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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6. The barber-surgeon

The barber also cleans the ears of his clients and cuts their nails,
and is the village surgeon in a small way. He cups and bleeds his
patients, applies leeches, takes out teeth and lances boils. In this
capacity he is the counterpart of the barber-surgeon of mediaeval
Europe. The Hindu physicians are called Baid, and are, as a rule,
a class of Brahmans. They derive their knowledge from ancient
Sanskrit treatises on medicine, which are considered to have divine
authority. Consequently they think it unnecessary to acquire fresh
knowledge by experiment and observation, as they suppose the perfect
science of medicine to be contained in their sacred books. As these
books probably do not describe surgical operations, of which little or
nothing was known at the time when they were written, and as surgery
involves contact with blood and other impure substances, the Baids do
not practise it, and the villagers are left to get on as best they can
with the ministrations of the barber. It is interesting to note that a
similar state of things appears to have prevailed in Europe. The monks
were the early practitioners of medicine and were forbidden to practise
surgery, which was thus left to the barber-chirurgeon. The status of
the surgeon was thus for long much below that of the physician. [296]
The mediaeval barber of Europe kept a bottle of blood in his window,
to indicate that he undertook bleeding and the application of leeches,
and the coloured bottles in the chemist's window may have been derived
from this. It is also said that the barber's pole originally served
as a support for the patient to lean on while he was being bled,
and those barbers who did the work of bleeding patients painted their
poles in variegated red and white stripes to show it.

7. A barber at the court of Oudh

Perhaps the most successful barber known to Indian history was not
a Hindu at all, but a Peninsular and Oriental Company's cabin-boy,
who became the barber of one of the last kings of Oudh, Nasir-ud-Din,
in the early part of the nineteenth century, and rose to the position
of a favourite courtier. He was entrusted with the supply of every
European article used at court, and by degrees became a regular guest
at the royal table, and sat down to take dinner with the king as a
matter of right; nor would his majesty taste a bottle of wine opened
by any other hands than the barber's. [297] This was, however, a wise
precaution as it turned out, since after he had finally been forced to
part with the barber the king was poisoned by his own relatives. The
barber was also made keeper of the royal menagerie, for which he
supplied the animals and their food, and made enormous profits. The
following is an account of the presentation of the barber's monthly
bill of expenses: [298] "It was after tiffin, or lunch, when we usually
retired from the palace until dinner-time at nine o'clock, that the
favourite entered with a roll of paper in his hand. In India, long
documents, legal and commercial, are usually written, not in books
or on successive sheets, but on a long roll, strip being joined to
strip for that purpose, and the whole rolled up like a map.

"'Ha, Khan!' said the king, observing him; 'the monthly bill, is it?'

"'It is, your majesty,' was the smiling reply.

"'Come, out with it; let us see the extent. Unroll it, Khan.'

"The king was in a playful humour; and the barber was always in
the same mood as the king. He held the end of the roll in his hand,
and threw the rest along the floor, allowing it to unroll itself as
it retreated. It reached to the other side of the long apartment--a
goodly array of items and figures, closely written too. The king
wanted it measured. A measure was brought and the bill was found
to be four yards and a half long. I glanced at the amount; it was
upwards of Rs. 90,000, or L9000!"

The barber, however, encouraged the king in every form of dissipation
and excess, until the state of the Oudh court became such a scandal
that the king was forced by the British Government to dismiss
him. [299] He retired, it was said, with a fortune of L240,000.

8. Character and position of the barber

The barber is also, Mr. Low writes, [300] the scandal-bearer and
gossip-monger of the village. His cunning is proverbial, and he is
known as _Chhattisa_ from the saying--

