Chapter VI: Front Matter (6)

[The Partâbgarh branch.] 3. Of the Faizâbâd branch Mr. Carnegy writes:—“What their claim may be to being placed under the Sombansi line is not clear. Their avowed chief is the Râja of Majhauli, in Gorakhpur. In Oudh we have no less than thirteen chiefs of this clan, and their colonies are principally to be found in the Partâbgarh District, but also in Bahrâich, Gonda, Daryâbâd, and Sultânpur. The local heads are the Râja of Kâlakânkar, and the Râjas of Manikpur and Bhinga. Sir H. M. Elliot affirms that the present Râja of Majhauli is in the one hundred and fifteenth generation from Mayûra Bhatta, the devotee. The Oudh branch state that they broke off from the parent stem in the person of Râê Hûm, and settled in the Province under the wing of Mânik Chand, the then powerful Gaharwâr Râja of Manikpur, he who so happily picked up the foundling mother of all the Kânhpuriya clan. Within the last few years the Râja of Majhauli took to himself a wife from the Râjkumâr house of Dera,—a sure indication that the Bisens (indigenous devotee Chhatris of Gorakhpur though they be) are higher in the social scale than the Râjkumâr offshoot of the Mainpuri ex-convert Chauhâns.”

[The Gorakhpur branch.] 4. From Gorakhpur it is now reported that they intermarry with the septs of the Sirnet, Hayobans, Baghel, Chauhân, Chandel, Gaharwâr, Sûrajbansi, Râjkumâr, Chandrabansi, Sombansi, Gautam, Kausik, Gandhwariya, Hâra, Kachhwâha, Râna, Nâgbansi and Jâdon. In Jaunpur they take brides from the Bais, Nikumbh, Chaupat Khambh, and Kharagbâns, and give girls to the Nikumbh, Raghubansi, Bachgoti, Râjkumâr, and Sombansi. In Gonda they are reported to give brides to the Sirnet, Raikwâr, Janwâr, Chauhân, Kalhans, Bhadauriya, and Kachhwâha, while they receive girls from the Bandhalgoti, Râjkumâr, Palwâr, Sûrajbans, Bais, Chauhân, Kalhans, and other high class Râjputs.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE BISEN RÂJPUTS BY THE CENSUS OF 1891.

==============+========+============+=======
District. |Hindus. |Muhammadans.| Total.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Sahâranpur | 4 | 3 | 7
Meerut | 1 | ... | 1
Mathura | 7 | ... | 7
Agra | 6 | ... | 6
Farrukhâbâd | 2 | ... | 2
Etah | ... | 5 | 5
Etâwah | 17 | ... | 17
Budâun | 34 | ... | 34
Morâdâbâd | 31 | ... | 31
Shâhjahânpur | 1 | 8 | 9
Pilibhît | 1 | ... | 1
Cawnpur | 348 | ... | 348
Fatehpur | 1,070 | ... | 1,070
Bânda | 815 | 8 | 823
Hamîrpur | 199 | ... | 199
Allahâbâd | 7,809 | 25 | 7,834
Benares | 3,363 | ... | 3,363
Mirzapur | 3,374 | ... | 3,374
Jaunpur | 4,356 | 49 | 4,405
Ghâzipur | 2,486 | 2 | 2,488
Ballia | 5,558 | ... | 5,558
Gorakhpur | 9,623 | 207 | 9,830
Basti | 959 | 2,308 | 3,267
Azamgarh | 8,864 | 1,096 | 9,960
Lucknow | 368 | 36 | 404
Unâo | 1,102 | 22 | 1,124
Râê Bareli | 925 | 158 | 1,083
Sîtapur | 481 | 1,028 | 1,509
Hardoi | 74 | ... | 74
Kheri | 275 | 1,001 | 1,276
Faizâbâd | 7,212 | 1,272 | 8,484
Gonda | 27,697 | ... | 27,697
Bahrâich | 1,611 | 1,301 | 2,912
Sultânpur | 1,586 | 658 | 2,244
Partâbgarh | 4,778 | ... | 4,778
Bârabanki | 2,455 | 640 | 3,095
+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Total | 97,492 | 9,827 |107,319
==============+========+============+=======

Bishnoi—(worshippers of Vishnu).—Usually, as at the last Census, classed as a sub-tribe of Banyas, but really a distinct religious sect. They are strongest in the Meerut and Rohilkhand Divisions, and as they are emigrants from the Panjâb, Mr. Maclagan’s interesting account [128] of them may be quoted:—“The founder of the sect was Jhâmbaji, who lived towards the end of the fifteenth Century. The following is the account given by the people regarding him. At Pinpâsar, a village south of Bikâner, in the Jodhpur territory, there lived a Râjput Panwâr, named Laut, who had attained the age of sixty years and had no son. One day a neighbour going out to sow his field met Laut, and deeming it a bad omen to meet a childless man, turned back from his purpose. This cut Laut to the quick, and he went out to the jungle and bewailed his childlessness till evening, when a faqîr appeared to him and told him that in nine months he should have a son, and after showing his miraculous power by drawing milk from a calf, vanished from his sight. At the time named a child miraculously appeared in Laut’s house, and was miraculously suckled by his wife Hansa. This happened in Sambat 1508 (A.D. 1451). For seven years the boy, who was an incarnation (avatâra) of Vishnu, played with his fellows, and then for twenty-seven years he tended cattle, but all this time he spoke no word. His miraculous powers were shown in various ways, such as producing sweets from nothing for the delectation of his companions, and he became gradually known as Achamba (“the Wonder”), whence his name of Jhâmba, by which he is generally known. After thirty-four years a Brâhman was sent for to get him to speak, and on confessing his failure, Jhâmbaji again showed his power by lighting a lamp by simply snapping his fingers, and uttered his first word. He then adopted the life of a teacher, and went to reside on a sandhill, some thirty miles south of Bikâner, where, after fifty-one years, he died and was buried, instead of being burnt like an ordinary Hindu.

