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 caste have a number of subdivisions, nearly all of which are of
the territorial class and indicate the various localities from which
it has been recruited in these Provinces. The most important subcastes
are the Audhia from Ajodhia or Oudh; the Purania or old settlers;
the Bundelkhandi from Bundelkhand; the Malwi from Malwa; the Lad from
Lat, the old name for the southern portion of Gujarat; and the Mair,
who appear to have been the first immigrants from Upper India and are
named after Mair, the original ancestor, who melted down the golden
demon. Other small groups are the Patkars, so called because they allow
_pat_ or widow-marriage, though, as a matter of fact, it is permitted
by the great majority of the caste; the Pandhare or 'White Sunars';
and the Ahir Sunars, whose ancestors must presumably have belonged to
the caste whose name they bear. The caste have also numerous _bainks_
or exogamous septs, which differ entirely from the long lists given
for Bengal and the United Provinces, and show, as Mr. Crooke remarks,
the extreme fertility with which sections of this kind spring up. In
the Central Provinces the names are of a titular or territorial
nature. Examples of the former kind, that is, a title or nickname
supposed to have been borne by the sept's founder, are: Dantele, one
who has projecting teeth; Kale, black; Munde, bald; Kolhimare, a killer
of jackals; and Ladaiya, a jackal or a quarrelsome person. Among the
territorial names are Narwaria from Narwar; Bhilsainyan from Bhilsa;
Kanaujia from Kanauj; Dilliwal from Delhi; Kalpiwal from Kalpi. Besides
the _bainks_ or septs by which marriage is regulated, they have adopted
the Brahmanical eponymous _gotra_-names as Kashyap, Garg, Sandilya,
and so on. These are employed on ceremonial occasions as when a gift
is made for the purpose of obtaining religious merit, and the _gotra-_
name of the owner is recorded, but they do not influence marriage. The
use of them is a harmless vanity analogous to the assumption of
distinguished surnames by people who were not born to them.

3. Marriage and other customs

Marriage is forbidden within the sept. In some localities persons
descended from a common ancestor may not intermarry for five
generations, but in others a brother's daughter may be wedded to a
sister's son. A man is forbidden to marry two sisters while both are
alive, and after his wife's death he may espouse her younger sister,
but not her elder one. Girls are usually wedded at a tender age,
but some Sunars have hitherto had a rule that neither a girl nor a
boy should be married until they had had smallpox, the idea being
that there can be no satisfactory basis for a contract of marriage
while either party is still exposed to such a danger to life and
personal appearance; just as it might be considered more prudent not
to buy a young dog until it had had distemper. But with the spread of
vaccination the Sunars are giving up this custom. The marriage ceremony
follows the Hindustani or Maratha ritual according to locality. [642]
In Betul the mother of the bride ties the mother of the bridegroom to
a pole with the ropes used for tethering buffaloes and beats her with
a piece of twisted cloth, until the bridegroom's mother gives her a
present of money or cloth and is released. The ceremony may be designed
to express the annoyance of the bride's mother at being deprived
of her daughter. Polygamy is permitted, but people will not give
their daughter to a married man if they can find a bachelor husband
for her. Well-to-do Sunars who desire increased social distinction
prohibit the marriage of widows, but the caste generally allow it.

4. Religion

The caste venerate the ordinary Hindu deities, and many of them have
sects and return themselves as Vaishnavas, Saivas or Saktas. In some
places they are said to make a daily offering to their melting-furnace
so that it may bring them in a profit. When a child has been born
they make a sacrifice of a goat to Dulha Deo, the marriage-god, on the
following Dasahra festival, and the body of this must be eaten by the
family only, no outsider being allowed to participate. In Hoshangabad
it is stated that on the night before the Dasahra festival all the
Sunars assemble beside a river and hold a feast. Each of them is
then believed to take an oath that he will not during the coming
year disclose the amount of the alloy which a fellow-craftsman may
mix with the precious metals. Any Sunar who violates this agreement
is put out of caste. On the 15th day of Jeth (May) the village Sunar
stops work for five days and worships his implements after washing
them. He draws pictures of the goddess Devi on a piece of paper and
goes round the village to affix them to the doors of his clients,
receiving in return a small present.