Nai hai chhattisa
Khai an ka pisa,

or 'A barber has thirty-six talents by which he eats at the expense
of others.' His loquacity is shown in the proverb, 'As the crow among
birds so the barber among men.' The barber and the professional Brahman
are considered to be jealous of their perquisites and unwilling to
share with their caste-fellows, and this is exemplified in the proverb,
"The barber, the dog and the Brahman, these three snarl at meeting one
of their own kind." The joint association of the Brahman priest and
the barber with marriages and other ceremonies has led to the saying,
"As there are always reeds in a river so there is always a barber
with a Brahman." The barber's astuteness is alluded to in the saying,
'Nine barbers are equal to seventy-two tailors.' The fact that it
is the barber's duty to carry the lights in marriage processions has
led to the proverb, "At the barber's wedding all are gentlemen and it
is awkward to have to ask somebody to carry the torch." The point of
this is clear, though no English equivalent occurs to the mind. And
a similar idea is expressed by 'The barber washes the feet of others
but is ashamed to wash his own.' It would appear from these proverbs
that the Nai is considered to enjoy a social position somewhat above
his deserts. Owing to the nature of his duties, which make him a
familiar inmate of the household and bring him into contact with the
persons of his high-caste clients, the caste of the Nai is necessarily
considered to be a pure one and Brahmans will take water from his
hands. But, on the other hand, his calling is that of a village menial
and has also some elements of impurity, as in cupping which involves
contact with blood, and in cutting the nails and hair of the corpse
before cremation. He is thus looked down upon as a menial and also
considered as to some extent impure. No member of a cultivating caste
would salute a barber first or look upon him as an equal, though
Brahmans put them on the same level of ceremonial purity by taking
water from both. The barber's loquacity and assurance have been made
famous by the _Arabian Nights_, but they have perhaps been affected by
the more strenuous character of life, and his conversation does not
flow so freely as it did. Often he now confines himself to approving
and adding emphasis to any remarks of the patron and greeting any of
his little witticisms with bursts of obsequious laughter. In Madras,
Mr. Pandian states, the village barber, like the washerman, is known
as the son of the village. If a customer does not pay him his dues,
he lies low, and when he has begun to shave the defaulter, engages
him in a dispute and says something to excite his anger. The latter
will then become abusive to the barber, whom he regards as a menial,
and perhaps strike him, and this gives the barber an opportunity
to stop shaving him and rush off to lay a complaint at the village
court-house, leaving his enemy to proceed home with half his head
shaved and thus exposed to general ridicule. [301]

9. Beliefs about hair

Numerous customs appear to indicate that the hair was regarded as the
special seat of bodily strength. The Rajput warriors formerly wore
their hair long and never cut it, but trained it in locks over their
shoulders. Similarly the Maratha soldiers wore their hair long. The
Hatkars, a class of Maratha spearmen, might never cut their hair while
engaged on military service. A Sikh writer states of Guru Govind,
the founder of the militant Sikh confederacy: "He appeared as the
tenth Avatar (incarnation of Vishnu). He established the Khalsa, his
own sect, and by exhibiting singular energy, leaving the hair on his
head, and seizing the scimitar, he smote every wicked person." [302]
As is well known, no Sikh may cut his hair, and one of the five
marks of the Sikh is the _kanga_ or comb, which he must always carry
in order to keep his hair in proper order. A proverb states that
'The origin of a Sikh is in his hair.' [303] The following story,
related by Sir J. Malcolm, shows the vital importance attached
by the Sikh to his hair and beard: "Three inferior agents of Sikh
chiefs were one day in my tent. I was laughing and joking with one
of them, a Khalsa Sikh, who said he had been ordered to attend me to
Calcutta. Among other subjects of our mirth I rallied him on trusting
himself so much in my power. 'Why, what is the worst,' he said,
'that you can do to me?' I passed my hand across my chin, imitating
the act of shaving. The man's face was in an instant distorted with
rage and his sword half-drawn. 'You are ignorant,' he said to me,
'of the offence you have given; I cannot strike you who are above me,
and the friend of my master and the state; but no power,' he added,
indicating the Khalsa Sikhs, 'shall save these fellows who dared to
smile at your action.' It was with the greatest difficulty and only
by the good offices of some Sikh Chiefs that I was able to pacify
his wounded honour." [304] These instances appear to show clearly
that the Sikhs considered their hair of vital importance; and as
fighting was their object in life, it seems most probable that they
thought their strength in war was bound up in it. Similarly when
the ancient Spartans were on a military expedition purple garments
were worn and their hair was carefully decked with wreaths, a thing
which was never done at home. [305] And when Leonidas and his three
hundred were holding the pass of Thermopylae, and Xerxes sent scouts
to ascertain what the Greeks were doing in their camp, the report was
that some of them were engaged in gymnastics and warlike exercises,
while others were merely sitting and combing their long hair. If
the hypothesis already suggested is correct, the Spartan youths so
engaged were perhaps not merely adorning themselves for death, but,
as they thought, obtaining their full strength for battle. "The custom
of keeping the hair unshorn during a dangerous expedition appears to
have been observed, at least occasionally, by the Romans. Achilles
kept unshorn his yellow hair, because his father had vowed to offer
it to the river Sperchius if ever his son came home from the wars
beyond the sea." [306]

