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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5. Death ceremonies

The Savars both burn and bury their dead, placing the corpse on the
pyre with its head to the north, in the belief that heaven lies in
that direction. On the eleventh day after the death in Sambalpur
those members of the caste who can afford it present a goat to the
mourners. The Savars believe that the souls of those who die become
ghosts, and in Bundelkhand they used formerly to bury the dead near
their fields in the belief that the spirits would watch over and
protect the crops. If a man has died a violent death they raise
a small platform of earth under a teak or _saj_ tree, in which
the ghost of the dead man is believed to take up its residence,
and nobody thereafter may cut down that tree. The Uriya Savars
take no special measures unless the ghost appears to somebody in a
dream and asks to be worshipped as Baghiapat (tiger-eaten) or Masan
(serpent-bitten). In such cases a _gunia_ or sorcerer is consulted,
and such measures as he prescribes are taken to appease the dead man's
soul. If a person dies without a child a hole is made in a stone,
and his soul is induced to enter it by the _gunia_. A few grains of
rice are placed in the hole, and it is then closed with melted lead
to imprison the ghost, and the stone is thrown into a stream so that
it may never be able to get out and trouble the family. Savars offer
water to the dead. A second wife usually wears a metal impression of
the first wife by way of propitiation to her.

6. Religion

The Savars worship Bhawani under various names and also Dulha Deo,
the young bridegroom who was killed by a tiger. He is located
in the kitchen of every house in some localities, and this has
given rise to the proverb, '_Jai chulha, tai Dulha_,' or 'There
is a Dulha Deo to every hearth.' The Savars are considered to be
great sorcerers. '_Sawara ke pange, Rawat ke bandhe_,' or 'The man
bewitched by a Savar and the bullock tied up by a Rawat (grazier)
cannot escape'; and again, 'Verily the Saonr is a cup of poison.' Their
charms, called Sabari _mantras_, are especially intended to appease
the spirits of persons who have died a violent death. If one of their
family was seriously ill they were accustomed formerly to set fire
to the forest, so that by burning the small animals and insects which
could not escape they might propitiate the angry gods.

7. Occupation

The dress of the Savars is of the scantiest. The women wear _khilwan_
or pith ornaments in the ear, and abstain from wearing nose-rings,
a traditional method of deference to the higher castes. The proverb
has it, 'The ornaments of the Sawara are _gumchi_ seeds.' These
are the red and black seeds of _Abrus precatorius_ which are used in
weighing gold and silver and are called _rati_. Women are tattooed and
sometimes men also to avoid being pierced with a red-hot iron by the
god of death. Tattooing is further said to allay the sexual passion
of women, which is eight times more intense than that of men. Their
occupations are the collection of jungle produce and cultivation. They
are very clever in taking honeycombs: 'It is the Savar who can drive
the black bees from their hive.' The eastern branch of the caste is
more civilised than the Saonras of Bundelkhand, who still sow juari
with a pointed stick, saying that it was the implement given to them
by Mahadeo for this purpose. In Saugor and Damoh they employ Brahmans
for marriage ceremonies if they can afford it, but on other occasions
their own caste priests. In some places they will take food from most
castes but in others from nobody who is not a Savar. Sometimes they
admit outsiders and in others the children only of irregular unions;
thus a Gond woman kept by a Savar would not be recognised as a member
of the caste herself but her children would be Savars. A woman going
wrong with an outsider of low caste is permanently excommunicated.

Sonjhara

List of Paragraphs

1. _Origin and constitution of the caste_.
2. _Totemism_.
3. _Marriage_.
4. _Customs at birth_
5. _Funeral rites_.
6. _Religion._
7. _Social customs_.
8. _Occupation_.

