The tribes and castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, Volume 2 (of 4)

Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

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[Funeral rites.] 6. “The following are the ceremonies said to be performed by the Bhîls on occasions of death. When a man dies a natural death, his corpse is covered with white cloths, and a supply of food in the shape of flour, clarified butter and sugar, uncooked (called sâra), is placed by his side for use on his journey to the next world. They are afterwards thrown into the water by the side of which he is burnt. A small copper coin is also thrown on the ground when the corpse is burnt, apparently as a sort of fee for the use of the ground for the purpose. Three days after the body has been burnt, the ashes are thrown into the water, and a cairn is raised on the spot by the people present, who wring out their clothes over the stones after bathing. On the twelfth day after death, all friends, far and near, assemble for the kâta or mortuary feast, for which the heir of the deceased, if well-to-do in the world, will have provided some two hundred rupees worth of spirits. In the morning the ceremony of the arad is commenced, and lasts generally throughout the day.

7. “The Bhopa, or witch-finder of the village, is seated on a wooden platform, and places near him a big earthen pot with a brass dish over the mouth of it. A couple of Bhîls beat this with drum sticks, at the same time singing funeral dirges. The spirit of the deceased is now supposed to enter the heart of the Bhopa, and through him to demand whatever it may want. Should the man have died a natural death, the spirit will call for milk, ghi, etc., and will repeat through the Bhopa the words he said just before his death. Whatever is demanded is at once supplied to the Bhopa, who smells the articles given to him and puts them down by his side. Should the deceased have died a violent death, the Bhopa generally calls for a bow and arrows, or for a gun, whichever the deceased was killed with, and works himself up into much excitement, going through the motions of firing, shouting the war cry, etc. The spirits of the ancestors of the deceased are also called up by the Bhopa, and the same ceremonies are gone through with them. In the evening the Bhîl Jogi appears on the scene and goes through various ceremonies. He is first of all provided with twelve sers of wheat flour and five sers maize flour, which he places in front of the bier of the deceased. The Jogi then plants his brass image of a horse on the top of the flour and sticks an arrow in front of it, and also some small copper coins. Two empty jars, the mouths tied up, one with red and the other with white cloth, are also placed by him in front of the horse. A rope is next tied round the horse’s neck. The Jogi then calls out the names of the ancestors of the deceased, at the same time signifying to the heir that now is the time for him to give alms or religious grants to the memory of his father or ancestors, which appeal is generally responded to; and a cow is given to the Jogi. The heir after this directs the Jogi to provide the deceased with food. The Jogi cooks some rice and milk and pours it into a hole he has dug in the ground. He also pours in an ewer full of liquor and drops in a copper coin and then fills up the hole again with earth. Other mystic rites follow; the heir makes presents to the Jogi, and the family friends give presents to the heir. The ceremonies conclude with some hard drinking. The next day the relatives of the deceased give a feast to the village, each relation providing something towards this feast,—one rice, another ghi, and so forth. The honour of providing a buffalo belongs to the son-in-law of the deceased, and failing him, the brother-in-law and the brother.

[Widow marriage.] 8. “The widow of the deceased, if young, is now asked by all the relatives whether she wishes to remain in her late husband’s house or to be married again—a ceremony called nâtra. If she, as she generally does, wishes to be married again, she replies that she will return to her father’s house. If the deceased has a younger brother, he will at once step forward and assert that he will not allow her to go away to any other man’s house; and going up to her he throws his cloak over the widow, who thus becomes his wife, and is taken away by him to his house there and then. Eight days afterwards, when she is supposed to have done mourning for her late husband, her new husband supplies her with a set of armlets in the place of those given by her former lord, which are taken off. The nâtra is then complete. The younger brother is not, however, compelled to keep his brother’s widow should he not wish to do so, but it is such a point of honour that a boy even will claim and exercise the right. Should the deceased have no younger brother, then the widow is taken away by her father or relations eight days after the kâta. She will remain at her father’s house for a month or two, when either she will be given away in nâtra to some man with her father’s consent or she will run off and take up her quarters in some man’s house without his consent. The man she flies to may not wish her to come, and may have no idea of her intention to do so; but nevertheless, once she has placed herself under his protection he is in honour bound to keep her, and she remains as his wife. The widow can go to any man she pleases provided he be of a different section to that of her father.

9. “Should the father have given his widowed daughter away in nâtra, her late husband’s heir will at once pick a quarrel and demand satisfaction from him. As a preliminary step the heir generally attacks the widow’s father and burns down his house, after which, in course of time, a committee (panchâyat) is generally appointed to settle the dispute, when a sum of money, varying from fifty to two hundred rupees, according to the means of the parties, is awarded to the heir in compensation. The father will then in his turn demand repayment from his son-in-law, and should the latter refuse to pay up, he proceeds to burn down his house and make himself otherwise objectionable till his claim is satisfied. Should the widow run off, as she generally does, without her father’s or relatives’ consent, her deceased husband’s heir will at once attack the man to whose protection she has gone.

10. “Should some unmarried and unbetrothed girl take a fancy to and run off with some young man, her father and brothers, as soon as they have found out where she has gone to, at once attack and burn his house, or in the event of their being unable to do that they burn any house in the village which comes handy. This most probably is resented and retaliated, and the quarrel may be prolonged for some time, but, as a rule, a panchâyat is sooner or later appointed to settle the dispute. The compensation awarded to the girl’s father never exceeds one hundred rupees. A hole is dug in the ground and filled with water. The girl’s father and his son-in-law then each drop a stone into it, and their quarrel is finally settled. The panchâyat and party then consume some liquor at the son-in-law’s expense, and depart in peace.

