The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume III Part 5

3. Derivation of name and origin of the Gonds.

The derivation of the word Gond is uncertain. It is the name given to the tribe by the Hindus or Muhammadans, as their own name for themselves is Koitur or Koi. General Cunningham considered that the name Gond probably came from Gauda, the cla.s.sical term for part of the United Provinces and Bengal. A Benares inscription relating to one of the Chedi kings of Tripura or Tewar (near Jubbulpore) states that he was of the Haihaya tribe, who lived on the borders of the Nerbudda in the district of the Western Gauda in the Province of Malwa. Three or four other inscriptions also refer to the kings of Gauda in the same locality. Gauda, however, was properly and commonly used as the name of part of Bengal. There is no evidence beyond a few doubtful inscriptions of its having ever been applied to any part of the Central Provinces. The princ.i.p.al pa.s.sage in which General Cunningham identifies Gauda with the Central Provinces is that in which the king of Gauda came to the a.s.sistance of the ruler of Malwa against the king of Kanauj, elder brother of the great Harsha Vardhana, and slew the latter king in A.D. 605. But Mr. V. A. Smith holds that Gauda in this pa.s.sage refers to Bengal and not to the Central Provinces; [38] and General Cunningham's argument on the locality of Gauda is thus rendered extremely dubious, and with it his derivation of the name Gond. In fact it seems highly improbable that the name of a large tribe should have been taken from a term so little used and known in this special application. Though in the Imperial Gazetteer [39] the present writer reproduced General Cunningham's derivation of the term Gond, it was there characterised as speculative, and in the light of the above remarks now seems highly improbable. Mr. Hislop considered that the name Gond was a form of Kond, as he spelt the name of the Khond tribe. He pointed out that k and g are interchangeable. Thus Gotalghar, the empty house where the village young men sleep, comes from Kotal, a led horse, and ghar, a house. Similarly, Koikopal, the name of a Gond subtribe who tend cattle, is from Koi or Gond, and gopal, a cowherd. The name by which the Gonds call themselves is Koi or Koitur, while the Khonds call themselves Ku, which word Sir G. Grierson considers to be probably related to the Gond name Koi. Further, he states that the Telugu people call the Khonds, Gond or Kod (Kor). General Cunningham points out that the word Gond in the Central Provinces is frequently or, he says, usually p.r.o.nounced Gaur, which is practically the same sound as G.o.d, and with the change of G to K would become Kod. Thus the two names Gond and Kod, by which the Telugu people know the Khonds, are practically the same as the names Gond and G.o.d of the Gonds in the Central Provinces, though Sir G. Grierson does not mention the change of g to k in his account of either language. It seems highly probable that the designation Gond was given to the tribe by the Telugus. The Gonds speak a Dravidian language of the same family as Tamil, Canarese and Telugu, and therefore it is likely that they come from the south into the Central Provinces. Their route may have been up the G.o.davari river into Chanda; from thence up the Indravati into Bastar and the hills south and east of the Chhattisgarh plain; and up the Wardha and Wainganga to the Districts of the Satpura Plateau. In Chanda, where a Gond dynasty reigned for some centuries, they would be in contact with the Telugus, and here they may have got their name of Gond, and carried it with them into the north and east of the Province. As already seen, the Khonds are called Gond by the Telugus, and Kandh by the Uriyas. The Khonds apparently came up more towards the east into Ganjam and Kalahandi. Here the name of Gond or Kod, given them by the Telugus, may have been modified into Kandh by the Uriyas, and from the two names came the English corruption of Khond. The Khond and Gondi languages are now dissimilar. Still they present certain points of resemblance, and though Sir G. Grierson does not discuss their connection, it appears from his highly interesting genealogical tree of the Dravidian languages that Khond or Kui and Gondi are closely connected. These two languages, and no others, occupy an intermediate position between the two great branches sprung from the original Dravidian language, one of which is mainly represented by Telugu and the other by Tamil, Canarese and Malayalam. [40] Gondi and Khond are shown in the centre as the connecting link between the two great branches. Gondi is more nearly related to Tamil and Khond to Telugu. On the Telugu side, moreover, Khond approaches most closely to Kolami, which is a member of the Telugu branch. The Kolams are a tribe of Wardha and Berar, sometimes considered an offshoot of the Gonds; at any rate, it seems probable that they came from southern India by the same route as the Gonds. Thus the Khond language is intermediate between Gondi and the Kolami dialect of Wardha and Berar, though the Kolams live west of the Gonds and the Khonds east. And a fairly close relationship between the three languages appears to be established. Hence the linguistic evidence appears to afford strong support to the view that the Khonds and Gonds may originally have been one tribe. Further, Mr. Hislop points out that a word for G.o.d, pen, is common to the Gonds and Khonds; and the Khonds have a G.o.d called Bura Pen, who might be the same as Bura Deo, the great G.o.d of the Gonds. Mr. Hislop found Kodo Pen and Pharsi Pen as Gond G.o.ds, [41] while Pen or Pennu is the regular word for G.o.d among the Khonds. This evidence seems to establish a probability that the Gonds and Khonds were originally one tribe in the south of India, and that they obtained separate names and languages since they left their original home for the north. The fact that both of them speak languages of the Dravidian family, whose home is in southern India, makes it probable that the two tribes originally belonged there, and migrated north into the Central Provinces and Orissa. This hypothesis is supported by the traditions of the Gonds.