1. Origin and constitution of the caste

_Sonjhara, Jhara, Jhora, Jhira._--A small occupational caste who
wash for gold in river-beds, belonging to the Sambalpur, Mandla,
Balaghat and Chanda Districts and the Chota Nagpur Feudatory States. In
1911 they numbered about 1500 persons. The name probably comes from
_sona_, gold, and _jharna_, to sweep or wash, though, when the term
Jhara only is used, some derive it from _jhori_ a streamlet. Colonel
Dalton surmised that the Sonjharas were an offshoot of the Gonds,
and this appears to be demonstrated by the fact that the names of
their exogamous septs are identical with Gond names as Marabi, Tekam,
Netam, Dhurwa and Madao. The Sonjharas of Bilaspur say that their
ancestors were Gonds who dwelt at Lanji in Balaghat. The caste relate
the tradition that they were condemned by Mahadeo to perpetual poverty
because their first ancestor stole a little gold from Parvatis crown
when it fell into the river Jamuna (in Chota Nagpur) and he was sent
to fetch it out. The metal which is found in the river sands they
hold to be the remains of a shower of gold which fell for two and
a half days while the Banaphar heroes Alha and Udal were fighting
their great battle with Prithvi Raj, king of Delhi. The caste is
partly occupational, and recruited from different sources. This is
shown by the fact that in Chanda members of different septs will not
eat together, though they are obliged to intermarry. In Sambalpur the
Behra, Patar, Naik and Padhan septs eat together and intermarry. Two
other septs, the Kanar and Peltrai who eat fowls and drink liquor,
occupy a lower position, and members of the first four will not take
food from them nor give daughters to them in marriage, though they
will take daughters from these lower groups for their sons. Here
they have three subcastes, the Laria or residents of Chhattisgarh,
the Uriya belonging to the Uriya country, and the Bhuinhar, who may
be an offshoot from the Bhuiya tribe.

2. Totemism

They have one recorded instance of totemism, which is of some
interest. Members of the sept named after a tree called _kausa_ revere
the tree and explain it by saying that their ancestor, when flying
from some danger, sought protection from this tree, which thereupon
opened and enfolded him in its trunk. No member of the sept will
touch the tree without first bathing, and on auspicious occasions,
such as births and weddings, they will dig up a little earth from the
roots of the tree and taking this home worship it in the house. If
any member of the sept finds that he has cut off a branch or other
part of this tree unwittingly he will take and consign it to a stream,
observing ceremonies of mourning. Women of the Nag or cobra sept will
not mention the name of this snake aloud, just as they refrain from
speaking the names of male relatives.

3. Marriage

Marriage within the sept is forbidden, and they permit the
intermarriage of the children of a brother and sister, but not of
those of two sisters, though their husbands may be of different
septs. Marriage is usually adult except in Sambalpur, where a girl
must be provided with a husband before reaching maturity in accordance
with the general rule among the Uriya castes. In Chhindwara it is
said that the Sonjharas revere the crocodile and that the presence
of this animal is essential at their weddings. They do not, however,
kill and eat it at a sacrificial feast as the Singrore Dhimars are
reported to do, but catch and keep it alive, and when the ceremony is
concluded take it back again and deposit it in a river. After a girl
has been married neither her father nor any of her own near relatives
will ever take food again in the house of her husband's family, saying
that they would rather starve. Each married couple also becomes a
separate commensal group and will not eat with the parents of either of
them. This is a common custom among low castes of mixed origin where
every man is doubtful of his neighbour's parentage. Divorce and the
remarriage of widows are permitted, and a woman may be divorced merely
on the ground of incompetence in household management or because she
does not please her husband's parents.

4. Customs at birth

At child-birth they make a little separate hut for the mother near the
river where they are encamped, and she remains in it for two days and a
half. During this time her husband does no work; he stays a few paces
distant from his wife's hut and prepares her food but does not go to
the hut or touch her, and he kindles a fire between them. During the
first two days the woman gets three handfuls of rice boiled thin in
water, and on the third day she receives nothing until the evening,
when the Sendia or head of the sept takes a little cowdung, gold and
silver in his hand, and pouring water over this gives her of it to
drink as many times as the number of gods worshipped by her family
up to seven. Then she is pure. On this day the father sacrifices a
chicken and gives a meal with liquor to the caste and names the child,
calling it after one of his ancestors who is dead. Then an old woman
beats on a brass plate and calls out the name which has been given in
a loud voice to the whole camp so that they may all know the child's
name. In Bilaspur the Sonjharas observe the custom of the Couvade,
and for six days after the birth of a child the husband lies prone
in his house, while the wife gets up and goes to work, coming home to
give suck to the child when necessary. The man takes no food for three
days and on the fourth is given ginger and raw sugar, thus undergoing
the ordinary treatment of a woman after childbirth. This is supposed
by them to be a sort of compensation for the labours sustained by
the woman in bearing the child. The custom obtains among some other
primitive races, but is now rapidly being abandoned by the Sonjharas.

