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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4. Occupation

The caste are employed on all kinds of earthwork, such as building
walls, excavating trenches, and making embankments in fields. Their
trade implements consist of a pickaxe, a basket, and a thin wooden hod
to fill the earth into the basket. The Murha invokes these as follows:
"Oh! my lord the basket, my lord the pickaxe shaped like a snake,
and my lady the hod, come and eat up those who do not pay me for my
work!" The Murhas are strict in their rules about food and will not
accept cooked food even from a Brahman, but notwithstanding this,
their social position is so low that not even a sweeper would take
food from them. The caste eat flesh and drink liquor, but abstain
from fowls, pork and beef. They engage Brahmans on the occasion of
births and marriages, but not usually for funerals. The women tattoo
their bodies after marriage, and the charge for this should always be
paid by the maternal uncle's wife, the paternal aunt, or some other
similar relation of the girl. The fact that among most Hindus a girl
must be tattooed before leaving for her husband's house, and that
the cost of the operation must always be paid for by her own family,
seems to indicate that tattooing was formerly a rite of puberty for
the female sex. A wife must not mention the name of her husband or of
any person who stands in the relation of father, mother, uncle or aunt
to him. Parents do not call their eldest son by his proper name, but
by some pet name. Women are impure for five days during menstruation
and are not allowed to cook for that period. The Murhas have a caste
_panchayat_ or committee, the head of which is known as Patel or
Mukhia, the office being hereditary. He receives a part of all fines
levied for the commission of social offences. In appearance the caste
are dark and short of stature, and have some resemblance to the Kols.

5. Women's song

In conclusion, I reproduce one of the songs which the women sing as
they are carrying the basketfuls of earth or stones at their work;
in the original each line consists of two parts, the last words of
which sometimes rhyme with each other:

Our mother Nerbudda is very kind; blow, wind, we are hot with
labour.
He said to the Maina: Go, carry my message to my love.
The red ants climb up the mango-tree; and the daughter follows
her mother's way.
I have no money to give her even lime and tobacco; I am poor,
so how can I tell her of my love.
The boat has gone down on the flood of the Nerbudda; the
fisherwoman is weeping for her husband.
She has no bangles on her arm nor necklace on her neck; she has
no beauty, but seeks her lovers throughout the village.
Bread from the girdle, curry from the _lota_; let us go, beloved,
the moon is shining.
The leaves of gram have been plucked from the plants; I think
much on Dadaria, but she does not come.
The love of a stranger is as a dream; think not of him, beloved,
he cannot be yours.
Twelve has struck and it is thirteen time (past the time of
labour); oh, overseer, let your poor labourers go.
The betel-leaf is pressed in the mouth (and gives pleasure);
attractive eyes delight the heart.
Catechu, areca and black cloves; my heart's secret troubles me
in my dreams.
The Nerbudda came and swept away the rubbish (from the works);
fly away, bees, do not perch on my cloth.
The colour does not come on the wheat; her youth is passing,
but she cannot yet drape her cloth on her body.
Like the sight of rain-drops splashing on the ground; so beautiful
is she to look upon.
It rains and the hidden streams in the woodland are filled (and
come to view); hide as long as you may, some day you must be seen.
The mahua flowers are falling from the trees on the hill; leave
me your cloth so that I may know you will return.
He went to the bazar and brought back a cocoanut; it is green
without, but insects are eating the core.
He went to the hill and cut strings of bamboo; you cannot drape
your cloth, you have wound it round your body.
The coral necklace hangs on the peg; if you become the second
wife of my husband I shall give you clothes.
She put on her clothes and went to the forest; she met her lover
and said you are welcome to me.
He went to the bazar and bought potatoes; but if he had loved me
he would have brought me liquor.
The fish in the river are on the look-out; the Brahman's daughter
is bathing with her hair down.
The arhar-stumps stand in the field; I loved one of another caste,
but must give him up.
He ate betel and coloured his teeth; his beloved came from without
and knew him.
The ploughmen are gone to the field; my clever writer is gone to
the court-house.
The Nerbudda flows like a bent bow; a beautiful youth is standing
in court. [286]
The broken areca-nuts lie in the forest; when a man comes to
misfortune no one will help him.
The broken areca-nuts cannot be mended; and two hearts which are
sundered cannot be joined.
Ask me for five rupees and I will give you twenty-five; but I
will not give my lover for the whole world.
I will put bangles on my arm; when the other wife sees me she
will die of jealousy.
Break the bangles which your husband gave you; and put others on
your wrists in my name.
O my lover, give me bangles; make me armlets, for I am content
with you.
My lover went to the bazar at Lakhanpur; but he has not brought
me even a _choli_ [287] that I liked.
I had gone to the bazar and bought fish; she is so ugly that the
flies would not settle on her.

