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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The ceremonies of a Panwar marriage are elaborate. Marriage-sheds are
erected at the houses both of the bride and bridegroom in accordance
with the usual practice, and just before the marriage, parties
are given at both houses; the village watchman brings the _toran_
or string of mango-leaves, which is hung round the marriage-shed
in the manner of a triumphal arch, and in the evening the party
assembles, the men sitting at one side of the shed and the women at
the other. Presents of clothes are made to the child who is to be
married, and the following song is sung:

The mother of the bride grew angry and went away to the mango
grove.
Come soon, come quickly, Mother, it is the time for giving clothes.
The father of the bridegroom has sent the bride a fold of cloth
from his house,
The fold of it is like the curve of the winnowing-fan, and there
is a bodice decked with coral and pearls.

Before the actual wedding the father of the bridegroom goes to
the bride's house and gives her clothes and other presents, and the
following is a specimen given by Mr. Muhammad Yusuf of the songs sung
on this occasion:

Five years old to-day is Baja Bai the bride;
Send word to the mother of the bridegroom;
Her dress is too short, send for the Koshta, Husband;
The Koshta came and wove a border to the dress.

Afterwards the girl's father goes and makes similar presents to the
bridegroom. After many preliminary ceremonies the marriage procession
proper sets forth, consisting of men only. Before the boy starts
his mother places her breast in his mouth; the maid-servants stand
before him with vessels of water, and he puts a pice in each. During
the journey songs are sung, of which the following is a specimen:

The linseed and gram are in flower in Chait. [391]
O! the boy bridegroom is going to another country;
O Mother! how may he go to another country?
Make payment before he enters another country;
O Mother! how may he cross the border of another country?
Make payment before he crosses the border of another country;
O Mother! how may he touch another's bower?
Make payment before he touches another's bower;
O Mother! how shall he bathe with strange water?
Make payment before he bathes with strange water;
O Mother! how may he eat another's _banwat_? [392]
Make payment before he eats another's _banwat_;
O Mother! how shall he marry another woman?
He shall wed her holding the little finger of her left hand.

The bridegroom's party are always driven to the wedding in
bullock-carts, and when they approach the bride's village her
people also come to meet them in carts. All the party then turn and
race to the village, and the winner obtains much distinction. The
cartmen afterwards go to the bridegroom's father and he has to
make them a present of from one to forty rupees. On arriving at
the village the bridegroom is carried to Devi's shrine in a man's
arms, while four other men hold a canopy over him, and from there
to the marriage-shed. He touches a bamboo of this, and a man seated
on the top pours turmeric and water over his head. Five men of the
groom's party go to the bride's house carrying salt, and here their
feet are washed and the _tika_ or mark of anointing is made on their
foreheads. Afterwards they carry rice in the same manner and with this
is the wedding-rice, coloured yellow with turmeric and known as the
Lagun-gath. Before sunset the bridegroom goes to the bride's house for
the wedding. Two baskets are hung before Dulha Deo's shrine inside
the house, and the couple are seated in these with a cloth between
them. The ends of their clothes are knotted, each places the right
foot on the left foot of the other and holds the other's ear with the
hand. Meanwhile a Brahman has climbed on to the roof of the house,
and after saying the names of the bride and bridegroom shouts loudly,
'_Ram nawara, Sita nawari, Saodhan_,' or 'Ram, the Bridegroom, and
Sita, the Bride, pay heed,' The people inside the house repeat these
words and someone beats on a brass plate; the wedding-rice is poured
over the heads of the couple, and a quid of betel is placed first in
the mouth of one and then of the other. The bridegroom's party dance
in the marriage-shed and their feet are washed. Two plough-yokes are
brought in and a cloth spread over them, and the couple are seated on
them face to face. A string of twisted grass is drawn round their necks
and a thread is tied round their marriage-crowns. The bride's dowry is
given and her relatives make presents to her. This property is known
as _khamora_, and is retained by a wife for her own use, her husband
having no control over it. It is customary also in the caste for the
parents to supply clothes to a married daughter as long as they live,
and during this period a wife will not accept any clothes from her
husband. On the following day the maid-servants bring a present of
_gulal_ or red powder to the fathers of the bride and bridegroom,
who sprinkle it over each other. The bridegroom's father makes them
a present of from one to twenty rupees according to his means, and
also gives suitable fees to the barber, the washerman, the Barai or
betel-leaf seller and the Bhat or bard. The maid-servants then bring
vessels of water and throw it over each other in sport. After the
evening meal, the party go back, the bride and bridegroom riding in
the same cart. As they start the women sing:

Let us go to the basket-maker
And buy a costly pair of fans;
Fans worth a lot of money;
Let us praise the mother of the bride.