11. “Should an unmarried and unbetrothed girl refuse to run off with a man when asked to do so, the man will generally shout out in the village that he has taken so-and-so’s daughter’s hand, and woe to him who dares to marry her. A panchâyat is then assembled, and the father generally gives his daughter to the man, receiving double the compensation that would have been awarded had the girl consented to marry him in the first instance. Should a girl unmarried, but who has been betrothed, run off with somebody else, the man to whom she was betrothed at once attacks and possibly kills the man whom she has run off with, and burns both his and the girl’s father’s huts. The quarrel often goes on for years, and leads to retaliation, till the entire village community on either side are drawn into the quarrel and turn out and attack each other.

12. “Should a wife run away from her husband to somebody else, the injured husband and his friends often burn the whole of the village in which the recipient of the faithless wife’s favours lives. Eventually, when a panchâyat is formed, the wife is often given up and taken back by her husband, any children that she may have borne in the meantime being left with their father. Should the man refuse to give her up, then some two hundred rupees is awarded to the husband in compensation by the panchâyat, not to mention the liquor required by the latter during their consultation.

[Death customs.] 13. “The Bhîls erect stone tablets in memory of their male dead (never to deceased women) and, as a rule, the figure of the deceased is carved on the stone. He is often represented on horseback with sword, lance, or shield, sometimes on foot, but invariably clothed in the best of long clothes and armed with a sword and shield,—a style of dress he was quite unaccustomed to in the flesh. Tablets are also erected to boys who have died while still minors; but instead of a figure of the deceased, a large hooded snake is carved on the stone.

[Religion.] 14. “Bhîls will eat the flesh of all animals, even that of a dead camel. Bhîls and Mînas having no order of priesthood, resort to the Guru of the Chamârs. These Gurus assume the appellations and badges of Brâhmans. They do not adopt disciples; but the office is hereditary, descending from the father to all the sons. The minstrel of the Bhîls is called Kamriya. The principal deities of the Bhîls and Mînas are Mâtâji and Devi. They also worship Agru. The Chauhân warrior-saint Gûgaji is much worshipped in Sirohi as a protector from the bite of the nâg sânp or cobra. [56] He is worshipped under the form of a warrior on horseback and also under the form of a cobra.”

DISTRIBUTION OF THE BHÎLS ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891.

Bhoksa, Bhuksa. [57]—A tribe akin to the Thârus who are found in the Tarâi and Bhâbar from Pilibhît District on the East to Chândpur on the Ganges on the West. There are a few scattered colonies in Dehra Dûn. There are three main sections of them, the Pûrabi or “Eastern” which lies east of the Râmganga and as far west as the Gola or Sârda, where the Thârus begin; the Pachhami or “Western” which inhabits the Pâtli Dûn and Bijnor between the Râmganga and the Ganges; and a section reaching still further west from the Ganges to the Jumna. Between the Eastern and Western sections there is no friendly intercourse; each shuns the other, and the usual fictions are repeated about eating frogs and lizards. [58]

[Appearance.] 2. Dr. Stewart thus describes them in Bijnor. [59]—“The members of the tribe are of short stature and very sparse in habit, in both respects somewhat exceeding the ordinary Hindu peasant of the District, from whom, however, they do not differ much in general build or in complexion. The eyes are small; the opening of the eye lids being narrow, linear and horizontal (the inner angle not inclining downwards so far as observed); the face is very broad across the cheek bones, and the nose is depressed, thus increasing the general flatness of the face: the jaw is prognathous and the lower lip thick and the moustache and beard are very scanty.” Some of these peculiarities are more marked in some individuals than in others, but one Bhoksa will always recognise another, though a Kumâuni says he only recognises them when they speak. The features of the women are similar to those of the men.

[Traditions of origin.] 3. Some of them claim to be Panwâr Râjputs, and “assert that their chief Udayjît was driven from house and home in a quarrel that he had with his brother Jagatdeo, the Râja of Dhâranagar, and came to dwell with a few followers at Banbasa on the Sârda. Udayjît had not been there long when his aid was solicited by the Râja of Kumâun, whose territories required defence against some of the neighbouring powers. Success attended the efforts of the Panwâr, and the gratitude of the Râja induced him to offer his defenders an asylum in his territories. Upon this they are represented to have left Banbasa and to have taken up their residence in their present abodes.” [60] But their traditions are very vague; some say that they came from the Dakkhin; others, from Delhi; others, that they were expelled from the Dakkhin by the Marhattas. The Mahra or Dehra Dûn branch say that they came into the District from beyond the Ganges at the invitation of Râja Sukh Dâs Sâh of Tehri, who used them as guides through the jungles on his shooting expeditions. They fix their emigration into the Dûn at some five generations from the present day.

[Tribal organisation.] 4. The last Census returns give the septs of the Bhoksas, as Jâdubansi, Panwâr, Partuja, Râjbansi, and Tunwar. Sir H. M. Elliot describes them as having fifteen septs (gotra), of which twelve are of superior and three of inferior rank. The superior, according to his list, are Bargûjar, Tabâri, Barhaniya, Jalwar, Adhoi, Dugugiya, Râthaur, Negauriya, Jalâl, Upâdhya, Chauhân, Dunwariya. The three inferior are the Dîmar-Râthaur (descended from a Teli woman), Dhangra (from a hill woman), and Goli from a woman of the barber caste. “The names of these tribes indicate considerable mixture with other classes, both Râjput and Brâhman. Bhoksas are prohibited marrying in their own gotra; but may select any other gotra they choose. Those who reside in Kilpuri and Sabna are said occasionally to intermarry with the Thârus. The Bhâts of the Bhoksas, who are descended from a follower of Udayjît, reside still at Banbasa, and pay occasional visits to their constituents. The priests (purohit) of the Bhoksas are Kanaujiya Brâhmans, who are also descended from one of the followers of Udayjît.”