4. History of the Gonds.

As stated in the article on Kol, it is known that Rajput dynasties were ruling in various parts of the Central Provinces from about the sixth to the twelfth centuries. They then disappear, and there is a blank till the fourteenth century or later, when Gond kingdoms are found established at Kherla in Betul, at Deogarh in Chhindwara, at Garha-Mandla, [42] including the Jubbulpore country, and at Chanda, fourteen miles from Bhandak. It seems clear, then, that the Hindu dynasties were subverted by the Gonds after the Muhammadan invasions of northern India had weakened or destroyed the central powers of the Hindus, and prevented any a.s.sistance being afforded to the outlying settlements. There is some reason to suppose that the immigration of the Gonds into the Central Provinces took place after the establishment of these Hindu kingdoms, and not before, as is commonly held. [43]

But the point must at present be considered doubtful. There is no reason however to doubt that the Gonds came from the south through Chanda and Bastar. During the fourteenth century and afterwards the Gonds established dynasties at the places already mentioned in the Central Provinces. For two or three centuries the greater part of the Province was governed by Gond kings. Of their method of government in Narsinghpur, Sleeman said: "Under these Gond Rajas the country seems for the most part to have been distributed among feudatory chiefs, bound to attend upon the prince at his capital with a stipulated number of troops, to be employed wherever their services might be required, but to furnish little or no revenue in money. These chiefs were Gonds, and the countries they held for the support of their families and the payment of their troops and retinue little more than wild jungles. The Gonds seem not to have been at home in open country, and as from the sixteenth century a peaceable penetration of Hindu cultivators into the best lands of the Province a.s.sumed large dimensions, the Gonds gradually retired to the hill ranges on the borders of the plains." The headquarters of each dynasty at Mandla, Garha, Kherla, Deogarh and Chanda seem to have been located in a position strengthened for defence either by a hill or a great river, and adjacent to an especially fertile plain tract, whose produce served for the maintenance of the ruler's household and headquarters establishment. Often the site was on other sides bordered by dense forest which would afford a retreat to the occupants in case it fell to an enemy. Strong and s.p.a.cious forts were built, with masonry tanks and wells inside them to provide water, but whether these buildings were solely the work of the Gonds or constructed with the a.s.sistance of Hindu or Muhammadan artificers is uncertain. But the Hindu immigrants found Gond government tolerant and beneficent. Under the easy eventless sway of these princes the rich country over which they ruled prospered, its flocks and herds increased, and the treasury filled. So far back as the fifteenth century we read in Firishta that the king of Kherla, who, if not a Gond himself, was a king of the Gonds, sumptuously entertained the Bahmani king and made him rich offerings, among which were many diamonds, rubies and pearls. Of the Rani Durgavati of Garha-Mandla, Sleeman said: "Of all the sovereigns of this dynasty she