[Legend of Jhâmbaji.] 2. “Another account of Jhâmbaji says that when a lad of five years old he used to take his father’s herds to water at the well, and had for each head of cattle a peculiar whistle: the cows and bullocks would come one by one to the well, drink, and go away. One day a man named Udaji happened to witness this scene, and struck with astonishment, attempted to follow the boy when he left the well. He was on horseback and the boy on foot, but gallop as fast as he would he could not keep up with the walking pace of the boy. At last in amazement he dismounted and threw himself at his feet; the boy at once welcomed him by name, though he then saw him for the first time. The bewildered Udaji exclaimed,—“Jhâmbaji!” (omniscient), and henceforth the boy was known by this name. On attaining manhood Jhâmbaji left his home, and becoming a faqîr or religious mendicant, is said to have remained sitting on a sandhill called Samrathal in Bikâner for a space of fifty-one years. In 1485 A.D. a fearful famine desolated the country, and Jhâmbaji gained an enormous number of disciples by providing food for all who would declare their belief in him. He is said to have died on his sandhill at the good old age of eighty-four, and to have been buried at a spot about a mile distant from it. A further account says that his body remained suspended for six months in the bier without decomposing.

[The name of the sect.] 3. “The name Bishnoi is, of course, connected with that of Vishnu, the deity to whom the Bishnois give most prominence in their creed, though they sometimes derive it from the twenty-nine (bîs-nau) articles of faith inculcated by their founder. In fact, in our returns it was very difficult to distinguish the Bishnoi from the Vaishnava, who was often entered as a Baishnav or Bishno. The Bishnois sometimes call themselves Prahlâdbansi, or Prahlâdpanthi, on the ground that it was to please Prahlâda Bhagat that Vishnu became incarnate in the person of Jhâmbaji. The legend is that thirty-three crores of beings were killed by the wicked Hiranya-Kasipu, and when Vishnu, as the Narasinha Avatâra, saved the life of Prahlâda and asked Prahlâda his dearest wish, the latter requested that Vishnu would effect the salvation (mukti) of the remaining twenty-eight crores. To do this required a further incarnation, and Jhâmbaji was the result.”

[Tenets of the Bishnois.] 4. “Regarding the doctrines of the sect Mr. J. Wilson writes:—‘The sayings (shabd) of Jhâmbaji to the number of one hundred and twenty were written down by his disciples, and have been handed down in a book (pothi) which is written in the Nâgari character, and in a Hindu dialect, similar to Bâgri, seemingly a Mârwâri dialect. The ‘twenty-nine’ precepts given by him for the guidance of his followers are as follows:—

Tîs din sûtak pânch roz ratwanti nâri,
Sera karo shnân sil santokh suchh pyâri.
Pâni bâni îdhni itna lîjo chhân.
Daya dharm hirdê dharo guru batâi jân.
Chori nindya jûth barjya bâd na kariyo koê.
Amal tamâku bhang lil dûr hi tyâgo.
Mad mâs se dekh ke dûr hi bhâgo.
Amar rakhâo thât bail tani na bâho.
Amâshya barat rûnkh lîlo na ghâo.
Hom, jap samâdh pûja bâsh baikunthi pâo.
Untîs dharm ki âkhri guru batâi soê,
Pâhul doê par châvya jis ko nâm Bishnoi hoê.

Which is thus interpreted: ‘For thirty days after child-birth and five days after a menstrual discharge a woman must not cook food. Bathe in the morning. Commit not adultery. Be content. Be abstemious and pure. Strain your drinking water. Be careful of your speech. Examine your fuel in case any living creature be burnt with it. Show pity to living creatures. Keep duty present to your mind as the Teacher bade. Do not steal. Do not speak evil of others. Do not tell lies. Never quarrel. Avoid opium, tobacco, bhang, and blue clothing. Flee from spirits and flesh. See that your goats are kept alive (not sold to Musalmâns, who will kill them for food). Do not plough with bullocks. Keep a fast on the day before the new moon. Do not cut green trees. Sacrifice with fire. Say prayers. Meditate. Perform worship and attain heaven. And the last of the twenty-nine duties prescribed by the Teacher—‘Baptize your children, if you would be called a true Bishnoi.’”

[Social life.] 5. “Some of these precepts are not strictly obeyed; for instance, though ordinarily they allow no blue in their clothing, yet a Bishnoi, if he is a servant of the British Government, is allowed to wear a blue uniform; and Bishnois do use bullocks, though most of their farming is done with camels. They also seem to be unusually quarrelsome (in words) and given to use bad language. But they abstain from tobacco, drugs, and spirits, and are noted for their regard for animal life, which is such that not only will they not themselves kill any living creature, but they do their utmost to prevent others from doing so. Consequently their villages are generally swarming with antelope and other animals, and they forbid their Musalmân neighbours to kill them, and try to dissuade European sportsmen from interfering with them. They wanted to make it a condition of their settlement that no one should be allowed to shoot on their land, but at the same time they asked that they might be assessed at lower rates than their neighbours on the ground that the antelope being thus left undisturbed do more damage to their crops; but I told them that this would lessen the merit (pun) of their good actions in protecting the animals, and they must be treated just as the surrounding villages were. They consider it a good deed to scatter grain to pigeons and other birds, and often have a large number of half-tame birds about their villages. The day before the new moon they observe as a Sabbath and fast-day, doing no work in the fields or in the house. They bathe and pray three times a day, in the morning, afternoon, and in the evening, saying Bishno! Bishno! instead of the ordinary Hindu Râm! Râm! Their clothing is the same as of other Bâgris, except that their women do not allow the waist to be seen, and are fond of wearing black woollen clothing. They are more particular about ceremonial purity than ordinary Hindus are, and it is a common saying that if a Bishnoi’s food is on the first of a string of twenty camels and a man of another caste touches the last camel of the string, the Bishnoi would consider his food defiled and throw it away.