5. Funeral rites

The bodies of the old are cremated as a special honour, and those
of other persons are buried. No one other than a member of the dead
man's family may touch his corpse under a penalty of five rupees. A
relative will remove the body and bury it with the feet pointing to
the river or burn it by the water's edge. They mourn a child for one
day and an adult for four days, and at the end the mourner is shaved
and provides liquor for the community. If there be no relative, since
no other man can touch the corpse, they fire the hut over it and burn
it as it is lying or bury hut and body under a high mound of sand.

6. Religion

Their principal deities are Dulha Deo, the boy bridegroom, Nira
his servant, and Kauria a form of Devi. Nira lives under an _umar_
[633] tree and he and Dulha Deo his master are worshipped every third
year in the month of Magh (January). Kauria is also worshipped once
in three years on a Sunday in the month of Magh with an offering of
a cocoanut, and in her honour they never sit on a cot nor sleep on
a stool because they think that the goddess has her seat on these
articles. The real reason, however, is probably that the Sonjharas
consider the use of such furniture an indication of a settled life and
permanent residence, and therefore abjure it as being wanderers. Some
analogous customs have been recorded of the Banjaras. They also revere
the spirit of one of their female ancestors who became a Sati. They
sacrifice a goat to the _genius loci_ or spirit haunting the spot
where they decide to start work; and they will leave it for fear of
angering this spirit, which is said to appear in the form of a tiger,
should they make a particularly good find. [634] They never keep
dogs, and it is said that they are defiled by the touch of a dog
and will throw away their food if one comes near them during their
meal. The same rule applies to a cat, and they will throw away an
earthen vessel touched by either of these animals. On the Diwali day
they wash their implements, and setting them up near the huts worship
them with offerings of a cocoanut and vermilion.

7. Social customs

Their rule is always to camp outside a village at a distance of not
less than a mile. In the rains they make huts with a roof of bamboos
sloping from a central ridge and walls of matting. The huts are built
in one line and do not touch each other, at least a cubit's distance
being left between each. Each hut has one door facing the east. As a
rule they avoid the water of village wells and tanks, though it is not
absolutely forbidden. Each man digs a shallow well in the sand behind
his hut and drinks the water from it, and no man may drink the water
of his neighbour's well; if he should do so or if any water from his
well gets into his neighbour's, the latter is abandoned and a fresh one
made. If the ground is too swampy for wells they collect the water in
their wooden washing-tray and fill their vessels from it. In the cold
weather they make little leaf-huts on the sand or simply camp out in
the open, but they must never sleep under a tree. When living in the
open each family makes two fires and sleeps together between them. Some
of them have their stomachs burned and blackened from sleeping too near
the fire. The Sonjharas will not take cooked food from the hands of
any other caste, but their social status is very low, about equivalent
to that of the parent Gond tribe. They have no fear of wild animals,
not even the children. Perhaps they think that as fellow-denizens of
the jungle these animals are kin to them and will not injure them.

8. Occupation

The traditional occupation of the caste is to wash gold from the
sandy beds of streams, while they formerly also washed for diamonds at
Hirakud on the Mahanadi near Sambalpur and at Wairagarh in Chanda. The
industry is decaying, and in 1901 only a quarter of the total number
of Sonjharas were still employed In it. Some have become cultivators
and fishermen, while others earn their livelihood by sweeping up
the refuse dirt of the workshops of goldsmiths and brass-workers;
they wash out the particles of metal from this and sell it back to
the Sunars. The Mahanadi and Jonk rivers in Sambalpur, the Banjar In
Mandla, the Son and other rivers in Balaghat, and the Wainganga and
the eastern streams of Chanda contain minute particles of gold. The
washers earn a miserable and uncertain livelihood, and indeed appear
not to desire anything beyond a bare subsistence. In Bhandara [635] it
is said that they avoid any spot where they have previously been lucky,
while in Chanda they have a superstition that a person making a good
find of gold will be childless, and hence many dread the search. [636]
When they set out to look for gold they wash three small trayfuls at
three places about five cubits apart. If they find no appreciable
quantity of gold they go on for one or two hundred yards and wash
three more trayfuls, and proceed thus until they find a profitable
place where they will halt for two or three days. A spot [637]
in the dry river-bed is usually selected at the outside of a bend,
where the finer sediment is likely to be found; after removing the
stones and pebbles from above, the sand below is washed several times
in circular wooden cradles, shaped like the top of an umbrella, of
diminishing sizes, until all the clay is removed and fine particles of
sand mixed with gold are visible. A large wooden spoon is used to stir
up the sediment, which is washed and rubbed by hand to separate the
gold more completely from the sand, and a blackish residue is left,
containing particles of gold and mercury coloured black with oxide
of iron. Mercury is used to pick up the gold with which it forms
an amalgam. This is evaporated in a clay cupel called a _ghariya_
by which the mercury is got rid of and the gold left behind.