lives most in the page of history and in the grateful recollections of the people. She built the great reservoir which lies close to Jubbulpore, and is called after her Rani Talao or Queen's pond; and many other highly useful works were formed by her about Garha." When the castle of Chauragarh was sacked by one of Akbar's generals in 1564, the booty found, according to Firishta, comprised, independently of jewels, images of gold and silver and other valuables, no fewer than a hundred jars of gold coin and a thousand elephants. Of the Chanda rulers the Settlement officer who has recorded their history wrote that, "They left, if we forget the last few years, a well-governed and contented kingdom, adorned with admirable works of engineering skill and prosperous to a point which no aftertime has reached. They have left their mark behind them in royal tombs, lakes and palaces, but most of all in the seven miles of battlemented stone wall, too wide now for the shrunk city of Chanda within it, which stands on the very border-line between the forest and the plain, having in front the rich valley of the Wardha river, and behind and up to the city walls deep forest extending to the east." According to local tradition the great wall of Chanda and other buildings, such as the tombs of the Gond kings and the palace at Junona, were built by immigrant Telugu masons of the Kapu or Munurwar castes. Another excellent rule of the Gond kings was to give to any one who made a tank a grant of land free of revenue of the land lying beneath it. A large number of small irrigation tanks were constructed under this inducement in the Wainganga valley, and still remain. But the Gond states had no strength for defence, as was shown when in the eighteenth century Maratha chiefs, having acquired some knowledge of the art of war and military training by their long fighting against the Mughals, cast covetous eyes on Gondwana. The loose tribal system, so easy in time of peace, entirely failed to knit together the strength of the people when united action was most required, and the plain country fell before the Maratha armies almost without a struggle. In the strongholds, however, of the hilly ranges which hem in every part of Gondwana the chiefs for long continued to maintain an unequal resistance, and to revenge their own wrongs by indiscriminate rapine and slaughter. In such cases the Maratha plan was to continue pillaging and hara.s.sing the Gonds until they obtained an acknowledgment of their supremacy and the promise, at least, of an annual tribute. Under this treatment the hill Gonds soon lost every vestige of civilisation, and became the cruel, treacherous savages depicted by travellers of this period. They regularly plundered and murdered stragglers and small parties pa.s.sing through the hills, while from their strongholds, built on the most inaccessible spurs of the Satpuras, they would make a dash into the rich plains of Berar and the Nerbudda valley, and after looting and killing all night, return straight across country to their jungle fortresses, guided by the light of a bonfire on some commanding peak. [44] With the pacification of the country and the introduction of a strong and equable system of government by the British, these wild marauders soon settled down and became the timid and inoffensive labourers which they now are.