When the Bhils turned out to fight they let down their long hair
prior to beginning the conflict with their bows and arrows. [307]
The pirates of Surat, before boarding a ship, drank _bhang_ and
hemp-liquor, and when they wore their long hair loose they gave no
quarter. [308] The Mundas appear to have formerly worn their hair long
and some still do. Those who are converted to Christianity must cut
their hair, but a non-Christian Munda must always keep the _chundi_
or pigtail. If the _chundi_ is very long it is sometimes tied up in
a knot. [309] Similarly the Oraons wore their hair long like women,
gathered in a knot behind, with a wooden or iron comb in it. Those
who are Christians can be recognised by the fact that they have cut
off their pigtails. A man of the low Pardhi caste of hunters must
never have his hair touched by a razor after he has once killed
a deer. As already seen, every orthodox Hindu wore till recently
a _choti_ or scalp-lock, which should theoretically be as long
as a cow's tail. Perhaps the idea was that for those who were not
warriors it was sufficient to retain this and have the rest of the
head shaved. The _choti_ was never shaved off in mourning for any
one but a father. The lower castes of Muhammadans, if they have lost
several children, will allow the scalp-lock to grow on the heads of
those subsequently born, dedicating it to one of their Muhammadan
saints. The Kanjars relate of their heroic ancestor Mana that after
he had plunged a bow so deeply into the ground that no one could
withdraw it, he was set by the Emperor of Delhi to wrestle against
the two most famous Imperial wrestlers. These could not overcome him
fairly, so they made a stratagem, and while one provoked him in front
the other secretly took hold of his _choti_ behind. When Mana started
forward his _choti_ was thus left in the wrestler's hands, and though
he conquered the other wrestler, showing him the sky as it is said,
the loss of his _choti_ deprived him for ever after of his virtue as a
Hindu and in no small degree of his renown as an ancestor. [310] Thus
it seems clear that a special virtue attaches to the _choti_. Before
every warlike expedition the people of Minahassa in Celebes used to
take the locks of hair of a slain foe and dabble them in boiling water
to extract the courage; this infusion of bravery was then drunk by
the warriors. [311] In a modern Greek folk-tale a man's strength lies
in three golden hairs on his head. When his mother plucks them out,
he grows weak and timid and is slain by his enemies. [312] The Red
Indian custom of taking the scalp, of a slain enemy and sometimes
wearing the scalps at the waist-belt may be due to the same relief.

In Ceram the hair might not be cut because it was the seat of a man's
strength; and the Gaboon negroes for the same reason would not allow
any of their hair to pass into the possession of a stranger. [313]

10. Hair of kings and priests

If the hair was considered to be the special source of strength and
hence frequently of life, that of the kings and priests, in whose
existence the primitive tribe believed its own communal life to be
bound up, would naturally be a matter of peculiar concern. That it
was so has been shown in the _Golden Bough_. Two hundred years ago
the hair and nails of the Mikado of Japan could only be cut when he
was asleep. [314] The hair of the Flamen Dialis at Rome could be cut
only by a freeman and with a bronze knife, and his hair and nails when
cut had to be buried under a lucky tree. [315] The Frankish kings were
never allowed to crop their hair; from their childhood upwards they
had to keep it unshorn. The hair of the Aztec priests hung down to
their hams so that the weight of it became very troublesome; for they
might never crop it so long as they lived, or at least till they had
been relieved from their office on the score of old age. [316] In the
Male Paharia tribe from the time that any one devoted himself to the
profession of priest and augur his hair was allowed to grow like that
of a Nazarite; his power of divination entirely disappeared if he cut
it. [317] Among the Bawarias of India the Bhuva or priest of Devi may
not cut or shave his hair under penalty of a fine of Rs. 10. A Parsi
priest or Mobed must never be bare-headed and never shave his head or
face. [318] Professor Robertson Smith states: "As a diadem is in its
origin nothing more than a fillet to confine hair that is worn long,
I apprehend that in old times the hair of Hebrew princes like that of a
Maori chief, was taboo, and that Absalom's long locks (2 Sam. xiv. 26)
were the mark of his political pretensions and not of his vanity. When
the hair of a Maori chief was cut, it was collected and buried in a
sacred place or hung on a tree; and it is noteworthy that Absalom's
hair was cut annually at the end of the year, in the sacred season
of pilgrimage, and that it was collected and weighed." [319]

