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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Rajput; Yadu

_Rajput; Yadu, Yadava, Yadu-Bhatti, Jadon._ [581]--The Yadus are a
well-known historical clan. Colonel Tod says that the Yadu was the
most illustrious of all the tribes of Ind, and became the patronymic
of the descendants of Buddha, progenitor of the lunar (Indu)
race. It is not clear, even according to legendary tradition, what,
if any, connection the Yadus had with Buddha, but Krishna is held
to have been a prince of this tribe and founded Dwarka in Gujarat
with them, in which locality he is afterwards supposed to have been
killed. Colonel Tod states that the Yadu after the death of Krishna,
and their expulsion from Dwarka and Delhi, the last stronghold of
their power, retired by Multan across the Indus, founded Ghazni in
Afghanistan, and peopled these countries even to Samarcand. Again
driven back on the Indus they obtained possession of the Punjab and
founded Salbhanpur. Thence expelled they retired across the Sutlej
and Gara into the Indian deserts, where they founded Tannote, Derawal
and Jaisalmer, the last in A.D. 1157. It has been suggested in the
main article on Rajput that the Yadus might have been the Sakas, who
invaded India in the second century A.D. This is only a speculation. At
a later date a Yadava kingdom existed in the Deccan, with its capital
at Deogiri or Daulatabad and its territory lying between that place and
Nasik. [582] Mr. Smith states that these Yadava kings were descendants
of feudatory nobles of the Chalukya kingdom, which embraced parts of
western India and also Gujarat. The Yadu clan can scarcely, however,
be a more recent one than the Chalukya, as in that case it would not
probably have been credited with having had Krishna as its member. The
Yadava dynasty only lasted from A.D. 1150 to 1318, when the last prince
of the line, Harapala, stirred up a revolt against the Muhammadans to
whom the king, his father-in-law, had submitted, and being defeated,
was flayed alive and decapitated. It is noticeable that the Yadu-Bhatti
Rajputs of Jaisalmer claim descent from Salivahana, who founded the
Saka era in A.D. 78, and it is believed that this era belonged to the
Saka dynasty of Gujarat, where, according to the tradition given above,
the Yadus also settled. This point is not important, but so far as
it goes would favour the identification of the Sakas with the Yadavas.

The Bhatti branch of the Yadus claim descent from Bhati, the grandson
of Salivahana. They have no legend of having come from Gujarat, but
they had the title of Rawal, which is used in Gujarat, and also by the
Sesodia clan who came from there. The Bhattis are said to have arrived
in Jaisalmer about the middle of the eighth century, Jaisalmer city
being founded much later in A.D. 1183. Jaisalmer State, the third
in Rajputana, has an area of 16,000 square miles, most of which is
desert, and a population of about 100,000 persons. The chief has the
title of Maharawal and receives a salute of fifteen guns. The Jareja
Rajputs of Sind and Cutch are another branch of the Yadus who have
largely intermarried with Muhammadans. They now claim descent from
Jamshid, the Persian hero, and on this account, Colonel Tod states,
the title of their rulers is Jam. They were formerly much addicted
to female infanticide. The name Yadu has in other parts of India
been corrupted into Jadon, and the class of Jadon Rajputs is fairly
numerous in the United Provinces, and in some places is said to have
become a caste, its members marrying among themselves. This is also
the case in the Central Provinces, where they are known as Jadum,
and have been treated under that name in a separate article. The
small State of Karauli in Rajputana is held by a Jadon chief.

