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

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

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5. Red, a lucky colour

It may be noted, however, that lac bangles are not always worn
by the bride at a wedding, the custom being unknown in some
localities. Moreover, it appears that glass was known to the Hindus
at a period prior to the Muhammadan invasions, though bangles may not
have been made from it. Another reason for the use of lac bangles
on the occasions noticed is that lac, as already seen, represents
blood. Though blood itself is now repugnant to the Hindus, yet red
is pre-eminently their lucky colour, being worn at weddings and
generally preferred. It is suggested in the _Bombay Gazetteer_ [85]
that blood was lucky as having been the first food of primitive man,
who learnt to suck the blood of animals before he ate their flesh. But
it does not seem necessary to go back quite so far as this. The
earliest form of sacrifice, as shown by Professor Robertson Smith,
[86] was that in which the community of kinsmen ate together the flesh
of their divine or totem animal god and drank its blood. When the god
became separated from the animal and was represented by a stone at the
place of worship and the people had ceased to eat raw flesh and drink
blood, the blood was poured out over the stone as an offering to the
god. This practice still obtains among the lower castes of Hindus and
the primitive tribes, the blood of animals offered to Devi and other
village deities being allowed to drop on to the stones representing
them. But the higher castes of Hindus have abandoned animal sacrifices,
and hence cannot make the blood-offering. In place of it they smear the
stone with vermilion, which seems obviously a substitute for blood,
since it is used to colour the stones representing the deities in
exactly the same manner. Even vermilion, however, is not offered to
the highest deities of Neo-Hinduism, Siva or Mahadeo and Vishnu, to
whom animal sacrifices would be abhorrent. It is offered to Hanuman,
whose image is covered with it, and to Devi and Bhairon and to the
many local and village deities. In past times animal sacrifices were
offered to Bhairon, as they still are to Devi, and though it is not
known that they were made to Hanuman, this is highly probable, as he
is the god of strength and a mighty warrior. The Manbhao mendicants,
who abhor all forms of bloodshed like the Jains, never pass one of
these stones painted with vermilion if they can avoid doing so, and
if they are aware that there is one on their road will make a circuit
so as not to see it. [87] There seems, therefore, every reason to
suppose that vermilion is a substitute for blood in offerings and
hence probably on other occasions. As the places of the gods were
thus always coloured red with blood, red would come to be the divine
and therefore the propitious colour among the Hindus and other races.

6. Vermilion and spangles

Among the constituents of the Sohag or lucky _trousseau_ without
which no Hindu girl of good caste can be married are _sendur_ or
vermilion, _kunku_ or red powder or a spangle (_tikli_), and _mahawar_
or red balls of cotton-wool. In Chhattisgarh and Bengal the principal
marriage rite is usually the smearing of vermilion by the bridegroom
on the parting of the bride's hair, and elsewhere this is commonly
done as a subsidiary ceremony. Here also there is little reason to
doubt that vermilion is a substitute for blood; indeed, in some castes
in Bengal, as noted by Sir H. Risley, the blood of the parties is
actually mixed. [88] This marking of the bride with blood is a result
of the sacrifice and communal feast of kinsmen already described;
only those who could join in the sacrificial meal and eat the flesh
of the sacred animal god were kin to it and to each other; but in
quite early times the custom prevailed of taking wives from outside
the clan; and consequently, to admit the wife into her husband's
kin, it was necessary that she also should drink or be marked with
the blood of the god. The mixing of blood at marriage appears to be
a relic of this, and the marking of the forehead with vermilion is
a substitute for the anointing with blood. _Kunku_ is a pink powder
made of turmeric, lime-juice and borax, which last is called by the
Hindus 'the milk of Anjini,' the mother of Hanuman. It seems to be
a more agreeable substitute for vermilion, whose constant use has
probably an injurious effect on the skin and hair. _Kunku_ is used in
the Maratha country in the same way as vermilion, and a married woman
will smear a little patch on her forehead every day and never allow her
husband to see her without it. She omits it only during the monthly
period of impurity. The _tikli_ or spangle is worn in the Hindustani
Districts and not in the south. It consists of a small piece of lac
over which is smeared vermilion, while above it a piece of mica or
thin glass is fixed for ornament. Other adornments may be added,
and women from Rajputana, such as the Marwari Banias and Banjaras,
wear large spangles set in gold with a border of jewels if they can
afford it. The spangle is made and sold by Lakheras and Patwas; it is
part of the Sohag at marriages and is affixed to the girl's forehead
on her wedding and thereafter always worn; as a rule, if a woman has a
spangle it is said that she does not smear vermilion on her forehead,
though both may occasionally be seen. The name _tikli_ is simply a
corruption of _tika_, which means a mark of anointing or initiation on
the forehead; as has been seen, the basis of the _tikli_ is vermilion
smeared on lac-clay, and it is made by Lakheras; and there is thus
good reason to suppose that the spangle is also a more ornamental
substitute for the smear of vermilion, the ancient blood-mark by which
a married woman was admitted into her husband's clan. At her marriage
a bride must always receive the glass bangles and the vermilion,
_kunku_, or spangle from her husband, the other ornaments of the
Sohag being usually given to her by her parents. Unmarried girls
now also sometimes wear small ornamental spangles, and put _kunku_
on their foreheads. But before marriage it is optional and afterwards
compulsory. A widow may not wear vermilion, _kunku_, or spangles.