[Ceremony of initiation.] 6. “A number of representative Bishnois assemble, and before them a Sâdh or Bishnoi priest, after lighting a sacrificial fire (hom), instructs the novice in the duties of the faith. He then takes some water in a new earthen vessel, over which he prays in a set form (Bishno gâyatri), stirring it the while with his string of beads (mâla), and after asking the consent of the assembled Bishnois he pours the water three times into the hands of the novice, who drinks it off. The novice’s scalp-lock (choti) is then cut off and his head shaved, for the Bishnois shave the whole head and do not leave a scalp-lock like the Hindus; but they allow the beard to grow, only shaving the chin on the father’s death. Infant baptism is also practised, and thirty days after birth, the child, whether boy or girl, is baptized by the priest (Sâdh) in much the same way as an adult; only the set form of prayer is different (garbh gâyatri), and the priest pours a few drops of water into the child’s mouth, and gives the child’s relatives each three handfuls of the consecrated water to drink; at the same time the barber clips off the child’s hair. The baptismal ceremony has the effect of purifying the house, which has been made impure by the birth (sûtak).

[Customs of the Bishnois.] 7. “The Bishnois intermarry among themselves only, and by a ceremony of their own, in which it seems the circumambulation of the sacred fire, which is the binding ceremony among the Hindus generally, is omitted. They do not revere Brâhmans, but have priests (Sâdh) of their own chosen from among the laity. They do not burn their dead, but bury them below the cattle-stall or in a place frequented by cattle, such as a cattle pen. They observe the Holi in a different way from other Hindus. After sunset, on that day, they fast till the next forenoon, when, after hearing read the account of how Prahlâda was tortured by his infidel father, Hiranya Kasipu, for believing in the god Vishnu, until he was delivered by the god himself in his incarnation of the Lion-Man (Nara-Sinha), and mourning over Prahlâda’s sufferings, they light a sacrificial fire and partake of consecrated water, and after distributing unpurified sugar (gur) in commemoration of Prahlâda’s delivery from the fire into which he was thrown, they break their fast.

“Bishnois go on pilgrimage where Jhâmbaji is buried, south of Bikâner, where there is a tomb (math) over his remains, and a temple (mandir) with regular attendants (pujâri). A festival takes place here every six months in Asauj and Phâlgun, when the pilgrims go to the sandhill on which Jhâmbaji lived, and there light sacrificial fires (hom) of jandi wood in vessels of stone, and offer a burnt offering of barley, sesamum (til), butter, and sugar, at the same time muttering set prayers. They also make presents to the attendants of the temple, and distribute grain for the peacocks and pigeons, which live there in numbers. Should any one have committed an offence, such as having killed an animal, or sold a cow or goat to a Musalmân, or allowed an animal to be killed when he could have prevented it, he is fined by the assembled Bishnois for the good of the temple, and the animals kept there. Another place of pilgrimage is a tomb called Chhambola, in the Jodhpur country, where a festival is held every year in Chait. There the pilgrims bathe in the tank and help to deepen it, and sing and play musical instruments and scatter grain to peacocks and pigeons. The Bishnois look with special attention to the fire sacrifice (hom); it is only the rich who perform this daily; the poor meet together to carry out the rite on the Amâwas day only. The Gâenas or Sâdhs, who are their priests and are fed by them like Brâhmans, are a hereditary class and do not intermarry with other Bishnois; nor do they take offerings from any but Bishnois. The Bishnois are a regular caste and have been shown as such in our tables; and the returns of the caste are much more to be relied on than those of the sect, for the reason given above that many Bishnois by sect must have been shown in our tables as Vaishnavas, and vice versâ.

[Organization.] 8. “It is said that a member of any of the higher Hindu castes may become a Bishnoi; but as a matter of fact they are almost entirely Jâts or carpenters (Khâti), or less frequently, Râjputs or Banyas, and the Banya Bishnois are apparently not found in the Panjâb, their chief seat being Morâdâbâd, in the North-West Provinces. The man who becomes a Bishnoi is still bound by his caste restrictions; he no longer calls himself a Jât, but he can marry only Jât Bishnois, or he is no longer a Khâti, and yet cannot many any one who is not a Khâti; and further than this the Bishnoi retains the gotra of his original tribe and may not marry within this. Karewa is practised among them, but an elder brother cannot marry a younger brother’s widow.

[Connection with Vaishnavism.] 9. “There is not perhaps very much in the teaching of Jhâmbaji to distinguish him from the orthodox pattern of Hindu saints, and in some points his doctrine, more especially with regard to the preservation of life, is only an intensification of the ordinary Vaishnava tenets. But in the omission of the circumambulation (phera) at marriage, the cutting off of the scalp-lock, the special ceremony of initiation, and the disregard for the Brâhmanical priesthood, we find indications of the same spirit as that which moved the other Hindu reformers of the period.”