Rajwar

_Rajwar._ [583]--A low cultivating caste of Bihar and Chota Nagpur,
who are probably an offshoot of the Bhuiyas. In 1911 a total of 25,000
Rajwars were returned in the Central Provinces, of whom 22,000 belong
to the Sarguja State recently transferred from Bengal. Another 2000
persons are shown in Bilaspur, but these are Mowars, an offshoot
of the Rajwars, who have taken to the profession of gardening and
have changed their name. They probably rank a little higher than
the bulk of the Rajwars. "Traditionally," Colonel Dalton states,
"the Rajwars appear to connect themselves with the Bhuiyas; but this
is only in Bihar. The Rajwars in Sarguja and the adjoining States
are peaceably disposed cultivators, who declare themselves to be
fallen Kshatriyas; they do not, however, conform to Hindu customs,
and they are skilled in a dance called Chailo, which I believe to be
of Dravidian origin. The Rajwars of Bengal admit that they are the
descendants of mixed unions between Kurmis and Kols. They are looked
upon as very impure by the Hindus, who will not take water from their
hands." The Rajwars of Bihar told Buchanan that their ancestor was
a certain Rishi, who had two sons. From the elder were descended
the Rajwars, who became soldiers and obtained their noble title;
and from the younger the Musahars, who were so called from their
practice of eating rats, which the Rajwars rejected. The Musahars,
as shown by Sir H. Risley, are probably Bhuiyas degraded to servitude
in Hindu villages, and this story confirms the Bhuiya origin of the
Rajwars. In the Central Provinces the Bhuiyas have a subcaste called
Rajwar, which further supports this hypothesis, and in the absence of
evidence to the contrary it is reasonable to suppose that the Rajwars
are an offshoot of the Bhuiyas, as they themselves say, in Bihar. The
substitution of Kols for Bhuiyas in Bengal need not cause much concern
in view of the great admixture of blood and confused nomenclature
of all the Chota Nagpur tribes. In Bengal, where the Bhuiyas have
settled in Hindu villages, and according to the usual lot of the
forest tribes who entered the Hindu system have been degraded into
the servile and impure caste of Musahars, the Rajwars have shared
their fate, and are also looked upon as impure. But in Chota Nagpur
the Bhuiyas have their own villages and live apart from the Hindus,
and here the Rajwars, like the landholding branches of other forest
tribes, claim to be an inferior class of Rajputs.

In Sarguja the caste have largely adopted Hindu customs. They abstain
from liquor, employ low-class Brahmans as priests, and worship the
Hindu deities. When a man wishes to arrange a match for his son he
takes a basket of wheat-cakes and proceeding to the house of the girl's
father sets them down outside. If the match is acceptable the girl's
mother comes and takes the cakes into the house and the betrothal
is then considered to be ratified. At the wedding the bridegroom
smears vermilion seven times on the parting of the bride's hair,
and the bride's younger sister then wipes a little of it off with
the end of the cloth. For this service she is paid a rupee by the
bridegroom. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. After
the birth of a child the mother is given neither food nor water for
two whole days; on the third day she gets only boiled water to drink
and on the fourth day receives some food. The period of impurity
after a birth extends to twelve days. When the navel-string drops
it is carefully put away until the next Dasahra, together with the
child's hair, which is cut on the sixth day. On the Dasahra festival
all the women of the village take them to a tank, where a lotus plant
is worshipped and anointed with oil and vermilion, and the hair and
navel-string are then buried at its roots. The dead are burned, and the
more pious keep the bones with a view to carrying them to the Ganges
or some other sacred river. Pending this, the bones are deposited in
the cow-house, and a lamp is kept burning in it every night so long
as they are there. The Rajwars believe that every man has a soul or
Pran, and they think that the soul leaves the body, not only at death,
but whenever he is asleep or becomes unconscious owing to injury or
illness. Dreams are the adventures of the soul while wandering over
the world apart from the body. They think it very unlucky for a man
to see his own reflection in water and carefully avoid doing so.

Ramosi

1. General notice

_Ramosi, Ramoshi._--A criminal tribe of the Bombay Presidency, of which
about 150 persons were returned from the Central Provinces and Berar
in 1911. They belong to the western tract of the Satpuras adjoining
Khandesh. The name is supposed to be a corruption of Ramvansi, meaning
'The descendants of Rama.' They say [584] that when Rama, the hero of
the Ramayana, was driven from his kingdom by his step-mother Kaikeyi,
he went to the forest land south of the Nerbudda. His brother Bharat,
who had been raised to the throne, could not bear to part with Rama,
so he followed him to the forest, began to do penance, and made friends
with a rough but kindly forest tribe. After Rama's restoration Bharat
took two foresters with him to Ajodhia (Oudh) and brought them to the
notice of Rama, who appointed them village watchmen and allowed them
to take his name. If this is the correct derivation it may be compared
with the name of Rawanvansi or Children of Rawan, the opponent of Rama,
which is applied to the Gonds of the Central Provinces. The Ramosis
appear to be a Hinduised caste derived from the Bhils or Kolis or a
mixture of the two tribes. They were formerly a well-known class of
robbers and dacoits. The principal scenes of their depredations were
the western Ghats, and an interesting description of their methods
is given by Captain Mackintosh in his account of the tribe. [585]
Some extracts from this are here reproduced.

