis of the division
and social precedence of castes in India, as in all communities
which have made any substantial progress in civilisation and social
development. Distinctions of race, religion and family gradually
disappear, and are merged in the gradation according to wealth or
profession. The enormous majority of castes are occupational and their
social position depends on their caste calling. Thus in the case of
an important industry like weaving, there are separate castes who
weave the finer kinds of cloth, as the Tantis and Koshtis, while one
subcaste of Koshtis, the Salewars, are distinguished as silk-weavers,
and a separate caste of Patwas embroider silk and braid on cloth;
other castes, as the Mahars, Gandas and Koris, weave coarse cloth,
and a distinct caste of Katias existed for the spinning of thread,
and the Muhammadan caste of Bahnas for cleaning cotton. The workers
in each kind of metal have formed a separate caste, as the Lohars or
blacksmiths, the Kasars or brass-workers, the Tameras or coppersmiths,
and the Sunars or gold- and silversmiths, while the Audhia subcaste of
Sunars [83] and the Bharewas, an inferior branch of the Kasars, work
in bell-metal. Each of these castes makes ornaments of its own metal,
while the Kachera caste [84] make glass bangles, and the Lakheras make
bangles from lac and clay. In the case of agriculture, as has been
seen, there is usually a functional cultivating caste for each main
tract of country, as the Jats in the Punjab, the Kurmis in Hindustan,
the Kunbis in the Deccan, the Chasas in Orissa, the Kapus in the Telugu
country and the Vellalas in the Tamil country. Except the Jats, who
were perhaps originally a racial caste, the above castes appear to
include a number of heterogeneous groups which have been welded into
a single body through the acquisition of land and the status which it
confers. Various other cultivating castes also exist, whose origin
can be traced to different sources; on obtaining possession of the
land they have acquired the cultivating status, but retained their
separate caste organisation and name. Other agricultural castes have
been formed for the growing of special products. Thus the Malis are
gardeners, and within the caste there exist such separate groups as
the Phulmalis who grow flowers, the Jire Malis cumin and the Halde
Malis turmeric. [85] Hindus generally object to cultivate _san_-hemp,
[86] and some special castes have been formed from those who grew
it and thus underwent some loss of status; such are the Lorhas and
Kumrawats and Pathinas, and the Santora subcaste of Kurmis. The _al_
[87] or Indian madder-dye is another plant to which objection is
felt, and the Alia subcastes of Kachhis and Banias consist of those
who grow and sell it. The Dangris and Kachhis are growers of melons
and other vegetables on the sandy stretches in the beds of rivers and
the alluvial land on their borders which is submerged in the monsoon
floods. The Barais are the growers and sellers of the betel-vine.

Several castes have been formed from military service, as the Marathas,
Khandaits, Rautias, Taonlas and Paiks. All of these, except the
Marathas, are mainly derived from the non-Aryan tribes; since they
have abandoned military service and taken as a rule to agriculture,
their rank depends roughly on their position as regards the land. Thus
the Marathas and Khandaits became landowners, receiving grants of
property as a reward for, or on condition of, military service like
the old feudal tenures; they rank with, but somewhat above, the
cultivating castes. The same is the case, though to a less degree,
with the Rautias of Chota Nagpur, a military caste mainly formed from
the Kol tribe. On the other hand, the Paiks or foot-soldiers and
Taonlas have not become landholders and rank below the cultivating
castes. The Hatkars are a caste formed from Dhangars or shepherds
who entered the Maratha armies. They are now called Bangi Dhangars
or shepherds with the spears, and rank a little above other Dhangars.