Sudh

_Sudh, [638] Sudha, Sudho, Suda_.--A cultivating caste in the
Uriya country. Since the transfer of Sambalpur to Bengal only a
few Sudhs remain in the Central Provinces. They are divided into
four subcastes--the Bada or high Sudhs, the Dehri or worshippers,
the Kabat-konia or those holding the corners of the gate, and the
Butka. These last are the most primitive and think that Rairakhol is
their first home. They relate that they were born of the Pandava hero
Bhimsen and the female demon Hedembiki, and were originally occupied in
supplying leaves for the funeral ceremonies of the Pandava brothers,
from which business they obtained their name of Butka or 'one who
brings leaves.' They are practically a forest tribe and carry on
shifting cultivation like the Khonds. According to their own story
the ancestors of the Butka Sudhs once ruled In Rairakhol and reclaimed
the land from the forest, that is so far as it has been reclaimed. The
following story connects them with the ruling family of Rairakhol. In
former times there was constant war between Bamra and Rairakhol, and
on one occasion the whole of the Rairakhol royal family was destroyed
with the exception of one boy who was hidden by a Butka Sudh woman. She
placed him in a cradle supported on four uprights, and when the Bamra
Raja's soldiers came to seek for him the Sudhs swore, "If we have kept
him either in heaven or earth may our god destroy us." The Bamra people
were satisfied with this reply and the child was saved, and on coming
to manhood he won back his kingdom. He received the name of Janamani
or 'Jewel among men,' which the family still bear. In consequence
of this incident, the Butka Sudhs are considered by the Rairakhol
house as relations on their mother's side; they have several villages
allotted to them and perform sacrifices for the ruling family. In some
of these villages nobody may sleep on a cot or sit on a high chair,
so as to be between heaven and earth in the position in which the
child was saved. The Bada Sudhs are the most numerous subdivision and
have generally adopted Hindu customs, so that the higher castes will
take water from their hands. They neither drink liquor nor eat fowls,
but the other subcastes do both. The Sudhs have totemistic _gotras_
as Bhalluka (bear), Bagh (tiger), Ulluka (owl), and others. They also
have _bargas_ or family names as Thakur (lord), Danaik, Amayat and
Bishi. The Thakur clan say that they used to hold the Baud kings in
their lap for their coronation, and the Danaik used to tie the king's
turban. The Bishi were so named because of their skill in arms, and
the Amayat collected materials for the worship of the Panch Khanda or
five swords. The _bargas_ are much more numerous than the totemistic
septs, and marriage either within the _barga_ or within the sept is
forbidden. Girls must be married before adolescence; and in the absence
of a suitable husband, the girl is married to an old man who divorces
her immediately afterwards, and she may then take a second husband
at any time by the form for widow-remarriage. A betrothal is sealed
by tying an areca-nut in a knot made from the clothes of a relative
of each party and pounding it seven times with a pestle. After the
marriage a silver ring is placed in a pot of water, over the mouth of
which a leaf-plate is bound. The bridegroom pierces the leaf-plate with
a knife, and the bride then thrusts her hand through the hole, picks
out the ring and puts it on. The couple then go inside the house and
sit down to a meal. The bridegroom, after eating part of his food,
throws the leavings on to the bride's plate. She stops eating in
displeasure, whereupon the bridegroom promises her some ornaments,
and she relents and eats his leavings. It is customary for a Hindu wife
to eat the leavings of food of her husband as a mark of her veneration
for him. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. The Sudhs
worship the Panch Khanda or five swords, and in the Central Provinces
they say that these are a representation of the five Pandava brothers,
in whose service their first ancestors were engaged. Their tutelary
goddess is Khambeshwari, represented by a wooden peg (_khamba_). She
dwells in the wilds of the Baud State and is supposed to fulfil
all the desires of the Sudhs. Liquor, goats, buffaloes, vermilion
and swallow-wort flowers are offered to her, the last two being in
representation of blood. The Dehri Sudhs worship a goddess called
Kandrapat who dwells always on the summits of hills. It is believed
that whenever worship is concluded the roar of her tiger is heard,
and the worshippers then leave the place and allow the tiger to come
and take the offerings. The goddess would therefore appear to be the
deified tiger. The Bada Sudhs rank with the cultivating castes of
Sambalpur, but the other three subcastes have a lower position.

