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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2. Length of residence in the Central Provinces

Several circumstances indicate that the Mahar is recognised as the
oldest resident of the plain country of Berar and Nagpur. In Berar
he is a village servant and is the referee on village boundaries and
customs, a position implying that his knowledge of them is the most
ancient. At the Holi festival the fire of the Mahars is kindled first
and that of the Kunbis is set alight from it. The Kamdar Mahar, who
acts as village watchman, also has the right of bringing the _toran_ or
rope of leaves which is placed on the marriage-shed of the Kunbis; and
for this he receives a present of three annas. In Bhandra the Telis,
Lohars, Dhimars and several other castes employ a Mahar _Mohturia_ or
wise man to fix the date of their weddings. And most curious of all,
when the Panwar Rajputs of this tract celebrate the festival of Narayan
Deo, they call a Mahar to their house and make him the first partaker
of the feast before beginning to eat themselves. Again in Berar [114]
the Mahar officiates at the killing of the buffalo on Dasahra. On the
day before the festival the chief Mahar of the village and his wife
with their garments knotted together bring some earth from the jungle
and fashioning two images set one on a clay elephant and the other on
a clay bullock. The images are placed on a small platform outside the
village site and worshipped; a young he-buffalo is bathed and brought
before the images as though for the same object. The Patel wounds
the buffalo in the nose with a sword and it is then marched through
the village. In the evening it is killed by the head Mahar, buried in
the customary spot, and any evil that might happen during the coming
year is thus deprecated and, it is hoped, averted. The claim to take
the leading part in this ceremony is the occasion of many a quarrel
and an occasional affray or riot Such customs tend to show that the
Mahars were the earliest immigrants from Bombay into the Berar and
Nagpur plain, excluding of course the Gonds and other tribes, who have
practically been ousted from this tract. And if it is supposed that
the Panwars came here in the tenth century, as seems not improbable,
[115] the Mahars, whom the Panwars recognise as older residents than
themselves, must have been earlier still, and were probably numbered
among the subjects of the old Hindu kingdoms of Bhandak and Nagardhan.

3. Legend of origin

The Mahars say they are descended from Mahamuni, who was a foundling
picked up by the goddess Parvati on the banks of the Ganges. At this
time beef had not become a forbidden food; and when the divine cow,
Tripad Gayatri, died, the gods determined to cook and eat her body
and Mahamuni was set to watch the pot boiling. He was as inattentive
as King Alfred, and a piece of flesh fell out of the pot. Not wishing
to return the dirty piece to the pot Mahamuni ate it; but the gods
discovered the delinquency, and doomed him and his descendants to
live on the flesh of dead cows. [116]

4. Sub-castes

The caste have a number of subdivisions, generally of a local or
territorial type, as Daharia, the residents of Dahar or the Jubbulpore
country, Baonia (52) of Berar, Nemadya or from Nimar, Khandeshi from
Khandesh, and so on; the Katia group are probably derived from that
caste, Katia meaning a spinner; the Barkias are another group whose
name is supposed to mean spinners of fine thread; while the Lonarias
are salt-makers. The highest division are the Somvansis or children
of the moon; these claim to have taken part with the Pandavas against
the Kauravas in the war of the Mahabharata, and subsequently to have
settled in Maharashtra. [117] But the Somvansi Mahars consent to groom
horses, which the Baone and Kosaria subcastes will not do. Baone and
Somvansi Mahars will take food together, but will not intermarry. The
Ladwan subcaste are supposed to be the offspring of kept women of
the Somvansi Mahars; and in Wardha the Dharmik group are also the
descendants of illicit unions and their name is satirical, meaning
'virtuous.' As has been seen, the caste have a subdivision named Katia,
which is the name of a separate Hindustani caste; and other subcastes
have names belonging to northern India, as the Mahobia, from Mahoba
in the United Provinces, the Kosaria or those from Chhattisgarh,
and the Kanaujia from Kanauj. This may perhaps be taken to indicate
that bodies of the Kori and Katia weaving castes of northern India
have been amalgamated with the Mahars in Districts where they have
come together along the Satpura Hills and Nerbudda Valley.