43. Other agents in the formation of castes.

The great majority of castes have been formed from occupation, but
other sources of origin can be traced. Several castes are of mixed
descent, as the Vidurs, the descendants of Brahman fathers and mothers
of other castes; the Bhilalas, by Rajput fathers and Bhil mothers;
the Chauhans, Audhelias, Khangars and Dhakars of Bastar, probably by
Hindu fathers and women of various indigenous tribes; the Kirars of
mixed Rajput descent, and others. These also now generally take rank
according to their occupation and position in the world. The Vidurs
served as village accountants and ranked below the cultivators, but
since they are well educated and have done well in Government service
their status is rapidly improving. The Bhilalas are landholders
and rank as a good cultivating caste. The Chauhans and Khangars
are village watchmen and rank as menials below the cultivators, the
Dhakars are farmservants and labourers with a similar position, while
the Audhelias are labourers who keep pigs and are hence regarded as
impure. The Halbas or 'ploughmen' are another mixed caste, probably
the descendants of house-servants of the Uriya Rajas, who, like the
Khandaits, formed a sort of militia for the maintenance of the chiefs
authority. They are now mainly farmservants, as the name denotes,
but where they hold land, as in Bastar, they rank higher, almost as
a good cultivating caste.

Again, very occasionally a caste may be formed from a religious sect
or order. The Bishnois were originally a Vaishnava sect, worshipping
Vishnu as an unseen god, and refusing to employ Brahmans. They have now
become cultivators, and though they retain their sectarian beliefs, and
have no Brahman priests, are generally regarded as a Hindu cultivating
caste. The Pankas are members of the impure Ganda caste who adhered to
the Kabirpanthi sect. They are now a separate caste and are usually
employed as village watchmen, ranking with menials above the Gandas
and other similar castes. The Lingayats are a large sect of southern
India, devoted to the worship of Siva and called after the _lingam_ or
phallic emblem which they wear. They have their own priests, denying
the authority of Brahmans, but the tendency now is for members of
those castes which have become Lingayats to marry among themselves
and retain their relative social status, thus forming a sort of inner
microcosm of Hinduism.

44. Caste occupations divinely ordained.

Occupation is the real determining factor of social status in India
as in all other societies of at all advanced organisation. But though
in reality the status of occupations and of castes depends roughly on
the degree to which they are lucrative and respectable, this is not
ostensibly the case, but their precedence, as already seen, is held to
be regulated by the degree of ceremonial purity or impurity attaching
to them. The Hindus have retained, in form at any rate, the religious
constitution which is common or universal in primitive societies. The
majority of castes are provided with a legend devised by the Brahmans
to show that their first ancestor was especially created by a god to
follow their caste calling, or at least that this was assigned to him
by a god. The ancestors of the bearer-caste of Kahars were created by
Siva or Mahadeo from the dust to carry his consort Parvati in a litter
when she was tired; the first Mang was made by Mahadeo from his own
sweat to castrate the divine bull Nandi when he was fractious, and
his descendants have ever since followed the same calling, the impiety
of mutilating the sacred bull in such a manner being thus excused by
the divine sanction accorded to it. The first Mali or gardener gave a
garland to Krishna. The first Chamar or tanner made sandals for Siva
from a piece of his own skin; the ancestor of the Kayasth or writer
caste, Chitragupta, keeps the record of men's actions by which they
are judged in the infernal regions after death; and so on.