Sunar

List of Paragraphs

1. _General notice of the caste_.
2. _Internal structure_.
3. _Marriage and other customs_.
4. _Religion_.
5. _Social position_.
6. _Manufacture of ornaments_.
7. _The sanctity of gold_.
8. _Ornaments. The marriage ornaments_.
9. _Beads and other ornaments_.
10. _Ear-piercing._
11. _Origin of ear-piercing._
12. _Ornaments worn as amulets_.
13. _Audhia Sunars_.
14. _The Sunar as money-changer._
15. _Malpractices of lower-class Sunars_.

1. General notice of the caste

Sunar, [639] Sonar, Soni, Hon-Potdar, Saraf.--The occupational caste
of goldsmiths and silversmiths. The name is derived from the Sanskrit
_Suvarna kar_, a worker in gold. In 1911 the Sunars numbered 96,000
persons in the Central Provinces and 30,000 in Berar. They live all
over the Province and are most numerous in the large towns. The caste
appears to be a functional one of comparatively recent formation,
and there is nothing on record as to its origin, except a collection
of Brahmanical legends of the usual type. The most interesting of
these as related by Sir H. Risley is as follows: [640]

"In the beginning of time, when the goddess Devi was busy with the
construction of mankind, a giant called Sonwa-Daitya, whose body
consisted entirely of gold, devoured her creations as fast as she
made them. To baffle this monster the goddess created a goldsmith,
furnished him with the tools of his art, and instructed him how to
proceed. When the giant proposed to eat him, the goldsmith suggested
to him that if his body were polished his appearance would be vastly
improved, and asked to be allowed to undertake the job. With the
characteristic stupidity of his tribe the giant fell into the trap,
and having had one finger polished was so pleased with the result that
he agreed to be polished all over. For this purpose, like Aetes in the
Greek legend of Medea, he had to be melted down, and the goldsmith,
who was to get the body as his perquisite, giving the head only to
Devi, took care not to put him together again. The goldsmith, however,
overreached himself. Not content with his legitimate earnings, he
must needs steal a part of the head, and being detected in this by
Devi, he and his descendants were condemned to be for ever poor." The
Sunars also have a story that they are the descendants of one of two
Rajput brothers, who were saved as boys by a Saraswat Brahman from
the wrath of Parasurama when he was destroying the Kshatriyas. The
descendants of the other brother were the Khatris. This is the same
story as is told by the Khatris of their own origin, but they do not
acknowledge the connection with Sunars, nor can the Sunars allege that
Saraswat Brahmans eat with them as they do with Khatris. In Gujarat
they have a similar legend connecting them with Banias. In Bombay
they also claim to be Brahmans, and in the Central Provinces a caste
of goldsmiths akin to the Sunars call themselves Vishwa Brahmans. On
the other hand, before and during the time of the Peshwas, Sunars
were not allowed to wear the sacred thread, and they were forbidden to
hold their marriages in public, as it was considered unlucky to see a
Sunar bridegroom. Sunar bridegrooms were not allowed to see the state
umbrella or to ride in a palanquin, and had to be married at night and
in secluded places, being subject to restrictions and annoyances from
which even Mahars were free. [641] Their _raison d'etre_ may possibly
be found in the fact that the Brahmans, all-powerful in the Poona
state, were jealous of the pretensions of the Sunars, and devised
these rules as a means of suppressing them. It may be suggested that
the Sunars, being workers at an important urban industry, profitable
in itself and sanctified by its association with the sacred metal
gold, aspired to rank above the other artisans, and put forward the
pretensions already mentioned, because they felt that their position
was not commensurate with their deserts. But the Sunar is included
in Grant-Duff's list of the twenty-four village menials of a Maratha
village, and consequently he would in past times have ranked below
the cultivators, from whom he must have accepted the annual presents
of grain.

2. Internal structure