The caste usually burn their dead and take the ashes to the Nerbudda
or Ganges; those living to the south of the Nerbudda always stop
at this river, because they think that if they crossed it to go to
the Ganges, the Nerbudda would be offended at their not considering
it good enough. If a man meets with a violent death and his body is
lost, they construct a small image of him and burn this with all the
proper ceremonies. Mourning is observed for ten or thirteen days, and
the _shraddh_ ceremony is performed on the anniversary of a death,
while the usual oblations are offered to the ancestors during the
fortnight of Pitr Paksh in Kunwar (September).

5. Social position

The more ambitious members of the caste abjure all flesh and liquor,
and wear the sacred thread. These will not take cooked food even from
a Brahman. Others do not observe these restrictions. Brahmans will
usually take water from Sunars, especially from those who wear the
sacred thread. Owing to their association with the sacred metal gold,
and the fact that they generally live in towns or large villages, and
many of their members are well-to-do, the Sunars occupy a fairly high
position, ranking equal with, or above the cultivating castes. But,
as already stated, the goldsmith was a village menial in the Maratha
villages, and Sir D. Ibbetson thinks that the Jat really considers
the Sunar to be distinctly inferior to himself.

6. Manufacture of ornaments

The Sunar makes all kinds of ornaments of gold and silver, being
usually supplied with the metal by his customers. He is paid according
to the weight of metal used, the rate varying from four annas to
two rupees with an average of a rupee per tola weight of metal for
gold, and from one to two annas per tola weight of silver. [643]
The lowness of these rates is astonishing when compared with those
charged by European jewellers, being less than 10 per cent on the
value of the metal for quite delicate ornaments. The reason is
partly that ornaments are widely regarded as a means for the safe
keeping of money, and to spend a large sum on the goldsmith's labour
would defeat this end, as it would be lost on the reconversion of
the ornaments into cash. Articles of elaborate workmanship are also
easily injured when worn by women who have to labour in the fields or
at home. These considerations have probably retarded the development
of the goldsmith's art, except in a few isolated localities where it
may have had the patronage of native courts, and they account for the
often clumsy form and workmanship of his ornaments. The value set
on the products of skilled artisans in early times is nevertheless
shown by the statement in M'Crindle's _Ancient India_ that any one
who caused an artisan to lose the use of an eye or a hand was put to
death. [644] In England the jeweller's profit on his wares is from 33
to 50 per cent or more, in which, of course, allowance is made for the
large amount of capital locked up in them and the time they may remain
on his hands. But the difference in rates is nevertheless striking,
and allowance must be made for it in considering the bad reputation
which the Sunar has for mixing alloy with the metal. Gold ornaments
are simply hammered or punched into shape or rudely engraved, and are
practically never cast or moulded. They are often made hollow from
thin plate or leaf, the interior being filled up with lac. Silver ones
are commonly cast in Saugor and Jubbulpore, but rarely elsewhere. The
Sunar's trade appears now to be fairly prosperous, but during the
famines it was greatly depressed and many members of the caste took
to other occupations. Many Sunars make small articles of brass, such
as chains, bells and little boxes. Others have become cultivators
and drive the plough themselves, a practice which has the effect of
spoiling their hands, and also prevents them from giving their sons
a proper training. To be a good Sunar the hands must be trained from
early youth to acquire the necessary delicacy of touch. The Sunar's
son sits all day with his father watching him work and handling the
ornaments. Formerly the Sunar never touched a plough. Like the Pekin
ivory painter--

From early dawn he works;
And all day long, and when night comes the lamp
Lights up his studious forehead and thin hands.

7. The sanctity of gold

As already stated, the Sunar obtains some social distinction from
working in gold, which is a very sacred metal with the Hindus. Gold
ornaments must not on this account be worn below the waist, as to do
so would be considered an indignity to the holy material. Maratha and
Khedawal Brahman women will not have ornaments for the head and arms
of any baser metal than gold. If they cannot afford gold bracelets
they wear only glass ones. Other castes should, if they can afford it,
wear only gold on the head. And at any rate the nose-ring and small
earrings in the upper ear should be of gold if worn at all. When a
man is at the point of death, a little gold, Ganges water, and a leaf
of the _tulsi_ or basil plant are placed in his mouth, so that these
sacred articles may accompany him to the other world. So valuable
as a means of securing a pure death is the presence of gold in the
mouth that some castes have small pieces inserted into a couple of
their upper teeth, in order that wherever and whenever they may die,
the gold may be present to purify them. [645] A similar idea was
prevalent in Europe. _Aurum potabile_ [646] or drinkable gold was
a favourite nostrum of the Middle Ages, because gold being perfect
should produce perfect health; and patients when _in extremis_ were
commonly given water in which gold had been washed. And the belief
is referred to by Shakespeare:

Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold:
Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,
Preserving life in medicine potable. [647]

The metals which are used for currency, gold, silver and copper, are
all held sacred by the Hindus, and this is easily explained on the
grounds of their intrinsic value and their potency when employed as
coin. It may be noted that when the nickel anna coinage was introduced,
it was held in some localities that the coins could not be presented
at temples as this metal was not sacred.

8. Ornaments. The marriage ornaments

It can scarcely also be doubted in view of this feeling that the
wearing of both gold and silver in ornaments is considered to have
a protective magical effect, like that attributed to charms and
amulets. And the suggestion has been made that this was the object
with which all ornaments were originally worn. Professor Robertson
Smith remarks: [648] "Jewels, too, such as women wore in the sanctuary,
had a sacred character; the Syriac word for an earring is _c' dasha_,
'the holy thing,' and generally speaking, jewels serve as amulets. As
such they are mainly worn to protect the chief organs of action (the
hands and feet), but especially the orifices of the body, as earrings;
nose-rings hanging over the mouth; jewels on the forehead hanging down
and protecting the eyes." The precious metals, as has been seen, are
usually sacred among primitive people, and when made into ornaments
they have the same sanctity and protective virtue as jewels. The
subject has been treated [649] with great fullness of detail by
Sir J. Campbell, and the different ornaments worn by Hindu women of
the Central Provinces point to the same conclusion. The _bindia_ or
head ornament of a Maratha Brahman woman consists of two chains of
silver or gold and in the centre an image of a cobra erect. This is
Shesh-Nag, the sacred snake, who spreads his hood over all the _lingas_
of Mahadeo and is placed on the woman's head to guard her in the same
way. The Kurmis and other castes do not have Shesh-Nag, but instead
the centre of the _bindia_ consists of an ornament known as _bija_,
which represents the custard-apple, the sacred fruit of Sita. The
_nathni_ or nose-ring, which was formerly confined to high-caste
women, represents the sun and moon. The large hoop circle is the
sun, and underneath in the part below the nose is a small segment,
which is the crescent moon and is hidden when the ornament is in
wear. On the front side of this are red stones, representing the
sun, and on the underside white ones for the moon. The _nathni_
has some mysterious connection with a woman's virtue, and to take
off her nose-ring--_nathni utdarna_--signifies to dishonour a woman
(Platts). In northern India women wear the nose-ring very large and
sometimes cover it with a piece of cloth to guard it from view or keep
it in _parda_. It is possible that the practice of Hindu husbands of
cutting off the nose of a wife detected in adultery has some similar
association, and is partly intended to prevent her from again wearing a
nose-ring. The toe ornament of a high-caste woman is called _bichhia_
and it represents a scorpion (_bichhu_). A ring on the big toe stands
for the scorpion's head, a silver chain across the foot ending in
another ring on the little toe is his body, and three rings with
high projecting knobs on the middle toes are the joints of his tail
folded back. It is of course supposed that the ornament protects the
feet from scorpion bites. These three ornaments, the _bindia_, the
_nathni_ and the _bichhia_, must form part of the Sohag or wedding
dowry of every high-caste Hindu girl in the northern Districts,
and she cannot be married without them. But if the family is poor
a _laong_ or gold stud to be worn in the nose may be substituted
for the nose-ring. This stud, as its name indicates, is in the form
of a clove, which is sacred food and is eaten on fast-days. Burning
cloves are often used to brand children for cold; a fresh one being
employed for each mark. A widow may not wear any of these ornaments;
she is always impure, being perpetually haunted by the ghost of her
dead husband, and they could thus be of no advantage to her; while,
on the other hand, her wearing them would probably be considered a
kind of sacrilege or pollution of the holy ornaments.