[The Mahra Bhoksas.] 5. The meaning of the word Mahra is not certain. The same title is applied to Kahârs when it means “a confidential person who enters the inner apartments” (Sanskrit mahilla, “a woman”). This name is applied only to the Dehra Dûn section, and fresh immigrants are known as Bhoksa. Marriage in a man’s gotra and in the family of the maternal uncle for two generations is prohibited. They may marry as many wives as they please, but two is usually the limit. If a girl, prior to marriage, is detected in an intrigue with a man of her own tribe, her parents have to pay a fine, which generally amounts to five rupees, to the tribal council, and then she is restored and allowed to marry in the tribe; but if her lover be a man of lower caste than herself she is permanently excommunicated. If her lover be a man of higher caste than herself the offence is condoned on payment of a fine of ten rupees. Boys are generally married at the age of twelve. No money is paid by either side. If the marriage be subsequently annulled and the girl marries again, her second husband has to refund the expenses of the first marriage. The only valid grounds for annulling a marriage are infidelity on the part of the wife or the impotence of the husband. If either leave the other for any reason other than the above they will be fined by the council. When a man divorces his wife all he does is to turn her out of his house and inform the council. Widows can marry again by the form known as karâo. Children, the fruit of such union, are regarded as legitimate, and inherit on the same footing as the offspring of a regular marriage. It is asserted that the widow may marry the elder as well as the younger brother of her late husband; but this is so much opposed to the usual custom regulating such cases that it must be received with caution. When the widow marries outside the family of her late husband the guardianship of the children of the first marriage passes to her husband’s brothers. There is no trace of the fiction by which the children of the second marriage are attributed to the late husband.

6. Of the tribe in the Dûn Mr. Baillie writes [61]:—“The Mahras are the aboriginal inhabitants and occupy all the unhealthy villages in the Eastern Dûn, where no one else can live. These are also Râjputs, and are closely allied to the Bhoksas of the Rohilkhand Tarâi, and Thârus of the Oudh Tarâi. They are clearly all one and the same race. The Mahras have few traditions, except that their ancestors were Râjputs. They present many points of resemblance to the Bhoksas, though neither will acknowledge any connection with the other. They are of settled habits, dwellers in swamps and cultivators of rice, and are proof against malaria. They do not admit outsiders into the caste. They are timid and averse to intercourse with strangers. They generally marry on attaining puberty. They are in their habits and customs Hindus of the ordinary low caste type, and Gaur Brâhmans are employed by them as priests for marriage and funeral ceremonies. Remarriage of the widows is permitted. The widow is not obliged to marry her husband’s elder or younger brother. They eat pork and fowls, and drink spirits like most of the dwellers in the Tarâi swamps. Some of them are hunters, and catch game, and others are good fishermen.” The traditions which point to a Râjput origin are, of course, as baseless as those of the Thârus and the allied races.

[Mahra Bhoksas—Birth ceremonies.] 7. There is no ceremony during pregnancy. The caste supplies midwives to the higher castes; so they attend each other at their confinements. On the sixth day is the worship of Bihâi, who causes children to laugh or cry in their sleep. A ball of cowdung is made and wrapped up in a cloth. The midwife brings this ball to the mother and she worships it. On that day the entire house is plastered, and a dish of curry and rice is made and distributed among the clansmen and friends. The next day the mother gets some Ganges water from a Brâhman, and, mixing it with ordinary water, takes a bath. This is the only purification. After a month the shaving (mûndan) is performed, and on this occasion the clansmen are fed. There is no adoption ceremony. When a man marries a widow and has no issue it is very common for him to adopt one of his stepsons.

[Mahra Bhoksas—Marriage.] 8. The betrothal is done in the usual way. At the marriage a shed (mânro) is erected in the courtyard, and beneath it the nine planets are worshipped. After this the sacred fire is lighted, and the pair walk five times round it.

[Mahra Bhoksas—Disposal of the dead.] 9. The dead are cremated, if possible, at the Ganges, and in any case the ashes are deposited in the sacred river. The corpse is shrouded in a piece of white cloth, five yards long, to which a yard of red cloth is attached. There is no ceremony at the cremation, but thirteen days after they give some grain, cloth, and vessels to a Brâhman, and this purifies them. On every day up to the thirteenth the mourners give a cake to the cow before they eat themselves. Every year, in the month of Kuâr, they feed the relatives of their daughters in order to propitiate the ghosts of the dead—possibly a survival of the matriarchate.