Nagasia

_Nagasia, Naksia._--A primitive tribe found principally in the
Chota Nagpur States. They now number 16,000 persons in the Central
Provinces, being returned almost entirely from Jashpur and Sarguja. The
census returns are, however, liable to be inaccurate as the Nagasias
frequently call themselves Kisan, a term which is also applied to
the Oraons. The Nagasias say that they are the true Kisans whereas
the Oraons are only so by occupation. The Oraons, on the other hand,
call the Nagasias Kisada. The tribe derive their name from the Nag
or cobra, and they say that somebody left an infant in the forest
of Setambu and a cobra came and spread its hood over the child to
protect him from the rays of the sun. Some Mundas happened to pass
by and on seeing this curious sight they thought the child must be
destined to greatness, so they took him home and made him their king,
calling him Nagasia, and from him the tribe are descended. The episode
of the snake is, of course, a stock legend related by many tribes,
but the story appears to indicate that the Nagasias are an offshoot
of the Mundas; and this hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that
Nagbasia is often used as an alternative name for the Mundas by their
Hindu neighbours. The term Nagbasia is supposed to mean the original
settlers (_basia_) in Nag (Chota Nagpur).

The tribe are divided into the Telha, Dhuria and Senduria groups. The
Telhas are so called because at the marriage ceremony they mark the
forehead of the bride with _tel_ (oil), while the Dhurias instead of
oil use dust (_dhur_) taken from the sole of the bridegroom's foot,
and the Sendurias like most Hindu castes employ vermilion (_sendur_)
for this purpose. The Telhas and Dhurias marry with each other, but
not with the Sendurias, who consider themselves to be superior to
the others and use the term Nagbansia or 'Descendants of the Snake'
as their tribal name. The Telha and Dhuria women do not wear glass
bangles on their arms but only bracelets of brass, while the Sendurias
wear glass bangles and also armlets above the elbow. Telha women do
not wear nose-rings or tattoo their bodies, while the Sendurias do
both. The Telhas say that the tattooing needle and vermilion, which
they formerly employed in their marriages, were stolen from them by
Wagdeo or the tiger god. So they hit upon sesamum oil as a substitute,
which must be pressed for ceremonial purposes in a bamboo basket by
unmarried boys using a plough-yoke. This is probably, Mr. Hira Lal
remarks, merely the primitive method of extracting oil, prior to the
invention of the Teli's _ghani_ or oil-press; and the practice is
an instance of the common rule that articles employed in ceremonial
and religious rites should be prepared by the ancient and primitive
methods which for ordinary purposes have been superseded by more
recent labour-saving inventions.

