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

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52

Mr. A. K. Smith states that the omen applies to men also, and
relates a story of a young advocate who saw two crows thus engaged
on alighting from the train at some station. In order to avert the
consequences he ran to the telegraph office and sent messages to all
his relatives and friends announcing his own death, the idea being
that this fictitious death would fulfil the omen, and the real death
would thus become unnecessary. In this case the belief would be that
the man's own spirit would pass into the young crow.

16. Religion

The principal deities of the caste are Maroti or Hanuman, Mahadeo or
Siva, Devi, Satwai and Khandoba. Maroti is worshipped principally on
Saturdays, so that he may counteract the evil influences exercised by
the planet Saturn on that day. When a new village is founded Maroti
must first be brought and placed in the village and worshipped, and
after this houses are built. The name Maroti is derived from Marut,
the Vedic god of the wind, and he is considered to be the son of
Vayu, the wind, and Anjini. Khandoba is an incarnation of Siva as a
warrior, and is the favourite deity of the Marathas. Devi is usually
venerated in her Incarnation of Marhai Mata, the goddess of smallpox
and cholera--the most dreaded scourges of the Hindu villager. They
offer goats and fowls to Marhai Devi, cutting the throat of the
animal and letting its blood drop over the stone, which represents
the goddess; after this they cut off a leg and hang it to the tree
above her shrine, and eat the remainder. Sometimes also they offer
wooden images of human beings, which are buried before the shrine
of the goddess and are obviously substitutes for a human sacrifice;
and the lower castes offer pigs. If a man dies of snake-bite they
make a little silver image of a snake, and then kill a real snake,
and make a platform outside the village and place the image on it,
which is afterwards regularly worshipped as Nagoba Deo. They may
perhaps think that the spirit of the snake which is killed passes
into the silver image. Somebody afterwards steals the image, but
this does not matter. Similarly if a man is killed by a tiger he
is deified and worshipped as Baghoba Deo, though they cannot kill a
tiger as a preliminary. The Kunbis make images of their ancestors in
silver or brass, and keep them in a basket with their other household
deities. But when these get too numerous they take them on a pilgrimage
to some sacred river and deposit them in it. A man who has lost
both parents will invite some man and woman on Akshaya Tritiya,
[35] and call them by the names of his parents, and give them a
feast. Among the mythological stories known to the caste is one of
some interest, explaining how the dark spots came on the face of the
moon. They say that once all the gods were going to a dinner-party,
each riding on his favourite animal or _vahan_ (conveyance). But
the _vahan_ of Ganpati, the fat god with the head of an elephant,
was a rat, and the rat naturally could not go as fast as the other
animals, and as it was very far from being up to Ganpati's weight,
it tripped and fell, and Ganpati came off. The moon was looking on,
and laughed so much that Ganpati was enraged, and cursed it, saying,
'Thy face shall be black for laughing at me.' Accordingly the moon
turned quite black; but the other gods interfered, and said that the
curse was too hard, so Ganpati agreed that only a part of the moon's
face should be blackened in revenge for the insult. This happened
on the fourth day of the bright fortnight of Bhadon (September),
and on that day it is said that nobody should look at the moon, as
if he does, his reputation will probably be lowered by some false
charge or libel being promulgated against him. As already stated,
the Kunbi firmly believes in the influence exercised by spirits, and
a proverb has it, 'Brahmans die of indigestion, Sunars from bile, and
Kunbis from ghosts'; because the Brahman is always feasted as an act of
charity and given the best food, so that he over-eats himself, while
the Sunar gets bilious from sitting all day before a furnace. When
somebody falls ill his family get a Brahman's cast-off sacred thread,
and folding it to hold a little lamp, will wave this to and fro. If
it moves in a straight line they say that the patient is possessed
by a spirit, but if in a circle that his illness is due to natural
causes. In the former case they promise an offering to the spirit
to induce it to depart from the patient. The Brahmans, it is said,
try to prevent the Kunbis from getting hold of their sacred threads,
because they think that by waving the lamp in them, all the virtue
which they have obtained by their repetitions of the Gayatri or sacred
prayer is transferred to the sick Kunbi. They therefore tear up their
cast-off threads or sew them into clothes.