2. Methods of robbery

They armed themselves chiefly with swords, taking one, two or three
matchlocks, or more should they judge it necessary. Several also
carried their shields and a few had merely sticks, which were in
general shod with small bars of iron from eight to twelve inches in
length, strongly secured by means of rings and somewhat resembling
the ancient mace. One of the party carried a small copper or earthen
pot or a cocoanut-shell with a supply of _ghi_ or clarified butter
in it, to moisten their torches with before they commenced their
operations. The Ramosis endeavoured as much as possible to avoid being
seen by anybody either when they were proceeding to the object of
their attack or returning afterwards to their houses. They therefore
travelled during the night-time; and before daylight in the morning
they concealed themselves in a jungle or ravine near some water,
and slept all day, proceeding in this way for a long distance till
they reached the vicinity of the village to be attacked. When they
were pursued and much pressed, at times they would throw themselves
into a bush or under a prickly pear plant, coiling themselves up
so carefully that the chances were their pursuers would pass them
unnoticed. If they intended to attack a treasure party they would
wait at some convenient spot on the road and sally out when it
came abreast of them, first girding up their loins and twisting
a cloth tightly round their faces, to prevent the features from
being recognised. Before entering the village where their dacoity or
_durrowa_ was to be perpetrated, torches were made from the turban of
one of the party, which was torn into three, five or seven pieces,
but never into more, the pieces being then soaked with butter. The
same man always supplied the turban and received in exchange the best
one taken in the robbery. Those who were unarmed collected bags of
stones, and these were thrown at any people who tried to interfere
with them during the dacoity. They carried firearms, but avoided
using them if possible, as their discharge might summon defenders
from a distance. They seldom killed or mutilated their victims,
except in a fight, but occasionally travellers were killed after
being robbed as a measure of precaution. They retreated with their
spoils as rapidly as possible to the nearest forest or hill, and from
there, after distributing the booty into bags to make it portable,
they marched off in a different direction from that in which they
had come. Before reaching their homes one of the party was deputed
with an offering of one, two or five rupees to be presented as an
offering to their god Khandoba or the goddess Bhawani in fulfilment of
a vow. All the spoil was then deposited before their Naik or headman,
who divided it into equal shares for members of the gang, keeping a
double share for himself.

3. Ramosis employed as village watchmen

In order to protect themselves from the depredations of these gangs
the villagers adopted a system of hiring a Ramosi as a surety to
be responsible for their property, and this man gradually became a
Rakhwaldar or village watchman. He received a grant of land rent-free
and other perquisites, and also a fee from all travellers and gangs of
traders who halted in the village in return for his protection during
the night. If a theft or house-breaking occurred in a village, the
Ramosi was held responsible to the owner for the value of the property,
unless a large gang had been engaged. If he failed to discover the
thief he engaged to make the lost property good to the owner within
fifteen days or a month unless its value was considerable. If a gang
had been engaged, the Ramosi, accompanied by the patel and other
village officials and cultivators, proceeded to track them by their
footprints. Obtaining a stick he cut it to the exact length of the
footprint, or several such if a number of prints could be discovered,
and followed the tracks, measuring the footprints, to the boundary
of the village. The inhabitants of the adjoining village were then
called and were responsible for carrying on the trail through their
village. The measures of footprints were handed over to them, and after
satisfying themselves that the marks came from outside and extended
into their land they took up the trail accompanied by the Ramosi. In
this way the gang was tracked from village to village, and if it was
run to earth the residents of the villages to which it belonged had to
make good the loss. If the tracks were lost owing to the robbers having
waded along a stream or got on to rocky ground or into a public road,
then the residents of the village in whose borders the line failed
were considered responsible for the stolen property. Usually, however,
a compromise was made, and they paid half, while the other half was
raised from the village in which the theft occurred. If the Ramosi
failed to track the thieves out of the village he had to make good
the value of the theft, but he was usually assisted by the village
officer. Often, too, the owner had to be contented with half or a
quarter of the amount lost as compensation. In the early part of the
century the Ramosis of Poona became very troublesome and constantly
committed robberies in the houses of Europeans. As a consequence a
custom grew up of employing a Ramosi as chaukidar or watchman for
guarding the bungalow at night on a salary of seven rupees a month,
and soon became general. It was the business of the Ramosi watchman to
prevent other Ramosis from robbing the house. Apparently this was the
common motive for the custom, prevalent up to recent years, of paying
a man solely for the purpose of watching the house at night, and it
originated, as in Poona, as a form of insurance and an application
of the proverb of setting a thief to catch a thief. The selection of
village watchmen from among the low, criminal castes appears to have
been made on the same principle.