7. Red dye on the feet

The Lakheras also sell balls of red cotton-wool known as _mahur
ki guleli_ or _mahawar_. The cotton-wool is dipped in the melted
lac-gum and is rubbed on to the feet of women to colour them red
or pink at marriages and festivals. This is done by the barber's
wife, who will colour the feet of the whole party, at the same
time drawing lines round the outside of the foot and inward from
the toes. The _mahawar_ is also an essential part of the Sohag of
marriage. Instead of lac the Muhammadans use _mehndi_ or henna, the
henna-leaves being pounded with catechu and the mixture rubbed on to
the feet and hands. After a little time it is washed off and a red
dye remains on the skin. It is supposed that the similar custom which
prevailed among the ancient Greeks is alluded to in the epithet of
'rosy-fingered Aurora.' The Hindus use henna dye only in the month
Shrawan (July), which is a period of fasting; the auspicious _kunku_
and _mahawar_ are therefore perhaps not considered suitable at such
a time, but as special protection is needed against evil spirits,
the necessary red colouring is obtained from henna. When a married
woman rubs henna on her hands, if the dye comes out a deep red tinge,
the other women say that her husband is not in love with her; but if
of a pale yellowish tinge, that he is very much in love.

8. Red threads

The Lakheras and Patwas also make the _kardora_ or waist-band of
red thread. This is worn by Hindu men and women, except Maratha
Brahmans. After he is married, if a man breaks this thread he must not
take food until he has put on a fresh one, and the same rule applies
to a woman all her life. Other threads are the _rakhis_ tied round the
wrists for protection against evil spirits on the day of Rakshabandhan,
and the necklets of silk or cotton thread wound round with thin silver
wire, which the Hindus put on at Anant Chaudas and frequently retain
for the whole year. The colour of all these threads is generally red in
the first place, but they soon get blackened by contact with the skin.

9. Lac toys

Toys of lac are especially made during the fast of Shrawan (July). At
this time for five years after her marriage a Hindu bride receives
annually from her husband a present called Shraoni, or that which
is given in Shrawan. It consists of a _chakri_ or reel, to which
a string is attached, and the reel is thrown up into the air and
wound and unwound on the string; a _bhora_ or wooden top spun by a
string; a _bansuli_ or wooden flute; a stick and ball, lac bangles
and a spangle, and cloth, usually of red chintz. All these toys are
made by the carpenter and coloured red with lac by the Lakhera, with
the exception of the bangles which may be yellow or green. For five
years the bride plays with the toys, and then they are sent to her no
longer as her childhood has passed. It is probable that some, if not
all of them, are in a manner connected with the crops, and supposed
to have a magical influence, because during the same period it is the
custom for boys to walk on stilts and play at swinging themselves;
and in these cases the original idea is to make the crops grow as
high as the stilts or swing. As in the other cases, the red colour
appears to have a protective influence against evil spirits, who are
more than usually active at a time of fasting.

Lodhi

List of Paragraphs

1. _Origin and traditions_.
2. _Position in the Central Provinces_.
3. _Subdivisions_.
4. _Exogamous groups_.
5. _Marriage customs_.
6. _The Gauna ceremony. Fertility rites_.
7. _Widow-marriage and puberty rite_.
8. _Mourning impurity_.
9. _Social customs_.
10. _Greetings and method of address_.
11. _Sacred thread and social status_.