17. The Pola festival

The principal festival of the Kunbis is the Pola, falling at about
the middle of the rainy season, when they have a procession of
plough-bullocks. An old bullock goes first, and on his horns is
tied the _makhar_, a wooden frame with pegs to which torches are
affixed. They make a rope of mango-leaves stretched between two posts,
and the _makhar_ bullock is made to break this and stampede back to
the village, followed by all the other cattle. It is said that the
_makhar_ bullock will die within three years. Behind him come the
bullocks of the proprietors and then those of the tenants in the order,
not so much of their wealth, but of their standing in the village and
of the traditional position held by their families. A Kunbi feels it
very bitterly if he is not given what he considers to be his proper
rank in this procession. It has often been remarked that the feudal
feeling of reverence for hereditary rights and position is as strong
among the Maratha people as anywhere in the world.

18. Muhammadan tendencies of Berar Kunbis

In Wardha and Berar the customs of the Kunbis show in several
respects the influence of Islam, due no doubt to the long period
of Muhammadan dominance in the country. To this may perhaps be
attributed the prevalence of burial of the dead instead of cremation,
the more respectable method according to Hindu ideas. The Dhanoje
Kunbis commonly revere Dawal Malik, a Muhammadan saint, whose tomb
is at Uprai in Amraoti District. An _urus_ or fair is held here on
Thursdays, the day commonly sacred to Muhammadan saints, and on this
account the Kunbis will not be shaved on Thursdays. They also make
vows of mendicancy at the Muharram festival, and go round begging for
rice and pulse; they give a little of what they obtain to Muhammadan
beggars and eat the rest. At the Muharram they tie a red thread
on their necks and dance round the _alawa_, a small hole in which
fire is kindled in front of the _tasias_ or tombs of Hussain. At the
Muharram [36] they also carry horseshoes of silver or gilt tinsel on
the top of a stick decorated with peacock's feathers. The horseshoe
is a model of that of the horse of Hussain. The men who carry these
horseshoes are supposed to be possessed by the spirit of the saint,
and people make prayers to them for anything they want. If one of
the horseshoes is dropped the finder will keep it in his house,
and next year if he feels that the spirit moves him will carry it
himself. In Wardha the Kunbis worship Khwaja Sheikh Farid of Girar,
and occasionally Sheikh Farid appears to a Kunbi in a dream and
places him under a vow. Then he and all his household make little
imitation beggars' wallets of cloth and dye them with red ochre,
and little hoes on the model of those which saises use to drag out
horses' dung, this hoe being the badge of Sheikh Farid. Then they
go round begging to all the houses in the village, saying, '_Dam_,
[37] _Sahib_, _dam_.' With the alms given them they make cakes of
_malida_, wheat, sugar and butter, and give them to the priest of the
shrine. Sometimes Sheikh Farid tells the Kunbi in the dream that he
must buy a goat of a certain Dhangar (shepherd), naming the price,
while the Dhangar is similarly warned to sell it at the same price,
and the goat is then purchased and sacrificed without any haggling:
At the end of the sacrifice the priest releases the Kunbi from his vow,
and he must then shave the whole of his head and distribute liquor to
the caste-fellows in order to be received back into the community. The
water of the well at Sheikh Farid's shrine at Girar is considered
to preserve the crops against insects, and for this purpose it is
carried to considerable distances to be sprinkled on them.