4. Social customs

The principal deity of the Ramosis is Khandoba, the Maratha god of
war. [586] He is the deified sword, the name being _khanda-aba_
or sword-father. An oath taken on the Bhandar or little bag of
turmeric dedicated to Khandoba is held by them most sacred and no
Ramosi will break this oath. Every Ramosi has a family god known as
Devak, and persons having the same Devak cannot intermarry. The Devak
is usually a tree or a bunch of the leaves of several trees. No one
may eat the fruit of or otherwise use the tree which is his Devak. At
their weddings the branches of several trees are consecrated as Devaks
or guardians of the wedding. A Gurao cuts the leafy branches of the
mango, _umar_, [587] _jamun_ [588] and of the _rui_ [589] and _shami_
[590] shrubs and a few stalks of grass and sets them in Hanuman's
temple. From here the bridegroom's parents, after worshipping Hanuman
with a betel-leaf and five areca-nuts, take them home and fasten
them to the front post of the marriage-shed. When the bridegroom is
taken before the family gods of the bride, he steals one of them in
token of his profession, but afterwards restores it in return for a
payment of money. In social position the Ramosis rank a little above
the Mahars and Mangs, not being impure. They speak Marathi but have
also a separate thieves' jargon of their own, of which a vocabulary
is given in the account of Captain Mackintosh. When a Ramosi child
is seven or eight years old he must steal something. If he is caught
and goes to prison the people are delighted, fall at his feet when he
comes out and try to obtain him as a husband for their daughters. [591]
It is doubtful whether these practices obtain in the Central Provinces,
and as the Ramosis are not usually reckoned here among the notorious
criminal tribes they may probably have taken to more honest pursuits.

Rangrez

_Rangrez._--The Muhammadan caste of dyers. The caste is found
generally in the northern Districts, and in 1901 its members were
included with the Chhipas, from whom, however, they should be
distinguished as having a different religion and also because they
practise a separate branch of the dyeing industry. The strength of
the caste in the Central Provinces does not exceed a few hundred
persons. The Rangrez is nominally a Muhammadan of the Sunni sect,
but the community forms an endogamous group after the Hindu fashion,
marrying only among themselves. Good-class Muhammadans will neither
intermarry with nor even take food from members of the Rangrez
community. In Sohagpur town of Hoshangabad this is divided into two
branches, the Kheralawalas or immigrants from Kherala in Malwa and the
local Rangrezes. These two groups will take food together but will
not intermarry. Kheralawala women commonly wear a skirt like Hindu
women and not Muhammadan pyjamas. In Jubbulpore the Rangrez community
employ Brahmans to conduct their marriage and other ceremonies. Long
association with Hindus has as usual caused the Rangrez to conform to
their religious practices and the caste might almost be described
as a Hindu community with Muhammadan customs. The bulk of them
no doubt were originally converted Hindus, but as their ancestors
probably immigrated from northern India their present leaning to
that religion would perhaps be not so much an obstinate retention
of pre-Islamic ritual as a subsequent lapse following on another
change of environment. In northern India Mr. Crooke records them
as being governed mainly by Muhammadan rules. There [592] they hold
themselves to be the descendants of one Khwaja Bali, a very pious man,
about whom the following verse is current:

Khwaja Bali Rangrez
Range Khuda ki sez:

'Khwaja Bali dyes the bed of God.' The name is derived from _rang_,
colour, and _rez, rekhtan_, to pour. In Bihar, Sir G. Grierson
states [593] the word Rangrez is often confounded with 'Angrezi'
or 'English'; and the English are sometimes nicknamed facetiously
Rangrez or 'dyers,' The saying, 'Were I a dyer I would dye my own
beard first,' in reference to the Muhammadan custom of dyeing the
beard, has the meaning of 'Charity begins at home,' [594]