Nahal

1. The tribe and its subdivisions

_Nahal, Nihal._ [288]--A forest tribe who are probably a mixture
of Bhils and Korkus. In 1911 they numbered 12,000 persons, of whom
8000 belonged to the Hoshangabad, Nimar and Betul Districts, and
nearly 4000 to Berar. They were classed at the census as a subtribe
of Korkus. According to one story they are descended from a Bhil
father and a Korku mother, and the writer of the _Khandesh Gazetteer_
calls them the most savage of the Bhils. But in the Central Provinces
their family or sept names are the same as those of the Korkus,
and they speak the Korku language. Mr. Kitts [289] says that the
Korkus who first went to Berar found the Nahals in possession of
the Melghat hills. Gradually the latter caste lost their power and
became the village drudges of the former. He adds that the Nahals
were fast losing their language, and the younger generation spoke only
Korku. The two tribes were very friendly, and the Nahals acknowledged
the superior position of the Korkus. This, if it accurately represents
the state of things prevailing for a long period, and was not merely an
incidental feature of their relative position at the time Mr. Kitts'
observations were made, would tend to show that the Nahals were the
older tribe and had been subjected by the Korkus, just as the Korkus
themselves and the Baigas have given way to the Gonds. Mr. Crosthwaite
also states that the Nahal is the drudge of the Korku and belongs to
a race which is supposed to have been glorious before the Korku star
arose, and which is now fast dying out. In any case there is no doubt
that the Nahals are a very mixed tribe, as they will even now admit
into the community Gonds, Korkus and nearly all the Hindu castes,
though in some localities they will not eat from the other tribes
and the lower Hindu castes and therefore refuse to admit them. There
are, moreover, two subdivisions of the caste called Korku and Marathi
Nahals respectively. The latter are more Hinduised than the former and
disclaim any connection with the Korkus. The Nahals have totemistic
exogamous septs. Those of the Kasa sept worship a tortoise and also
a bell-metal plate, which is their family god. They never eat off a
bell-metal plate except on one day in the month of Magh (January),
when they worship it. The members of the Nagbel sept worship the
betel-vine or 'snake-creeper,' and refrain from chewing betel-leaves,
and they also worship the Nag or cobra and do not kill it, thus having
a sort of double totem. The Bhawaria sept, named after the _bhaunr_
or black bee, do not eat honey, and if they see a person taking the
honey-comb from a nest they will run away. The Khadia sept worship
the spirits of their ancestors enshrined in a heap of stones (_khad_),
or according to another account they worship a snake which sits on a
heap of pebbles. The Surja sept worship Surya or the sun by offering
him a fowl in the month of Pus (December-January), and some members of
the sept keep a fast every Sunday. The Saoner sept worship the _san_
or flax plant.

2. Marriage

Marriage is prohibited between members of the same sept, but there are
no other restrictions and first cousins may marry. Both sexes usually
marry when adult, and sexual license before wedlock is tolerated. A
Brahman is employed only for fixing the date of the ceremony. The
principal part of the marriage is the knotting together of the bride's
and bridegroom's clothes on two successive days. They also gamble with
tamarind seeds, and it is considered a lucky union if the bridegroom
wins. A bride-price is usually paid consisting of Rs. 1-4 to Rs. 5
in cash, some grain and a piece of cloth for the bride's mother. The
remarriage of widows is allowed, and the couple go five times round
a bamboo stick which is held up to represent a spear, the ceremony
being called _barchhi se bhanwar phirna_ or the marriage of the spear.

3. Religion

The Nahals worship the forest god called Jharkhandi in the month
of Chait, and until this rite has been performed they do not use
the leaves or fruits of the _palas_, [290] _aonla_ [291] or mango
trees. When the god is worshipped they collect branches and leaves
of these trees and offer cooked food to them and thereafter commence
using the new leaves, and the fruit and timber. They also worship the
ordinary village godlings. The dead are buried, except in the case
of members of the Surja or sun sept, whose corpses are burnt. Cooked
food is offered at the grave for four days after the death.

4. Occupation

The Nahals were formerly a community of hill-robbers, 'Nahal, Bhil,
Koli' being the phrase generally used in old documents to designate the
marauding bands of the western Satpura hills. The Raja of Jitgarh and
Mohkot in Nimar has a long account in his genealogy of a treacherous
massacre of a whole tribe of Nahals by his ancestor in Akbar's time,
in recognition of which the Jitgarh pargana was granted to the
family. Mr. Kitts speaks of the Nahals of Berar as having once been
much addicted to cattle-lifting, and this propensity still exists in
a minor degree in the Central Provinces, accentuated probably by the
fact that a considerable number of Nahals follow the occupation of
graziers. Some of them are also village watchmen, and another special
avocation of theirs is the collection of the oil of the marking-nut
tree (_Semecarpus anacardium_). This is to some extent a dangerous
trade, as the oil causes swellings on the body, besides staining the
skin and leaving a peculiar odour. The workers wrap a fourfold layer
of cloth round their fingers with ashes between each fold, while the
rest of the body is also protected by cloth when gathering the nuts
and pounding them to extract the oil. At the end of the day's work
powdered tamarind and _ghi_ are rubbed on the whole body. The oil
is a stimulant, and is given to women after delivery and to persons
suffering from rheumatism.

5. Social status

The social status of the Nahals is very low and they eat the flesh of
almost all animals, while those who graze cattle eat beef. Cow-killing
is not regarded as an offence. They are also dirty and do not bathe
for weeks together. To get maggots in a wound is, however, regarded
as a grave offence, and the sufferer is put out of the village and
has to live alone until he recovers.