1. Origin and traditions

_Lodhi, Lodha._--An important agricultural caste residing principally
in the Vindhyan Districts and Nerbudda valley, whence they have spread
to the Wainganga valley and the Khairagarh State of Chhattisgarh. Their
total strength in the Province is 300,000 persons. The Lodhis
are immigrants from the United Provinces, in whose Gazetteers it
is stated that they belonged originally to the Ludhiana District
and took their name from it. Their proper designation is Lodha,
but it has become corrupted to Lodhi in the Central Provinces. A
number of persons resident in the Harda tahsil of Hoshangabad are
called Lodha and say that they are distinct from the Lodhis. There is
nothing to support their statement, however, and it is probable that
they simply represent the separate wave of immigration which took
place from Central India into the Hoshangabad and Betul Districts
in the fifteenth century. They spoke a different dialect of the
group known as Rajasthani, and hence perhaps the caste-name did
not get corrupted. The Lodhis of the Jubbulpore Division probably
came here at a later date from northern India. The Mandla Lodhis
are said to have been brought to the District by Raja Hirde Sah of
the Gond-Rajput dynasty of Garha-Mandla in the seventeenth century,
and they were given large grants of the waste land in the interior in
order that they might clear it of forest. [89] The Lodhis are a good
instance of a caste who have obtained a great rise in social status
on migrating to a new area. In northern India Mr. Nesfield places
them lowest among the agricultural castes and states that they are
little better than a forest tribe. He derives the name from _lod_,
a clod, according to which Lodhi would mean clodhopper. [90] Another
suggestion is that the name is derived from the bark of the _lodh_
tree, [91] which is collected by the Lodhas in northern India and sold
for use as a dyeing agent. In Bulandshahr they are described as "Of
short stature and uncouth appearance, and from this as well as from
their want of a tradition of immigration from other parts they appear
to be a mixed class proceeding from aboriginal and Aryan parents. In
the Districts below Agra they are considered so low that no one drinks
water touched by them; but this is not the case in the Districts above
Agra." [92] In Hamirpur they appear to have some connection with the
Kurmis, and a story told of them in Saugor is that the first Lodhi
was created by Mahadeo from a scarecrow in a Kurmi woman's field
and given the vocation of a farmservant But the Lodhis themselves
claim Rajput ancestry and say that they are descended from Lava,
the eldest of the two sons of Raja Ramchandra of Ajodhya.

2. Position in the central Provinces

In the Central Provinces they have become landholders and are
addressed by the honorific title of Thakur, ranking with the higher
cultivating castes. Several Lodhi landholders in Damoh and Saugor
formerly held a quasi-independent position under the Muhammadans,
and subsequently acknowledged the Raja of Panna as their suzerain,
who conferred on some families the titles of Raja and Diwan. They
kept up a certain amount of state, and small contingents of soldiery,
attended by whom they went to pay their respects to the representative
of the ruling power. "It would be difficult," says Grant, [93] "to
recognise the descendants of the peaceful cultivators of northern
India in the strangely accoutred Rajas who support their style and
title by a score of ragged matchlock-men and a ruined mud fort on a
hill-side." Sir B. Fuller's _Damoh Settlement Report_ says of them:
"A considerable number of villages had been for long time past in the
possession of certain important families, who held them by prescription
or by a grant from the ruling power, on a right which approximated
as nearly to the English idea of proprietorship as native custom
permitted. The most prominent of these families were of the Lodhi
caste. They have developed tastes for sport and freebooting and have
become decidedly the most troublesome item in the population. During
the Mutiny the Lodhis as a class were openly disaffected, and one of
their proprietors, the Talukdar of Hindoria, marched on the District
headquarters and looted the treasury." Similarly the Ramgarh family
of Mandla took to arms and lost the large estates till then held
by them. On the other hand the village of Imjhira in Narsinghpur
belonging to a Lodhi malguzar was gallantly defended against a band
of marauding rebels from Saugor. Sir R. Craddock describes them as
follows: "They are men of strong character, but their constant family
feuds and love of faction militate against their prosperity. A cluster
of Lodhi villages forms a hotbed of strife and the nearest relations
are generally divided by bitter animosities. The Revenue Officer who
visits them is beset by reckless charges and counter-charges and no
communities are less amenable to conciliatory compromises. Agrarian
outrages are only too common in some of the Lodhi villages." [94]
The high status of the Lodhi caste in the Central Provinces as
compared with their position in the country of their origin may be
simply explained by the fact that they here became landholders and
ruling chiefs.