8. Widow-marriage

After a few days at her husband's house the bride returns home, and
though she pays short visits to his family from time to time, she
does not go to live with her husband until she is adolescent, when the
usual _pathoni_ or going-away ceremony is performed to celebrate the
event. The people repeat a set of verses containing advice which the
bride's mother is supposed to give her on this occasion, in which the
desire imputed to the caste to make money out of their daughters is
satirised. They are no doubt libellous as being a gross exaggeration,
but may contain some substratum of truth. The gist of them is as
follows: "Girl, if you are my daughter, heed what I say. I will
make you many sweetmeats and speak words of wisdom. Always treat
your husband better than his parents. Increase your private money
(_khamora_) by selling rice and sugar; abuse your sisters-in-law to
your husband's mother and become her favourite. Get influence over
your husband and make him come with you to live with us. If you
cannot persuade him, abandon your modesty and make quarrels in the
household. Do not fear the village officers, but go to the houses of
the patel [393] and Pandia [394] and ask them to arrange your quarrel."

It is not intended to imply that Panwar women behave in this manner,
but the passage is interesting as a sidelight on the joint family
system. It concludes by advising the girl, if she cannot detach her
husband from his family, to poison him and return as a widow. This
last counsel is a gibe at the custom which the caste have of taking
large sums of money for a widow on her second marriage. As such
a woman is usually adult, and able at once to perform the duties
of a wife and to work in the fields, she is highly valued, and her
price ranges from Rs. 25 to Rs. 1000. In former times, it is stated,
the disposal of widows did not rest with their parents but with the
Sendia or headman of the caste. The last of them was Karun Panwar
of Tumsar, who was empowered by the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur to act in
this manner, and was accustomed to receive an average sum of Rs. 25
for each widow or divorced woman whom he gave away in marriage. His
power extended even to the reinstatement of women expelled from the
caste, whom he could subsequently make over to any one who would
pay for them. At the end of his life he lost his authority among
the people by keeping a Dhimar woman as a mistress, and he had no
successor. A Panwar widow must not marry again until the expiry of
six months after her husband's death. The stool on which a widow
sits for her second marriage is afterwards stolen by her husband's
friends. After the wedding when she reaches the boundary of his
village the axle of her cart is removed, and a new one made of _tendu_
wood is substituted for it. The discarded axle and the shoes worn by
the husband at the ceremony are thrown away, and the stolen stool is
buried in a field. These things, Mr. Hira Lal points out, are regarded
as defiled, because they have been accessories in an unlucky ceremony,
that of the marriage of a widow. On this point Dr. Jevons writes [395]
that the peculiar characteristic of taboo is this transmissibility of
its infection or contagion. In ancient Greece the offerings used for
the purification of the murderer became themselves polluted during
the process and had to be buried. A similar reasoning applies to the
articles employed in the marriage of a widow. The wood of the _tendu_
or ebony tree [396] is chosen for the substituted axle, because it has
the valuable property of keeping off spirits and ghosts. When a child
is born a plank of this wood is laid along the door of the room to
keep the spirits from troubling the mother and the newborn infant. In
the same way, no doubt, this wood keeps the ghost of the first husband
from entering with the widow into her second husband's village. The
reason for the ebony-wood being a spirit-scarer seems to lie in its
property of giving out sparks when burnt. "The burning wood gives
out showers of sparks, and it is a common amusement to put pieces
in a camp fire in order to see the column of sparks ascend." [397]
The sparks would have a powerful effect on the primitive mind and
probably impart a sacred character to the tree, and as they would
scare away wild animals, the property of averting spirits might
come to attach to the wood. The Panwars seldom resort to divorce,
except in the case of open and flagrant immorality on the part of
a wife. "They are not strict," Mr. Low writes, [398] "in the matter
of sexual offences within the caste, though they bitterly resent and
if able heavily avenge any attempt on the virtue of their women by an
outsider. The men of the caste are on the other hand somewhat notorious
for the freedom with which they enter into relations with the women
of other castes." They not infrequently have Gond and Ahir girls from
the families of their farmservants as members of their households.