45. Subcastes. local type.

All important castes are divided into a number of subordinate groups
or subcastes, which as a rule marry and take food within their own
circle only. Certain differences of status frequently exist among the
subcastes of the occupational or social type, but these are usually
too minute to be recognised by outsiders. The most common type of
subcaste is the local, named after the tract of country in which
the members reside or whence they are supposed to have come. Thus
the name Kanaujia from the town of Kanauj on the Ganges, famous in
ancient Indian history, is borne by subcastes of many castes which have
immigrated from northern India. Jaiswar, from the old town of Jais in
the Rai Bareli District, is almost equally common. Pardeshi or foreign,
and Purabia or eastern, are also subcaste names for groups coming from
northern India or Oudh. Mahobia is a common name derived from the town
of Mahoba in Central India, as are Bundeli from Bundelkhand, Narwaria
from Narwar and Marwari from Marwar in Rajputana. Groups belonging
to Berar are called Berari, Warade or Baone; those from Gujarat are
called Lad, the classical term for Gujarat, or Gujarati, and other
names are Deccani from the Deccan, Nimari of Nimar, Havelia, the name
of the wheat-growing tracts of Jubbulpore and Damoh; Chhattisgarhia,
Kosaria, Ratanpuria (from the old town of Ratanpur in Bilaspur), and
Raipuria (from Raipur town), all names for residents in Chhattisgarh;
and so on. Brahmans are divided into ten main divisions, named after
different tracts in the north and south of India where they reside;
[88] and these are further subdivided, as the Maharashtra Brahmans
of the Maratha country of Bombay into the subcastes of Deshasth
(belonging to the country) applied to those of the Poona country
above the western Ghats; Karhara or those of the Satara District,
from Karhar town; and Konkonasth or those of the Concan, the Bombay
coast; similarly the Kanaujia division of the Panch-Gaur or northern
Brahmans has as subdivisions the Kanaujia proper, the Jijhotia from
Jajhoti, the old name of the Lalitpur and Saugor tract, which is part
of Bundelkhand; the Sarwaria or those dwelling round the river Sarju
in the United Provinces; the Mathuria from Muttra; and the Prayagwals
or those of Allahabad (Prayag), who act as guides and priests to
pilgrims who come to bathe in the Ganges at the sacred city. The
creation of new local subcastes seems to arise in two ways: when
different groups of a caste settle in different tracts of country
and are prevented from attending the caste feasts and assemblies,
the practice of intermarriage and taking food together gradually
ceases, they form separate endogamous groups and for purposes of
distinction are named after the territory in which they reside; this
is what has happened in the case of Brahmans and many other castes;
and, secondly, when a fresh body of a caste arrives and settles in a
tract where some of its members already reside, they do not amalgamate
with the latter group, but form a fresh one and are named after the
territory from which they have come, as in the case of such names as
Pardeshi, Purabia, Gangapari ('from the other side of the Ganges'),
and similar ones already cited. In former times, when the difficulties
of communication were great, these local subcastes readily multiplied;
thus the Kanaujia Brahmans of Chhattisgarh are looked down upon by
those of Saugor and Damoh, as Chhattisgarh has been for centuries
a backward tract cut off from the rest of India, and they may be
suspected of having intermarried with the local people or otherwise
derogated from the standard of strict Hinduism. Similarly the Kanaujia
Brahmans of Bengal are split into several local subcastes named
after tracts in Bengal, who marry among themselves and neither with
other Kanaujias of Bengal nor with those of northern India. Since the
opening of railways people can travel long distances to marriage and
other ceremonies, and the tendency to form new subcastes is somewhat
checked; a native gentleman said to me, when speaking of his people,
that when a few families of Khedawal Brahmans from Gujarat first
settled in Damoh they had the greatest difficulty in arranging their
marriages; they could not marry with their caste-fellows in Gujarat
because their sons and daughters could not establish themselves, that
is, could not prove their identity as Khedawal Brahmans; but since the
railway has been opened intermarriage takes place freely with other
Khedawals in Gujarat and Benares. Proposals are on foot to authorise
the intermarriage of the three great subcastes of Maratha Brahmans:
Deshasth, Konkonasth and Karhara. As a rule, there is no difference
of status between the different local subcastes, and a man's subcaste
is often not known except to his own caste-fellows. But occasionally
a certain derogatory sense may be conveyed; in several castes of the
Central Provinces there is a subcaste called Jharia or jungly, a term
applied to the oldest residents, who are considered to have lapsed in
a comparatively new and barbarous country from the orthodox practices
of Hinduism. The subcaste called Deshi, or 'belonging to the country,'
sometimes has the same signification. The large majority of subcastes
are of the local or territorial type.