The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume I Part 29

_Bhilaophod_.--(Those who extract oil from the _bhilawa_ nut, _Semecarpus anacardium_.) Subcaste of Kol.

_Bhilsaiyan_, _Bhilsia_, _Bhilasia_.--(From Bhilsa, a town in Gwalior State.) A section and surname of Jijhotia Brahmans. A section of Purania Sunar and of Rathor Teli and Teli.

_Bhima_.--A small caste belonging to the Mandla and Seoni Districts. They are musicians of the Gond tribe and dance and beg at their weddings. The caste are an offshoot of the Gonds, their exogamous septs having Gond names, as Marabi, Markam, Dhurwa, Parteti, Tekam and so on; but they now marry among themselves. They worship the Gond G.o.d, Bura Deo, their own elders serving as priests. At their performances the men play and dance, wearing hollow anklets of metal with little b.a.l.l.s of iron inside to make them tinkle. The women are dressed like Hindu women and dance without ornaments. Their instrument is called Tuma or gourd. It consists of a hollow piece of bamboo fixed horizontally over a gourd. Over the bamboo a string is stretched secured to a peg at one end and pa.s.sing over a bridge at the other. Little k.n.o.bs of wax are made on the bamboo so that the string touches them during its vibrations. The gourd acts as a sounding-board.

_Bhogta_.--Subcaste of Khairwar.

_Bhoi_.--(One who carries litters or palanquins.) Synonym of Dhimar and Kahar. A t.i.tle or honorific name for Gonds and one by which they are often known. See article Kahar. A section of Binjhal.

_Bhoir_.--Synonym for Bhoyar.

_Bhojni_.--Subcaste of Chitrakathi. They serve the food at marriage and other ceremonies.

_Bholia_.--(From _bhulna_, to forget.) Synonym of Bhulia.

_Bhona_.--A small caste of labourers in the Mandla District. They are practically all employed by the local Pansaris (Barai) or _pan_-growers in tending their _barejas_ or betel-vine gardens. There is some ground for supposing that the Bhonas are an offshoot of the Bharia or Bharia-Bhumia tribe of Jubbulpore, which is itself derived from the Bhars. One of the sections of the Bhonas is named after the vulture, and at their weddings a man of this section catches a young chicken and bites off the head in imitation of a vulture.

_Bhondih_.--(From _bhond_, dung-beetle.) A section of Ahir.

_Bhonsla_.--A clan of Marathas to which the Rajas of Nagpur belong.

_Bhope_ or _Bhoall_.--Subcaste of Manbhao.

_Bhoriya_.--Synonym of Bhulia.

_Bhoyar_.--A caste. A subcaste of Koshti and Marar.

_Bhudes_.--(The G.o.ds on earth.) t.i.tle of Brahmans.

_Bhuinhar_.--Name of a landholding caste in Benares and Bengal who claim to be Brahmans or Rajputs. They are also known as Babhan. A t.i.tle of the Bhuiya tribe. See article Bhuiya. A t.i.tle of the Bhaina tribe.

_Bhumia_.--(Born from the land, or aboriginal.) A t.i.tle of the Bharia tribe in Jubbulpore, also a t.i.tle of Baiga and Korku. A synonym of Bhuiya. A subdivision of Gond. A section of Kurmi.

_Bhura_.--(Grey.) One of the sections of Oswal Bania. A proper name.

_Bhusar_.--(Lord of the earth.) A t.i.tle of Brahman.

_Bhusarjin_.--(From _bhusa_, the chaff of wheat.) Subcaste of Banjara.

_Bhuskate_.--(From _bhusa_, fodder, one who supplies fodder.) A family name.

_Bhuta_.--A subtribe of Gond in Betul, the same as Koilabhuta. They are said to be of immoral character.

_Biar_.--Synonym of Bayar.

_Bichhuwa_, _Bichhi_.--(From _bichhu_, scorpion.) A section of Dhobi and Kawar.

_Bidur_.--Synonym of the Vidur caste.

_Biloria_.--(From _bilori_, marble stone.) A section of Chhipa.

_Bilwar_.--Synonym of Belwar, a carrier and cattle-dealer.