19. Villages and houses

An ordinary Kunbi village [38] contains between 70 and 80 houses or
some 400 souls. The village generally lies on a slight eminence near a
_nullah_ or stream, and is often nicely planted with tamarind or pipal
trees. The houses are now generally tiled for fear of fire, and their
red roofs may be seen from a distance forming a little cluster on high
lying ground, an elevated site being selected so as to keep the roads
fairly dry, as the surface tracks in black-soil country become almost
impassable sloughs of mud as soon as the rains have broken. The better
houses stand round an old mud fort, a relic of the Pindari raids,
when, on the first alarm of the approach of these marauding bands, the
whole population hurried within its walls. The village proprietor's
house is now often built inside the fort. It is an oblong building
surrounded by a compound wall of unbaked bricks, and with a gateway
through which a cart can drive. Adjoining the entrance on each side
are rooms for the reception of guests, in which constables, chuprassies
and others are lodged when they stay at night in the village. _Kothas_
or sheds for keeping cattle and grain stand against the walls, and the
dwelling-house is at the back. Substantial tenants have a house like
the proprietor's, of well-laid mud, whitewashed and with tiled roof;
but the ordinary cultivator's house is one-roomed, with an _angan_
or small yard in front and a little space for a garden behind, in
which vegetables are grown during the rains. The walls are of bamboo
matting plastered over with mud. The married couples sleep inside,
the room being partitioned off if there are two or more in the
family, and the older persons sleep in the verandahs. In the middle
of the village by the biggest temple will be an old pipal tree, the
trunk encircled by an earthen or stone platform, which answers to
the village club. The respectable inhabitants will meet here while
the lower classes go to the liquor-shop nearly every night to smoke
and chat. The blacksmith's and carpenter's shops are also places of
common resort for the cultivators. Hither they wend in the morning
and evening, often taking with them some implement which has to be
mended, and stay to talk. The blacksmith in particular is said to
be a great gossip, and will often waste much of his customer's time,
plying him for news and retailing it, before he repairs and hands back
the tool brought to him. The village is sure to contain two or three
little temples of Maroti or Mahadeo. The stones which do duty for the
images are daily oiled with butter or _ghi_, and a miscellaneous store
of offerings will accumulate round the buildings. Outside the village
will be a temple of Devi or Mata Mai (Smallpox Goddess) with a heap of
little earthen horses and a string of hens' feet and feathers hung up
on the wall. The little platforms which are the shrines of the other
village gods will be found in the fields or near groves. In the evening
the elders often meet at Maroti's temple and pay their respects to
the deity, bowing or prostrating themselves before him. A lamp before
the temple is fed by contributions of oil from the women, and is kept
burning usually up to midnight. Once a year in the month, of Shrawan
(July) the villagers subscribe and have a feast, the Kunbis eating
first and the menial and labouring castes after them. In this month
also all the village deities are worshipped by the Joshi or priest and
the villagers. In summer the cultivators usually live in their fields,
where they erect temporary sheds of bamboo matting roofed with juari
stalks. In these most of the household furniture is stored, while at a
little distance in another funnel-shaped erection of bamboo matting is
kept the owner's grain. This system of camping out is mainly adopted
for fear of fire in the village, when the cultivator's whole stock
of grain and his household goods might be destroyed in a few minutes
without possibility of saving them. The women stay in the village,
and the men and boys go there for their midday and evening meals.

20. Furniture

Ordinary cultivators have earthen pots for cooking purposes and brass
ones for eating from, while the well-to-do have all their vessels of
brass. The furniture consists of a few stools and cots. No Kunbi will
lie on the ground, probably because a dying man is always laid on the
ground to breathe his last; and so every one has a cot consisting of
a wooden frame with a bed made of hempen string or of the root-fibres
of the _palas_ tree (_Butea frondosa_). These cots are always too
short for a man to lie on them at full length, and are in consequence
supremely uncomfortable. The reason may perhaps be found in the
belief that a man should always lie on a bed a little shorter than
himself so that his feet project over the end. Because if the bed is
longer than he is, it resembles a bier, and if he lies on a bier once
he may soon die and lie on it a second time. For bathing they make a
little enclosure in the compound with mats, and place two or three flat
stones in it. Hot water is generally used and they rub the perspiration
off their bodies with a flat stone called Jhawar. Most Kunbis bathe
daily. On days when they are shaved they plaster the head with soft
black earth, and then wash it off and rub their bodies with a little
linseed or sesamum oil, or, if they can afford it, with cocoanut oil.