[Eastern Bhoksas—Manners and customs.] 10. The Eastern section are very closely connected with the Thârus. “Both tribes,” says Mr. E. Colvin, [62] “are superstitious, and, as a rule, truthful, much given to intoxicating drink and not very chaste; both more or less migratory, only continuing to cultivate the land until it is exhausted, and then moving on to fresh grounds; both utterly reckless with water with which they inundate their fields. They bear a good moral character; are inoffensive and peaceable, as well as intensely ignorant and indolent. They have no arts and manufactures, and live on the chase and a scanty cultivation. They are particularly fond of wild pig, and this may be one of the reasons why they change the site of their villages every two or three years. In some places they collect the wild jungle produce, but in no systematic way. They also engage in gold washing, extracting gold dust to the value of a few hundred rupees a year from the auriferous sands of the Sona Nadi. They are slowly but surely dying out, and now number only a few thousands.” Mr. Colvin says that they are less intelligent than the Thârus. “To this day neither the Bhoksas nor the Thârus build even earthen walls for their houses, which are made of posts driven into the ground with beams resting upon them. They employ hill or plainsmen as blacksmiths; all which tends to prove that they never possessed knowledge sufficient to admit of their erecting the buildings or sinking the masonry wells, ruins of which still exist in the Tarâi.” Of their villages in Bijnor Dr. Stewart says:—“All are built on the same plan of one straight street, generally of considerable width (in some cases as much as 40 or 50 feet) and kept very clean—in both respects differing remarkably from the villages of the plains. The huts are placed end to end, with intervals after every group of three or four, and the walls are for the most part built of wattle and dab, but sometimes of thatch (chhappar), of which latter the roofs are also constructed. The houses are windowless, but each has a door in front and another behind, the latter affording access to the shed for cattle, etc. The doorways and roofs are very low, and the floors of beaten earth are considerably raised above the general level of the grounds. Those Western Bhoksas do not at any time live in houses built on poles, as is stated to be the case with those opposite Kumâun.”

[Eastern Bhoksas—Religion.] 11. This division of the Bhoksas has been so far Hinduised that some of them employ Gaur Brâhmans in their marriage and funeral ceremonies. Some are Sikhs, and the wife follows the religion (path) of her husband, and the children that of their father. One of the Tarâi Parganas is called Nânakmatha, after the great Sikh Guru, and there is a Sikh shrine there as well as at Dehra and Srinagar. But they have their own indigenous medicine men (padhân). They pay special devotion to the death goddess known as Bhawâni or Devi, whose functions are the same as those of the Thâru goddess, Kâlika. They have also two local saints, Sarwar Lakhi and Kâlu Sayyid, of whom Dr. Stewart could learn nothing. Sarwar Lakhi is evidently the famous Sakhi Sarwar Sultân, also known as Lakhdâta or the giver of lakhs. His real name was Sayyid Ahmad, and he flourished about the middle of the twelfth century. His principal shrine is at Nagaha, in the Dehra Ghâzi Khân District. He is said to have been a disciple of Bâba Nânak: he is the patron of athletes, and especially of wrestling. [63] Kâlu Sayyid may have some connection with Kâli Sinh, the Panjâb snake godling. [64] But he is more probably identical with the deity known to the Baheliyas as Kâlu Bîr, to the Banjâras as Kâlu Deo, and to the Kahârs, as Kâlu Kahâr. One story is that he was born of a Kahâr girl, who by magical charms compelled King Solomon to marry her, with the result that she bore a son, Kâlu Bâba, who is worshipped extensively by Kahârs, Chamârs, Sainis, Gadariyas, and other low castes in the form of a fetish stick decorated with peacocks’ feathers. The last Census shows 266,191 votaries of this godling. Sarwar Lakhi has a shrine at the entrance to the main pass through the Siwâlik hills into the Pâtli Dûn, and all wayfarers, as they pass, of whatever race, tribe, or creed, make offerings to his shrine.

[Eastern Bhoksas—Witchcraft.] 11. Like many isolated jungle tribes, they have acquired a reputation for sorcery and witchcraft. In fact, Bhogsa or Bhoksa, is the name for a sorcerer in Garhwâl. “Some are even said to be able to assume the form of a wild animal, and thus accomplish the destruction of an enemy. Sudarsan Sâh rid Garhwâ of sorcerers in the following manner:—He called all the Bhogsas together under pretence of needing their assistance in some ceremony, and promised them all sorts of rewards should he succeed, and so induced them to come themselves and bring all their books with them. When all were assembled that had any pretensions to power as sorcerers, he caused them to be bound hand and foot, and thrown with their books and implements into the river.” [65]

DISTRIBUTION OF THE BHOKSAS ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891.

=================+========+=========+=========
District. | Mahra. | Bhoksa. | Total.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~
Dehra Dûn | 599 | | 599
Morâdâbâd | 8 | | 8
Allahâbâd | 92 | | 92
Tarâi | | 1,208 | 1,208
+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~
Total | 699 | 1,208 | 1,907
=================+========+=========+=========

1. Bhot, Bot, Bhotiya [66]—(Sanskrit, Bhota).—A tribe originally of Hill origin. In the Panjâb, those who in the Spiti and Lahûl Districts returned themselves as Bot, merely imply that they are Tibetans. The proper name of the tract of Chinese territory, which we call Tibet, is Bodyul, or Bod land, and the people Bodpas, corrupted by the Indians into Bhotiyas—a name now applied to the Tibetans living on the borders between India and Tibet, while the people of Tibet Proper are called Huniyas, and the country Hundes. Boti is the name for the language, and Bot for the people; but they rarely apply it to themselves. “If they did,” says Mr. Diack, “it would be like a Panjâbi describing himself as an Asiatic.” There they consist of four classes—Jocho, Lonpa, Chhazang, Loban. [67] In these Provinces a tribe of the same name is found in small numbers in the Kumâun Division. There they usually call themselves Raghubansi Râjputs, and trace their origin to Bhutwal in Nepâl. They fix their emigration into Northern Oudh in the reign of Nawâb Asaf-ud-daula (1775–1797). They now present a curious instance of a tribe of non-Aryan origin, who have in a very short time become completely Brâhmanised. Among some of them the rule of exogamy is that they do not marry their sons into families to which, within the memory of man, they have given daughters as brides. But others have adopted the complete Hindu law of exogamy, and the creation of a full set of Brâhmanical gotras is probably only a question of time.