3. Sub-divisions

In the northern Districts the landholding Lodhis are divided into
a number of exogamous clans who marry with each other in imitation
of the Rajputs. These are the Mahdele, Kerbania, Dongaria, Narwaria,
Bhadoria and others. The name of the Kerbanias is derived from Kerbana,
a village in Damoh, and the Balakote family of that District are
the head of the clan. The Mahdeles are the highest clan and have
the titles of Raja and Diwan, while the others hold those of Rao and
Kunwar, the terms Diwan and Kunwar being always applied to the younger
brother of the head of the house. These titles are still occasionally
conferred by the Raja of Panna, whom the Lodhi clans looked on as
their suzerain. The name of the Mahdeles is said to be derived from the
_mehndi_ or henna plant. The above clans sometimes practise hypergamy
among themselves and also with the other Lodhis, taking daughters
from the latter on receipt of a large bridegroom-price for the honour
conferred by the marriage. This custom is now, however, tending to
die out. There are also several endogamous subcastes ranking below
the clans, of whom the principal are the Singrore, Jarha, Jangra and
Mahalodhi. The Singrore take their name from the old town of Singraur
or Shrengera in northern India, Singrore, like Kanaujia, being a common
subcaste name among several castes. It is also connected more lately
with the Singram Ghat or ferry of the Ganges in Allahabad District,
and the title of Rawat is said to have been conferred on the Singrore
Lodhis by the emperor Akbar on a visit there. The Jarha Lodhis belong
to Mandla. The name is probably a form of Jharia or jungly, but since
the leading members of the caste have become large landholders they
repudiate this derivation. The Jangra Lodhis are of Chhattisgarh, and
the Mahalodhis or 'Great Lodhis' are an inferior group to which the
offspring of irregular unions are or were relegated. The Mahalodhis
are said to condone adultery either by a man or woman on penalty of a
feast to the caste. Other groups are the Hardiha, who grow turmeric
(_haldi_), and the Gwalhare or cowherds. The Lodhas of Hoshangabad
may also be considered a separate subcaste. They disclaim connection
with the Lodhis, but the fact that the parent caste in the United
Provinces is known as Lodha appears to establish their identity. They
abstain from flesh and liquor, which most Lodhis consume.

This division of the superior branch of a caste into large exogamous
clans and the lower one into endogamous subcastes is only found, so
far as is known, among the Rajputs and one or two landholding castes
who have imitated them. Its origin is discussed in the Introduction.

4. Exogamous groups

The subcastes are as usual divided into exogamous groups of the
territorial, titular and totemistic classes. Among sections named
after places may be mentioned the Chandpuria from Chandpur, the
Kharpuria from Kharpur, and the Nagpuriha, Raipuria, Dhamonia,
Damauha and Shahgariha from Nagpur, Raipur, Dhamoni, Damoh and
Shahgarh. Two-thirds of the sections have the names of towns or
villages. Among titular names are Saulakhia, owner of 100 lakhs,
Bhainsmar, one who killed a buffalo, Kodonchor, one who stole kodon,
[95] Kumharha perhaps from Kumhar a potter, and Rajbhar and Barhai
(carpenter), names of castes. Among totemistic names are Baghela,
tiger, also the name of a Rajput sept; Kutria, a dog; Khajuria, the
date-palm tree; Mirchaunia, chillies; Andwar, from the castor-oil
plant; Bhainsaiya, a buffalo; and Nak, the nose.

5. Marriage customs

A man must not marry in his own section nor in that of his mother. He
may marry two sisters. The exchange of girls between families is
only in force among the Bilaspur Lodhis, who say, 'Eat with those
who have eaten with you and marry with those who have married with
you.' Girls are usually wedded before puberty, but in the northern
Districts the marriage is sometimes postponed from desire to marry
into a good family or from want of funds to pay a bridegroom-price,
and girls of twenty or more may be unmarried. A case is known of a
man who had two daughters unmarried at twenty-two and twenty-three
years old, because he had been waiting for good _partis_, with the
result that one of them went and lived with a man and he then married
off the other in the Singhast [96] year, which is forbidden among the
Lodhis, and was put out of caste. The marriage and other ceremonies
of the Lodhis resemble those of the Kurmis, except in Chhattisgarh
where the Maratha fashion is followed. Here, at the wedding, the bride
and bridegroom hold between them a doll made of dough with 21 cowries
inside, and as the priest repeats the marriage texts they pull it apart
like a cracker and see how many cowries each has got. It is considered
auspicious if the bridegroom has the larger number. The priest is on
the roof of the house, and before the wedding he cries out:

'Are the king and queen here?' And a man below answers, 'Yes.'

'Have they shoes on their feet?' 'Yes.'

'Have they bracelets on their hands?' 'Yes.'

'Have they rings in their ears?' 'Yes.'

'Have they crowns on their heads?' 'Yes.'

'Has she glass beads round her neck?' 'Yes.'

'Have they the doll in their hands?' 'Yes.'