9. Religion

The caste worship the ordinary Hindu divinities, and their household
god is Dulha Deo, the deified bridegroom. He is represented by a
nut and a date, which are wrapped in a cloth and hung on a peg in
the wall of the house above the platform erected to him. Every year,
or at the time of a marriage or the birth of a first child, a goat
is offered to Dulha Deo. The animal is brought to the platform and
given some rice to eat. A dedicatory mark of red ochre is made on
its forehead and water is poured over the body, and as soon as it
shivers it is killed. The shivering is considered to be an indication
from the deity that the sacrifice is acceptable. The flesh is cooked
and eaten by the family inside the house, and the skin and bones
are buried below the floor. Narayan Deo or Vishnu or the Sun is
represented by a bunch of peacock's feathers. He is generally kept
in the house of a Mahar, and when his worship is to be celebrated he
is brought thence in a gourd to the Panwar's house, and a black goat,
rice and cakes are offered to him by the head of the household. While
the offering is being made the Mahar sings and dances, and when the
flesh of the goat is eaten he is permitted to sit inside the Panwar's
house and begin the feast, the Panwars eating after him. On ordinary
occasions a Mahar is not allowed to come inside the house, and any
Panwar who took food with him would be put out of caste; and this
rite is no doubt a recognition of the position of the Mahars as the
earlier residents of the country before the Panwars came to it. The
Turukh or Turk sept of Panwars pay a similar worship to Baba Farid,
the Muhammadan saint of Girar. He is also represented by a bundle of
peacock's feathers, and when a goat is sacrificed to him a Muhammadan
kills it and is the first to partake of its flesh.

10. Worship of the spirits of those dying a violent death

When a man has been killed by a tiger (_bagh_) he is deified and
worshipped as Bagh Deo. A hut is made in the yard of the house, and an
image of a tiger is placed inside and worshipped on the anniversary
of the man's death. The members of the household will not afterwards
kill a tiger, as they think the animal has become a member of the
family. A man who is bitten by a cobra (_nag_) and dies is similarly
worshipped as Nag Deo. The image of a snake made of silver or iron is
venerated, and the family will not kill a snake. If a man is killed
by some other animal, or by drowning or a fall from a tree, his
spirit is worshipped as Ban Deo or the forest god with similar rites,
being represented by a little lump of rice and red lead. In all these
cases it is supposed, as pointed out by Sir James Frazer, that the
ghost of the man who has come to such an untimely end is especially
malignant, and will bring trouble upon the survivors unless appeased
with sacrifices and offerings. A good instance of the same belief is
given by him in _Psyche's Task_ [399] as found among the Karens of
Burma: "They put red, yellow and white rice in a basket and leave it
in the forest, saying: Ghosts of such as died by falling from a tree,
ghosts of such as died of hunger or thirst, ghosts of such as died by
the tiger's tooth or the serpent's fang, ghosts of the murdered dead,
ghosts of such as died by smallpox or cholera, ghosts of dead lepers,
oh ill-treat us not, seize not upon our persons, do us no harm! Oh
stay here in this wood! We will bring hither red rice, yellow rice,
and white rice for your subsistence."

That the same superstition is generally prevalent in the Central
Provinces appears to be shown by the fact that among castes who
practise cremation, the bodies of men who come to a violent end or die
of smallpox or leprosy are buried, though whether burial is considered
as more likely to prevent the ghost from walking than cremation, is
not clear. Possibly, however, it may be considered that the bodies
are too impure to be committed to the sacred fire.

11. Funeral rites

Cremation of the dead is the rule, but the bodies of those who have not
died a natural death are buried, as also of persons who are believed
to have been possessed of the goddess Devi in their lifetime. The
bodies of small children are buried when the Khir Chatai ceremony
has not been performed. This takes place when a child is about two
years old: he is invited to the house of some member of the same
section on the Diwali day and given to eat some Khir or a mess of
new rice with milk and sugar, and thus apparently is held to become
a proper member of the caste, as boys do in other castes on having
their ears pierced. When a corpse is to be burnt a heap of cowdung
cakes is made, on which it is laid, while others are spread over it,
together with butter, sugar and linseed. The fire with which the
pyre is kindled is carried by the son or other chief mourner in
an earthen pot at the head of the corpse. After the cremation the
ashes of the body are thrown into water, but the bones are kept by
the chief mourner; his head and face are then shaved by the barber,
and the hair is thrown into the water with most of the bones; he may
retain a few to carry them to the Nerbudda at a convenient season,
burying them meanwhile under a mango or pipal tree. A present of a
rupee or a cow may be made to the barber. After the removal of a dead
body the house is swept, and the rubbish with the broom and dustpan
are thrown away outside the village. Before the body is taken away
the widow of the dead man places her hands on his breast and forehead,
and her bangles are broken by another widow. The _shraddh_ ceremony is
performed every year in the month of Kunwar (September) on the same
day of the fortnight as that on which the death took place. On the
day before the ceremony the head of the household goes to the houses
of those whom he wishes to invite, and sticks some grains of rice on
their foreheads. The guests must then fast up to the ceremony. On
the following day, when they arrive at noon, the host, wearing a
sacred thread of twisted grass, washes their feet with water in which
the sacred _kusa_ grass has been mixed, and marks their foreheads
with sandal-paste and rice. The leaf-plates of the guests are set
out inside the house, and a very small quantity of cooked rice is
placed in each. The host then gathers up all this rice and throws
it on to the roof of the house while his wife throws up some water,
calling aloud the name of the dead man whose _shraddh_ ceremony is
being performed, and after this the whole party take their dinner.

