The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II Part 13

1. Origin.

_Bania, Parwar._ [165]--This Jain subcaste numbered nearly 29,000 persons in 1911. They belong almost entirely to the Jubbulpore and Nerbudda Divisions, and the great bulk are found in the Saugor, Damoh and Jubbulpore Districts. The origin of the Parwars and of their name is not known, but there is some reason to suppose that they are from Rajputana. Their women wear on the head the _bij_, a Rajputana ornament, and use the _charu_, a deep bra.s.s plate for drinking, which also belongs there. Their songs are said to be in the Rajasthani dialect. It seems likely that the Parwars may be identical with the Porawal subcaste found in other Provinces, which, judging from the name, may belong to Rajputana. In the northern Districts the Parwars speak Bundeli, but in the south their language is said to be Marwari.

2. Subdivisions.

Among the Parwars the Samaiya or Channagri form a separate sectarian Jain group. They do not worship the images of the Jain Tirthakars, but enshrine the sacred books of the Jains in their temples, and worship these. The Parwars will take daughters in marriage from the Channagris, and sometimes give their daughters in consideration of a substantial bride-price. Among the Parwars themselves there is a social division between the Ath Sake and the Chao Sake; the former will not permit the marriage of persons related more nearly than eight degrees, while the latter permit it after four degrees. The Ath Sake have the higher position, and if one of them marries a Chao Sake he is degraded to that group. Besides this the Parwars have an inferior division called Benaikia, which consists of the offspring of irregular unions and of widows who have remarried. Persons who have committed a caste offence and cannot pay the fine imposed on them for it also go into this subcaste. The Benaikias [166] themselves are distributed into four groups of varying degrees of respectability, and families who live correctly and marry as well as they can tend to rise from one to the other until after several generations they may again be recognised as Parwars proper.

3. Exogamy.

The Parwars have twelve _gotras_ or main sections, and each _gotra_ has, or is supposed to have, twelve _muls_ or subsections. A Parwar must not marry in his own _gotra_ nor in the _mul_ of his mother, or any of his grandmothers or greatgrandmothers. This practically bars marriage within seven degrees of relationship. But a man's sister and daughter may be married in the same family, and even to two brothers, and a man can marry two sisters.

4. Marriage customs.

As a rule no bride-price is paid, but occasionally an old man desiring a wife will give something substantial to her father in secret. There are two forms of marriage, called Thinga and Dajanha; in the former, women do not accompany the wedding procession, and they have a separate marriage-shed at the bridegroom's house for their own celebrations; while in the latter, they accompany it and erect such a shed at the house in the bridegroom's village or town where they have their lodging. Before the wedding, the bridegroom, mounted on a horse, and the bride, carried in a litter, proceed together round the marriage-shed. The bridegroom then stands by the sacred post in the centre and the bride walks seven times round him. In the evening there was a custom of dressing the princ.i.p.al male relatives of the bridegroom in women's clothes and making them dance, but this is now being discarded. On the fifth day is held a rite called Palkachar. A new cot is provided by the bride's father, and on it is spread a red cloth. The couple are seated on this with their hands entwined, and their relations come and make them presents. If the bridegroom catches hold of the dress of his mother- or father-in-law, they are expected to make him a handsome present. In other respects the wedding follows the ordinary Hindu ritual. Widow-marriage and divorce are forbidden among the Parwars proper, and those who practise them go into the lower Benaikia group.

5. Religion: Hindu observances.

The Parwars are practically all Jains of the Digambari sect. They build costly and beautiful temples for their Tirthakars, especially for their favourite Parasnath. They have also many Hindu practices. They observe the Diwali, Rakshabandhan and Holi festivals; they say that at the Diwali the last Tirthakar Mahavira attained beat.i.tude and the G.o.ds rained down jewels; the little lamps now lighted at Diwali are held to be symbolic of these jewels. They tie the threads round the wrist on Rakshabandhan to keep off evil spirits. They worship Sitala Devi, the Hindu G.o.ddess of smallpox, and employ Brahmans to choose names for their children and fix the dates of their wedding and other ceremonies, though not at the ceremonies themselves.

6. Disposal of the dead.

The caste burn the dead, with the exception of the bodies of young children, which are buried. The corpse is sometimes placed sitting in a car to be taken to the cremation ground, but often laid on a bier in the ordinary manner. The sitting posture is that in which all the Tirthakars attained paradise, and their images always represent them in this posture. The corpse is naked save for a new piece of cloth round the waist, but it is covered with a sheet. The Jains do not shave their hair in token of mourning, nor do they offer sacrificial cakes to the dead. When the body is burnt they bathe in the nearest water and go home. Neither the bearers nor the mourners are held to be impure. Next day the mourning family, both men and women, visit Parasnath's temple, lay two pounds of Indian millet before the G.o.d and go home. [167] But in the Central Provinces they whitewash their houses, get their clothes washed, throw away their earthen pots and give a feast to the caste.