[Marriage ceremonies.] 2. These are of the usual Hindu type. When the bride’s palanquin arrives at the house of her husband the gods are worshipped, and then she is admitted into the house. Some rice, silver, or gold, is put in the hands of the bridegroom, which he passes on to the bride. She places them in a winnowing fan, and makes them over as a present to the wife of the barber. This ceremony is known as Karja bharna. A man can have three wives and no more. The wife of the first marriage is the head wife, and she receives by inheritance a share one-tenth in excess of that given to the other wives. Marriage is generally performed under the age of fifteen, but no special age is fixed. No price is paid on either side. Concubinage and the levirate are allowed. There is no form of divorce, and though a man or woman is excommunicated if detected in illicit intercourse, they can be restored to caste on giving a tribal feast.

[Marriage ceremonies.] 3. The marriage ceremonies are in the standard form. Respectable people marry by the common charhana ritual, which begins with the ceremonies at the door of the bride’s house (darwâza châr or duâr châr). When they come to the marriage shed (mânro), the officiating Brâhman does the usual worship. The bride’s younger brother sprinkles parched grain over the pair, and receives from the father of the bride a sheet, which is known as lâi bhujua, or the remuneration for parching rice. Then the bridegroom rolls a stone over the parched rice on the ground, and this is known as the “line of the stone” (patthar kî lakîr), which is the binding part of the ceremony. Then follows the tying of the clothes (ganth bandhan), and the circumambulation of the fire (bhanwari). Next comes the pâsa sâr, where the bride and bridegroom exchange jewels—a survival of the gambling custom which appears in the standard ritual. Then follows the feeding of the bridegroom (bâsi khilâna), and the usual feast to the clansmen. After the marriage is over, on an auspicious day, the grass used as thatch for the wedding shed and other things are thrown into a river or tank by the women. This is called maur serwâna, “the setting afloat of the marriage crown.” The lower kind of marriage is called pair pûjna, in which all the ceremonies are done at the house of the husband. The last form, dharaua, is simple concubinage. Persons who have not been married till they are of advanced years very often keep a woman in this way.

[Disposal of the dead.] 4. Those who die of cholera or snake-bite, and young children, are buried; others are cremated. There is no fixed burial-ground, and no ceremonies are performed at the time of burial. Richer people keep the ashes for removal to some sacred stream; others bury them. After the cremation a stalk of kusa grass is fixed in the ground near a tank, and water and sesamum is poured upon it for ten days so as to convert it into a refuge for the spirit until the rites are completed.

[Religion.] 5. They employ Brâhmans as priests. Their chief object of worship is Devi, to whom goats are sacrificed. Young pigs are also occasionally offered to her.

The worshippers make the sacrifice and consume the meat themselves. They observe the usual festivals. On the Barsâti Amâwas, on the fifteenth of Jeth, women worship a banyan tree by walking round it and tying a thread round the trunk. This they do to increase the life of their husbands. Women fast on the Tîja, or third day of Bhâdon. At the Godiya, on the fifth of Kârttik, they worship the dragon, Nâg Deota, and girls offer dolls to Devi and Mahâdeva. The care of malignant spirits is the business of the exorcisor (nâwat). Women reverence the bargad or banyan tree, because its name (bargad) is supposed to be connected with their husbands (bar).

[Social customs.] 6. They do not eat the turnip (shalgham). They will not touch a Dhobi, Bhangi, Chamâr, or Kori. They eat the flesh of goats, sheep, hare, deer, water-birds, and fish; they will not eat the monkey, cow, pig, fowl, crocodile, snake, lizard, rat, or other vermin. Intoxicating liquors are forbidden; bhang and gânja are used, but excess is reprobated.

[Occupation.] 7. Their occupation is agriculture; they do not hold land as zamîndârs but as tenants, and some work as field labourers. They practice no handicraft.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE BHOTIYAS ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891.

Bhuînhâr—(Sanskrit Bhûmi, “land,” kâra, “maker”).—An important tribe of landowners and agriculturists in the Eastern Districts. They are also known as Bâbhan, Zamîndâr Brâhman, Grihasth Brâhman, or Pachhima, or “Western” Brâhmans. They must, of course, be very carefully distinguished from the Dravidian Bhuînhâr or Bhuiyâr tribe, of whom some account has been given in a separate article.

[Origin of tribe.] 2. One story of their origin is that when Parasurâma destroyed the Kshatriya race, he set up in their place the descendants of Brâhmans, who, after a time, having abandoned their priestly functions, took to land-owning. Another story tells that a King of Ajudhya being childless, sought to obtain an heir by the sacrifice of a Brâhman, and purchased the son of the Rishi Jamadagni for that purpose. The uncle of the child, the sage Viswamitra, procured a child for the Râja, and the sacrifice was rendered unnecessary; but the Brâhman boy having been sold was considered degraded, and was forced to take to agriculture, and became the ancestor of the Bhuînhârs. This, as Mr. Risley says, is the famous legend of Sunahsephas in another form. [68] “A third legend, perhaps the best known of all, traces the Bâbhans back to a sacrifice offered by Jarasandha, King of Magadha, at which a very large number of Brâhmans, some say a lakh and-a-quarter, were required to be present. Jarasandha’s Dîwân, a Kâyasth of the Amisht or Karan sub-caste, did his best to meet the demand, but was driven to eke out the local supply by distributing sacred threads among members of the lower castes, and palming them off on the King as genuine Brâhmans. Jarasandha’s suspicions being roused by the odd appearance of some of the guests, the Dîwân was compelled to guarantee their respectability by eating the food which they had cooked, while the Brâhmans thus manufactured had to set up a caste of their own, the name of which (Bâbhan or Bâhman) is popularly supposed to mean a sham Brâhman, just as in some districts an inferior Râjput is called a Râwat, the corruption of the name betokening the corruption of the caste.” [69]

3. It has been suggested [70] that the legend that they were Brâhmans degraded at the feast of Jarasandha points to the fact that after the downfall of Buddhism, the Bâbhans were those Brâhmans (with whom there was possibly some admixture of Râjputs) who were either converted to the Buddhistic faith or chose to live under the Buddhistic system with a changed status. Of this, however, there is no evidence.