5. Exogamous groups and marriage customs

The caste have also a large number of exogamous groups, the names of
which are usually derived from plants, animals, and natural objects. A
few may be given as examples out of fifty-seven recorded in the Central
Provinces, though this is far from representing the real total; all
the common animals have septs named after them, as the tiger, cobra,
tortoise, peacock, jackal, lizard, elephant, lark, scorpion, calf, and
so on; while more curious names are--Darpan, a mirror; Khanda Phari,
sword and shield; Undrimaria, a rat-killer; Aglavi, an incendiary;
Andhare, a blind man; Kutramaria, a dog-killer; Kodu Dudh, sour milk;
Khobragade, cocoanut-kernel; Bhajikhai, a vegetable eater, and so on.

A man must not marry in his own sept, but may take a wife from his
mother's or grandmother's. A sister's son may marry a brother's
daughter, but not vice versa. A girl who is seduced before marriage
by a man of her own caste or any higher one can be married as if
she were a widow, but if she has a child she must first get some
other family to take it off her hands. The custom of _Lamjhana_ or
serving for a wife is recognised, and the expectant bridegroom will
live with his father-in-law and work for him for a period varying
from one to five years. The marriage ceremony follows the customary
Hindustani or Maratha ritual [118] as the case may be. In Wardha the
right foot of the bridegroom and the left one of the bride are placed
together in a new basket, while they stand one on each side of the
threshold. They throw five handfuls of coloured rice over each other,
and each time, as he throws, the bridegroom presses his toe on the
bride's foot; at the end he catches the girl by the finger and the
marriage is complete. In the Central Provinces the Mohturia or caste
priest officiates at weddings, but in Berar, Mr. Kitts states [119]
the caste employ the Brahman Joshi or village priest. But as he will
not come to their house they hold the wedding on the day that one
takes place among the higher castes, and when the priest gives the
signal the dividing cloth (Antarpat) between the couple is withdrawn,
and the garments of the bride and bridegroom are knotted, while the
bystanders clap their hands and pelt the couple with coloured grain. As
the priest frequently takes up his position on the roof of the house
for a wedding it is easy for the Mahars to see him. In Mandla some
of the lower class of Brahmans will officiate at the weddings of
Mahars. In Chhindwara the Mahars seat the bride and bridegroom in
the frame of a loom for the ceremony, and they worship the hide of a
cow or bullock filled with water. They drink together ceremoniously,
a pot of liquor being placed on a folded cloth and all the guests
sitting round it in a circle. An elder man then lays a new piece
of cloth on the pot and worships it. He takes a cup of the liquor
himself and hands round a cupful to every person present.

In Mandla at a wedding the barber comes and cuts the bride's nails,
and the cuttings are rolled up in dough and placed in a little
earthen pot beside the marriage-post. The bridegroom's nails and hair
are similarly cut in his own house and placed in another vessel. A
month or two after the wedding the two little pots are taken out and
thrown into the Nerbudda. A wedding costs the bridegroom's party
about Rs. 40 or Rs. 50 and the bride's about Rs. 25. They have no
going-away ceremony, but the occasion of a girl's coming to maturity
is known as Bolawan. She is kept apart for six days and given new
clothes, and the caste-people are invited to a meal. When a woman's
husband dies the barber breaks her bangles, and her anklets are taken
off and given to him as his perquisite. Her brother-in-law or other
relative gives her a new white cloth, and she wears this at first,
and afterwards white or coloured clothes at her pleasure. Her hair
is not cut, and she may wear _patelas_ or flat metal bangles on the
forearm and armlets above the elbow, but not other ornaments. A widow
is under no obligation to marry her first husband's younger brother;
when she marries a stranger he usually pays a sum of about Rs. 30 to
her parents. When the price has been paid the couple exchange a ring
and a bangle respectively in token of the agreement. When the woman is
proceeding to her second husband's house, her old clothes, necklace
and bangles are thrown into a river or stream and she is given new
ones to wear. This is done to lay the first husband's spirit, which
may be supposed to hang about the clothes she wore as his wife, and
when they are thrown away or buried the exorcist mutters spells over
them in order to lay the spirit. No music is allowed at the marriage
of a widow except the crooked trumpet called _singara_. A bachelor
who marries a widow must first go through a mock ceremony with a
cotton-plant, a sword or a ring. Divorce must be effected before the
caste _panchayat_ or committee, and if a divorced woman marries again,
her first husband performs funeral and mourning ceremonies as if
she were dead. In Gujarat the practice is much more lax and "divorce
can be obtained almost to an indefinite extent. Before they finally
settle down to wedded life most couples have more than once changed
their partners." [120] But here also, before the change takes place,
there must be a formal divorce recognised by the caste.

