The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume III Part 17

6. Disposal of the dead.

The bodies of unmarried persons are buried, and also of those who die of any epidemic disease. Others are cremated. The funeral of an elderly man of good means and family is an occasion for great display. A large feast is given and the Brahman priests of the caste go about inviting all the Gujars to attend. Sometimes the number of guests rises to three or four thousand. At the conclusion of the feast one of the hosts claps his hands and all the guests then get up and immediately depart without ceremony or saying farewell. Such an occasion is known as Gujarwada, and the Gujars often spend as much, or more, on a funeral as on a wedding, in the belief that the outlay is of direct benefit to the dead man's spirit. This idea is inculcated and diligently fostered by the family priests and those Brahmans who receive gifts for the use of the dead, the greed of these cormorants being insatiable.

7. Religion.

The household G.o.ddess of the caste is known as Kul Devi, the word kul meaning family. To her a platform is erected inside the house, and she must be worshipped by the members of the family alone, no stranger being present. Offerings of cocoanuts, rice, turmeric and flowers are made to her, but no animal sacrifices. When a son of the family dies unmarried, an image of him, known as Mujia, is made on a piece of silver, copper or bra.s.s, and is worshipped on Mondays and Fridays during the month of Magh (January). On one of these days also a feast is given to the caste. Each member of the caste has a guru or spiritual preceptor, who visits him every second or third year and receives a small present of a cocoanut or a piece of cloth. But he does not seem to perform any duties. The guru may belong to any of the religious mendicant castes. A man who is without a guru is known as Nugra and is looked down on. To meet him in the morning is considered unlucky and portends misfortune. Sir C. Elliot [128] characterised the Mundle Gujars as "A very religious race; they never plough on the new moon nor on the 8th of the month, because it is Krishna's birthday. Their religious and social head is the Mahant of the Ramjidas temple at Hoshangabad." In Nimar many of the Gujars belong to the Pirzada sect, which is a kind of reformed creed, based on a mixture of Hinduism and Islam.

8. Character.

The Gujars wear the dress of northern India and their women usually have skirts (lahenga) and not saris or body-cloths. Married women have a number of strings of black beads round the neck and widows must change these for red ones. As a rule neither men nor women are tattooed. The men sometimes have their hair long and wear beards and whiskers. The Gujars are now considered the best cultivators of the Nimar District. They are fond of irrigation and sink unfaced wells to water their land and get a second crop off it. They are generally prosperous and make good landlords. Members of the caste have the custom of lending and borrowing among themselves and not from outsiders, and this no doubt conduces to mutual economy and solvency. Like keen cultivators elsewhere, such as the Panwars and Kurmis, the Gujar sets store by having a good house and good cattle. The return from a Mundle Gujar's wedding, Captain Forsyth wrote, [129] is a sight to be seen. Every Gujar from far and near has come with his whole family in his best bullock-cart gaily ornamented, and, whatever the road may be, nothing but a smash will prevent a breakneck race homewards at full gallop, cattle which have won in several such races acquiring a much coveted reputation throughout the District.

GURAO

List of Paragraphs

1. Origin of the caste.

2. Internal structure.

3. Marriage and ceremonies of adolescence.

4. Birth customs.

5. The sacred thread.

6. Funeral customs.

7. Social position.

8. The Jain Guraos.

1. Origin of the caste.

Gurao. [130]--A caste of village priests of the temples of Mahadeo in the Maratha Districts. They numbered about 14,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar in 1911. The Guraos say that they were formerly Brahmans and worshippers of Siva, but for some negligence or mistake in his ritual they were cursed by the G.o.d and degraded from the status of Brahmans, though subsequently the G.o.d relented and permitted them to worship him and take the offerings made to him.