[The Bishnois of the North-Western Provinces.] 10. Mahant Âtma Râm, known as Mahârâj or Mahant, the present leader of the Morâdâbâd Bishnois, gives an account of them which, as far as the legends connected with Jhâmbaji, agrees exactly with the Panjâb legend. He names nine endogamous sub-divisions of them—Jât; Bishnoi; Banya Bishnoi; Brâhman Bishnoi; Ahîr Bishnoi; Sunâr Bishnoi; Nâi Bishnoi; Chauhân Bishnoi; Bayhar Bishnoi. The rule of exogamy is that they do not intermarry in their own gotra or in that of their relatives as long as any tie of relationship is remembered.

[Customs.] 11. The Morâdâbâd branch settled there when the District was in the hands of the Nawâb Wazîr of Oudh, about one hundred and fifty years ago. They do not admit outsiders except into their special sub-division as given above. Polygamy is allowed; polyandry repudiated. The marriage ceremonies are performed in the orthodox Hindu fashion. Widows can re-marry by the sagâi form. Besides the special worship of Jhâmbaji, they have, now following the example of their Hindu neighbours, adopted also the worship of Siva and Bhawâni. When a child is born the mother is secluded for forty days, when the Mahant sends one of his disciples who makes her throw some butter into the fire. This ceremony is known as basandar chhûna or “fire touching.” When a man dies the nearest male relative of the deceased draws water from the well in an unused earthen vessel, and places it at the door of the house with the opening at the top covered with a piece of new cloth. Upon this are placed some cakes (pûri). Just as the sun is setting some of the clansmen assemble, and each takes a handful of water and pours it on the ground in the name of the dead man. This is repeated on the third, tenth, twentieth, and fortieth day, and after three, six, and twelve months. The corpse is thrown into the Ganges with a pitcher full of sand tied round the neck. They perform the srâddha in honour of the sainted dead in the month of Kuâr, as ordinary Hindus do. Those who die without issue have the srâddha performed by other relations, and on this occasion clothes, etc., are given to Brâhmans. They will eat from the hands of none but their own clansmen.

[Social life.] 12. They strictly abstain from spirits, meat, and tobacco. Wherever they are numerous they erect by subscription a shed which is known as a Vishnu temple (Vishnu mandir). There they assemble on the fifteenth of every Hindu month, and the songs of Jhâmbaji are chanted by the Mahant or some other Sâdh or priest. This meeting is known as jumala. In the months of Kuâr and Chait they assemble in large numbers and offer sweetmeats and money. Part of the offerings is taken by the Mahant and the rest is divided among the worshippers present. The Mahant and his Sâdhs practise celibacy. The Bishnois of Bijnor appear to differ from those of the Panjâb in using the Musalmân form of salutation, salâm alaikum, and the title of Shaikhji. They account for this by saying that they murdered a Muhammadan Qâzi who prevented them from burning a widow and were glad to compound the offence by pretending to adopt Islâm.

DISTRIBUTION OF BISHNOI BANYAS [129] ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891.

==============+=======
District. |Number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Dehra Dûn | 58
Muzaffarnagar | 902
Meerut | 255
Bijnor | 1,626
Morâdâbâd | 2,748
Cawnpur | 7
Bânda | 5
+~~~~~~~
Total | 5,601
==============+=======

Biyâr, Biâr.—A tribe of labourers and cultivators in the Eastern Districts.

[Origin and characteristics of the tribes.] 1. The word Biâr means “a seed-bed,” and it is suggested that this may be the origin of the name on account of their occupation, which is principally rice cultivation and the construction of tanks and embankments. They may possibly be of aboriginal origin, but the tribe appears to be very mixed, and while they have to a great extent lost the broad nose characteristic of the pure Dravidian races, like the Majhwârs or Korwas, they are not noticeably different in appearance from the Chamârs and other menial Hindu castes which surround them. They may perhaps be connected with the Bhoyars of Betul, “who are said to have come originally from Upper India: they are hard-working and industrious cultivators, thoroughly alive to the advantages of irrigation, and generally expending much labour and capital in the sinking of wells.” [130] The idea which at one time prevailed that they were in some way connected with the great Bhar race seems groundless. They consider themselves autochthones of Pargana Barhar, in Mirzapur, and have no traditions of emigration. They are slight, dark, wiry men, noted for their skill in earth-work, and habitually employed on excavations of all kinds: a quiet, rather depressed race, occasionally addicted to petty theft. In Mirzapur they have now formed themselves into two endogamous divisions, the Barhariya, who take their name from Pargana Barhar, north of the river Son, and the Dakkhinâha or “Southerners,” who live south of the river. Those north of the Son have begun to imitate Hindus so far as to start one sub-division or sept (Kuri), the Chamanawa or Chandanawa, who say they are descended from the chandan or sandal tree, and to this is attached one gotra, that of Kâsip. These sub-divisions, however, do not restrict marriage, the rules of exogamy within the two endogamous sub-divisions being of a very elementary kind. They say that when a girl is married into a family they do not permit another alliance with that family for at least three generations. Others say that only the family of the mother’s brother (mâmu) and the father’s sister’s husband (phûpha) are barred. The tendency, however, seems to be to extend the restriction to the orthodox limit fixed in many of these tribes and to include the family of the father’s brother (chacha) and the maternal aunt (mâosi). Other members of the caste, however, name seven septs,—Kanaujiya, Sarwâr, Barwâr, Mahto, Kahto, Kâshi, and Barhar. These are exogamous, and hypergamy is said to prevail to this extent that the Kanaujiya intermarry only with the Barwâr, Sarwâr and Mahto. Three of these are purely local sub-divisions, Kanaujiya (from Kanauj), Kâshi (from Benares), Barhar (from the pargana of that name in Mirzapur). The others are probably all occupational—Sarwâr “archer;” Barwâr, “carrier of loads;” Mahto, “leader;” Kahto, “spokesman.”