9. Beads and other ornaments

In the Maratha Districts an essential feature of a wedding is the
hanging of the _mangal-sutram_ or necklace of black beads round
the bride's neck. All beads which shine and reflect the light are
considered to be efficacious in averting the evil eye, and a peculiar
virtue, Sir J. Campbell states, attaches to black beads. A woman
wears the _mangalsutram_ or marriage string of beads all her life,
and considers that her husband's life is to some extent bound up in
it. If she breaks the thread she will not say 'my thread is broken,'
but 'my thread has increased'; and she will not let her husband see
her until she has got a new thread, as she thinks that to do so would
cause his death. The many necklaces of beads worn by the primitive
tribes and the strings of blue beads tied round the necks of oxen
and ponies have the same end in view. A similar belief was probably
partly responsible for the value set on precious stones as ornaments,
and especially on diamonds, which sparkle most of all. The pearl is
very sacred among the Hindus, and Madrasis put a pearl into the mouth
at the time of death instead of gold. Partly at least for this purpose
pearls are worn set in a ring of gold in the ear, so that they may
be available at need. Coral is also highly esteemed as an amulet,
largely because it is supposed to change colour. The coral given to
babies to suck may have been intended to render the soft and swollen
gums at teething hard like the hard red stone. Another favourite
shape for beads of gold is that of grains of rice, rice being a sacred
grain. The gold ornament called _kantha_ worn on the neck has carvings
of the flowers of the _singara_ or water-nut This is a holy plant,
the eating of which on fast-days gives purity. Hence women think that
water thrown over the carved flowers of the ornament when bathing will
have greater virtue to purify their bodies. Another favourite ornament
is the _hamel_ or necklace of rupees. The sanctity of coined metal
would probably be increased by the royal image and superscription and
also by its virtue as currency. Mr. Nunn states that gold mohur coins
are still made solely for the purpose of ornament, being commonly
engraved with the formula of belief of Islam and worn by Muhammadans
as a charm. Suspended to the _hamel_ or necklace of rupees in front
is a silver pendant in the shape of a betel-leaf, this leaf being
very efficacious in magic; and on this is carved either the image of
Hanuman, the god of strength, or a peacock's feather as a symbol of
Kartikeya, the god of war. The silver bar necklet known as _hasli_
is intended to resemble the collar-bone. Children carried in their
mother's cloth are liable to be jarred and shaken against her body,
so that the collar-bone is bruised and becomes painful. It is thought
that the wearing of a silver collar-bone will prevent this, just as
silver eyes are offered in smallpox to protect the sufferer's eyes and
a silver wire to save his throat from being choked. Little children
sometimes have round the waist a band of silver beads which is called
_bora_; these beads are meant to resemble the smallpox pustules and the
_bora_ protects the wearer from smallpox. There are usually 84 beads,
this number being lucky among the Hindus. At her wedding a Hindu bride
must wear a wristlet of nine little cones of silver like the _kalas_
or pinnacle of a temple. This is called _nau-graha_ or _nau-giri_ and
represents the nine planets which are worshipped at weddings--that is,
the sun, moon and the five planets, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and
Saturn, which were known to the ancients and gave their names to the
days of the week in many of the Aryan languages; while the remaining
two are said to have been Rahu and Ketu, the nodes of the moon and
the demons which cause eclipses. The _bonhta_ or _bankra_, the rigid
circular bangle on the upper arm, is supposed to make a woman's arm
stronger by the pressure exercised on the veins and muscles. Circular
ornaments worn on the legs similarly strengthen them and prevent a
woman from getting stiffness or pins and needles in her legs after
long squatting on the ground. The _chutka_, a large silver ring worn
by men on the big toe, is believed to attract to itself the ends of
all the veins and ligaments from the navel downwards, and hold them
all braced in their proper position, thus preventing rupture.

On their feet children and young girls wear the _paijan_ or hollow
anklet with tinkling balls inside. But when a married woman has had
two or three children she leaves off the _paijan_ and wears a solid
anklet like the _tora_ or _kasa_. It is now said that the reason why
girls wear sounding anklets is that their whereabouts may be known and
they may be prevented from getting into mischief in dark corners. But
the real reason was probably that they served as spirit scarers,
which they would do in effect by frightening away snakes, scorpions
and noxious insects; for it is clear that the bites of such reptiles
and insects, which often escape unseen, must be largely responsible
for the vast imaginative fabric of the belief in evil spirits, just
as Professor Robertson Smith demonstrates that the _jins_ or _genii_
of Arabia were really wild animals. [650] In India, owing to the
early age of marriage and the superstitious maltreatment of women at
child-birth, the mortality among girls at this period is very high;
and the Hindus, ignorant of the true causes, probably consider them
especially susceptible to the attacks of evil spirits.