21. Food

The Kunbis eat three times a day, at about eight in the morning,
at midday and after dark. The morning meal is commonly eaten in the
field and the two others at home. At midday the cultivator comes home
from work, bathes and takes his meal, having a rest for about two
hours in all. After finishing work he again comes home and has his
evening meal, and then, after a rest, at about ten o'clock he goes
again to the fields, if the crops are on the ground, and sleeps on the
_mara_ or small elevated platform erected in the field to protect the
grain from birds and wild animals; occasionally waking and emitting
long-drawn howls or pulling the strings which connect with clappers
in various parts of the field. Thus for nearly eight months of the
year the Kunbi sleeps in his fields, and only during the remaining
period at home. Juari is the staple food of the caste, and is eaten
both raw and cooked. The raw pods of juari were the provision carried
with them on their saddles by the marauding Maratha horsemen, and the
description of Sivaji getting his sustenance from gnawing at one of
these as he rode along is said to have struck fear into the heart
of the Nizam. It is a common custom among well-to-do tenants and
proprietors to invite their friends to a picnic in the fields when
the crop is ripe to eat _hurda_ or the pods of juari roasted in hot
ashes. For cooking purposes juari is ground in an ordinary handmill
and then passed through a sieve, which separates the finer from the
coarser particles. The finer flour is made into dough with hot water
and baked into thick flat _chapatis_ or cakes, weighing more than half
a pound each; while the coarse flour is boiled in water like rice. The
boiled pulse of _arhar_ (_Cajanus indicus_) is commonly eaten with
juari, and the _chapatis_ are either dipped into cold linseed oil
or consumed dry. The sameness of this diet is varied by a number of
green vegetables, generally with very little savour to a European
palate. These are usually boiled and then mixed into a salad with
linseed or sesamum oil and flavoured with salt or powdered chillies,
these last being the Kunbi's indispensable condiment. He is also
very fond of onions and garlic, which are either chopped and boiled,
or eaten raw. Butter-milk when available is mixed with the boiled
juari after it is cooked, while wheat and rice, butter and sugar are
delicacies reserved for festivals. As a rule only water is drunk,
but the caste indulge in country liquor on festive occasions. Tobacco
is commonly chewed after each meal or smoked in leaf cigarettes,
or in _chilams_ or clay pipe-bowls without a stem. Men also take
snuff, and a few women chew tobacco and take snuff, though they
do not smoke. It is noticeable that different subdivisions of the
caste will commonly take food from each other in Berar, whereas in
the Central Provinces they refuse to do so. The more liberal usage
in Berar is possibly another case of Muhammadan influence. Small
children eat with their father and brothers, but the women always
wait on the men, and take their own food afterwards. Among the Dalia
Kunbis of Nimar, however, women eat before men at caste feasts in
opposition to the usual practice. It is stated in explanation that
on one occasion when the men had finished their meal first and gone
home, the women on returning were waylaid in the dark and robbed of
their ornaments. And hence it was decided that they should always eat
first and go home before nightfall. The Kunbi is fairly liberal in
the matter of food. He will eat the flesh of goats, sheep and deer,
all kinds of fish and fowls, and will drink liquor. In Hoshangabad
and Nimar the higher subcastes abstain from flesh and wine. The caste
will take food cooked without water from Brahmans, Banias and Sunars,
and that mixed with water only from Maratha Brahmans. All castes
except Maratha Brahmans will take water from the hands of a Kunbi.

