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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10. Greetings and method of address

The caste have some strict taboos on names and on conversation
between the sexes. A man will only address his wife, sister, daughter,
paternal aunt or niece directly. If he has occasion to speak to some
other woman he will take his daughter or other female relative with
him and do his business through her. He will not speak even to his own
women before a crowd. A woman will similarly only speak to her father,
son or nephew, and father-, son- or younger brother-in-law. She will
not speak to her elder brother-in-law, and she will not address her
husband in the presence of his father, elder brother or any other
relative whom he reveres. A wife will never call her husband by his
name, but always address him as father of her son, and, if she has no
son, will sometimes speak to him through his younger brother. Neither
the father nor mother will call their eldest son by his name, but will
use some other name. Similarly a daughter-in-law is given a fresh
name on coming into the house, and on her arrival her mother-in-law
looks at her for the first time through a _guna_ or ring of baked
gram-flour. A man meeting his father or elder brother will touch his
feet in silence. One meeting his sister's husband, sister's son or
son-in-law, will touch his feet and say, '_Sahib, salaam_.'

11. Sacred thread and social status

The higher clans invest boys with the sacred thread either when they
are initiated by a Guru or spiritual preceptor, or when they are
married. The thread is made by a Brahman and has five knots. Recently
a large landholder in Mandla, a Jarha Lodhi, has assumed the sacred
thread himself for the first time and sent round a circular to his
caste-men enjoining them also to wear it. His family priest has
produced a legend of the usual type showing how the Jarha Lodhis
are Rajputs whose ancestors threw away their sacred threads in order
to escape the vengeance of Parasurama. Generally in social position
the Lodhis may be considered to rank with, but slightly above, the
ordinary cultivating castes, such as the Kurmis. This superiority
in no way arises from their origin, since, as already seen, they are
a very low caste in their home in northern India, but from the fact
that they have become large landholders in the Central Provinces and
in former times their leaders exercised quasi-sovereign powers. Many
Lodhis are fine-looking men and have still some appearance of having
been soldiers. They are passionate and quarrelsome, especially in the
Jubbulpore District. This is put forcibly in the saying that 'A Lodhi's
temper is as crooked as the stream of a bullock's urine.' They are
generally cultivators, but the bulk of them are not very prosperous
as they are inclined to extravagance and display at weddings and on
other ceremonial occasions.

Lohar

1. Legends of the caste

_Lohar_, _Khati_, _Ghantra_, _Ghisari_, _Panchal._--The occupational
caste of blacksmiths. The name is derived from the Sanskrit
_Lauha-kara>_, a worker in iron. In the Central Provinces the Loharhas
in the past frequently combined the occupations of carpenter and
blacksmith, and in such a capacity he is known as Khati. The honorific
designations applied to the caste are Karigar, which means skilful,
and Mistri, a corruption of the English 'Master' or 'Mister.' In 1911
the Lohars numbered about 180,000 persons in the Central Provinces
and Berar. The Lohar is indispensable to the village economy, and
the caste is found over the whole rural area of the Province.

"Practically all the Lohars," Mr. Crooke writes [100], "trace
their origin to Visvakarma, who is the later representative of the
Vedic Twashtri, the architect and handicraftsman of the gods, 'The
fashioner of all ornaments, the most eminent of artisans, who formed
the celestial chariots of the deities, on whose craft men subsist,
and whom, a great and immortal god, they continually worship,' One
[101] tradition tells that Visvakarma was a Brahman and married the
daughter of an Ahir, who in her previous birth had been a dancing-girl
of the gods. By her he had nine sons, who became the ancestors of
various artisan castes, such as the Lohar, Barhai, Sunar, and Kasera."

The Lohars of the Uriya country in the Central Provinces tell a similar
story, according to which Kamar, the celestial architect, had twelve
sons. The eldest son was accustomed to propitiate the family god with
wine, and one day he drank some of the wine, thinking that it could
not be sinful to do so as it was offered to the deity. But for this
act his other brothers refused to live with him and left their home,
adopting various professions; but the eldest brother became a worker
in iron and laid a curse upon the others that they should not be able
to practise their calling except with the implements which he had
made. The second brother thus became a woodcutter (Barhai), the third a
painter (Maharana), the fourth learnt the science of vaccination and
medicine and became a vaccinator (Suthiar), the fifth a goldsmith,
the sixth a brass-smith, the seventh a coppersmith, and the eighth a
carpenter, while the ninth brother was weak in the head and married
his eldest sister, on account of which fact his descendants are known
as Ghantra. [102] The Ghantras are an inferior class of blacksmiths,
probably an offshoot from some of the forest tribes, who are looked
down on by the others. It is said that even to the present day the
Ghantra Lohars have no objection to eating the leavings of food of
their wives, whom they regard as their eldest sisters.