4. On their relations to Brâhmans and Râjputs a competent observer, Mr. J. R. Reid, writes [71]:—“Their Brâhman and Chhatri neighbours generally insinuate that they are of mixed breed, the offspring of Brâhman men and Chhatri women, or of Chhatri men and Brâhman women. By other castes they are regarded as a kind of Chhatri, and are spoken of, and indeed often speak of themselves, as Bhuînhâr Thâkurs. Their clans (gotra) are the same as those of the Brâhmans, and, like the latter, the Bhuînhârs wear a thread (janeû) ninety-six hands breadth (chaua) in length, the Chhatri’s thread being eighty only. They do not perform priestly offices, nor receive offerings given from a religious motive (dân, dakshina); but they are saluted with the pranâm, or pâêlagi, and return the salutation with a blessing (asîrbâd). Physically they are of the same type as the Brâhman or Chhatri. In character they resemble the former more than the latter; and the following proverbs are in vogue:—

Nadi kai bhânwak,
Bhuînhâr kai ghânwak.
Sabse chatur Banya, tese chatur Sunâr;
Lasê lûse lâike tehi thâgê Bhuînhâr.

“The Bhuînhâr is as uncertain as the current of the rivulet. Cutest of all is the Banya; cuter than him is the goldsmith; but the Bhuînhâr with his wiles tricks them both.”

“Brâhmans do not eat with them, nor do Râjputs. Possibly the existence of the Bhuînhâr class is also evidence of the time when the bonds of caste, as we know them, had not been forged, or, if forged, were not worn by those who pushed forward into new settlements beyond the old. It has been pointed out that to the non-Aryan inhabitants of the country all Aryans were of one caste,—all Brâhmans. Within the Aryan body the exchange of priestly for military employment was not impossible, and did not involve degradation. It is unnecessary, therefore, to believe that all Bhuînhârs are Brâhmans of inferior, because illegitimate stock. They may be as true born as the Brâhmans or Chhatris who surround them, and many of whom they possibly preceded in the occupation of the land. Further, it seems probable that many so called Kshatriya tribes are Brâhmans who have fallen from their former status.”

5. Dr. Oldham, [72] speaking of the Ghâzipur branch of the tribe, says that in popular estimation they share something of the sacredness which attaches to Brâhmans. Their divisions are very often the same as those of well-known Râjput tribes, such as the Kinwâr, Gautam, and Kausik Bhuînhârs; and the corresponding Râjput tribe sometimes names the same city or country as the first home of the race. In one case “a Bhuînhâr and Râjput tribe both claim descent from a common ancestor, and each admits that the pretensions of the other are well founded. The Bhuînhâr tribes all intermarry on terms of equality and eat together; on the other hand Râjputs marry their daughters into what they consider superior, and their sons into inferior tribes, and are very chary of eating together. There is consequently a much closer bond of sympathy between the various Bhuînhâr tribes of the district than between the Râjputs.”

6. Sir H. M. Elliot [73] thinks that “we perhaps have some indication of the true origin of the Bhuînhârs in the names Garga Bhûmi and Vatsa Bhûmi, who are mentioned in the Harivansa as Kshatriya Brâhmans, descendants of Kasya princes. Their name of Bhûmi and residence at Kâshi are much in favour of this view; moreover, there are to this day Garga and Vatsa gotras among the Sarwariya Brâhmans.”

7. The theory that they are a mixed race, derived from a congeries of low caste people accidentally brought together, is disproved by the high and uniform type of physiognomy and personal appearance which prevails among them. This, as Mr. Risley says, would not be the case “if they were descended from a crowd of low caste men promoted by the exigencies of a particular occasion, for brevet rank thus acquired would, in no case, carry with it the right of intermarriage with pure Brâhmans or Râjputs, and the artificially formed group, being compelled to marry within its own limits, would necessarily perpetuate the low caste type of features and complexion. As a matter-of-fact, this is what happens with the sham Râjputs whom we find in most of the outlying Districts of Bengal. They marry among themselves, never among the true Râjputs, and their features reproduce those of the particular aboriginal tribe from which they may happen to be sprung.”

8. The next supposition is that they may be Brâhmans who for some cause (in this case it is said to have been because they took to agriculture) have been degraded. There are, of course, many so-called Brâhmans, like the Mahâbrâhman, Ojha, or Dakaut, who are of a degraded type; but many of these are almost certainly derived from the lower races, and have little or no Aryan blood in their veins. Further, many true Brâhmans hold land and cultivate, and are not necessarily degraded by so doing.

9. Further, Mr. Risley seems to be certainly right in dwelling on the fact that while they have sections both of the territorial and eponymous class, the former regulate the exogamy of the tribe, and not the latter. Many lower castes have adopted Brâhmanical gotras; but it is unreasonable to suppose that if the Bhuînhârs were originally Brâhmans, and as such necessarily provided with a set of real Brâhmanical gotras, they would deliberately have discarded them and adopted a tribal organization of the territorial type. On this ground he regards them as more probably a branch of the Râjputs.