7. Social rules and customs.

The Parwars abstain from eating any kind of flesh and from drinking liquor. They have a _panchayat_ and impose penalties for offences against caste rules like the Hindus. Among the offences are the killing of any living thing, unchast.i.ty or adultery, theft or other bad conduct, taking cooked food or water from a caste from which the Parwars do not take them, and violation of any rule of their religion. To get vermin in a wound, or to be beaten by a low-caste man or with a shoe, incidents which entail serious penalties among the Hindus, are not offences with the Parwars. When an offender is put out of caste the ordinary deprivation is that he is not allowed to enter a Jain temple, and in serious cases he may also not eat nor drink with the caste. The Parwars are generally engaged in the trade in grain, _ghi_, and other staples. Several of them are well-to-do and own villages.

Bania, Srimali

_Bania, Srimali._--This subcaste takes its name from the town of Srimal, which is now Bhinmal in Marwar. They numbered 600 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, most of whom belonged to the Hoshangabad District. More than two-thirds were Hindus and the remainder Jains. Colonel Tod writes of Bhinmal and an adjoining town, Sanchor: "These towns are on the high road to Cutch and Gujarat, which has given them from the most remote times a commercial celebrity. Bhinmal is said to contain about 1500 houses and Sanchor half that number. Very wealthy _mahajans_ or merchants used to reside here, but insecurity both within and without has much injured these cities." From Bhinmal the Srimalis appear to have gone to Gujarat, where they are found in considerable numbers. Their legend of origin is that the G.o.ddess Lakshmi created from a flower-garland 90,000 families to act as servants to the 90,000 Srimali Brahmans, and these were the ancestors of the Srimali Banias. [168] Both the Jain and Hindu sections of the Srimali Banias employ Srimali Brahmans as priests. Like other cla.s.ses of Banias, the Srimali are divided into two sections, the Bisa and Dasa, or twenty and ten, of which the Bisa are considered to be of pure and the Dasa of somewhat mixed descent. In Gujarat they also have a third territorial group, known as Ladva, from Lad, the old name of Gujarat. All three subdivisions take food together but do not intermarry. [169] The two highest sections of the Oswal Banias are called Sri Srimal and Srimal, and it is possible that further investigation might show the Srimals and Oswals to have been originally of one stock.

Bania, Umre

_Bania, Umre._--This Hindu subcaste belongs to Damoh and Jubbulpore. They are perhaps the same as the Ummar Banias of the United Provinces, who reside in the Meerut, Agra and k.u.maon Divisions. The name Umre is found as a subdivision of several castes in the Central Provinces, as the Telis and others, and is probably derived from some town or tract of country in northern or central India, but no identification has been made. Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam states that in Gujarat the Ummar Banias are also known as Bagaria from the Bagar or wild country, comprised in the Dongarpur and Pertabgarh States of Rajputana, where considerable numbers of them are still settled. Their headquarters is at Sagwara, near Dongarpur. [170] In Damoh the Umre Banias formerly cultivated the _al_ plant, [171] which yielded a well-known dye, and hence they lost caste, as in soaking the roots of the plant to extract the dye the numerous insects in them are necessarily destroyed. The Dosar subcaste [172] are a branch of the Umre, who allow widow-remarriage.

Banjara

List of Paragraphs

1. _Historical notice of the caste._ 2. _Banjaras derived from the Charans or Bhats._ 3. _Charan Banjaras employed with the Mughal armies._ 4. _Internal structure._ 5. _Minor subcastes._ 6. _Marriage: betrothal._ 7. _Marriage._ 8. _Widow-remarriage._ 9. _Birth and death._ 10. _Religion: Banjari Devi._ 11. _Mithu Bhukia._ 12. _Siva Bhaia._ 13. _Worship of cattle._ 14. _Connection with the Sikhs._ 15. _Witchcraft._ 16. _Human sacrifice._ 17. _Admission of outsiders: kidnapped children and slaves._ 18. _Dress._ 19. _Social customs._ 20. _The Naik or headman. Banjara dogs._ 21. _Criminal tendencies of the caste._ 22. _Their virtues._