5. Mythica traditions. Story of Lingo.

Mr. Hislop took down from a Pardhan priest a Gond myth of the creation of the world and the origin of the Gonds, and their liberation from a cave, in which they had been shut up by Siva, through the divine hero Lingo. General Cunningham said that the exact position of the cave was not known, but it would seem to have been somewhere in the Himalayas, as the name Dhawalgiri, which means a white mountain, is mentioned. The cave, according to ordinary Gond tradition, was situated in Kachikopa Lohagarh or the Iron Valley in the Red Hill. It seems clear from the story itself that its author was desirous of connecting the Gonds with Hindu mythology, and as Siva's heaven is in the Himalayas, the name Dhawalgiri, where he located the cave, may refer to them. It is also said that the cave was at the source of the Jumna. But in Mr. Hislop's version the cave where all the Gonds except four were shut up is not in Kachikopa Lohagarh, as the Gonds commonly say; but only the four Gonds who escaped wandered to this latter place and dwelt there. And the story does not show that Kachikopa Lohagarh was on Mount Dhawalgiri or the Himalayas, where it places the cave in which the Gonds were shut up, or anywhere near them. On the contrary, it would be quite consonant with Mr. Hislop's version if Kachikopa Lohagarh were in the Central Provinces. It may be surmised that in the original Gond legend their ancestors really were shut up in Kachikopa Lohagarh, but not by the G.o.d Siva. Very possibly the story began with them in the cave in the Iron Valley in the Red Hill. But the Hindu who clearly composed Mr. Hislop's version wished to introduce the G.o.d Siva as a princ.i.p.al actor, and he therefore removed the site of the cave to the Himalayas. This appears probable from the story itself, in which, in its present form, Kachikopa Lohagarh plays no real part, and only appears because it was in the original tradition and has to be retained. [45] But the Gonds think that their ancestors were actually shut up in Kachikopa Lohagarh, and one tradition puts the site at Pachmarhi, whose striking hill scenery and red soil cleft by many deep and inaccessible ravines would render it a likely place for the incident. Another version locates Kachikopa Lohagarh at Darekasa in Bhandara, where there is a place known as Kachagarh or the iron fort. But Pachmarhi is perhaps the more probable, as it has some deep caves, which have always been looked upon as sacred places. The point is of some interest, because this legend of the cave being in the Himalayas is adduced as a Gond tradition that their ancestors came from the north, and hence as supporting the theory of the immigration of the Dravidians through the north-west of India. But if the view now suggested is correct, the story of the cave being in the Himalayas is not a genuine Gond tradition at all, but a Hindu interpolation. The only other ground known to the writer for a.s.serting that the Gonds believed their ancestors to have come from the north is that they bury their dead with the feet to the north. There are other obvious Hindu accretions in the legend, as the saintly Brahmanic character of Lingo and his overcoming the G.o.ds through fasting and self-torture, and also the fact that Siva shut up the Gonds in the cave because he was offended by their dirty habits and bad smell. But the legend still contains a considerable quant.i.ty of true Gond tradition, and though somewhat tedious, it seems necessary to give an abridgment of Mr. Hislop's account, with reproduction of selected pa.s.sages. Captain Forsyth also made a modernised poetical version, [46] from which one extract is taken. Certain variations from another form of the legend obtained in Bastar are included.

6. Legend of the creation.

In the beginning there was water everywhere, and G.o.d was born in a lotus-leaf and lived alone. One day he rubbed his arm and from the rubbing made a crow, which sat on his shoulder; he also made a crab, which swam out over the waters. G.o.d then ordered the crow to fly over the world and bring some earth. The crow flew about and could find no earth, but it saw the crab, which was supporting itself with one leg resting on the bottom of the sea. The crow was very tired and perched on the crab's back, which was soft so that the crow's feet made marks on it, which are still visible on the bodies of all crabs at present. The crow asked the crab where any earth could be found. The crab said that if G.o.d would make its body hard it would find some earth. G.o.d said he would make part of the crab's body hard, and he made its back hard, as it still remains. The crab then dived to the bottom of the sea, where it found Kenchna, the earth-worm. It caught hold of Kenchna by the neck with its claws and the mark thus made is still to be seen on the earth-worm's neck. Then the earth-worm brought up earth out of its mouth and the crab brought this to G.o.d, and G.o.d scattered it over the sea and patches of land appeared. G.o.d then walked over the earth and a boil came on his hand, and out of it Mahadeo and Parvati were born.

7. Creation of the Gonds and their imprisonment by Mahadeo.

From Mahadeo's urine numerous vegetables began to spring up. Parvati ate of these and became pregnant and gave birth to eighteen threshing-floors [47] of Brahman G.o.ds and twelve threshing-floors of Gond G.o.ds. All the Gonds were scattered over the jungle. They behaved like Gonds and not like good Hindus, with lamentable results, as follows: [48]

Hither and thither all the Gonds were scattered in the jungle.

Places, hills, and valleys were filled with these Gonds.