10. The question then of the origin of the Bhuînhârs is not capable of exact determination. Their traditions, customs, and appearance point all to a Brâhmanical origin; their tribal organization seems to show that they are not, as is asserted by some, Brâhmans, who for a reason obviously inadequate, have been degraded from their original position. They may be a real branch of the Aryan stock, who in very remote ages colonised the part of the country which they occupy at present, and being reduced by the exigencies of their position to abrogate their sacerdotal functions, took to a life of war and agriculture, and in consequence of this organized their tribe in a manner analogous to those of the early Kshatriya settlers.

[Tribal organisation.] 11. As has been already said, the tribal divisions of the Bhuînhârs are organised on both the territorial and eponymous systems. Of the former the chief sub-divisions in the eastern part of these Provinces are the Kinwâr, Donwâr, Sakarwâr, Baghochhiya, Bemuwâr, Karenawa, Kotraha, Karmâi, Kolhaniyân, Athariya, Jaithariya, Chaudhari, Kotaha, Sobraniyân, Belhariya, Domkatâr, Baksariya, Eksariya, Gautamiya, Titiha, Bhaiwadh, Kolaha, Sorhaniya, Biruâr, Surohau, Birramiya, Kahatwâr, Mirzapuri, Raikwâr and Parasiya. Besides these are a number of sub-divisions of the Brâhmanical type, such as Dikshit, Garga, Gautam, Sândilya, Pânrê, Dûbê, Tiwâri, Upâdhya, Pâthak, Shukl, Kapilgotri, Kausik, Bhâradwâja, and Payâsi Misr. They further enumerate eighty-four of the regular Brâhmanical gotras, such as Kasyapa, Vasishtha, Parâsara, Bhârgava, Vatsya, Katyâyana, Gargya, Gobhila, Angiras, and so on. But in carrying out the rules of exogamy the mûl or territorial section is alone taken account of, and not the Brâhmanical gotra. With this exception the prohibited degrees follow the standard Brâhmanical formula. Some of these sections are possibly totemistic, such as the Baghochhiya or “tiger” (bâgh); Domkatâr, “Dom’s knife,” Belhariya, from the bel tree; and these sections carry with them some degree of inferiority, which results in a form of hypergamy. The Census returns give no less than four hundred and fifty-eight Bhuînhâr sections: but here the territorial sections and the Brâhmanical gotras are mixed up together. The most important local sections according to these returns are the Chaudhari, Gautam, and Kolaha, in Benares: the Gautam in Mirzapur: the Bhâradwâja, Bhrigubansi, Dichhit, Donwâr, Gautam, Kausik, Kinwâr, Kistwâr, Sakarwâr, Sonwâr, in Ghâzipur: the Asuriya, Bhagata, Domkatâr, Kinwâr, Manchaura, Nanauliya, and Bemwâr, of Ballia: the Baghochhiya, Baksariya, Gautam, Kausik, and Sakarwâr, of Gorakhpur: the Barasi, Birhariya, and Kausik, of Basti: and the Barwâr, Bhâradwâja, Bhrigubans, Denwâr, Gargbans, Gautam, Purwâr, Sakarwâr, and Sândil, of Azamgarh.

[Domestic ceremonies.] 12. The Bhuînhârs of this part of the country follow in every respect the standard Brâhmanical rules.

[Religion.] 13. Bhuînhârs are usually Saivas or Sâktas, and worship the deohâr or community of village godlings and local demons or ghosts such as Goraiya, Hardiya, Bandi Mâi, and the like.

[Territorial sub-divisions.] 14. Some account may be given of the chief territorial sub-divisions. [74]

[The Kinwâr.] 15. The Kinwâr Bhuînhârs claim an origin from Padampur, in the Carnâtic, like the Kinwâr Râjputs. They have in Ghâzipur three sub-sections—Rajdhar, Makund, and Pithaur Râê.

[Bemwâr.] 16. The Bemwâr Bhuînhârs say they came from Bempur and settled in Narwan in Benares. They are respectable, well-to-do people.

[The Sakarwâr.] 17. The Sakarwâr Bhuînhârs are closely connected with the Râjput sept of the same name, and like them their legends connect them and their name with Fatehpur-Sikri. In Ghâzipur they are generally rich, and have retained the greater part of their ancestral property.

[The Donwâr.] 18. The Donwâr sub-division say that their original home was near Fatehpur-Sikri. When they settled in Azamgarh they were known as Bhath. They derive their name from their parent village Donauli, which took its name from Dona Achârya, a Pânrê Brâhman. Dr. Oldham says that they are frugal and industrious. The ancestor of the Donwârs of two or three villages was in the military service of one of the Delhi Emperors, and received from him for his valour the title of Khân, which is borne to the present day by all his descendants.