[Tribal organisation.] 2. They have a caste council (panchâyat) which meets on occasions of marriages and funerals, and disposes of tribal business. The president (Mukhiya) is a hereditary officer, and he has an assistant known as Chaudhari. Offences against morality are punished by fine or castigation. The castigation is in the form of a shoe-beating, which is administered by two strong young men at the orders of the president. The fine takes the form of two or four days feeding of the clansmen. When the offender agrees to do this he is restored to caste privileges. If a man marries into a family already excommunicated he has to give a two days’ feast of goat flesh and liquor to the clan. If a poor man pleads poverty, the fine is sometimes reduced, but if he disregards the sentence he is excommunicated for two, four, or even ten years. If the Mukhiya or Chaudhari is a minor, the council select some relative to act for him. The Chaudhari is always appointed by the council.

[Rules of marriage.] 3. Difference in wealth or social station is no bar to marriage. A man may marry as many wives as he can support. The senior wife is mistress of the house, is respected among the relations, and joins in the family worship. If a man marries a second time, and he or she annoy or ill-treat the first wife, the council interferes in her favour. As a matter of fact the senior wife generally selects the junior wives, and urges her husband to polygamy, as their labour saves her trouble. If there are more wives than one they live in separate huts in the same enclosure, but, as a rule, they get on well together and live in common. Concubinage, if the concubine (rakhui) is a member of the tribe, is permitted. The abhorrence with which they regard even the idea of polyandry is sufficient to show that it could never have been an institution of the tribe. Women have considerable freedom both before and after marriage. If a woman is caught in an intrigue with a stranger to the tribe she is expelled. If her lover be a member of the tribe, the fathers of both have to feed the clansmen: but it is a peculiarity of this tribe that they will not allow the lovers to marry. The reason is because such cases give rise to a feud between the girl’s family and that of her lover, which is usually so serious that a marriage alliance between them is out of the question. In such cases of incontinence the girl’s father has to feed the tribesmen on pakki rasoi, that is to say, butter cakes (pûri) and goat’s flesh, and the next day on kachchi rasoi, that is, boiled rice and pulse (dâl, bhât). The tribal punishment for the lover used to be fifty stripes with a cane, but British law has put a stop to this, and he now gets fifty blows of a shoe. After the beating is over he has, in addition, to give the same feast as the girl’s father.

[Marriage and divorce.] 4. The marriage age for boys and girls is from six to twelve. The headman arranges the match: the consent of the parents is essential, and the parties have no right of choice. The bride-price fixed by invariable custom is four rupees in cash, two cloths (dhoti), four sers coarse sugar (gur), and a little turmeric. No physical defect which appears in either party after marriage is sufficient to break the tie; but this is not the case if fraud is established against the parents of either party: and it is understood that a woman may refuse to live with her husband if he is unable to support her, or is impotent. A man can divorce his wife for adultery: in fact, if after adultery is established, a man does not discard his wife, he is punished by the council. But all separations must be by the sanction of the headman, and he will not give leave until he has enquired and heard evidence in the case. If a man marries a woman who has been divorced for adultery he is put out of caste. The sons of the senior wife are called jethri or superior: those of the second lauhri or inferior. These two sets of children succeed equally, while the children of a concubine have no rights, and receive only whatever their father may please to give them during his lifetime. If the concubine was a woman of the tribe, the children receive full caste rights and can be married in the tribe: not so, if the mother was of another tribe. Her children are called Biyâr after their father, but have no rights of marriage or commensality.

[Widow marriage.] 5. A man may take a widow to live with him without any ceremony. For a while the clansmen will not eat with him, but when he feeds them he is generally restored to caste on condition that he goes to bathe at Benares or Gaya. The levirate is allowed under the usual restriction that the younger brother can marry his elder brother’s widow, and not vice versâ. If the levir abandon his claim to her she may marry an outsider. She takes with her only children at the breast; the others remain with her late husband’s brother. Once she marries again she loses all rights in her husband’s estate. Their uncle manages the property for his nephews, and they succeed when they come of age. So in the case of the levirate the mother manages the property for her sons by the first marriage. Her second family has no claim to share. There is no fiction by which the sons of the levir are attributed to the first husband.

[Adoption.] 6. Only a sonless man can adopt, and that only with the consent of his brethren and the council. A man usually adopts his brother’s son, though occasionally the adoption of a daughter’s son is allowed. A man may adopt if his only son is a permanent outcast. During the life of one adopted son a second cannot be adopted. Curiously enough a bachelor can adopt, but not a blind man, or a cripple, or an impotent man, or a Jogi, or a woman, except a widow following distinct instructions from her late husband given before witnesses. But in any case she can adopt only one of her husband’s brother’s sons. A man cannot give his only or eldest son or only brother in adoption. A boy once married cannot be adopted: nor can a girl be adopted: nor a sister’s son: nor a daughter’s son except in most exceptional circumstances. As a rule a son adopted by another loses all rights to his father’s estate, but cases are quoted to the contrary. If he be his father’s only son he inherits in both houses. If a natural son be born after adoption he and the adopted son share equally.

[Beena marriage.] 7. The custom of Beena marriage or gharjaiyân does not prevail.