11. The beard

The importance attached by other races to the hair of the head seems
among the Muhammadans to have been concentrated specially in the
beard. The veneration displayed for the beard in this community is
well known. The Prophet ordained that the minimum length of the beard
should be the breadth of five fingers. When the beard is turning grey
they usually dye it with henna and sometimes with indigo; it may be
thought that a grey beard is a sign of weakness. The Prophet said,
'Change the whiteness of your hair, but not with anything black.' It is
not clear why black was prohibited. It is said that the first Caliph
Abu Bakar was accustomed to dye his beard red with henna, and hence
this practice has been adopted by Muhammadans. [320] The custom of
shaving the chin is now being adopted by young Muhammadans, but as they
get older they still let the beard grow. A very favourite Muhammadan
oath is, 'By the beard of the Prophet'; and in Persia if a man thinks
another is mocking him he says, 'Do you laugh at my beard?' Neither
Hindus nor Muhammadans have any objection to becoming bald, as the
head is always covered by the turban in society. But when a man wishes
to grow a beard it is a serious drawback if he is unable to do it;
and he will then sometimes pluck the young wheat-ears and rub the
juice over his cheeks and chin so that he may grow bearded like the
wheat. Among the Hindus, Rajputs and Marathas, as well as the Sikhs,
commonly wore beards, all of these being military castes. Both the
beard and hair were considered to impart an aspect of ferocity to
the countenance, and when the Rajputs and Muhammadans were going
into battle they combed the hair and trained the beard to project
sideways from the face. When a Muhammadan wears a beard he must have
hair in the centre of his chin, whereas a Hindu shaves this part. A
Muhammadan must have his moustache short so that it may not touch
and defile food entering the mouth. It is related that a certain Kazi
had a small head and a very long beard; and he had a dream that a man
with a small head and a long beard must be a fool. When he woke up he
thought this was applicable to himself. As he could not make his head
larger he decided to make his beard smaller, and looked for scissors
to cut part of it off. But he could not find any scissors, and being
in a hurry to shorten his beard he decided to burn away part of it,
and set it alight. But the fire consumed the whole of his beard before
he could put it out, and he then realised the truth of the dream.

12. Significance of removal of the hair and shaving the head

If the hair was considered to be the source of a man's strength and
vigour, the removal of it would involve the loss of this and might be
considered especially to debar him from fighting or governing. The
instances given from the _Golden Bough_ have shown the fear felt by
many people of the consequences of the removal of their hair. The
custom of shaving the head might also betoken the renunciation of the
world and of the pursuit of arms. This may be the reason why monks
shaved the head, a practice which was followed by Buddhist as well as
Christian monks. A very clear case is also given by Sir James Frazer:
"When the wicked brothers Clotaire and Childebert coveted the kingdom
of their dead brother Clodomir, they inveigled into their power their
little nephews, the two sons of Clodomir; and having done so, they
sent a messenger bearing scissors and a naked sword to the children's
grandmother, Queen Clotilde, at Paris. The envoy showed the scissors
and the sword to Clotilde, and bade her choose whether the children
should be shorn and live, or remain unshorn and die. The proud queen
replied that if her grandchildren were not to come to the throne
she would rather see them dead than shorn. And murdered they were
by their ruthless uncle Clotaire with his own hand." [321] In this
case it appears that if their hair was shorn the children could not
come to the throne but would be destined to become monks. Similarly,
in speaking of the Georgians, Marco Polo remarks that they cut their
hair short like churchmen. [322] When a member of the religious order
of the Manbhaos is initiated his head is shaved clean by the village
barber, and the scalp-lock and moustache must be cut off by his _guru_
or preceptor, this being perhaps the special mark of his renunciation
of the world. The scalp-locks are preserved and made into ropes
which some of them fasten round their loins. Members of the Hindu
orders generally shave their scalp-locks and the head on initiation,
probably for the same reason as the Manbhaos. But afterwards they
often let the whole of their hair grow long. These men imagine that
by the force of their austerities they will obtain divine power,
so their religious character appears to be of a different order from
monasticism. Perhaps, therefore, they wear their hair long in order to
increase their spiritual potency. They themselves now say that they
do it in imitation of the god Siva and the ancient ascetics who had
long matted locks. The common Hindu practice of shaving the heads
of widows may thus be interpreted as a symbol of their complete
renunciation of the world and of any idea of remarriage. It was
accompanied by numerous other rules designed to make a widow's life a
continual penance. This barbarous custom was formerly fairly general,
at least among the higher castes, but is rapidly being abandoned
except by one or two of the stricter sections of Brahmans. Shaving
the head might also be imposed as a punishment. Thus in the time of
the reign of the Emperor Chandraguptra Maurya in the fourth century
B.C. it is stated that ordinary wounding by mutilation was punished
by the corresponding mutilation of the offender, in addition to the
amputation of his hand. The crime of giving false evidence was visited
with mutilation of the extremities; and in certain unspecified cases,
serious offences were punished by the shaving of the offender's hair,
a penalty regarded as specially infamous. [323] The cutting off of some
or all of the hair is at the present time a common punishment for caste
offences. Among the Korkus a man and woman caught in adultery have
each a lock of hair cut off. If a Chamar man and woman are detected
in the same offence, the heads of both are shaved clean of hair. A
Dhimar girl who goes wrong before marriage has a lock of her hair
cut off as a penalty, the same being done in several other castes.