_Bind_.--A large non-Aryan caste of Bihar and the United Provinces, of which 380 persons were returned in 1911. Sir H. Risley says of them: [428] "They are a tribe employed in agriculture, earthwork, fishing, hunting, making saltpetre and collecting indigenous drugs. Traditions current among the caste profess to trace their origin to the Vindhya hills, and one of these legends tells how a traveller, pa.s.sing by the foot of the hills, heard a strange flute-like sound coming out of a clump of bamboos. He cut a shoot and took from it a fleshy substance which afterwards grew into a man, the supposed ancestor of the Binds. Another story says that the Binds and Nunias were formerly all Binds and that the present Nunias are the descendants of a Bind who consented to dig a grave for a Muhammadan king and was outcasted for doing so." A third legend tells how in the beginning of all things Mahadeo made a lump of earth and endowed it with life. The creature thus produced asked Mahadeo what he should eat. The G.o.d pointed to a tank and told him to eat the fish in it and the wild rice which grew near the banks. Mr. Crooke [429] says that they use fish largely except in the fortnight (Pitripaksh) sacred to the dead in the month of Kunwar, and Sir H. Risley notes that after the rice harvest the Binds wander about the country digging up the stores of rice acc.u.mulated by field rats in their burrows. From four to six pounds of grain are usually found, but even this quant.i.ty is sometimes exceeded. The Binds also feast on the rats, but they deny this, saying that to do so would be to their own injury, as a reduction of the next year's find of grain would thus be caused.

_Binjhal_.--Synonym of Binjhwar.

_Binjhwar_.--A caste derived from the Baiga tribe. A subtribe of Baiga and Gond. A subcaste of Gowari.

_Birchheya_.--(A dweller in the forest.) Subcaste of Ghosi.

_Birchkia_.--(From _birchka_, a tree.) A subcaste of Ghosi.

_Birhor._--A small Kolarian tribe of whom about 150 persons were returned in 1911 from the Chota Nagpur States. The name means a dweller in the forest. Sir H. Risley states that the Birhors live in tiny huts made of branches of trees and leaves, and eke out a miserable living by snaring hares and monkeys, and collecting jungle products, especially the bark of the _chob_ creeper, [430] from which a coa.r.s.e kind of rope is made. They are great adepts at ensnaring monkeys and other small animals, and sell them alive or eat them. Colonel Dalton described them as, [431] "A small, dirty, miserable-looking race, who have the credit of devouring their parents, and when I taxed them with it they did not deny that such a custom had once obtained among them. But they declared they never shortened lives to provide such feasts and shrank with horror from the idea of any bodies but those of their own blood-relatives being served up to them." It would appear that this custom may be partly ceremonial, and have some object, such as ensuring that the dead person should be born again in the family or that the survivors should not be haunted by his ghost. It has been recorded of the Bhunjias that they ate a small part of the flesh of their dead parents. [432] Colonel Dalton considered the Birhors to be a branch of the Kharia tribe, and this is borne out by Dr. Grierson's statement that the specimen of the Birhor dialect returned from the Jashpur State was really Kharia. [433] Elsewhere the Birhor dialect resembles Mundari.

_Birjhia, Birjia._ (One who practises _bewar_ or shifting cultivation in a forest.) Subcaste of Binjhwar, Baiga and Korwa.

_Birkhandia._--From Birkhand (Sand of heroes), a name for Rajputana. A section of Teli.

_Birtiya._ t.i.tle of Nai or barber.

_Bisen, Bisan._--A clan of Rajput. A section of Daharia and of Panwar Rajput. A section of Marar.

_Bobaiaya._--(From Bobbili, a town in Madras.) A section of Teli in Chanda.

_Bogam._--A name for Madrasi prost.i.tutes, perhaps a separate caste. Their honorific t.i.tle is Sani.

_Bohra._--A Muhammadan caste. A section of Oswal Bania.

_Bombay._--A subdivision of Valmiki Kayasth.

_Bondoya_--A resident of Jitgarh and the Pachmarhi tract of the Central Provinces. Subcaste of Korku.

_Bopchi._--A section of Panwar Rajput.

_Bopchi_--A small caste in the Wardha District numbering a few hundred persons. They are in reality Korkus, the name being a corruption of that of the Bendoya subtribe, but they have discarded their proper tribal name and formed a separate caste. They retain some of the Korku sept names, while others are derived from the Marathi words or from the names of other castes, and these facts indicate that the Bopchis are of mixed descent from Korkus and other low Maratha castes with which unions have taken place. As might be expected, they are very tolerant of s.e.xual and social offences, and do not expel a woman who has a _liaison_ with a man of another caste or takes food from him. She is readmitted to caste intercourse, but has to undergo the penalty of washing her body with cowdung and having a lock of her hair cut off. A man committing a similar offence has his upper lip shaved. They employ Gosains for their _gurus_ and their social position is very low.

_Borakar._(A mat-maker.) Synonym of Gopal.

_Borjharia._--(_Bor_-plum.) A sept of Halba.

_Brahmachare._--(A celibate.) Subcaste of Manbhao.

_Brahman Gaur_, or _Bamhan Gaur_.--A branch of the Gaur clan of Rajputs. A subcaste of Bhat.

_Brid-dhari_.--Begging Bhats. Subcaste of Bhat.

_Brihaspati, Brahaspati_.--An eponymous section of Brahmans.