It is related that a certain Brahman, who was a votary of Siva, had to go on a journey. He left his son behind and strictly enjoined on him to perform the worship of the G.o.d at midday. The son had bathed and purified himself for this purpose, when shortly before midday his wife came to him and so importuned him to have conjugal intercourse with her that he was obliged to comply. It was then midday and in his impure condition the son went to the shrine of the G.o.d to worship him. But Siva cursed him and said that his descendants should be degraded from the status of Brahmans, though he afterwards relented so far as to permit of their continuing to act as his priests; and this was the origin of the Guraos. It seems doubtful, however, whether the caste are really of Brahman origin. They were formerly village priests, and Grant-Duff gives the Gurao as one of the village menials in the Maratha villages. They have the privilege of taking the Naivedya or offerings of cooked food made to the G.o.d Mahadeo, which Brahmans will not accept. They also sell leaf-plates and flowers and bel leaves [131] which are offered at the temples of Mahadeo; and on the festival of Shivratri and during the month of Shrawan (July) they take round the bel leaves which the cultivators require for their offerings and receive presents in return. In Wardha the Guraos get small gifts of grain from the cultivators at seed-time and harvest. They also act as village musicians and blow the conch-sh.e.l.l, beat the drum and play other musical instruments for the morning and evening worship at the temple. They play on the cymbals and drums at the marriages of Brahmans and other high castes. In the Bombay Presidency [132] some are astrologers and fortune-tellers, and others make the basing or coronet of flowers which the bridegroom wears. Sometimes they play on the drum or fiddle for their spiritual followers, the dancing-girls or Kalavants. When a dancing-girl became pregnant she worshipped the Gurao, and he, in return, placed the missi or tooth-powder made from myrobalans on her teeth. If this was not done before her child was born, a Kalavantin was put out of caste. In some localities the Guraos will take food from Kunbis. And further, as will be seen subsequently, the caste have no proper gotras or exogamous sections, but in arranging their marriages they simply avoid persons having a common surname. All these considerations point to the fact that the caste is not of Brahmanical origin but belongs to a lower cla.s.s of the population. Nevertheless in Wardha they are known as Shaiva Brahmans and rank above the Kunbis. They may study the Sama Veda only and not the others, and may repeat the Rudra Gayatri or sacred verse of Siva. Clearly the Brahmans could not accept the offerings of cooked food made at Siva's shrine; though the larger temples of this deity have Brahman priests. It seems uncertain whether Siva or Mahadeo was first a village deity and was subsequently exalted to the position of a member of the supreme Hindu Trinity, or whether the opposite process took place and the Guraos obtained their priestly functions on his worship being popularised. But in any case it would appear that they were originally a cla.s.s of village priests regarded as the servants of the cultivating community, by whose gifts and offerings they were maintained. Grant-Duff in enumerating the village servants says: "Ninth, the Gurao, who is a Sudra employed to wash the ornaments and attend the idol in the village temples, and on occasions of feasting to prepare the patraoli or leaves which the Hindus subst.i.tute for plates. They are also trumpeters by profession and in this capacity are much employed in Maratha armies." [133]

2. Internal structure.

The caste has several subdivisions which are princ.i.p.ally of a territorial nature, as Warade from Berar; Jhade, inhabitants of the forest or rice country; Telanga, of the Telugu country; Dakshne, from the Deccan; Marwari, from Marwar, and so on. Other subcastes are the Ahir and Jain Guraos, of whom the former are apparently Ahirs who have adopted the priestly profession, while the Jain Guraos are held in Bombay to be the descendants of Jain temple servants who entered the caste when their own deities were thrown out and their shrines annexed by the votaries of Siva. [134] In Bombay, Mr. Enthoven states "That the Koli and Maratha ministrants at the temples of Siva and other deities often describe themselves as Guraos, but they have not formed themselves into separate castes and are members of the general Koli or Maratha community. They cease to call themselves Guraos when they cease to minister at temples." [135] In the Central Provinces one of the subcastes is known as Vajantri because they act as village musicians. The caste have no regular exogamous sections, but a number of surnames which answer the same purpose. These are of a professional type, as Lokhandes, an iron-dealer; Phulzares, a maker of fireworks; Sontake, a gold-merchant; Gaikwad, a cowherd; Nakade, long-nosed, and so on. They say they all belong to the same gotra, Sankhiayan, named after Sankhiaya Rishi, the ancestor of the caste.

3. Marriage and ceremonies of adolescence.

Marriage is avoided between persons having the same surname and those within six degrees of descent from a common ancestor whether male or female. The marriage ceremony generally resembles that of the Brahmans. Before the wedding the bridegroom's father prepares an image of Siva from rice and til-seed, [136] covers it with a cloth and sends it to the bride's house. In return her mother prepares and sends back a similar image of Gauri, Siva's consort. Girls are married as infants, and when a woman arrives at adolescence the following ritual is observed: She goes to her husband's house and is there secluded for three or four days while her impurity lasts. On its termination she is bathed and clothed in a green dress and yellow choli or breast-cloth, and seated in a gaily decked wooden frame. Her lap is filled with wheat and a cocoanut, and her female friends and relatives and father and father-in-law give her presents of sweets and clothes. This is known as the Shantik ceremony and is practised by the higher castes in the Maratha country. It may continue for as long as sixteen days. Finally, on an auspicious day the bride and bridegroom are given delicate food and dressed in new clothes. The fire sacrifice is offered and they are taken into a room where a bed, the gift of the bride's parents, has been prepared for them, and left to consummate the marriage. This is known as Garbhadhan. Next day the bride's parents give new clothes and a feast to the bridegroom's family; this feast is known as G.o.dai, and after giving it the bride's parents may eat at their daughter's house. A girl seduced by a man of the caste may be properly married to him after her parents have performed Prayaschit or atonement. But if she has a child out of wedlock, he is relegated to the Vidur or illegitimate group. Even if a girl be seduced by a stranger, provided he be of higher or equal caste, as the Kunbis and Marathas, she may be taken back into the community.