22. Clothes and ornaments

The dress of the ordinary cultivator is most common-place and consists
only of a loin-cloth, another cloth thrown over the shoulders and
upper part of the body, which except for this is often bare, and a
third rough cloth wound loosely round the head. All these, originally
white, soon assume a very dingy hue. There is thus no colour in a
man's everyday attire, but the gala dress for holidays consists of a
red _pagri_ or turban, a black, coloured or white coat, and a white
loin-cloth with red silk borders if he can afford it. The Kunbi is
seldom or never seen with his head bare; this being considered a
bad omen because every one bares his head when a death occurs. Women
wear _lugras_, or a single long cloth of red, blue or black cotton,
and under this the _choli_, or small breast-cloth. They have one
silk-bordered cloth for special occasions. A woman having a husband
alive must not wear a white cloth with no colour in it, as this is
the dress of widows. A white cloth with a coloured border may be
worn. The men generally wear shoes which are open at the back of
the heel, and clatter as they move along. Women do not, as a rule,
wear shoes unless these are necessary for field work, or if they go
out just after their confinement. But they have now begun to do so
in towns. Women have the usual collection of ornaments on all parts
of the person. The head ornaments should be of gold when this metal
can be afforded. On the finger they have a miniature mirror set in a
ring; as a rule not more than one ring is worn, so that the hands may
be free for work. For a similar reason glass bangles, being fragile,
are worn only on the left wrist and metal ones on the right. But the
Dhanoje Kunbis, as already stated, have cocoanut shell bangles on
both wrists. They smear a mark of red powder on the forehead or have
a spangle there. Girls are generally tattooed in childhood when the
skin is tender, and the operation is consequently less painful. They
usually have a small crescent and circle between the brows, small
circles or dots on each temple and on the nose, cheeks and chin, and
five small marks on the back of the hands to represent flies. Some
of the Deshmukh families have now adopted the sacred thread; they
also put caste marks on the forehead, and wear the shape of _pagri_
or turban formerly distinctive of Maratha Brahmans.

23. The Kunbi as cultivator

The Kunbi has the stolidity, conservative instincts, dulness and
patience of the typical agriculturist. Sir R. Craddock describes
him as follows [39]: "Of the purely agricultural classes the Kunbis
claim first notice. They are divided into several sections or classes,
and are of Maratha origin, the Jhari Kunbis (the Kunbis of the wild
country) being the oldest settlers, and the Deshkar (the Kunbis
from the Deccan) the most recent. The Kunbi is certainly a most
plodding, patient mortal, with a cat-like affection for his land,
and the proprietary and cultivating communities, of both of which
Kunbis are the most numerous members, are unlikely to fail so long
as he keeps these characteristics. Some of the more intelligent and
affluent of the caste, who have risen to be among the most prosperous
members of the community, are as shrewd men of business in their way
as any section of the people, though lacking in education. I remember
one of these, a member of the Local Board, who believed that the land
revenue of the country was remitted to England annually to form part
of the private purse of the Queen Empress. But of the general body of
the Kunbi caste it is true to say that in the matter of enterprise,
capacity to hold their own with the moneylender, determination to
improve their standard of comfort, or their style of agriculture,
they lag far behind such cultivating classes as the Kirar, the Raghvi
and the Lodhi. While, however, the Kunbi yields to these classes
in some of the more showy attributes which lead to success in life,
he is much their superior in endurance under adversity, he is more
law-abiding, and he commands, both by reason of his character and his
caste, greater social respect among the people at large. The wealthy
Kunbi proprietor is occasionally rather spoilt by good fortune,
or, if he continues a keen cultivator, is apt to be too fond of
land-grabbing. But these are the exceptional cases, and there is
generally no such pleasing spectacle as that afforded by a village
in which the cultivators and the proprietors are all Kunbis living in
harmony together." The feeling [40] of the Kunbi towards agricultural
improvements has hitherto probably been something the same as that of
the Sussex farmer who said, 'Our old land, it likes our old ploughs'
to the agent who was vainly trying to demonstrate to him the advantages
of the modern two-horse iron plough over the great wooden local tool;
and the emblem ascribed to old Sussex--a pig couchant with the motto
'I wun't be druv'--would suit the Kunbi equally well. But the Kunbi,
too, though he could not express it, knows something of the pleasure
of the simple outdoor life, the fresh smell of the soil after rain,
the joy of the yearly miracle when the earth is again carpeted with
green from the bursting into life of the seed which he has sown,
and the pleasure of watching the harvest of his labours come to
fruition. He, too, as has been seen, feels something corresponding to
"That inarticulate love of the English farmer for his land, his mute
enjoyment of the furrow crumbling from the ploughshare or the elastic
tread of his best pastures under his heel, his ever-fresh satisfaction
at the sight of the bullocks stretching themselves as they rise from
the soft grass."