2. Social position of the Lohar

The above story is noticeable as indicating that the social position
of the Lohar is somewhat below that of the other artisan castes, or
at least of those who work in metals. This fact has been recorded in
other localities, and has been explained by some stigma arising from
his occupation, as in the following passage: "His social position
is low even for a menial, and he is classed as an impure caste, in
so far that Jats and others of similar standing will have no social
communion with him, though not as an outcast like the scavenger. His
impurity, like that of the barber, washerman and dyer, springs solely
from the nature of his employment; perhaps because it is a dirty one,
but more probably because black is a colour of evil omen. It is not
improbable that the necessity under which he labours of using bellows
made of cowhide may have something to do with his impurity," [103]

Mr. Nesfield also says: "It is owing to the ubiquitous industry of
the Lohar that the stone knives, arrow-heads and hatchets of the
indigenous tribes of Upper India have been so entirely superseded
by iron-ores. The memory of the stone age has not survived even in
tradition. In consequence of the evil associations which Hinduism has
attached to the colour of black, the caste of Lohar has not been able
to raise itself to the same social level as the three metallurgic
castes which follow." The following saying also indicates that the
Lohar is of evil omen:

Ar, Dhar, Chuchkar
In tinon se bachawe Kartar.

Here _Ar_ means an iron goad and signifies the Lohar; _Dhar_ represents
the sound of the oil falling from the press and means a Teli or oilman;
_Chuchkar_ is an imitation of the sound of clothes being beaten against
a stone and denotes the Dhobi or washerman; and the phrase thus runs,
'My Friend, beware of the Lohar, Teli, and Dhobi, for they are of evil
omen.' It is not quite clear why this disrepute should attach to the
Lohar, because iron itself is lucky, though its colour, black, may be
of bad omen. But the low status of the Lohar may partly arise from the
fact of his being a village menial and a servant of the cultivators;
whereas the trades of the goldsmith, brass-smith and carpenter are of
later origin than the blacksmith's, and are urban rather than rural
industries; and thus these artisans do not commonly occupy the position
of village menials. Another important consideration is that the iron
industry is associated with the primitive tribes, who furnished the
whole supply of the metal prior to its importation from Europe: and it
is hence probable that the Lohar caste was originally constituted from
these and would thus naturally be looked down upon by the Hindus. In
Bengal, where few or no traces of the village community remain, the
Lohar ranks as the equal of Koiris and Kurmis, and Brahmans will take
water from his hands; [104] and this somewhat favours the argument that
his lower status elsewhere is not due to incidents of his occupation.

3. Caste subdivisions

The constitution of the Lohar caste is of a heterogeneous nature. In
some localities Gonds who work as blacksmiths are considered to
belong to the caste and are known as Gondi Lohars. But Hindus who
work in Gond villages also sometimes bear this designation. Another
subdivision returned consists of the Agarias, also an offshoot of the
Gonds, who collect and smelt iron-ore in the Vindhyan and Satpura
hills. The Panchals are a class of itinerant smiths in Berar. The
Ghantras or inferior blacksmiths of the Uriya country have already
been noticed. The Ghisaris are a similar low class of smiths in the
southern Districts who do rough work only, but sometimes claim Rajput
origin. Other subcastes are of the usual local or territorial type,
as Mahulia, from Mahul in Berar; Jhade or Jhadia, those living in
the jungles; Ojha, or those professing a Brahmanical origin; Maratha,
Kanaujia, Mathuria, and so on.