12. Caste discipline

As has been shown, the Panwars have abandoned most of the distinctive
Rajput customs. They do not wear the sacred thread and they permit the
remarriage of widows. They eat the flesh of goats, fowls, wild pig,
game-birds and fish, but abstain from liquor except on such ceremonial
occasions as the worship of Narayan Deo, when every one must partake
of it. Mr. Low states that the injurious habit of smoking _madak_
(a preparation of opium) is growing in the caste. They will take
water to drink from a Gond's hand and in some localities even cooked
food. This is the outcome of their close association in agriculture,
the Gonds having been commonly employed as farmservants by Panwar
cultivators. A Brahman usually officiates at their ceremonies, but his
presence is not essential and his duties may be performed by a member
of the caste. Every Panwar male or female has a _guru_ or spiritual
preceptor, who is either a Brahman, a Gosain or a Bairagi. From time
to time the _guru_ comes to visit his _chela_ or disciple, and on
such occasions the _chauk_ or sacred place is prepared with lines
of wheat-flour. Two wooden stools are set within it and the _guru_
and his _chela_ take their seats on these. Their heads are covered
with a new piece of cloth and the _guru_ whispers some text into
the ear of the disciple. Sweetmeats and other delicacies are then
offered to the _guru_, and the disciple makes him a present of one to
five rupees. When a Panwar is put out of caste two feasts have to be
given on reinstatement, known as the Maili and Chokhi Roti (impure and
pure food). The former is held in the morning on the bank of a tank
or river and is attended by men only. A goat is killed and served
with rice to the caste-fellows, and in serious cases the offender's
head and face are shaved, and he prays, 'God forgive me the sin,
it will never be repeated.' The Chokhi Roti is held in the evening
at the offender's house, the elders and women as well as men of the
caste being present. The Sendia or leader of the caste eats first,
and he will not begin his meal unless he finds a _douceur_ of from
one to five rupees deposited beneath his leaf-plate. The whole cost
of the ceremony of readmission is from fifteen to fifty rupees.

13. Social customs

The Panwar women wear their clothes tied in the Hindustani and not in
the Maratha fashion. They are tattooed on the legs, hands and face,
the face being usually decorated with single dots which are supposed
to enhance its beauty, much after the same fashion as patches in
England. Padmakar, the Saugor poet, Mr. Hira Lal remarks, compared the
dot on a woman's chin to a black bee buried in a half-ripe mango. The
women, Mr. Low says, are addicted to dances, plays and charades, the
first being especially graceful performances. They are skilful with
their fingers and make pretty grass mats and screens for the house,
and are also very good cooks and appreciate variety in food. The
Panwars do not eat off the ground, but place their dishes on little
iron stands, sitting themselves on low wooden stools. The housewife
is a very important person, and the husband will not give anything
to eat or drink out of the house without her concurrence. Mr. Low
writes on the character and abilities of the Panwars as follows:
"The Panwar is to Balaghat what the Kunbi is to Berar or the Gujar to
Hoshangabad, but at the same time he is less entirely attached to the
soil and its cultivation, and much more intelligent and cosmopolitan
than either. One of the most intelligent officials in the Agricultural
Department is a Panwar, and several members of the caste have made
large sums as forest and railway contractors in this District;
Panwar _shikaris_ are also not uncommon. They are generally averse
to sedentary occupations, and though quite ready to avail themselves
of the advantages of primary education, they do not, as a rule, care
to carry their studies to a point that would ensure their admission
to the higher ranks of Government service. Very few of them are
to be found as patwaris, constables or peons. They are a handsome
race, with intelligent faces, unusually fair, with high foreheads,
and often grey eyes. They are not, as a rule, above middle height,
but they are active and hard-working and by no means deficient in
courage and animal spirits, or a sense of humour. They are clannish
in the extreme, and to elucidate a criminal case in which no one but
Panwars are concerned, and in a Panwar village, is usually a harder
task than the average local police officer can tackle. At times
they are apt to affect, in conversation with Government officials,
a whining and unpleasant tone, especially when pleading their claim
to some concession or other; and they are by no means lacking in
astuteness and are good hands at a bargain. But they are a pleasant,
intelligent and plucky race, not easily cast down by misfortune and
always ready to attempt new enterprises in almost any direction save
those indicated by the Agricultural Department.