24. Social and moral characteristics

Some characteristics of the Maratha people are noticed by Sir
R. Jenkins as follows [41]: "The most remarkable feature perhaps in the
character of the Marathas of all descriptions is the little regard they
pay to show or ceremony in the common intercourse of life. A peasant
or mechanic of the lowest order, appearing before his superiors,
will sit down of his own accord, tell his story without ceremony,
and converse more like an equal than an inferior; and if he has a
petition he talks in a loud and boisterous tone and fearlessly sets
forth his claims. Both the peasantry and the better classes are often
coarse and indelicate in their language, and many of the proverbs,
which they are fond of introducing into conversation, are extremely
gross. In general the Marathas, and particularly the cultivators,
are not possessed of much activity or energy of character, but they
have quick perception of their own interest, though their ignorance
of writing and accounts often renders them the dupes of the artful
Brahmans." "The Kunbi," Mr. Forbes remarks, [42] "though frequently all
submission and prostration when he makes his appearance in a revenue
office, is sturdy and bold enough among his own people. He is fond
of asserting his independence and the helplessness of others without
his aid, on which subject he has several proverbs, as: 'Wherever it
thunders there the Kunbi is a landholder,' and 'Tens of millions are
dependent on the Kunbi, but the Kunbi depends on no man.'" This sense
of his own importance, which has also been noticed among the Jats,
may perhaps be ascribed to the Kunbi's ancient status as a free and
full member of the village community. "The Kunbi and his bullocks are
inseparable, and in speaking of the one it is difficult to dissociate
the other. His pride in these animals is excusable, for they are most
admirably suited to the circumstances in which nature has placed them,
and possess a very wide-extended fame. But the Kunbi frequently
exhibits his fondness for them in the somewhat peculiar form of
unmeasured abuse. 'May the Kathis [43] seize you!' is his objurgation
if in the peninsula of Surat; if in the Idar district or among the
mountains it is there 'May the tiger kill you!' and all over Gujarat,
'May your master die!' However, he means by this the animal's former
owner, not himself; and when more than usually cautious he will word
his chiding thus--'May the fellow that sold you to me perish.'" But now
the Kathis raid no more and the tiger, though still taking good toll
of cattle in the Central Provinces, is not the ever-present terror
that once he was. But the bullock himself is no longer so sacrosanct
in the Kunbi's eyes, and cannot look forward with the same certainty
to an old age of idleness, threatened only by starvation in the hot
weather or death by surfeit of the new moist grass in the rains; and
when therefore the Kunbi's patience is exhausted by these aggravating
animals, his favourite threat at present is, 'I will sell you to the
Kasais' (butchers); and not so very infrequently he ends by doing
so. It may be noted that with the development of the cotton industry
the Kunbi of Wardha is becoming much sharper and more capable of
protecting his own interests, while with the assistance and teaching
which he now receives from the Agricultural Department, a rapid and
decided improvement is taking place in his skill as a cultivator.