Chapter I: Preface

This book is the result of the arrangement made by the Government of India, on the suggestion of the late Sir Herbert Risley, for the preparation of an ethnological account dealing with the inhabitants of each of the principal Provinces of India. The work for the Central Provinces was entrusted to the author, and its preparation, undertaken in addition to ordinary official duties, has been spread over a number of years. The prescribed plan was that a separate account should be written of each of the principal tribes and castes, according to the method adopted in Sir Herbert Risley's _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_. This was considered to be desirable as the book is intended primarily as a work of reference for the officers of Government, who may desire to know something of the customs of the people among whom their work lies. It has the disadvantage of involving a large amount of repetition of the same or very similar statements about different castes, and the result is likely therefore to be somewhat distasteful to the ordinary reader. On the other hand, there is no doubt that this method of treatment, if conscientiously followed out, will produce more exhaustive results than a general account. Similar works for some other Provinces have already appeared, as Mr. W. Crooke's _Castes and Tribes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh_, Mr. Edgar Thurston's _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_, and Mr. Ananta Krishna Iyer's volumes on Cochin, while a Glossary for the Punjab by Mr. H.A. Rose has been partly published. The articles on Religions and Sects were not in the original scheme of the work, but have been subsequently added as being necessary to render it a complete ethnological account of the population. In several instances the adherents of the religion or sect are found only in very small numbers in the Province, and the articles have been compiled from standard works.

In the preparation of the book much use has necessarily been made of the standard ethnological accounts of other parts of India, especially Colonel Tod's _Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan_, Mr. J.D. Forbes' _Rasmala or Annals of Gujarat_, Colonel Dalton's _Ethnology of Bengal_, Dr. Buchanan's _Eastern India_, Sir Denzil Ibbetson's _Punjab Census Report_ for 1881, Sir John Malcolm's _Memoir of Central India_, Sir Edward Gait's _Bengal and India Census Reports_ and article on Caste in Dr. Hastings' _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, Colonel (Sir William) Sleeman's _Report on the Badhaks_ and _Ramaseeana or Vocabulary of the Thugs,_ Mr. Kennedy's _Criminal Classes of the Bombay Presidency_, Major Gunthorpe's _Criminal Tribes of Bombay, Berar and the Central Provinces_, the books of Mr. Crooke and Sir H. Risley already mentioned, and the mass of valuable ethnological material contained in the _Bombay Gazetteer _ (Sir J. Campbell), especially the admirable volumes on _Hindus of Gujarat_ by Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam, and _Parsis and Muhammadans of Gujarat_ by Khan Bahadur Fazlullah Lutfullah Faridi, and Mr. Kharsedji Nasarvanji Seervai, J.P., and Khan Bahadur Bamanji Behramji Patel. Other Indian ethnological works from which I have made quotations are Dr. Wilson's _Indian Caste_ (_Times_ Press and Messrs. Blackwood). Bishop Westcott's _Kabir and the Kabirpanth_ (Baptist Mission Press, Cawnpore), Mr. Rajendra Lal Mitra's _Indo-Aryans_ (Newman & Co., Calcutta), _The Jainas_ by Dr. J.G. Bühler and Mr. J. Burgess, Dr. J.N. Bhattacharya's _Hindu Castes and Sects_ (Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta), Professor Oman's _Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India, Cults, Customs and Superstitions of India_, and _Brahmans, Theists and Muslims of India_ (T. Fisher Unwin), Mr. V.A. Smith's _Early History of India_ (Clarendon Press), the Rev. T.P. Hughes' _Dictionary of Islam_ (W.H. Allen & Co., and Heffer & Sons, Cambridge), Mr. L.D. Barnett's _Antiquities of India_, M. André Chevrillon's _Romantic India_, Mr. V. Ball's _Jungle Life in India_, Mr. W. Crooke's _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_, and _Things Indian_, Captain Forsyth's _Highlands of Central India_ (Messrs. Chapman & Hall), Messrs. Yule and Burnell's _Hobson-Jobson_ (Mr. Crooke's edition), Professor Hopkins' _Religions of India_, the Rev. E.M. Gordon's _Indian Folk-Tales_ (Elliot & Stock), Messrs. Sewell and Dikshit's _Indian Calendar_, Mr. Brennand's _Hindu Astronomy_, and the late Rev. Father P. Dehon's monograph on the Oraons in the _Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_.

Ethnological works on the people of the Central Provinces are not numerous; among those from which assistance has been obtained are Sir C. Grant's _Central Provinces Gazetteer_ of 1871, Rev. Stephen Hislop's _Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces_, Colonel Bloomfield's _Notes on the Baigas_, Sir Charles Elliott's _Hoshangabad Settlement Report_, Sir Reginald Craddock's _Nagpur Settlement Report_, Colonel Ward's _Mandla Settlement Report_, Colonel Lucie Smith's _Chanda Settlement Report_, Mr. G.W. Gayer's _Lectures on Criminal Tribes_, Mr. C.W. Montgomerie's _Chhindwara Settlement Report_, Mr. C.E. Low's _Balaghat District Gazetteer_, Mr. E.J. Kitts' _Berar Census Report_ of 1881, and the _Central Provinces Census Reports_ of Mr. T. Drysdale, Sir Benjamin Robertson and Mr. J.T. Marten.