"In the art of rice cultivation they are past masters. They are skilled
tank-builders, though perhaps hardly equal to the Kohlis of Chanda. But
they excel especially in the mending and levelling of their fields,
in neat transplantation, and in the choice and adaptation of the
different varieties of rice to land of varying qualities. They are
by no means specially efficient as labourers, though they and their
wives do their fair share of field work; but they are well able to
control the labour of others, especially of aborigines, through whom
most of their tank and other works are executed."

Pardhan

List of Paragraphs

1. _General notice_.
2. _Tribal subdivisions_.
3. _Marriage_.
4. _Religion_.
5. _Social customs_.
6. _Methods of cheating among Patharis_.
7. _Musicians and priests_.

1. General notice

_Pardhan, Pathari, Panal._--An inferior branch of the Gond tribe whose
occupation is to act as the priests and minstrels of the Gonds. In
1911 the Pardhans numbered nearly 120,000 persons in the Central
Provinces and Berar. The only other locality where they are found is
Hyderabad, which returned 8000. The name Pardhan is of Sanskrit origin
and signifies a minister or agent. It is the regular designation of the
principal minister of a Rajput State, who often fulfils the functions
of a Mayor of the Palace. That it was applied to the tribe in this
sense is shown by the fact that they are also known as Diwan, which
has the same meaning. There is a tradition that the Gond kings employed
Pardhans as their ministers, and as the Pardhans acted as genealogists
they may have been more intelligent than the Gonds, though they are
in no degree less illiterate. To themselves and their Gond relations
the Pardhans are frequently not known by that name, which has been
given to them by the Hindus, but as Panal. Other names for the tribe
are Parganiha, Desai and Pathari. Parganiha is a title signifying the
head of a _pargana_, and is now applied by courtesy to some families
in Chhattisgarh. Desai has the same signification, being a variant
of Deshmukh or the Maratha revenue officer in charge of a circle of
villages. Pathari means a bard or genealogist, or according to another
derivation a hillman. On the Satpura plateau and in Chhattisgarh the
tribe is known as Pardhan Patharia. In Balaghat they are also called
Mokasi. The Gonds themselves look down on the Pardhans and say that
the word Patharia means inferior, and they relate that Bura Deo, their
god, had seven sons. These were talking together one day as they dined
and they said that every caste had an inferior branch to do it homage,
but they had none; and they therefore agreed that the youngest brother
and his descendants should be inferior to the others and make obeisance
to them, while the others promised to treat him almost as their equal
and give him a share in all the offerings to the dead. The Pardhans or
Patharias are the descendants of the youngest brother and they accost
the Gonds with the greeting 'Babu Johar,' or 'Good luck, sir.' The
Gonds return the greeting by saying 'Pathari Johar,' or 'How do you
do, Pathari.' Curiously enough Johar is also the salutation sent by
a Rajput chief to an inferior landholder, [400] and the custom must
apparently have been imitated by the Gonds. A variant of the story
is that one day the seven Gond brothers were worshipping their god,
but he did not make his appearance; so the youngest of them made a
musical instrument out of a string and a piece of wood and played on
it. The god was pleased with the music and came down to be worshipped,
and hence the Pardhans as the descendants of the youngest brother
continue to play on the _kingri_ or lyre, which is their distinctive
instrument. The above stories have been invented to account for the
social inferiority of the Pardhans to the Gonds, but their position
merely accords with the general rule that the bards and genealogists
of any caste are a degraded section. The fact is somewhat contrary
to preconceived ideas, but the explanation given of it is that such
persons make their living by begging from the remainder of the caste
and hence are naturally looked down upon by them; and further, that in
pursuit of their calling they wander about to attend at wedding feasts
all over the country, and consequently take food with many people of
doubtful social position. This seems a reasonable interpretation of
the rule of the inferiority of the bard, which at any rate obtains
generally among the Hindu castes.