1. Historical notice of the caste.

_Banjara, Wanjari, Lahana, Mukeri_. [173]--The caste of carriers and drivers of pack-bullocks. In 1911 the Banjaras numbered about 56,000 persons in the Central Provinces and 80,000 in Berar, the caste being in greater strength here than in any part of India except Hyderabad, where their total is 174,000. Bombay comes next with a figure approaching that of the Central Provinces and Berar, and the caste belongs therefore rather to the Deccan than to northern India. The name has been variously explained, but the most probable derivation is from the Sanskrit _banijya kara_, a merchant. Sir H. M. Elliot held that the name Banjara was of great antiquity, quoting a pa.s.sage from the Dasa k.u.mara Charita of the eleventh or twelfth century. But it was subsequently shown by Professor Cowell that the name Banjara did not occur in the original text of this work. [174] Banjaras are supposed to be the people mentioned by Arrian in the fourth century B.C., as leading a wandering life, dwelling in tents and letting out for hire their beasts of burden. [175] But this pa.s.sage merely proves the existence of carriers and not of the Banjara caste. Mr. Crooke states [176] that the first mention of Banjaras in Muhammadan history is in Sikandar's attack on Dholpur in A.D. 1504. [177] It seems improbable, therefore, that the Banjaras accompanied the different Muhammadan invaders of India, as might have been inferred from the fact that they came into the Deccan in the train of the forces of Aurangzeb. The caste has indeed two Muhammadan sections, the Turkia and Mukeri. [178] But both of these have the same Rajput clan names as the Hindu branch of the caste, and it seems possible that they may have embraced Islam under the proselytising influence of Aurangzeb, or simply owing to their having been employed with the Muhammadan troops. The great bulk of the caste in southern India are Hindus, and there seems no reason for a.s.suming that its origin was Muhammadan.

2. Banjaras derived from the Charans or Bhats.

It may be suggested that the Banjaras are derived from the Charan or Bhat caste of Rajputana. Mr. c.u.mberlege, whose _Monograph_ on the caste in Berar is one of the best authorities, states that of the four divisions existing there the Charans are the most numerous and by far the most interesting cla.s.s. [179] In the article on Bhat it has been explained how the Charans or bards, owing to their readiness to kill themselves rather than give up the property entrusted to their care, became the best safe-conduct for the pa.s.sage of goods in Rajputana. The name Charan is generally held to mean 'Wanderer,'

and in their capacity of bards the Charans were accustomed to travel from court to court of the different chiefs in quest of patronage. They were first protected by their sacred character and afterwards by their custom of _traga_ or _chandi_, that is, of killing themselves when attacked and threatening their a.s.sailants with the dreaded fate of being haunted by their ghosts. Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam [180] remarks: "After Parasurama's dispersion of the Kshatris the Charans accompanied them in their southward flight. In those troubled times the Charans took charge of the supplies of the Kshatri forces and so fell to their present position of cattle-breeders and grain-carriers...." Most of the Charans are graziers, cattle-sellers and pack-carriers. Colonel Tod says: [181] "The Charans and Bhats or bards and genealogists are the chief carriers of these regions (Marwar); their sacred character overawes the lawless Rajput chief, and even the savage Koli and Bhil and the plundering Sahrai of the desert dread the anathema of these singular races, who conduct the caravans through the wildest and most desolate regions." In another pa.s.sage Colonel Tod identifies the Charans and Banjaras [182] as follows: "Murlah is an excellent township inhabited by a community of Charans of the tribe Cucholia (Kacheli), who are Bunjarris (carriers) by profession, though poets by birth. The alliance is a curious one, and would appear incongruous were not gain the object generally in both cases. It was the sanct.i.ty of their office which converted our _bardais_ (bards) into _bunjarris_, for their persons being sacred, the immunity extended likewise to their goods and saved them from all imposts; so that in process of time they became the free-traders of Rajputana. I was highly gratified with the reception I received from the community, which collectively advanced to meet me at some distance from the town. The procession was headed by the village elders and all the fair Charanis, who, as they approached, gracefully waved their scarfs over me until I was fairly made captive by the muses of Murlah! It was a novel and interesting scene. The manly persons of the Charans, clad in the flowing white robe with the high loose-folded turban inclined on one side, from which the _mala_ or chaplet was gracefully suspended; and the _naiques_ or leaders, with their ma.s.sive necklaces of gold, with the image of the _pitriswar_ (_manes_) depending therefrom, gave the whole an air of opulence and dignity. The females were uniformly attired in a skirt of dark-brown camlet, having a bodice of light-coloured stuff, with gold ornaments worked into their fine black hair; and all had the favourite _churis_ or rings of _hathidant_ (elephant's tooth) covering the arm from the wrist to the elbow, and even above it." A little later, referring to the same Charan community, Colonel Tod writes: "The _tanda_ or caravan, consisting of four thousand bullocks, has been kept up amidst all the evils which have beset this land through Mughal and Maratha tyranny. The utility of these caravans as general carriers to conflicting armies and as regular tax-paying subjects has proved their safeguard, and they were too strong to be pillaged by any petty marauder, as any one who has seen a Banjari encampment will be convinced. They encamp in a square, and their grain-bags piled over each other breast-high, with interstices left for their matchlocks, make no contemptible fortification. Even the ruthless Turk, Jamshid Khan, set up a protecting tablet in favour of the Charans of Murlah, recording their exemption from _dind_ contributions, and that there should be no increase in duties, with threats to all who should injure the community. As usual, the sun and moon are appealed to as witnesses of good faith, and sculptured on the stone. Even the forest Bhil and mountain Mair have set up their signs of immunity and protection to the chosen of Hinglaz (tutelary deity); and the figures of a cow and its _kairi_ (calf) carved in rude relief speak the agreement that they should not be slain or stolen within the limits of Murlah."