Nai

List of Paragraphs

1. _Structure of the caste_.
2. _Marriage and other customs_.
3. _Occupation_.
4. _Other services_.
5. _Duties at weddings_.
6. _The barber-surgeon._
7. _A barber at the court of Oudh_.
8. _Character and position of the barber_.
9. _Beliefs about hair_.
10. _Hair of kings and priests_.
11. _The beard_.
12. _Significance of removal of the hair and shaving the head_.
13. _Shaving the head by mourners_.
14. _Hair offerings_.
15. _Keeping hair unshorn during a vow_.
16. _Disposal of cut hair and nails_.
17. _Superstitions about shaving the hair_.
18. _Reasons why the hair was considered the source of strength._

1. Structure of the caste

_Nai, Nao, Mhali, Hajjam, Bhanari, Mangala_. [292]--The occupational
caste of barbers. The name is said to be derived from the Sanskrit
_napita_ according to some a corruption of _snapitri_, one who
bathes. In Bundelkhand he is also known as Khawas, which was a
title for the attendant on a grandee; and Birtiya, or 'He that
gets his maintenance (_vritti_) from his constituents.' [293]
Mhali is the Marathi name for the caste, Bhandari the Uriya name
and Mangala the Telugu name. The caste numbered nearly 190,000
persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, being distributed over
all Districts. Various legends of the usual type are related of
its origin, but, as Sir. H. Risley observes, it is no doubt wholly
of a functional character. The subcastes in the Central Provinces
entirely bear out this view, as they are very numerous and principally
of the territorial type: Telange of the Telugu country, Marathe,
Pardeshi or northerners, Jharia or those of the forest country of the
Wainganga Valley, Bandhaiya or those of Bandhogarh, Barade of Berar,
Bundelkhandi, Marwari, Mathuria from Mathura, Gadhwaria from Garha
near Jubbulpore, Lanjia from Lanji in Balaghat, Malwi from Malwa,
Nimari from Nimar, Deccane, Gujarati, and so on. Twenty-six divisions
in all are given. The exogamous groups are also of different types,
some of them being named after Brahman saints, as Gautam, Kashyap,
Kosil, Sandil and Bharadwaj; others after Rajput clans as Surajvansi,
Jaduvansi, Solanki and Panwar; while others are titular or totemistic,
as Naik, leader; Seth, banker; Rawat, chief; Nagesh, cobra; Bagh,
a tiger; Bhadrawa, a fish.

2. Marriage and other customs

The exogamous groups are known as _khero_ or _kul_, and marriage
between members of the same group is prohibited. Girls are usually
wedded between the ages of eight and twelve and boys between fifteen
and twenty. A girl who goes wrong before marriage is finally expelled
from the caste. The wedding ceremony follows the ritual prevalent
in the locality as described in the articles on Kurmi and Kunbi. At
an ordinary wedding the expenses on the girl's side amount to about
Rs. 150, and on the boy's to Rs. 200. The remarriage of widows is
permitted. In the northern Districts the widow may wed the younger
brother of her deceased husband, but in the Maratha country she may
not be married to any of his relatives. Divorce may be effected at
the instance of the husband before the caste committee, and a divorced
woman is at liberty to marry again. The Nais worship all the ordinary
Hindu deities. On the Dasahra and Diwali festivals they wash and revere
their implements, the razor, scissors and nail-pruners. They pay regard
to omens. It is unpropitious to sneeze or hear the report of a gun
when about to commence any business; and when a man is starting on a
journey, if a cat, a squirrel, a hare or a snake should cross the road
in front of him he will give it up and return home. The bodies of the
dead are usually burnt. In Chhattisgarh the poor throw the corpses of
their dead into the Mahanadi, and the bodies of children dying under
one year of age were until recently buried in the courtyard of the
house. The period of mourning for adults is ten days and for children
three days. The chief mourner must take only one meal a day, which
he cooks himself until the ceremony of the tenth day is performed.