6. Funeral rites

The caste either burn or bury the dead and observe mourning for three
days, [121] having their houses whitewashed and their faces shaved. On
the tenth day they give a feast to the caste-fellows. On the Akshaya
Tritia [122] and the 30th day of Kunwar (September) they offer rice
and cakes to the crows in the names of their ancestors. In Berar
Mr. Kitts writes: [123] "If a Mahar's child has died, he will on the
third day place bread on the grave; if an infant, milk; if an adult,
on the tenth day, with five pice in one hand and five betel-leaves in
the other, he goes into the river, dips himself five times and throws
these things away; he then places five lighted lamps on the tomb,
and after these simple ceremonies gets himself shaved as though he
were an orthodox Hindu."

7. Childbirth

In Mandla the mother is secluded at childbirth in a separate house if
one is available, and if not they fence in a part of the veranda for
her use with bamboo screens. After the birth the mother must remain
impure until the barber comes and colours her toe-nails and draws a
line round her feet with red _mahur_ powder. This is indispensable,
and if the barber is not immediately available she must wait until his
services can be obtained. When the navel-string drops it is buried
in the place on which the mother sat while giving birth, and when
this has been done the purification may be effected. The Dhobi is
then called to wash the clothes of the household, and their earthen
pots are thrown away. The head of the newborn child is shaved clean,
as the birth-hair is considered to be impure, and the hair is wrapped
up in dough and thrown into a river.

8. Names

A child is named on the seventh or twelfth day after its birth, the
name being chosen by the Mohturia or caste headman. The ordinary Hindu
names of deities for men and sacred rivers or pious and faithful wives
for women are employed; instances of the latter being Ganga, Godavari,
Jamuna, Sita, Laxmi and Radha. Opprobrious names are sometimes given
to avert ill-luck, as Damdya (purchased for eight cowries), Kauria
(a cowrie), Bhikaria (a beggar), Ghusia (from _ghus_, a mallet for
stamping earth), Harchatt (refuse), Akali (born in famine-time),
Langra (lame), Lula (having an arm useless); or the name of another
low caste is given, as Bhangi (sweeper), Domari (Dom sweeper), Chamra
(tanner), Basori (basket-maker). Not infrequently children are named
after the month or day when they were born, as Pusau, born in Pus
(December), Chaitu, born in Chait (March), Manglu (born on Tuesday),
Buddhi (born on Wednesday), Sukka (born on Friday), Sanichra (born
on Saturday). One boy was called Mulua or 'Sold' (_mol-dena_). His
mother had no other children, so sold him for one pice (farthing)
to a Gond woman. After five or six months, as he did not get fat,
his name was changed to Jhuma or 'lean,' probably as an additional
means of averting ill-luck. Another boy was named Ghurka, from the
noise he made when being suckled. A child born in the absence of its
father is called Sonwa, or one born in an empty house.

9. Religion

The great body of the caste worship the ordinary deities Devi,
Hanuman, Dulha Deo, and others, though of course they are not allowed
to enter Hindu temples. They principally observe the Holi and Dasahra
festivals and the days of the new and full moon. On the festival of
Nag-Panchmi they make an image of a snake with flour and sugar and
eat it. At the sacred Ambala tank at Ramtek the Mahars have a special
bathing-ghat set apart for them, and they may enter the citadel and
go as far as the lowest step leading up to the temples; here they
worship the god and think that he accepts their offerings. They are
thus permitted to traverse the outer enclosures of the citadel, which
are also sacred. In Wardha the Mahars may not touch the shrines of
Mahadeo, but must stand before them with their hands joined. They may
sometimes deposit offerings with their own hands on those of Bhimsen,
originally a Gond god, and Mata Devi, the goddess of smallpox.