4. Birth customs.

If a child is born at an unlucky season, they take two winnowing-fans and tie the baby between them with a thread wound many times round about. A cow is brought and made to lick the child, which is thus supposed to have been born again from it as a calf, the evil omen of the first birth being removed. The father performs the fire sacrifice, and a human figure is made from cooked rice and worshipped. A burning wick is placed in its stomach and it is taken out and left at cross-roads, this being probably a subst.i.tute for the member of the family whose death was presaged by the untimely birth of the child. Similarly if any one dies at the astronomical period known as Panchak, they make five figures of wheat-flour and burn or bury them with the body, as it is thought that otherwise five members of the family would die.

5. The sacred thread.

Boys are invested with the sacred thread at the age of five, seven or nine years, and until that time they are considered to be Sudras and not members of the caste. From a hundred to three hundred rupees may be spent on the invest.i.ture. On the day before the ceremony a Brahman and his wife are invited to take food, and a yellow thread with a mango leaf is tied round the boy's wrist. The spirits of other boys who died before their thread ceremony was performed and of women of the family who died before their husbands are invited to attend. These are represented by young boys and married women of other families who come to the house and are bathed and anointed with turmeric and oil, and given presents of sugar and new clothes. Next day the initiate is seated on a platform in a shed erected for the purpose and puts on the sacred thread made of cotton and also a strip of the skin of the black-buck with a silk ap.r.o.n and cap. The boy's father takes him on his lap and whispers or, as the Hindus say, blows the Gayatri mantra or sacred text into his ear. A sacrifice is performed, and the friends and fellow-castemen of the family make presents to the boy of copper and silver coin. The amount thus given is not used by the parents, but is spent on the boy's education or on the purchase of an ornament for him. On the conclusion of the ceremony the boy mounts a wooden model of a horse and pretends to set out for Benares. His paternal uncle then says to him, 'Why are you going away?' And the boy replies, 'Because you have not married me.' His uncle then promises to find a bride for him and he gives up his project. The part played by the maternal uncle in this ceremony is probably a survival of the period of the matriarchate, when a man's property descended to his sister's son. He would thus naturally claim the boy as a husband for his own daughter, and such a marriage apparently became customary and in course of time acquired binding force. And although all recollection of the rule of inheritance through women has long been forgotten, the marriage of a brother's daughter to a sister's son is still considered peculiarly suitable, and the idea that it is the duty of the maternal uncle to find a bride for his nephew appears to be simply a development of this. The above account also gives reason for supposing that the invest.i.ture with the sacred thread was originally a ceremony of p.u.b.erty.

6. Funeral customs.

The dead are burnt and the ashes thrown into water or carried to the Ganges. A small piece of gold, two or three small pearls, and some basil leaves are put into the mouth, and flowers, red powder and betel leaves are spread over the corpse. The son or male heir of the deceased walks in front carrying fire in an earthen pot. At a small distance from the burning-ground, when the bearers change places, he picks up a stone, known as the life-stone or jivkhada. This is afterwards buried at the burning-ghat until the priest comes to effect the purification of the mourners on the tenth day. It is then dug up, set up and worshipped, and thrown into a well. A man is burnt naked; a woman in a robe and bodice. The heads of widows are not shaved as a rule, but on the tenth day after her husband's death a widow is asked whether she would like her head shaved; if she refuses, the people conclude that she intends to marry again. But if the deceased left no male heir to carry behind his bier the burning wood with which the funeral pyre is to be kindled, then the widow must be shaved before the funeral starts and perform this duty. If there is no male relative and no widow, the pot containing fire is tied to the bier. When the corpse of a woman who has died in child-bed is being carried to the burning-ground various rites are observed to prevent her spirit from becoming a Churel and troubling the living. A lemon charmed by a magician is buried under the corpse and a man follows the body strewing the seeds of rala, while nails are driven into the threshold of the house. [137]

7. Social position.

The caste has now a fairly high social status and ranks above the Kunbis. They abstain from all flesh and from liquor and will take food only from the hands of a Maratha Brahman, while Kunbis and other cultivating and serving castes will accept food from their hands. They worship Siva princ.i.p.ally on Mondays, this day being sacred to the deity, who carries the moon as an ornament on his head, crowning the matted locks from which the Ganges flows.

8. The Jain Guraos.

Of the Jain Guraos Mr. Enthoven quotes the following interesting description from the Bombay Gazetteer: "They are mainly servants in village temples which, though dedicated to Brahmanic G.o.ds, have still by their sides broken remains of Jain images. This, and the fact that most of the temple land-grants date from a time when Jainism was the State religion, support the theory that the Jain Guraos are probably Jain temple servants who have come under the influence partly of Lingayatism and partly of Brahmanism. A curious survival of their Jainism occurs at Dasahra, Shimga and other leading festivals, when the village deity is taken out of the temple and carried in procession. On these occasions, in front of the village G.o.d's palanquin, three, five or seven of the villagers, among whom the Gurao is always the leader, carry each a long, gaily-painted wooden pole resting against their right shoulder. At the top of the pole is fastened a silver mask or hand and round it is draped a rich silk robe. Of these poles, the chief one, carried by the Gurao, is called the Jain's pillar, Jainacha khamb."