In the above pa.s.sage the community described by Colonel Tod were Charans, but he identified them with Banjaras, using the name alternatively. He mentions their large herds of pack-bullocks, for the management of which the Charans, who were graziers as well as bards, would naturally be adapted; the name given to the camp, _tanda_, is that generally used by the Banjaras; the women wore ivory bangles, which the Banjara women wear. [183] In commenting on the way in which the women threw their scarves over him, making him a prisoner, Colonel Tod remarks: "This community had enjoyed for five hundred years the privilege of making prisoner any Rana of Mewar who may pa.s.s through Murlah, and keeping him in bondage until he gives them a _got_ or entertainment. The patriarch (of the village) told me that I was in jeopardy as the Rana's representative, but not knowing how I might have relished the joke had it been carried to its conclusion, they let me escape." Mr. Ball notes a similar custom of the Banjara women far away in the Bastar State of the Central Provinces: [184] "Today I pa.s.sed through another Banjara hamlet, from whence the women and girls all hurried out in pursuit, and a brazen-faced powerful-looking la.s.s seized the bridle of my horse as he was being led by the _sais_ in the rear. The _sais_ and _chaprasi_ were both Muhammadans, and the forward conduct of these females perplexed them not a little, and the former was fast losing his temper at being thus a.s.saulted by a woman." Colonel Mackenzie in his account of the Banjara caste remarks: [185] "It is certain that the Charans, whoever they were, first rose to the demand which the great armies of northern India, contending in exhausted countries far from their basis of supply, created, viz. the want of a fearless and reliable transport service.... The start which the Charans then acquired they retain among Banjaras to this day, though in very much diminished splendour and position. As they themselves relate, they were originally five brethren, Rathor, Turi, Panwar, Chauhan and Jadon. But fortune particularly smiled on Bhika Rathor, as his four sons, Mersi, Multasi, Dheda and Khamdar, great names among the Charans, rose immediately to eminence as commissariat transporters in the north. And not only under the Delhi Emperors, but under the Satara, subsequently the Poona Raj, and the Subahship of the Nizam, did several of their descendants rise to consideration and power." It thus seems a reasonable hypothesis that the nucleus of the Banjara caste was const.i.tuted by the Charans or bards of Rajputana. Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam [186] also identifies the Charans and Banjaras, but I have not been able to find the exact pa.s.sage. The following notice [187] by Colonel Tone is of interest in this connection:

"The vast consumption that attends a Maratha army necessarily superinduces the idea of great supplies; yet, notwithstanding this, the native powers never concern themselves about providing for their forces, and have no idea of a grain and victualling department, which forms so great an object in a European campaign. The Banias or grain-sellers in an Indian army have always their servants ahead of the troops on the line of march, to purchase in the circ.u.mjacent country whatever necessaries are to be disposed of. Articles of consumption are never wanting in a native camp, though they are generally twenty-five per cent dearer than in the town bazars; but independent of this mode of supply the Vanjaris or itinerant grain-merchants furnish large quant.i.ties, which they bring on bullocks from an immense distance. These are a very peculiar race, and appear a marked and discriminated people from any other I have seen in this country. Formerly they were considered so sacred that they pa.s.sed in safety in the midst of contending armies; of late, however, this reverence for their character is much abated and they have been frequently plundered, particularly by Tipu."

The reference to the sacred character attaching to the Banjaras a century ago appears to be strong evidence in favour of their derivation from the Charans. For it could scarcely have been obtained by any body of commissariat agents coming into India with the Muhammadans. The fact that the example of disregarding it was first set by a Muhammadan prince points to the same conclusion.

Mr. Irvine notices the Banjaras with the Mughal armies in similar terms: [188] "It is by these people that the Indian armies in the field are fed, and they are never injured by either army. The grain is taken from them, but invariably paid for. They encamp for safety every evening in a regular square formed of the bags of grain of which they construct a breastwork. They and their families are in the centre, and the oxen are made fast outside. Guards with matchlocks and spears are placed at the corners, and their dogs do duty as advanced posts. I have seen them with droves of 5000 bullocks. They do not move above two miles an hour, as their cattle are allowed to graze as they proceed on the march."