10. Adoption of foreign religions

In Berar and Bombay the Mahars have some curious forms of belief. "Of
the confusion which obtains in the Mahar theogony the names of six
of their gods will afford a striking example. While some Mahars
worship Vithoba, the god of Pandharpur, others revere Varuna's twin
sons, Meghoni and Deghoni, and his four messengers, Gabriel, Azrael,
Michael and Anadin, all of whom they say hail from Pandharpur." [124]
The names of archangels thus mixed up with Hindu deities may most
probably have been obtained from the Muhammadans, as they include
Azrael; but in Gujarat their religion appears to have been borrowed
from Christianity. "The Karia Dhedas have some rather remarkable
beliefs. In the Satya Yug the Dhedas say they were called Satyas;
in the Dvapar Yug they were called Meghas; in the Treta Yug, Elias;
and in the Kali Yug, Dhedas. The name Elias came, they say, from
a prophet Elia, and of him their religious men have vague stories;
some of them especially about a famine that lasted for three years
and a half, easily fitting into the accounts of Elijah in the Jewish
Scriptures. They have also prophecies of a high future in store for
their tribe. The king or leader of the new era, Kuyam Rai by name,
will marry a Dheda woman and will raise the caste to the position of
Brahmans. They hold religious meetings or _ochhavas_, and at these
with great excitement sing songs full of hope of the good things in
store for them. When a man wishes to hold an _ochhava_ he invites
the whole caste, and beginning about eight in the evening they often
spend the night in singing. Except perhaps for a few sweetmeats
there is no eating or drinking, and the excitement is altogether
religious and musical. The singers are chiefly religious Dhedas or
Bhagats, and the people join in a refrain '_Avore Kuyam Rai Raja_',
'Oh! come Kuyam Rai, our king.'" [125] It seems that the attraction
which outside faiths exercise on the Mahars is the hope held out of
ameliorating the social degradation under which they labour, itself
an outcome of the Hindu theory of caste. Hence they turn to Islam,
or to what is possibly a degraded version of the Christian story,
because these religions do not recognise caste, and hold out a promise
to the Mahar of equality with his co-religionists, and in the case of
Christianity of a recompense in the world to come for the sufferings
which he has to endure in this one. Similarly, the Mahars are the
warmest adherents of the Muhammadan saint Sheikh Farid, and flock
to the fairs held in his honour at Girar in Wardha and Partapgarh in
Bhandara, where he is supposed to have slain a couple of giants. [126]
In Berar [127] also they revere Muhammadan tombs. The remains of the
Muhammadan fort and tank on Pimpardol hill in Jalgaon taluk are now
one of the sacred places of the Mahars, though to the Muhammadans they
have no religious associations. Even at present Mahars are inclined to
adopt Islam, and a case was recently reported when a body of twenty
of them set out to do so, but turned back on being told that they
would not be admitted to the mosque. [128] A large proportion of the
Mahars are also adherents of the Kabirpanthi sect, one of the main
tenets of whose founder was the abolition of caste. And it is from
the same point of view that Christianity appeals to them, enabling
European missionaries to draw a large number of converts from this
caste. But even the Hindu attitude towards the Mahars is not one of
unmixed intolerance. Once in three or four years in the southern
Districts, the Panwars, Mahars, Pankas and other castes celebrate
the worship of Narayan Deo or Vishnu, the officiating priest being a
Mahar. Members of all castes come to the Panwar's house at night for
the ceremony, and a vessel of water is placed at the door in which they
wash their feet and hands as they enter; and when inside they are all
considered to be equal, and they sit in a line and eat the same food,
and bind wreaths of flowers round their heads. After the cock crows the
equality of status is ended, and no one who goes out of the house can
enter again. At present also many educated Brahmans recognise fully
the social evils resulting from the degraded position of the Mahars,
and are doing their best to remove the caste prejudices against them.