4. Marriage and other customs

Infant-marriage is the custom of the caste, and the ceremony is
that prevalent among the agricultural castes of the locality. The
remarriage of widows is permitted, and they have the privilege of
selecting their own husbands, or at least of refusing to accept any
proposed suitor. A widow is always married from her father's house,
and never from that of her deceased husband. The first husband's
property is taken by his relatives, if there be any, and they also
assume the custody of his children as soon as they are old enough to
dispense with a mother's care. The dead are both buried and burnt,
and in the eastern Districts some water and a tooth-stick are daily
placed at a cross-road for the use of the departed spirit during
the customary period of mourning, which extends to ten days. On the
eleventh day the relatives go and bathe, and the chief mourner puts
on a new loin-cloth. Some rice is taken and seven persons pass it from
hand to hand. They then pound the rice, and making from it a figure to
represent a human being, they place some grain in its mouth and say
to it, 'Go and become incarnate in some human being,' and throw the
image into the water. After this the impurity caused by the death is
removed, and they go home and feast with their friends. In the evening
they make cakes of rice, and place them seven times on the shoulder
of each person who has carried the corpse to the cemetery or pyre, to
remove the impurity contracted from touching it. It is also said that
if this be not done the shoulder will feel the weight of the coffin
for a period of six months. The caste endeavour to ascertain whether
the spirit of the dead person returns to join in the funeral feast,
and in what shape it will be born again. For this purpose rice-flour
is spread on the floor of the cooking-room and covered with a brass
plate. The women retire and sit in an adjoining room while the chief
mourner with a few companions goes outside the village, and sprinkles
some more rice-flour on the ground. They call to the deceased person
by name, saying, 'Come, come,' and then wait patiently till some
worm or insect crawls on to the floor. Some dough is then applied
to this and it is carried home and let loose in the house. The flour
under the brass plate is examined, and it is said that they usually
see the footprints of a person or animal, indicating the corporeal
entity in which the deceased soul has found a resting-place. During
the period of mourning members of the bereaved family do not follow
their ordinary business, nor eat flesh, sweets or other delicate
food. They may not make offerings to their deities nor touch any
persons outside the family, nor wear head-cloths or shoes. In the
eastern Districts the principal deities of the Lohars are Dulha Deo
and Somlai or Devi, the former being represented by a knife set in the
ground inside the house, and the latter by the painting of a woman on
the wall. Both deities are kept in the cooking-room, and here the head
of the family offers to them rice soaked in milk, with sandal-paste,
flowers, vermilion and lamp-black. He burns some melted butter in an
earthen lamp and places incense upon it. If a man has been affected by
the evil eye an exorcist will place some salt on his hand and burn it,
muttering spells, and the evil influence is removed. They believe that
a spell can be cast on a man by giving him to eat the bones of an owl,
when he will become an idiot.

5. Occupation

In the rural area of the Province the Lohar is still a village menial,
making and mending the iron implements of agriculture, such as the
ploughshare, axe, sickle, goad and other articles. For doing this he
is paid in Saugor a yearly contribution of twenty pounds of grain
per plough of land [105] held by each cultivator, together with a
handful of grain at sowing-time and a sheaf at harvest from both the
autumn and spring crops. In Wardha he gets fifty pounds of grain per
plough of four bullocks or forty acres. For making new implements the
Lohar is sometimes paid separately and is always supplied with the
iron and charcoal. The hand-smelting iron industry has practically
died out in the Province and the imported metal is used for nearly
all purposes. The village Lohars are usually very poor, their income
seldom exceeding that of an unskilled labourer. In the towns, owing
to the rapid extension of milling and factory industries, blacksmiths
readily find employment and some of them earn very high wages. In
the manufacture of cutlery, nails and other articles the capital is
often found by a Bhatia or Bohra merchant, who acts as the capitalist
and employs the Lohars as his workmen. The women help their husbands
by blowing the bellows and dragging the hot iron from the furnace,
while the men wield the hammer. The Panchals of Berar are described
as a wandering caste of smiths, living in grass mat-huts and using as
fuel the roots of thorn bushes, which they batter out of the ground
with the back of a short-handled axe peculiar to themselves. They
move from place to place with buffaloes, donkeys and ponies to carry
their kit. [106] Another class of wandering smiths, the Ghisaris, are
described by Mr. Crooke as follows: "Occasional camps of these most
interesting people are to be met with in the Districts of the Meerut
Division. They wander about with small carts and pack-animals, and,
being more expert than the ordinary village Lohar, their services
are in demand for the making of tools for carpenters, weavers and
other craftsmen. They are known in the Punjab as Gadiya or those who
have carts (_gadi, gari_). Sir D. Ibbetson [107] says that they come
up from Rajputana and the North-Western Provinces, but their real
country is the Deccan. In the Punjab they travel about with their
families and implements in carts from village to village, doing the
finer kinds of iron-work, which are beyond the capacity of the village
artisan. In the Deccan [108] this class of wandering blacksmiths are
called Saiqalgar, or knife-grinders, or Ghisara, or grinders (Hindi,
_ghisana_ 'to rub'). They wander about grinding knives and tools."