The author is indebted to Sir J.G. Frazer for his kind permission to make quotations from _The Golden Bough_ and _Totemism and Exogamy_ (Macmillan), in which the best examples of almost all branches of primitive custom are to be found; to Dr. Edward Westermarck for similar permission in respect of _The History of Human Marriage_, and _The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_ (Macmillan); to Messrs. A. & C. Black in respect of the late Professor Robertson Smith's _Religion of the Semites_; to Messrs. Heinemann for those from M. Salomon Reinach's _Orpheus_; and to Messrs. Hachette et Cie and Messrs. Parker of Oxford for those from _La Cité Antique_ of M. Fustel de Coulanges. Much assistance has also been obtained from Sir E. B. Tylor's _Early History of Mankind_ and _Primitive Culture_, Lord Avebury's _The Origin of Civilisation_, Mr. E. Sidney Hartland's _Primitive Paternity_, and M. Salomon Reinach's _Cultes, Mythes et Religions_. The labours of these eminent authors have made it possible for the student to obtain a practical knowledge of the ethnology of the world by the perusal of a small number of books; and if any of the ideas put forward in these volumes should ultimately be so fortunate as to obtain acceptance, it is to the above books that I am principally indebted for having been able to formulate them. Other works from which help has been obtained are M. Emile Senart's _Les Castes dans I'Inde_, Professor W. E. Hearn's _The Aryan Household_, and Dr. A.H. Keane's _The World's Peoples_. Sir George Grierson's great work, _The Linguistic Survey of India_, has now given an accurate classification of the non-Aryan tribes according to their languages and has further thrown a considerable degree of light on the vexed question of their origin. I have received from Mr. W. Crooke of the Indian Civil Service (retired) much kind help and advice during the final stages of the preparation of this work. As will be seen from the articles, resort has constantly been made to his _Tribes and Castes_ for filling up gaps in the local information.

Rai Bahadur Hira Lal was my assistant for several years in the taking of the census of 1901 and the preparation of the Central Provinces District Gazetteers; he has always given the most loyal and unselfish aid, has personally collected a large part of the original information contained in the book, and spent much time in collating the results. The association of his name in the authorship is no more than his due, though except where this has been specifically mentioned, he is not responsible for the theories and deductions from the facts obtained. Mr. Pyare Lal Misra, barrister, Chhindwara, was my ethnographic clerk for some years, and he and Munshi Kanhya Lal, late of the Educational Department, and Mr. Aduram Chandhri, Tahsildar, gave much assistance in the inquiries on different castes. Among others who have helped in the work, Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath, Diwan of the Patna and Bastar States, should be mentioned first, and Babu Kali Prasanna Mukerji, pleader, Saugor, Mr. Gopal Datta Joshi, District Judge, Saugor, Mr. Jeorakhan Lal, Deputy-Inspector of Schools, and Mr. Gokul Prasad, Tahsildar, may be selected from the large number whose names are given in the footnotes to the articles. Among European officers whose assistance should be acknowledged are Messrs. C.E. Low, C.W. Montgomerie, A.B. Napier, A.E. Nelson, A.K. Smith, R.H. Crosthwaite and H.F. Hallifax, of the Civil Service; Lt.-Col. W.D. Sutherland, I.M.S., Surgeon-Major Mitchell of Bastar, and Mr. D. Chisholm.

Some photographs have been kindly contributed by Mrs. Ashbrooke Crump, Mrs. Mangabai Kelkar, Mr. G.L. Corbett, C.S., Mr. R.L. Johnston, A.D.S.P., Mr. J.H. Searle, C.S., Mr. Strachey, Mr. H.E. Bartlett, Professor L. Scherman of Munich, and the Diwan of Raigarh State. Bishop Westcott kindly gave the photograph of Kabir, which appears in his own book.

Finally I have to express my gratitude to the Chief Commissioner, Sir Benjamin Robertson, for the liberal allotment made by the Administration for the publication of the work; and to the publishers, Messrs. Macmillan & Co., and the printers, Messrs. R. & R. Clark, for their courtesy and assistance during its progress through the press.

September 1915.

CONTENTS

Part I--Volume I

Introductory Essay on Caste Articles on the Religions and Sects of the People of the Central Provinces Glossary of Minor Castes and Other Articles, Synonyms, Subcastes, Titles and Names of Exogamous Septs or Clans Subject Index

Part II--Volumes II, III and IV

Descriptive Articles on the Principal Castes and Tribes of the Central Provinces

DETAILED LIST OF CONTENTS