11. Superstitions

They have various spells to cure a man possessed of an evil spirit,
or stung by a snake or scorpion, or likely to be in danger from tigers
or wild bears; and in the Morsi taluk of Berar it is stated that they
so greatly fear the effect of an enemy writing their name on a piece of
paper and tying it to a sweeper's broom that the threat to do this can
be used with great effect by their creditors. [129] To drive out the
evil eye they make a small human image of powdered turmeric and throw
it into boiled water, mentioning as they do so the names of any persons
whom they suspect of having cast the evil eye upon them. Then the pot
of water is taken out at midnight of a Wednesday or a Sunday and placed
upside down on some cross-roads with a shoe over it, and the sufferer
should be cured. Their belief about the sun and moon is that an old
woman had two sons who were invited by the gods to dinner. Before they
left she said to them that as they were going out there would be no one
to cook, so they must remember to bring back something for her. The
elder brother forgot what his mother had said and took nothing away
with him; but the younger remembered her and brought back something
from the feast. So when they came back the old woman cursed the elder
brother and said that as he had forgotten her he should be the sun
and scorch and dry up all vegetation with his beams; but the younger
brother should be the moon and make the world cool and pleasant at
night. The story is so puerile that it is only worth reproduction
as a specimen of the level of a Mahar's intelligence. The belief in
evil spirits appears to be on the decline, as a result of education
and accumulated experience. Mr. C. Brown states that in Malkapur of
Berar the Mahars say that there are no wandering spirits in the hills
by night of such a nature that people need fear them. There are only
tiny _pari_ or fairies, small creatures in human form, but with the
power of changing their appearance, who do no harm to any one.

12. Social rules

When an outsider is to be received into the community all the hair on
his face is shaved, being wetted with the urine of a boy belonging
to the group to which he seeks admission. Mahars will eat all kinds
of food including the flesh of crocodiles and rats, but some of them
abstain from beef. There is nothing peculiar in their dress except that
the men wear a black woollen thread round their necks. [130] The women
may be recognised by their bold carriage, the absence of nose-rings and
the large irregular dabs of vermilion on the forehead. Mahar women do
not, as a rule, wear the _choli_ or breast-cloth. An unmarried girl
does not put on vermilion nor draw her cloth over her head. Women
must be tattooed with dots on the face, representations of scorpions,
flowers and snakes on the arms and legs, and some dots to represent
flies on the hands. It is the custom for a girl's father or mother
or father-in-law to have her tattooed in one place on the hand or
arm immediately on her marriage. Then when girls are sitting together
they will show this mark and say, 'My mother or father-in-law had this
done,' as the case may be. Afterwards if a woman so desires she gets
herself tattooed on her other limbs. If an unmarried girl or widow
becomes with child by a man of the Mahar caste or any higher one she
is subjected after delivery to a semblance of the purification by fire
known as Agnikasht. She is taken to the bank of a river and there five
stalks of juari are placed round her and burnt. Having fasted all day,
at night she gives a feast to the caste-men and eats with them. If she
offends with a man of lower caste she is finally expelled. Temporary
exclusion from caste is imposed for taking food or drink from the
hands of a Mang or Chamar or for being imprisoned in jail, or on a
Mahar man if he lives with a woman of any higher caste; the penalty
being the shaving of a man's face or cutting off a lock of a woman's
hair, together with a feast to the caste. In the last case it is said
that the man is not readmitted until he has put the woman away. If a
man touches a dead dog, cat, pony or donkey, he has to be shaved and
give a feast to the caste. And if a dog or cat dies in his house,
or a litter of puppies or kittens is born, the house is considered
to be defiled; all the earthen pots must be thrown away, the whole
house washed and cleaned and a caste feast given. The most solemn oath
of a Mahar is by a cat or dog and in Yeotmal by a black dog. [131]
In Berar, the same paper states, the pig is the only animal regarded
as unclean, and they must on no account touch it. This is probably
owing to Muhammadan influence. The worst social sin which a Mahar can
commit is to get vermin in a wound, which is known as Deogan or being
smitten by God. While the affliction continues he is quite ostracised,
no one going to his house or giving him food or water; and when it
is cured the Mahars of ten or twelve surrounding villages assemble
and he must give a feast to the whole community. The reason for this
calamity being looked upon with such peculiar abhorrence is obscure,
but the feeling about it is general among Hindus.