10. Ear-piercing

Before treating of ear-ornaments it will be convenient to mention
briefly the custom of ear-piercing. This is universal among Hindus and
Muhammadans, both male and female, and the operation is often performed
by the Sunar. The lower Hindu castes and the Gonds consider piercing
the ears to be the mark of admission to the caste community. It
is done when the child is four or five years old, and till then
he or she is not considered to be a member of the caste and may
consequently take food from anybody. The Raj-Gonds will not have the
ears of their children pierced by any one but a Sunar; and for this
they give him _sidha_ or a seer [651] of wheat, a seer of rice and
an anna. Hindus employ a Sunar when one is available, but if not,
an old man of the family may act. After the piercing a peacock's
feather or some stalks of grass or straw are put in to keep the hole
open and enlarge it. A Hindu girl has her ear pierced in five places,
three being in the upper ear, one in the lobe and one in the small
flap over the orifice. Muhammadans make a large number of holes all
down the ear and in each of these they place a gold or silver ring,
so that the ears are dragged down by the weight. Similarly their women
will have ten or fifteen bangles on the legs. The Hindus also have
this custom in Bhopal, but if they do it in the Central Provinces
they are chaffed with having become Muhammadans. In the upper ear
Hindu women have an ornament in the shape of the _genda_ or marigold,
a sacred flower which is offered to all the deities. The holes in the
upper and middle ear are only large enough to contain a small ring,
but that in the lobe is greatly distended among the lower castes. The
_tarkhi_ or Gond ear-ornament consists of a glass plate fixed on to
a stem of _ambari_ fibre nearly an inch thick, which passes through
the lobe. As a consequence the lower rim is a thin pendulous strip
of flesh, very liable to get torn. But to have the hole torn open is
one of the worst social mishaps which can happen to a woman. She is
immediately put out of caste for a long period, and only readmitted
after severe penalties, equivalent to those inflicted for getting
vermin in a wound. When a woman gets her ear torn she sits weeping in
her house and refuses to be comforted. At the ceremony of readmission
a Sunar is sometimes called in who stitches up the ear with silver
thread. [652] Low-caste Hindu and Gond women often wear a large
circular embossed silver ornament over the ear which is known as
_dhara_ or shield and is in the shape of an Indian shield. This is
secured by chains to the hair and apparently affords some support to
the lower part of the ear, which it also covers. Its object seems to
be to shield and protect the lobe, which is so vulnerable in a woman,
and hence the name. A similar ornament worn in Bengal is known as
_dhenri_ and consists of a shield-shaped disk of gold, worn on the
lobe of the ear, sometimes with and sometimes without a pendant. [653]

11. Origin of ear-piercing

The character of the special significance which apparently attaches
to the custom of ear-piercing is obscure. Dr. Jevons considers
that it is merely a relic of the practice of shedding the blood
of different parts of the body as an offering to the deity, and
analogous to the various methods of self-mutilation, flagellation
and gashing of the flesh, whose common origin is ascribed to the
same custom. "To commend themselves and their prayers the Quiches
pierced their ears and gashed their arms and offered the sacrifice
of their blood to their gods. The practice of drawing blood from
the ears is said by Bastian to be common in the Orient; and Lippert
conjectures that the marks left in the ears were valued as visible and
permanent indications that the person possessing them was under the
protection of the god with whom the worshipper had united himself by
his blood offering. In that case earrings were originally designed,
not for ornament, but to keep open and therefore permanently visible
the marks of former worship. The marks or scars left on legs or arms
from which blood had been drawn were probably the origin of tattooing,
as has occurred to various anthropologists." [654] This explanation,
while it may account for the general custom of ear-piercing, does
not explain the special guilt imputed by the Hindus to getting the
lobe of the ear torn. Apparently the penalty is not imposed for the
tearing of the upper part of the ear, and it is not known whether men
are held liable as well as women; but as large holes are not made in
the upper ear at all, nor by men in the lobe, such cases would very
seldom occur. The suggestion may be made as a speculation that the
continuous distension of the lobe of the ear by women and the large
hole produced is supposed to have some sympathetic effect in opening
the womb and making child-birth more easy. The tearing of the ear might
then be considered to render, the women incapable of bearing a child,
and the penalties attached to it would be sufficiently explained.