[The Gautam.] 19. Of the Gautam Bhuînhârs one tradition runs that about the year 304 Hijri (882 A.D.) a Brâhman of the Gautam gotra, named Khattu Misra, came to Benares. Every day after he had bathed he used to pour some water at the root of a madâr tree (Asclepias gigantea) in which lived a Râkshasa. One day he had forgot to make the accustomed offering, and the Râkshasa appeared and implored him to relieve his thirst. He complied with the request, and the Râkshasa offered him any boon he chose. Khattu replied that he was much inconvenienced by having to dry his wet loin cloth over his shoulders whenever he went to bathe. So the demon gave him the power of throwing the cloth into the air, where it was miraculously suspended until it dried. The Râkshasa then introduced him to Vyâsa, who was living in Benares, and the fame of his miracles rapidly brought him reputation and wealth. So he built a tank at Benares, which is still known as Misra ka pokhara, and planted trees on its bank. Benares was then ruled by Râja Banâr; and one day an elephant belonging to the Râja injured one of the trees of Khattu Misra, whereat he was wroth, and the Râja was forced to take the worthy into his favour. One day the Râja gave Khattu a packet of betel on which he had written a deed-of-gift of twenty-eight villages. Khattu unwittingly swallowed the betel, and being considered to have thus lost status by accepting a gift, he henceforth lost the power of drying his loin cloth in the air. This estate was the present Gangapur, which belongs to his descendant, the present Mahârâja of Benares, who belongs to the Bipra branch of the Gautam gotra, with the title of Misra. According to Mr. Sherring [75] it is “of the Kauthumiya sâkha, or branch of Brâhmans following the ritual of the Sâma Veda. It has three Pravaras, distinguished by the number of knots in the Brâhmanical cord—the Gautam, Angiras, and Anthatiya. The clan intermarries with the Bhuînhârs of the Madhyandina sâkha of Brâhmans, observing the ritual of the Yajur Veda. It is traditionally allied to the Sarwariya Brâhmans of Madhubani beyond the Ghâgra.”

[Occupation and social status.] 20. The Bhuînhârs of these Provinces claim to observe a high standard of personal purity and carry out all the rules of the Brâhmanical ritual. They are in the villages at least quarrelsome and litigious; but they are, on the whole, a fine body of sturdy yeomen, and turn out excellent crops, though they will not plough with their own hands. To agriculture they very generally add dealing in grain and money-lending.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE BHUÎNHÂRS ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891. [76]

Bhuiya.—A Dravidian tribe found in the hill country of South Mirzapur [77] to the number of 839.

[Legend of origin.] 2. Their legend in Mirzapur runs that two ancient sages, Moma Rishi and Kumbha Rishi, had each a son known respectively as Bhad or Bhadra and Mahesh. Bhad practised austerities in the forests of Magadha or Bihâr, and his cousin Mahesh attended on him. Bhad once sat between two nîm (melia azadirachta) trees, and when he felt hungry ate the bark. The Bhuiyas hence know him as the Nîm Rishi. Mahesh went into the forest every morning to collect roots and fruits. Half he used to eat himself, and half he kept for his cousin. When Bhad had spent twelve years in these austerities, the Lord tempted him by sending to him one of the nymphs of heaven. She used to make some halwa out of flour, butter and sugar and stick it on the bark of the tree beneath which Bhad sat. Bhad knowing nothing of this used to eat it with the bark which formed his daily food. Finally his eyes were opened and he saw the lady. He fell in love with her and took her to wife, and had seven sons, from whom are descended the Magahiya, Tirvak, Dandwâr, Dhelwâr, Musahar, and Bhuînhâr or Bhuiyâr septs. From their descent from the Rishi the Bhuiyas often call themselves Rishâsan Bhuiyas. The fruits and roots which Mahesh collected he sowed in the Mirzapur jungles, and since then they have begun to grow there. This legend is very different from that recorded by Colonel Tickell, which would make the Bhuiyas descended from shell fish, and of kindred origin to Kols, Santâls, and Ghasiyas. [78] The Mirzapur legend asserts their kinship with the Musahar and Bhuînhâr, who claim to be distinct tribes, and disclaim any connection with the Bhuiyas.

Mr. Risley, remarking on the wide area over which the name Bhuiya has spread, thinks we should “hesitate and demand some independent evidence of affinity before we pronounce it to be an original tribal designation, and accept the conclusion that all tribes which bear the name at the present day are sprung from a common stock.” He adds that “the advanced guard of the Aryan immigrants, pressing forward in quest of land, and seeking a name for the alien races whom they found in possession of scanty clearings in the forest-clad tract of Central India, whither they had themselves been driven, would naturally ignore the tribal names of the groups with which they came in contact, and would call the strangers Bhuiyas or children of the soil” [79] (bhûmi).

[Physical characteristics.] 3. Colonel Dalton describes the Bhuiyas of Gangpur and Bonai as “a dark brown, well proportioned race, with black, straight hair plentiful on the head but scant on the face; of middle height, figures well knit, and capable of enduring great fatigue, but light framed like the Hindu, rather than presenting the usual muscular development of the hillman. The features are very much of the same cast throughout. The cheek and jaw-bones are projecting, so as to give a breadth and squareness to the face. The nose is but slightly elevated, still neither so depressed nor so broad at the root as the generality of Turanian noses, and rather of a retroussé type: mouth and teeth well formed, and the facial angle generally good. The eyes well shaped and straight, but never very large or deep set.” [80] On the other hand he describes the Keonjhar Hill Bhuiyas “as rather of an exaggerated Turanian type: very large mouths, thick and somewhat projecting lips, foreheads narrow and low, but not receding; eyes dark but well shaped, hair plentiful on the head, though rather frizzly and generally scanty on the face; but to this there are notable exceptions. Short of stature, averaging about five feet two inches, round shouldered, and many of them with a lump that is produced by the displacement of the muscles in carrying loads bhangy fashion. The colour of the skin varies from a deep chocolate, the predominating tint, to tawny.” [81] This last description seems to answer more closely than the former to the tribe as found in Mirzapur. They are distinguished with very great difficulty from the Bhuiyâr, with whom they are doubtless very closely connected, but are much less robust and active than the Korwas or Parahiyas.

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The tribes and castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, Volume 2 (of 4)Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

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