[Succession.] 8. In all cases the sons of a man are his heirs. Primogeniture is so far observed that the eldest gets a tenth in excess of everything, and the children of the first or senior wife get something more than the others. The shares go by the sons, not by the mothers. A man cannot select a special son in his lifetime to be heir in excess of the others. Even if one son be better off than the others by self-acquired property, dowry, etc., he gets his usual share. Grandsons get their proportionate share in the inheritance of their fathers. If there are no sons the associated brothers inherit equally. The widow has a right to maintenance so long as she continue chaste: if she becomes unchaste her husband’s brothers can expel her. A daughter has no rights, but it seems to be usual for the brothers to give her some of the family jewelry, etc., and if she is badly treated by her husband or his friends she has a right to come back to her original home and claim maintenance there. If a man die without a son or widow his associated brothers succeed. If a widow marries while pregnant, and a son is born, he will succeed to his real not to his step-father. If the widow on remarriage takes little children with her the step-father is bound to support them until they grow up and get them married. If a man become an ascetic his sons get his estate: but a remarkable rule prevails that in such case the sons get only the acquired property of their father, while the ancestral property goes to his brothers. Village and tribal offices such as that of mahto are ancestral: but if the eldest son of the deceased proves unfit, the duty is made over to one of his elder brothers.

[Relationship.] 9. Families in which sons are married or from which sons-in-law come are considered relations. There is nothing peculiar in the general system of relationship. They do not, as a rule, remember the names of ancestors beyond the grandfather.

[Birth ceremonies.] 10. When a woman is being delivered she sits on the ground facing east. She is attended by the Chamâin midwife, who cuts the cord with a sickle and buries it in the place where the child was born, lighting a fire on the spot, which is kept burning while the woman remains in seclusion. After birth the child is rubbed with a mixture of barley flour and oil. The first day the mother is fed on halwa, which is made of wheat flour, coarse sugar (gur), and ghi. After this she is given butter cakes (pûri), but in poor families only rice and pulse. Every morning and evening she is given a mixture of gur, ghi, and turmeric, which is known as kâra. On the sixth day the Chamâin bathes mother and child, the Dhobi takes her clothes to the wash, the barber’s wife cuts her finger and toe nails and colours her feet with lac dye (mahâwar). On that day the men of the family shave and put on clean clothes, and the woman’s husband’s sister (nanad) cleans the delivery room (saur), for which she receives a present in cash, clothes, or jewelry. The wives of the barber and Dhobi get four annas each, and the Chamâin the same with her food for the days she has been in attendance. That evening the clanspeople, male and female, are fed. From that date the attendance of the Chamâin ceases. On the twelfth day (barahi) the mother bathes in warm water, and the barber’s wife cuts her nails and those of all the other women of the family. From that time the mother is considered pure, and cooks for the family. On this day the old earthen vessels of the family are replaced. The couvade so far prevails that on the day the child is born the father does no work, and has to take the first sip of the draught given to his wife. The husband does not cohabit with his wife till the child is six months old, and is first fed on grain (annaprâsana).

[Adoption ceremony.] 11. No adoption is valid unless the adoptive father and the boy appear before the Mukhiya, Chaudhari and council and make mutual engagements.

[Marriage ceremony.] 12. There is nothing very remarkable about the marriage ceremony. The bride is selected by the boy’s father and approved of by the Mahto. The boy’s father then on a date (lagan) fixed by a Brâhman sends or takes to the bride’s father a present which fixes the betrothal. This is known as neg bharna, and in some places consists of four rupees in cash, two sers turmeric, two sers oil, and two sers coarse sugar (gur); in others of one and-a-quarter sers turmeric, one and-a-quarter sers sugar, and one and-a-quarter sers of oil. The marriage pavilion (mânro) has the middle post of siddh wood (Hardwickia binata). It is erected by the sister or paternal aunt of the bride, who receives a small present for doing this. Five days before marriage the matmangar ceremony is performed in the usual way as described in the case of the Bhuiyas, except that the earth is dug by the father’s sister’s husband (phûpha) of the bride, and is brought home by five unmarried girls of the bride’s sept, who make out of it a rude altar (bedi) in the marriage shed, on which is placed the lucky water jar (kalsa), and a rude representation of parrots (suga) sitting on a tree, which is made by the village carpenter out of the wood of the cotton-tree (semal). On this day the family priest (purohit) sprinkles the bride and bridegroom with a bunch of dûb grass soaked in turmeric and oil (haldi charhâna). This is done five times. Before the procession starts the bridegroom’s mother does the “waving” ceremony (parachhan), as described in connection with the Bhuiyârs. The bridegroom’s procession is met by the bride’s friends outside the village, and they embrace (meli jholi). On reaching the reception place (janwânsa) the bridegroom’s father takes the wedding present (charhauwa) to the bride. This consists of some jewelry and a sheet for the girl and her mother. When the bridegroom arrives he and the bride are seated on leaf mats or stools in a square (chauk) made under the marriage shed: the bride’s father washes the feet of the bridegroom, and her mother does the same for the bride. Then the hands of the pair are joined, and the bride’s father pours water over them, while the Pandit [131] reads the sankalpa or “verses of donation.” They then walk five times round the parrot images and water jar, the girl’s brother pouring a handful of parched rice (lawa) over them each time they pass; while some parched grain is thrown on the sacred fire (hom), which is kept burning in the shed. Then the pair sit down, and the bridegroom marks the right foot of the bride with red lead, and taking five pinches of it between the thumb and the first finger of his right hand rubs it in the parting of her hair. This is the binding portion of the ceremony. Then the wife of the bride’s brother (bhaujâi) sprinkles some red lead (sendur chhirakna) over the bridegroom and gets a small present. She then escorts the pair into the retiring room (kohabar), the walls of which are marked with rude figures drawn in red clay (geru). Over these the bridegroom pours some oil, and has to submit to a good deal of coarse practical jokes from the female relations of the bride. [132] Next morning is the khichari or ceremony of confarreatio, when the bridegroom and bride eat together. After this is the mânro hilâi or “shaking of the marriage shed.” The father of the bridegroom pulls up and pitches away one of the poles of the pavilion amid the shouts of his party. This may possibly be a survival of marriage by capture. On the bridegroom arriving at his house his sister, apparently with the same idea, blocks the door, and will not admit the bride until she gets a present. At the bridegroom’s house the kohabar ceremony, as above described, is again performed. A day or two after this, on a day fixed by the Pandit, some woman of the family takes the wreaths of mango leaves (bandanwâr) which decorated the door and the sacred water jar (kalsa), and throws them into a stream. The deities that preside over marriages are Gauri (Devi) and Ganesa. Images of them made of cow-dung are placed in the marriage shed, and are rubbed with a little of the red lead before it is applied to the head of the bride. A marriage can be broken off after the first embassage (puchhâwa) of the headman, but once the red lead is applied it is final.