And the priest then repeats the marriage texts and beats a brass
dish while the doll is pulled apart In the northern Districts after
the wedding the bridegroom must untie one of the festoons of the
marriage-shed, and if he refuses to do this, it is an indelible
disgrace on the bride's party. Before doing so he requires a valuable
present, such as a buffalo.

6. The gauna ceremoney. Fertility rites

When the girl becomes mature the Gauna or going-away ceremony is
performed. In Chhattisgarh before leaving her home the bride goes out
with her sister and worships a _palas_ tree. [97] Her sister waves
a lighted lamp seven times over it, and the bride goes seven times
round it in imitation of the marriage ceremony. At her husband's
house seven pictures of the family gods are drawn on a wall inside
the house and the bride worships these, placing a little sugar and
bread on the mouth of each and bowing before them. She is then seated
before the family god while an old woman brings a stone rolling-pin
[98] wrapped up in a piece of cloth, which is supposed to be a baby,
and the old woman imitates a baby crying. She puts the roller in
the bride's lap saying, 'Take this and give it milk.' The bride is
abashed and throws it aside. The old woman picks it up and shows
it to the assembled women saying, 'The bride has just had a baby,'
amid loud laughter. Then she gives the stone to the bridegroom who
also throws it aside. This ceremony is meant to induce fertility,
and it is supposed that by making believe that the bride has had a
baby she will quickly have one.

7. Widow-marriage and puberty rite

The higher clans of Lodhis in Damoh and Saugor prohibit the remarriage
of widows, but instances of it occur. It is said that a man who marries
a widow is relegated to the Mahalodhi subcaste or the Lahuri Sen, an
illegitimate group, and the Lodhis of his clan no longer acknowledge
his family. But if a girl's husband dies before she has lived with him
she may marry again. The other Lodhis freely permit widow-marriage
and divorce. When a girl first becomes mature she is secluded,
and though she may stay in the house cannot enter the cook-room. At
the end of the period she is dressed in red cloth, and a present of
cocoanuts stripped of their shells, sweetmeats, and a little money,
is placed in her lap, while a few women are invited to a feast. This
rite is also meant to induce fertility, the kernel of the cocoanut
being held to resemble an unborn baby.

8. Mourning impurity

The higher clans consider themselves impure for a period of 12 days
after a birth, and if the birth falls in the Mul asterism or Nakshatra,
for 27 days. After death they observe mourning for 10 days; on the
10th day they offer ten _pindas_ or funeral cakes, and on the 11th
day make one large _pinda_ or cake and divide it into eleven parts;
on the 12th day they make sixteen _pindas_ and unite the spirit of the
dead man with the ancestors; and on the 13th day they give a feast
and feed Brahmans and are clean. The lower subcastes only observe
impurity for three days after a birth and a death. Their funeral
rites are the same as those of the Kurmis.

9. Social customs

The caste employ Brahmans for weddings, but not necessarily for
birth and death ceremonies. They eat flesh and fish, and the bulk
of the caste eat fowls and drink liquor, but the landowning section
abjures these practices. They will take food cooked with water from
Brahmans, and that cooked without water also from Rajputs, Kayasths and
Sunars. In Narsinghpur they also accept cooked food from such a low
caste as Rajjahrs, [99] probably because the Rajjhars are commonly
employed by them as farmservants, and hence have been accustomed
to carry their master's food. A similar relation has been found to
exist between the Panwar Rajputs and their Gond farmservants. The
higher class Lodhis make an inordinate show of hospitality at their
weddings. The plates of the guests are piled up profusely with food,
and these latter think it a point of honour never to refuse it or say
enough. When melted butter is poured out into their cups the stream
must never be broken as it passes from one guest to the other, or it
is said that they will all get up and leave the feast. Apparently a
lot of butter must be wasted on the ground. The higher clans seclude
their women, and these when they go out must wear long clothes
covering the head and reaching to the feet. The women are not allowed
to wear ornaments of a cheaper metal than silver, except of course
their glass bangles. The Mahalodhis will eat food cooked with water
in the cook-room and carried to the fields, which the higher clans
will not do. Their women wear the _sari_ drawn through the legs and
knotted behind according to the Maratha fashion, but whenever they
meet their husband's elder brother or any other elder of the family
they must undo the knot and let the cloth hang down round their legs
as a mark of respect. They wear no breast-cloth. Girls are tattooed
before adolescence with dots on the chin and forehead, and marks on
one hand. Before she is tattooed the girl is given sweets to eat,
and during the process the operator sings songs in order that her
attention may be diverted and she may not feel the pain. After she
has finished the operator mutters a charm to prevent evil spirits
from troubling the girl and causing her pain.