Even trees had their Gonds. How did the Gonds conduct themselves?

Whatever came across them they must needs kill and eat it; They made no distinction. If they saw a jackal they killed And ate it; no distinction was observed; they respected not antelope, sambhar and the like.

They made no distinction in eating a sow, a quail, a pigeon, A crow, a kite, an adjutant, a vulture, A lizard, a frog, a beetle, a cow, a calf, a he- and she-buffalo, Rats, bandicoots, squirrels--all these they killed and ate.

So began the Gonds to do. They devoured raw and ripe things; They did not bathe for six months together; They did not wash their faces properly, even on dunghills they would fall down and remain.

Such were the Gonds born in the beginning. A smell was spread over the jungle When the Gonds were thus disorderly behaved; they became disagreeable to Mahadeva, Who said: "The caste of the Gonds is very bad; I will not preserve them; they will ruin my hill Dhawalgiri."

Mahadeo then determined to get rid of the Gonds. With this view he invited them all to a meeting. When they sat down Mahadeo made a squirrel from the rubbings of his body and let it loose in the middle of the Gonds. All the Gonds at once got up and began to chase it, hoping for a meal. They seized sticks and stones and clods of earth, and their unkempt hair flew in the wind. The squirrel dodged about and ran away, and finally, directed by Mahadeo, ran into a large cave with all the Gonds after it. Mahadeo then rolled a large stone to the mouth of the cave and shut up all the Gonds in it. Only four remained outside, and they fled away to Kachikopa Lohagarh, or the Iron Cave in the Red Hill, and lived there. Meanwhile Parvati perceived that the smell of the Gonds, which had pleased her, had vanished from Dhawalgiri. She desired it to be restored and commenced a devotion. For six months she fasted and practised austerities. Bhagwan (G.o.d) was swinging in a swing. He was disturbed by Parvati's devotion. He sent Narayan (the sun) to see who was fasting. Narayan came and found Parvati and asked her what she wanted. She said that she missed her Gonds and wanted them back. Narayan told Bhagwan, who promised that they should be given back.

8. The birth and history of Lingo.

The yellow flowers of the tree Pahindi were growing on Dhawalgiri. Bhagwan sent thunder and lightning, and the flower conceived. First fell from it a heap of turmeric or saffron. In the morning the sun came out, the flower burst open, and Lingo was born. Lingo was a perfect child. He had a diamond on his navel and a sandalwood mark on his forehead. He fell from the flower into the heap of turmeric. He played in the turmeric and slept in a swing. He became nine years old. He said there was no one there like him, and he would go where he could find his fellows. He climbed a needle-like hill, [49] and from afar off he saw Kachikopa Lohagarh and the four Gonds. He came to them. They saw he was like them, and asked him to be their brother. They ate only animals. Lingo asked them to find for him an animal without a liver, and they searched all through the forest and could not. Then Lingo told them to cut down trees and make a field. They tried to cut down the anjan [50] trees, but their hands were blistered and they could not go on. Lingo had been asleep. He woke up and saw they had only cut down one or two trees. He took the axe and cut down many trees, and fenced a field and made a gate to it. Black soil appeared. It began to rain, and rained without ceasing for three days. All the rivers and streams were filled. The field became green with rice, and it grew up. There were sixteen score of nilgai or blue-bull. They had two leaders, an old bull and his nephew. The young bull saw the rice of Lingo's field and wished to eat it. The uncle told him not to eat of the field of Lingo or all the nilgai would be killed. But the young bull did not heed, and took off all the nilgai to eat the rice. When they got to the field they could find no entrance, so they jumped the fence, which was five cubits high. They ate all the rice from off the field and ran away. The young bull told them as they ran to put their feet on leaves and stones and boughs and gra.s.s, and not on the ground, so that they might not be tracked. Lingo woke up and went to see his field, and found all the rice eaten. He knew the nilgai had done it, and showed the brothers how to track them by the few marks which they had by accident made on the ground. They did so, and surrounded the nilgai and killed them all with their bows and arrows except the old uncle, from whom Lingo's arrow rebounded harmlessly on account of his innocence, and one young doe. From these two the nilgai race was preserved. Then Lingo told the Gonds to make fire and roast the deer as follows:

He said, I will show you something; see if anywhere in your Waistbands there is a flint; if so, take it out and make fire.