[Forms of marriage.] 13. The three forms of recognized marriage are the charhauwa and the sagâi for widows. There is also the gurâwat, or marriage by exchange, when two persons exchange sisters. [133]

[Death ceremonies.] 14. The dying person is removed into the open air before death. [134] The ceremonies are performed in the ordinary way. After cremation a stalk of the tall reed-like grass (jhurai) is planted on the edge of a tank. This is apparently like the vessel (ghant) hung on a pîpal tree, intended as an abode for the spirit (pret) during the time which elapse before the funeral ceremonies are complete. [135] During the next ten days the man who fired the pyre goes daily to the tank and pours ten vessels (lota) of water over the grass-stalk. When the mourners return from the pyre they sit and lament the deceased for a short time, and each touches with his big toe a little vessel of water which is laid in the court-yard. For ten days mourning goes on. The man who fired the pyre cooks his food in an earthen vessel without salt, eats only once a day out of a leaf platter (dauna), and the relations do not eat pân or turmeric or put oil on their heads. The chief mourner goes about with a knife and brass lota in his hands to keep off ghosts. On the day after the cremation the women of the family go to the tank. The dead man’s mother walks in front of the widow, and all sing songs of mourning. When they arrive at the tank the widow washes the red lead off the parting of her hair and pours ten handfuls of water on the stalk of grass which embodies the spirit of her husband. All the women do the same, and the same ceremony is performed daily for ten days. On the tenth day (daswân) all the male relations shave at the tank and get a Brâhman to offer up three balls (pinda) of barley flour, which are thrown into the water in the name of the deceased. They then return to the house, where the funeral priest (Mahâpâtra, Mahâbrâhman) attends and receives the bed, clothes, and vessels of the dead man, and one and-a-quarter rupee in cash from the person who fired the pyre. These, it is believed, will pass on for the use of the deceased in the next world (svarga). [136] “How could he get on in the next world without these things?” is what they say; but of a future in which felicity awaits the good and retribution meets the evil-doer they have only the very vaguest idea. [137] On that day his brother-in-law binds a turban on the head of the dead man’s successor, and pân and betel-nut are distributed and the clansmen fed. On this day, to mark her abandonment of married life, the widow floats away (serwa dena) her little box which contains the red lead for the parting of her hair (sendûra) and forehead spangles into the water.

[Ancestor worship.] 15. At the period sacred to the dead (pitra paksha) in the month of Kuâr they plaster a little space under the eaves of the house, spread there a little rice and flowers, and a vessel (lota) full of water and a toothbrush (datwan) for the use of the dead. On the 15th day of Kuâr they give some dry grain (sîdha) to a Brâhman, and feed a few of the kinsfolk in the name of the dead. If this is not done, their spirits beset them in dreams, cause the nightmare, and bring disease and death.

[Religion.] 16. Their special deity is Mahâdeva in the form of the lingam. As local deities they worship Sewanriya, the deity of boundaries, and Dharti Mahâdeva, the earth-god. These local deities have a shrine on the village boundary consisting of a mud platform under a semal (bombax heptaphyllum), bahera (terminalia bellerica), or pîpal (ficus indica) tree. A small red flag marks the shrine, near which are placed images of elephants. This is the shrine of Sewanriya, the deity of boundaries. In the name of Dharti and Mahâdeva two stone pillars are set up in the ground on the outskirts of the village. When the harvest is cut both these are propitiated by a burnt sacrifice (hom) of sugar and butter (gur, ghi). People who are in trouble make vows there, and, when the evil is removed, sacrifice a goat or fowl, and sprinkle some liquor through the Baiga. For this he receives some grain and a couple of pice. The women have a special worship to Amina Devi, [138] in which men do not join. They make a burnt offering and light a lamp in her honour. If this deity is not worshipped the deity mounts on their heads and drives them into a fit of ecstacy (abhuâna). They have the usual custom of boring the ears (kanchhedan) of children when they are five years old. That day special food is served, and after this the child must conform to caste usages in the matter of food. Their religious business is done by a low class of Pânrê Brâhmans. On the day a child’s ears are bored a goat is offered to Juâla-mukhi Devi, and the meat is consumed by the worshippers and their friends.