Lorha

_Lorha._ [109]--A small caste of cultivators in the Hoshangabad and
Nimar Districts, whose distinctive occupation is to grow _san_-hemp
(_Crotalaria juncea_) and to make sacking and gunny-bags from the
fibre. A very strong prejudice against this crop exists among the
Hindus, and those who grow it are usually cut off from their parent
caste and become a separate community. Thus we have the castes known
as Kumrawat, Patbina and Dangur in different parts of the Province,
who are probably offshoots from the Kurmis and Kunbis, but now rank
below them because they grow this crop; and in the Kurmi caste itself
a subcaste of Santora (hemp-picking) Kurmis has grown up. In Bilaspur
the Patharia Kurmis will grow _san_-hemp and ret it, but will not spin
or weave the fibre; while the Atharia Kurmis will not grow the crop,
but will spin the fibre and make sacking. The Saugor Kewats grow this
fibre, and here Brahmans and other high castes will not take water
from Kewats, though in the eastern Districts they will do so. The
Narsinghpur Mallahs, a branch of the Kewats, have also adopted the
cultivation of _san_-hemp as a regular profession. The basis of the
prejudice against the _san_-hemp plant is not altogether clear. The
Lorhas themselves say that they are looked down upon because they use
wheat-starch (_lapsi_) for smoothing the fibre, and that their name
is somehow derived from this fact. But the explanation does not seem
satisfactory. Many of the country people appear to think that there
is something uncanny about the plant because it grows so quickly,
and they say that on one occasion a cultivator went out to sow hemp
in the morning, and his wife was very late in bringing his dinner to
the field. He grew hungry and angry, and at last the shoots of the
hemp-seeds which he had sown in the morning began to appear above the
ground. At this he was so enraged that when his wife finally came
he said she had kept him waiting so long that the crop had come up
in the meantime, and murdered her. Since then the Hindus have been
forbidden to grow _san_-hemp lest they should lose their tempers in
the same manner. This story makes a somewhat excessive demand on the
hearer's credulity. One probable cause of the taboo seems to be that
the process of soaking and retting the stalks of the plant pollutes
the water, and if carried on in a tank or in the pools of a stream
might destroy the village supply of drinking-water. In former times
it may have been thought that the desecration of their sacred element
was an insult to the deities of rivers and streams, which would bring
down retribution on the offender. It is also the case that the proper
separation of the fibres requires a considerable degree of dexterity
which can only be acquired by practice. Owing to the recent increase in
the price of the fibre and the large profits which can now be obtained
from hemp cultivation, the prejudice against it is gradually breaking
down, and the Gonds, Korkus and lower Hindu castes have waived their
religious scruples and are glad to turn an honest penny by sowing hemp
either on their own account or for hire. Other partially tabooed crops
are turmeric and _al_ or Indian madder (_Morinda citrifolia_), while
onions and garlic are generally eschewed by Hindu cultivators. For
growing turmeric and _al_ special subcastes have been formed, as the
Alia Kunbis and the Hardia Malis and Kachhis (from _haldi_, turmeric),
just as in the case of _san_-hemp. The objection to these two crops is
believed to lie in the fact that the roots which yield the commercial
product have to be boiled, and by this process a number of insects
contained in them are destroyed. But the preparation of the hemp-fibre
does not seem to involve any such sacrifice of insect life. The Lorhas
appear to be a mixed group, with a certain amount of Rajput blood in
them, perhaps an offshoot of the Kirars, with whose social customs
their own are said to be identical. According to another account, they
are a lower or illegitimate branch of the Lodha caste of cultivators,
of whose name their own is said to be a corruption. The Nimar Gujars
have a subcaste named Lorha, and the Lorhas of Hoshangabad may be
connected with these. They live in the Seoni and Harda tahsils of
Hoshangabad, the _san_-hemp crop being a favourite one in villages
adjoining the forests, because it is not subject to the depredations
of wild animals. Cultivators are often glad to sublet their fields
for the purpose of having a crop of hemp grown upon them, because
the stalks are left for manure and fertilise the ground. String and
sacking are also made from the hemp-fibre by vagrant and criminal
castes like the Banjaras and Bhamtas, who formerly required the bags
for carrying their goods and possessions about with them.