But the matches did not ignite. As they were doing this, a watch of the night pa.s.sed.

They threw down the matches, and said to Lingo, Thou art a Saint; Show us where our fire is, and why it does not come out.

Lingo said: Three koss (six miles) hence is Rikad Gawadi the giant.

There is fire in his field; where smoke shall appear, go there, Come not back without bringing fire. Thus said Lingo.

They said, We have never seen the place, where shall we go?

Ye have never seen where this fire is? Lingo said; I will discharge an arrow thither.

Go in the direction of the arrow; there you will get fire.

He applied the arrow, and having pulled the bow, he discharged one: It crashed on, breaking twigs and making its pa.s.sage clear.

Having cut through the high gra.s.s, it made its way and reached the old man's place (above mentioned).

The arrow dropped close to the fire of the old man, who had daughters.

The arrow was near the door. As soon as they saw it, the daughters came and took it up, And kept it. They asked their father: When will you give us in marriage?

Thus said the seven sisters, the daughters of the old man.

I will marry you as I think best for you; Remain as you are. So said the old man, the Rikad Gawadi.

Lingo said, Hear, O brethren! I shot an arrow, it made its way.

Go there, and you will see fire; bring thence the fire.

Each said to the other, I will not go; but (at last) the youngest went.

He descried the fire, and went to it; then beheld he an old man looking like the trunk of a tree.

He saw from afar the old man's field, around which a hedge was made.

The old man kept only one way to it, and fastened a screen to the entrance, and had a fire in the centre of the field.

He placed logs of the Mahua and Anjun and Saj trees on the fire, Teak f.a.ggots he gathered, and enkindled flame.

The fire blazed up, and warmed by the heat of it, in deep sleep lay the Rikad Gawadi.

Thus the old man like a giant did appear. When the young Gond beheld him, he shivered; His heart leaped; and he was much afraid in his mind, and said: If the old man were to rise he will see me, and I shall be eaten up; I will steal away the fire and carry it off, then my life will be safe.

He went near the fire secretly, and took a brand of tendu wood tree.

When he was lifting it up a spark flew and fell on the hip of the old man.

That spark was as large as a pot; the giant was blistered; he awoke alarmed.

And said: I am hungry, and I cannot get food to eat anywhere; I feel a desire for flesh; Like a tender cuc.u.mber hast thou come to me. So said the old man to the Gond, Who began to fly. The old man followed him. The Gond then threw away the brand which he had stolen.

He ran onward, and was not caught. Then the old man, being tired, turned back.

Thence he returned to his field, and came near the fire and sat, and said, What nonsense is this?

A tender prey had come within my reach; I said I will cut it up as soon as I can, but it escaped from my hand!

Let it go; it will come again, then I will catch it. It has gone now.

Then what happened? the Gond returned and came to his brethren.

And said to them: Hear, O brethren, I went for fire, as you sent me, to that field; I beheld an old man like a giant.

With hands stretched out and feet lifted up. I ran. I thus survived with difficulty.

The brethren said to Lingo, We will not go. Lingo said, Sit ye here.

O brethren, what sort of a person is this giant? I will go and see him.

So saying, Lingo went away and reached a river.

He thence arose and went onward. As he looked, he saw in front three gourds.

Then he saw a bamboo stick, which he took up.

When the river was flooded It washed away a gourd tree, and its seed fell, and each stem produced bottle-gourds.

He inserted a bamboo stick in the hollow of the gourd and made a guitar.

He plucked two hairs from his head and strung it.

He held a bow and fixed eleven keys to that one stick, and played on it.

Lingo was much pleased in his mind.

Holding it in his hand, he walked in the direction of the old man's field.