13. Social subjection

The social position of the Mahars is one of distressing
degradation. Their touch is considered to defile and they live in
a quarter by themselves outside the village. They usually have a
separate well assigned to them from which to draw water, and if
the village has only one well the Mahars and Hindus take water
from different sides of it. Mahar boys were not until recently
allowed to attend school with Hindu boys, and when they could not
be refused admission to Government schools, they were allotted a
small corner of the veranda and separately taught. When Dher boys
were first received into the Chanda High School a mutiny took place
and the school was boycotted for some time. The people say, '_Mahar
sarva jaticha bahar_' or 'The Mahar is outside all castes.' Having
a bad name, they are also given unwarrantably a bad character; and
'_Mahar jaticha_' is a phrase used for a man with no moral or kindly
feelings. But in theory at least, as conforming to Hinduism, they
were supposed to be better than Muhammadans and other unbelievers,
as shown by the following story from the Rasmala: [132] A Muhammadan
sovereign asked his Hindu minister which was the lowest caste. The
minister begged for leisure to consider his reply and, having obtained
it, went to where the Dhedas lived and said to them: "You have given
offence to the Padishah. It is his intention to deprive you of caste
and make you Muhammadans." The Dhedas, in the greatest terror, pushed
off in a body to the sovereign's palace, and standing at a respectful
distance shouted at the top of their lungs: "If we've offended your
majesty, punish us in some other way than that. Beat us, fine us, hang
us if you like, but don't make us Muhammadans." The Padishah smiled,
and turning to his minister who sat by him affecting to hear nothing,
said, 'So the lowest caste is that to which I belong.' But of course
this cannot be said to represent the general view of the position of
Muhammadans in Hindu eyes; they, like the English, are regarded as
distinguished foreigners, who, if they consented to be proselytised,
would probably in time become Brahmans or at least Rajputs. A repartee
of a Mahar to a Brahman abusing him is: The Brahman, '_Jare Maharya_'
or 'Avaunt, ye Mahar'; the Mahar, '_Kona diushi nein tumchi goburya_'
or 'Some day I shall carry cowdung cakes for you (at his funeral)';
as in the Maratha Districts the Mahar is commonly engaged for carrying
fuel to the funeral pyre. Under native rule the Mahar was subjected
to painful degradations. He 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. [133] 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. In Gujarat [134] they were not allowed
to tuck up the loin-cloth but had to trail it along the ground. Even
quite recently in Bombay a Mahar was not allowed to talk loudly in the
street while a well-to-do Brahman or his wife was dining in one of the
houses. In the reign of Sidhraj, the great Solanki Raja of Gujarat,
the Dheras were for a time at any rate freed from such disabilities
by the sacrifice of one of their number. [135] The great tank at
Anhilvada Patan in Gujarat had been built by the Ods (navvies),
but Sidhraj desired Jusma Odni, one of their wives, and sought to
possess her. But the Ods fled with her and when he pursued her she
plunged a dagger into her stomach, cursing Sidhraj and saying that
his tank should never hold water. The Raja, returning to Anhilvada,
found the tank dry, and asked his minister what should be done that
water might remain in the tank. The Pardhan, after consulting the
astrologers, said that if a man's life were sacrificed the curse might
be removed. At that time the Dhers or outcastes were compelled to
live at a distance from the towns; they wore untwisted cotton round
their heads and a stag's horn as a mark hanging from their waists so
that people might be able to avoid touching them. The Raja commanded
that a Dher named Mayo should be beheaded in the tank that water might
remain. Mayo died, singing the praises of Vishnu, and the water after
that began to remain in the tank. At the time of his death Mayo had
begged as a reward for his sacrifice that the Dhers should not in
future be compelled to live at a distance from the towns nor wear
a distinctive dress. The Raja assented and these privileges were
afterwards permitted to the Dhers for the sake of Mayo.