Mahar

List of Paragraphs

1. _General Notice._
2. _Length of residence in the Central Provinces._
3. _Legend of origin._
4. _Sub castes._
5. _Exogamous groups and marriage customs._
6. _Funeral rites._
7. _Childbirth._
8. _Names._
9. _Religion._
10. _Adoption of foreign religions._
11. _Superstitions._
12. _Social rules_.
13. _Social subjection_.
14. _Their position improving_.
15. _Occupation_.

1. General Notice.

_Mahar, Mehra, Dhed._--The impure caste of menials, labourers and
village watchmen of the Maratha country, corresponding to the Chamars
and Koris of northern India. They numbered nearly 1,200,000 persons in
the combined Province in 1911, and are most numerous in the Nagpur,
Bhandara, Chanda and Wardha Districts of the Central Provinces,
while considerable colonies are also found in Balaghat, Chhindwara
and Betul. Their distribution thus follows largely that of the
Marathi language and the castes speaking it. Berar contained 400,000,
distributed over the four Districts. In the whole Province this caste
is third in point of numerical strength. In India the Mahars number
about three million persons, of whom a half belong to Bombay. I am not
aware of any accepted derivation for the word Mahar, but the balance
of opinion seems to be that the native name of Bombay, Maharashtra,
is derived from that of the caste, as suggested by Wilson. Another
derivation which holds it to be a corruption of Maha Rastrakuta, and
to be so called after the Rashtrakuta Rajput dynasty of the eighth
and ninth centuries, seems less probable because countries are very
seldom named after ruling dynasties. [110] Whereas in support of
Maharashtra as 'The country of the Mahars,' we have Gujarashtra or
Gujarat, 'the country of the Gujars,' and Saurashtra or Surat, 'the
country of the Sauras.' According to Platts' Dictionary, however,
Maharashtra means 'the great country,' and this is what the Maratha
Brahmans themselves say. Mehra appears to be a variant of the name
current in the Hindustani Districts, while Dheda, or Dhada, is said
to be a corruption of Dharadas or billmen. [111] In the Punjab it is
said to be a general term of contempt meaning 'Any low fellow.' [112]

Wilson considers the Mahars to be an aboriginal or pre-Aryan tribe,
and all that is known of the caste seems to point to the correctness
of this hypothesis. In the _Bombay Gazetteer_ the writer of the
interesting Gujarat volume suggests that the Mahars are fallen Rajputs;
but there seems little to support this opinion except their appearance
and countenance, which is of the Hindu rather than the Dravidian
type. In Gujarat they have also some Rajput surnames, as Chauhan,
Panwar, Rathor, Solanki and so on, but these may have been adopted by
imitation or may indicate a mixture of Rajput blood. Again, the Mahars
of Gujarat are the farmservants and serfs of the Kunbis. "Each family
is closely connected with the house of some landholder or _pattidar_
(sharer). For his master he brings in loads from the fields and cleans
out the stable, receiving in return daily allowances of buttermilk and
the carcases of any cattle that die. This connection seems to show
traces of a form of slavery. Rich _pattidars_ have always a certain
number of Dheda families whom they speak of as ours (_hamara_) and
when a man dies he distributes along with his lands a certain number
of Dheda families to each of his sons. An old tradition among Dhedas
points to some relation between the Kunbis and Dhedas. Two brothers,
Leva and Deva, were the ancestors, the former of the Kunbis, the latter
of the Dhedas." [113] Such a relation as this in Hindu society would
imply that many Mahar women held the position of concubines to their
Kunbi masters, and would therefore account for the resemblance of
the Mahar to Hindus rather than the forest tribes. But if this is
to be regarded as evidence of Rajput descent, a similar claim would
have to be allowed to many of the Chamars and sweepers. Others of the
lowest castes also have Rajput sept names, as the Pardhis and Bhils;
but the fact can at most be taken, I venture to think, to indicate a
connection of the 'Droit de Seigneur' type. On the other hand, the
Mahars occupy the debased and impure position which was the lot of
those non-Aryan tribes who became subject to the Hindus and lived in
their villages; they eat the flesh of dead cattle and this and other
customs appear to point decisively to a non-Aryan origin.