13. Shaving the head by mourners

The exact significance which is to be attached to the removal by
mourners of their hair after a death is perhaps doubtful. Sir James
Frazer shows that the Australian aborigines are accustomed to let their
own blood flow on to the corpse of a dead kinsman and to place their
cut hair on the corpse. He suggests that in both cases the object
is to strengthen the feeble spirit within the corpse and sustain
its life, in order that it may be born again. As a development of
such a rite the hair might have become an offering to the dead, and
later still its removal might become a sacrifice and indication of
grief. In this manner the common custom of tearing the hair in token
of grief and mourning for the dead would be accounted for. Whether
the Hindu custom of shaving the heads of mourners was also originally
a sacrifice and offering appears to be uncertain. Professor Robertson
Smith considered [324] that in this case the hair is shaved off as a
means of removing impurity, and quotes instances from the Bible where
lepers and persons defiled by contact with the dead are purified
by shaving the hair. [325] As the father of a child is also shaved
after its birth, and the shaving must here apparently be a rite of
purification, it probably has the same significance in the case
of mourners; it is not clear whether any element of sacrifice is
also involved. The degree to which the Hindu mourner parts with his
hair varies to some extent with the nearness of the relationship,
and for females or distant relatives they do not always shave. The
mourners are shaved on the last day of the impurity, when presents
are given to the Maha-Brahman, and the latter, representing the dead
man, is also shaved with them. When a Hindu is at the point of death,
before he makes the gifts for the good of his soul the head is shaved
with the exception of his _choti_ or scalp-lock, the chin and upper
lip. Often the corpse is also shaved after death.

14. Hair offerings

Another case of the hair offering is that made in fulfilment of a vow
or at a temple. In this case the hair appears to be a gift-offering
which is made to the god as representing the life and strength of the
donor; owing to the importance attached to the hair as the source of
life and strength, it was a very precious sacrifice. Sir James Frazer
also suggests that the hair so given would impart life and strength to
the god, of which he stood in need, just as he needed food to nourish
him. Among the Hindus it is a common practice to take a child to some
well-known temple to have its hair cut for the first time, and to offer
the clippings of hair to the deity. If they cannot go to the temple
to have the hair cut they have it cut at home, and either preserve the
whole hair or a lock of it, until an opportunity occurs to offer it at
the temple. In some castes a Brahman is invited at the first cutting of
a child's hair, and he repeats texts and blesses the child; the first
lock of hair is then cut by the child's maternal uncle, and its head
is shaved by the barber. A child's hair is cut in the first, third or
fifth year after birth, but not in the second or fourth year. Among
the Muhammadans when a child's hair is cut for the first time, or at
least on one occasion in its life, the hair should be weighed against
silver or gold and the amount distributed in charity. In these cases
also it would appear that the hair as a valuable part of the child
is offered to the god to obtain his protection for the life of the
child. If a woman has no child and desires one, or if she has had
children and lost them, she will vow her next child's hair to some
god or temple. A small patch known as _chench_ is then left unshorn
on the child's head until it can be taken to the temple.