[Festivals.] 17. On the Râmnaumi of Chait they have the heads of their children shaved at the shrine of Juâla-mukhi Devi at Kota in the presence of the priest (panda) in charge of the temple. On that date they offer a goat and a burnt offering (hom). On the snake festival, Nâgpanchami, held on the fifth bright half of Sâwan, they will not plough, and make a white protective mark round the walls of their houses, oil the horns of the oxen, and give them salt. On the Dasahra, the tenth light half of Kuâr, they eat specially good food. On the feast of lamps, Diwâli, in the last day of the dark fortnight in Kârttik, they plaster the house, light lamps, and on that day the Ahîr herdsmen come and dance at the houses of their employers, and get some old clothes and a small money present. At the Til Sankrânt, in the end of the month of Pûs, they all eat rice boiled with pulse (khichari) after a Brâhman has first touched the food and blessed it. On the thirteenth light half of Pûs they bury the old year (Sambat gârna). There is a regular place outside the village in which a stake of the wood of the cotton tree (semal) is planted in the ground. Three days after all the villagers collect fuel round this, and on the day of the full moon (pûranmâshi) the village Brâhman fixes a time for burning the old year (Sambat). The fire is lit by the village Baiga, and then all the people apply fire to it, and parch stalks of barley in the fire and eat them. They also make small lumps of cowdung and throw them into the fire. Next morning all collect and sprinkle the ashes of the Sambat into the air. This is known as râkh urâna. After marking their foreheads with the ashes they return home. Next day, up to midday, the men sing abusive songs, and throw earth and cowdung at the women. After midday they bathe, put on clean clothes, throw about the powder of ground mica or talc (abîr), eat wheat cakes (pûri) fried in butter, and drink liquor. The feast winds up with a regular saturnalia in which decency and order are forgotten. [139]

[Ghosts.] 18. Places like wells and tanks where any one has been drowned are considered as specially haunted. [140] If any one goes alone to bathe in such places the ghost pushes him in and drowns him. They also have the same idea about deaths by a fall from a tree, which are regarded as the work of the offended tree spirit. If they happen to walk under a tree where such an accident has happened they bend their heads and bow. To keep off such ghosts people take a piece of iron about with them, such as a knife, a key, etc. They believe that if you can succeed in catching one of these malicious Bhûts and cutting off his scalp-lock, he will serve you for the rest of your life.

[Tattooing.] 19. The women tattoo themselves in the usual way among these jungle tribes. [141] They believe that if they are not tattooed God (Bhagwân) brands them in the next world with a torch of dry grass. [142]

[Various superstitions, omens, oaths, witchcraft, etc.] 20. The lucky days are Sunday and Monday and Friday; Tuesday and Saturday are unlucky. Among numbers 5 and 3 are lucky, 13 unlucky. They take omens from the kurli bird, whose song on commencing a journey or business is lucky. A jackal crossing the road is inauspicious. The house door may face the North, East, or West, but not the South. Every one has two names, that fixed by astrology (râs), and that in ordinary use. They swear by putting the hand on their son’s head or touching a Brâhman’s feet. In the first place if they tell a lie the son dies, in the second they lose their property or life. They are much in dread of witchcraft (tona). Such cases are treated by the Ojha, who has power to drive off or summon Bhûts, and can thus revenge himself on an enemy. Dreams only mean the displeasure of the sainted dead at inattention, and are not specially interpreted. Some women, particularly those born on a Saturday, can cast the Evil Eye. When a child is thus affected its eyelashes stand out straight, and when babies are struck they refuse the mother’s breast. Even big children are affected. The sign of the arrival of a person with this power is that the person affected if eating immediately vomits. All disease is due to demoniacal influence. It is only Ojhas who can recognise the particular Bhût which is at the bottom of the mischief, and having marked him down they are able to prescribe the appropriate offering or expel the evil spirit by bringing the victim into a state of ecstacy (abhuâna).

[Social customs.] 21. Their dress presents no peculiarities. The women wear jewelry, the satua on the fore-arm, rings (mundari) on the fingers, the bahunta on the upper arm, the palm leaf ornament (tarki) in the ears, necklaces (hansuli) and strings of beads on the neck, heavy anklets (pairi). They do not wear the nose-ring. They use liquor and tobacco freely. They will not eat the flesh of monkeys, cows, buffaloes, horses, camels, crocodiles, snakes, lizards, jackals, or rats. They eat pigs, goats, sheep, fowls, and all kinds of fish. Women do not eat pork. Children eat first, then the men, and last of all the women. They will not touch a Dom, Chamâr, Dharkâr, or Bhangi; nor the wife of the younger brother, the wife’s elder sister, and a connection (samdhin) through the marriage of children. They will not speak by name of the wife or mother, or of the dead if it can be avoided. In the morning they will not speak of death, disease, or quarrels, or of a lame man or a cripple, or of a village where bad characters live or where there was in former days a murder or a fight. They sow, if possible, on the tenth light half of Jeth. Fields for the spring crop are ploughed five times, for the autumn crop twice. They salute by the pâêlagi form, and seniors give the blessing nîkê raho, “Live happily!” If a woman’s relation visits her she seizes him by the feet and weeps. Then in a sort of sing-song she describes all her troubles to him, and ends by washing his feet and giving him tobacco. [143] When a guest comes he is expected to bring with him some parched grain and coarse sugar for the children. Then if he is a clansman the householder seats him in the cooking place (chauka) and feeds him. Women are respected, as they work very hard. Men who ill-treat their wives are divorced by the tribal council, and put out of caste for a year or two as a punishment. Old people are taken care of and given only light work. In the hot weather they all collect in the evening under a tree, and chat on village business. In the cold weather they assemble at each other’s houses, sit round a fire of rubbish (kaura), and the house master finds them in chewing tobacco. They are very clannish and detest and distrust strangers. They will eat both kinds of food (pakki and kachchi) only from a Brâhman. No one but a Dom will eat or drink from their hands.