3. Occupation

"The barber's trade," Mr. Crooke states, [294] "is undoubtedly of
great antiquity. In the Veda we read, 'Sharpen us like the razor in the
hands of the barber'; and again, 'Driven by the wind, Agni shaves the
hair of the earth like the barber shaving a beard.'" In early times
they must have enjoyed considerable dignity; Upali the barber was
the first propounder of the law of the Buddhist church. The village
barber's leather bag contains a small mirror (_arsi_), a pair of
iron pincers (_chimta_), a leather strap, a comb (_kanghi_), a piece
of cloth about a yard square and some oil in a phial. He shaves the
faces, heads and armpits of his customers, and cuts the nails of both
their hands and feet. He uses cold water in summer and hot in winter,
but no soap, though this has now been introduced in towns. For the
poorer cultivators he does a rapid scrape, and this process is called
'_asudhal_' or a 'tearful shave,' because the person undergoing it is
often constrained to weep. The barber acquires the knowledge of his art
by practice on the more obliging of his customers, hence the proverb,
'The barber's son learns his trade on the heads of fools.' The village
barber is usually paid by a contribution of grain from the cultivators,
calculated in some cases according to the number of ploughs of land
possessed by each, in others according to the number of adult males in
the family. In Saugor he receives 20 lbs. of grain annually for each
adult male or 22 1/2 lbs. per plough of land, besides presents of a
basket of grain at seed-time and a sheaf at harvest. Cultivators are
usually shaved about once a fortnight. In towns the barber's fee may
vary from a pice to two annas for a shave, which is, as has been seen,
a much more protracted operation with a Hindu than with a European. It
is said that Berar is now so rich that even ordinary cultivators can
afford to pay the barber two annas (2d.) for a single shave, or the
same price as in the suburbs of London.

4. Other services

After he has shaved a client the barber pinches and rubs his arms,
presses his fingers together and cracks the joints of each finger,
this last action being perhaps meant to avert evil spirits. He also
does massage, a very favourite method of treatment in India, and also
inexpensive as compared with Europe. For one rupee a month in towns
the barber will come and rub a man's legs five or ten minutes every
day. Cultivators have their legs rubbed in the sowing season, when the
labour is intensely hard owing to the necessity of sowing all the land
in a short period. If a man is well-to-do he may have his whole head
and body rubbed with scented oil. Landowners have often a barber as a
family servant, the office descending from father to son. Such a man
will light his master's _chilam_ (pipe-bowl) or huqqa (water-pipe),
clean and light lamps, prepare his bed, tell his master stories to send
him to sleep, act as escort for the women of the family when they go
on a journey and arrange matches for the children. The barber's wife
attends on women in child-birth after the days of pollution are over,
and rubs oil on the bodies of her clients, pares their nails and paints
their feet with red dye at marriages and on other festival occasions.

5. Duties at weddings

The barber has also numerous and important duties [295] in connection
with marriages and other festival occasions. He acts as the Brahman's
assistant, and to the lower castes, who cannot employ a Brahman,
he is himself the matrimonial priest. The important part which he
plays in marriage ceremonies has led to his becoming the matchmaker
among all respectable castes. He searches for a suitable bride or
bridegroom, and is often sent to inspect the other party to a match
and report his or her defects to his clients. He may arrange the
price or dowry, distribute the invitations and carry the presents
from one house to the other. He supplies the leaf-plates and cups
which are used at weddings, as the family's stock of metal vessels
is usually quite inadequate for the number of guests. The price of
these is about 4 annas (4d.) a hundred. He also provides the _torans_
or strings of leaves which are hung over the door of the house and
round the marriage-shed. At the feast the barber is present to hand
to the guests water, betel-leaf and pipes as they may desire. He also
partakes of the food, seated at a short distance from the guests,
in the intervals of his service. He lights the lamps and carries
the torches during the ceremony. Hence he was known as Masalchi or
torch-bearer, a name now applied by Europeans to a menial servant who
lights and cleans the lamps and washes the plates after meals. The
barber and his wife act as prompters to the bride and bridegroom,
and guide them through the complicated ritual of the wedding ceremony,
taking the couple on their knees if they are children, and otherwise
sitting behind them. The barber has a prescriptive right to receive
the clothes in which the bridegroom goes to the bride's house, as
on the latter's arrival he is always presented with new clothes by
the bride's father. As the bridegroom's clothes may be an ancestral
heirloom, a compact is often made to buy them back from the barber,
and he may receive as much as Rs. 50 in lieu of them. When the first
son is born in a family the barber takes a long bamboo stick, wraps
it round with cloth and puts an earthen pot over it and carries this
round to the relatives, telling them the good news. He receives a
small present from each household.