The art of the Rangrez differs considerably from that of the
Chhipa or Rangari, the Hindu dyer, and he produces a much greater
variety of colours. His principal agents were formerly the safflower
(_Carthamus tinctorius_), turmeric and myrobalans. The fact that the
brilliant red dye of safflower was as a rule only used by Muhammadan
dyers, gives some ground for the supposition that it may have been
introduced by them to India. This would account for the existence
of a separate caste of Muhammadan dyers, and in support of it may
be adduced the fact that the variety of colours is much greater in
the dress of the residents of northern India and Rajputana than in
those of the Maratha Districts. The former patronise many different
shades, more especially for head-cloths, while the latter as a rule
do not travel beyond red, black or blue. The Rangrez obtains his red
shades from safflower, yellow from _haldi_ or turmeric, green from
a mixture of indigo and turmeric, purple from indigo and safflower,
_khaki_ or dust-colour from myrobalans and iron filings, orange from
turmeric and safflower, and _badami_ or almond-colour from turmeric
and two wild plants _kachora_ and _nagarmothi_, the former of which
gives a scent. Cloths dyed in the _badami_ shades are affected, when
they can afford it, by Gosains and other religious mendicants, who
thus dwell literally in the odour of sanctity. Muhammadans generally
patronise the shades of green or purple, the latter being often used
as a lining for white coats. Fakirs or Muhammadan beggars wear light
green. Marwari Banias and others from Rajputana like the light yellow,
pink or orange shades. A green or black head-cloth is with them a
sign of mourning. Cloths dyed in yellow or scarlet are bought by
Brahmans and other castes of Hindus for their marriages. Blue is not
a lucky colour among the Hindus and is considered as on a level with
black. It may be worn on ordinary occasions, but not at festivals
or at auspicious periods. Muhammadans rather affect black and do not
consider it an unlucky colour. I have seen a Rangrez dye a piece of
cloth in about twenty colours in the course of two or three hours,
but several of these dyes are fugitive and will not stand washing. The
trade of the Rangrez is being undermined by the competition of cheap
chemical dyes imported from Germany and sold in the form of powders;
the process of dyeing with these is absolutely simple and can be
carried out by any one. They are far cheaper than safflower, and this
agent has consequently been almost driven from the market. People buy
a little dyeing powder from the bazar and dye their own cloths. But
men will only wear cloths dyed in this manner, and known as _katcha
kapra_, on their heads and not on their bodies; women sometimes wear
them also on their bodies. The decay in the indigenous art of dyeing
must be a matter for regret.

Rautia

1. Origin of the tribe

_Rautia._ [595]--A cultivating caste of the Chota Nagpur plateau. In
1911 about 12,000 Rautias were enumerated in the Province, nearly all
of whom belong to the Jashpur State with a few in Sarguja. These states
lie outside the scope of the Ethnographic Survey and hence no regular
inquiry has been made on the Rautias. The following brief notice is
mainly taken from the account of the caste in Sir H. Risley's _Tribes
and Castes of Bengal_. He describes the caste as, "refined in features
and complexion by a large infusion of Aryan blood. Their chief men
hold estates on quit-rent from the Maharaja of Chota Nagpur, and the
bulk of the remainder are tenants with occupancy right and often paying
only a low quit-rent or half the normal assessment." These favourable
tenures may probably be explained by the fact that they were held
in former times on condition of military service, and were analogous
to the feudal fiefs of Europe. The Rautias themselves say that this
was their original occupation in Chota Nagpur. The name Rautia is
a form of Rawat, and this latter word signifies a prince and is a
title borne by relatives of a Raja. It may be noticed that Rawat is
the ordinary name by which the Ahir caste is known in Chhattisgarh,
the neighbouring country to Chota Nagpur in the Central Provinces;
and further that the Rautias will take food from a Chhattisgarhi
Rawat. This fact, coupled with the identity of the name, appears
to demonstrate a relationship of the two castes. The Rautias will
not take food from any other Hindu caste, but they will eat with
the Kawar and Gond tribes, at least in Raigarh. The Kawars have a
subtribe called Rautia as also have the Kols. In Sir H. Risley's list
of the sept-names of the Rautias [596] we find two names, Aind the
eel, and Rukhi a squirrel, which are also the names of Munda septs,
and one, Karsayal or deer, which is the name of a Kawar sept. They
have also a name Sanwani, which is probably Sonwani or 'gold-water,'
and is common to many of the primitive tribes. The most plausible
hypothesis of the origin of the Rautias on the above facts seems
to be that they were a tribal militia in Chota Nagpur, the leaders
being Ahirs or Rawats with possibly a sprinkling of the local Rajputs,
while the main body were recruited from the Kawar and Kol tribes. The
Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa furnish an exact parallel to the
Rautias, being a tribal militia, who have now become a caste, and are
constituted mainly from the Bhuiya tribe with a proportion of Chasas
or cultivators and Rajputs. They also have obtained possession of
the land, and in Orissa the Sresta or good Khandaits rank next to
the Rajputs. The history and position of the Rautias appears to be
similar to that of the Khandaits. The Halbas of Bastar are probably
another nearly analogous instance. They were Gonds, who apparently
formed the tribal militia of the Rajas of Bastar and got grants of
land and consequently a certain rise in status though not to the same
level as the Khandaits and Rautias. It does not seem that the Rautias
have any special connection with the Gonds, and their acceptance of
food from Gonds may perhaps, as suggested by Mr. Hira Lal, be due to
the fact that they served a Gond Raja.