Chapter XV: Part 15

_Paik._--A small caste of the Uriya country formed from military service, the term _paik_ meaning 'a foot-soldier.' In 1901 the Paiks numbered 19,000 persons in the Kalahandi and Patna States and the Raipur District, but since the transfer of the Uriya States to Bengal less than 3000 remain in the Central Provinces. In Kalahandi, where the bulk of them reside, they are called Nalia Sipahis from the fact that they were formerly armed with _nalis_ or matchlocks by the State. After the Khond rising of 1882 in Kalahandi these were confiscated and bows and arrows given in lieu of them. The Paiks say that they were the followers of two warriors, Kalmir and Jaimir, who conquered the Kalahandi and Jaipur States from the Khonds about a thousand years ago. There is no doubt that they formed the rough militia of the Uriya Rajas, a sort of rabble half military and half police, like the Khandaits. But the Khandaits were probably the leaders and officers, and, as a consequence, though originally only a mixed occupational group, have acquired a higher status than the Paiks and in Orissa rank next to the Rajputs. The Paiks were the rank and file, mainly recruited from the forest tribes, and they are counted as a comparatively low caste, though to strangers they profess to be Rajputs. In Sambalpur it is said that Rajputs, Sudhs, Bhuiyas and Gonds are called Paiks. In Kalahandi they wear the sacred thread, being invested with it by a Brahman at the time of their marriage, and they say that this privilege was conferred on them by the Raja. It is reported, however, that social distinctions may be purchased in some of the Uriya States for comparatively small sums. A Bhatra or member of a forest tribe was observed wearing the sacred thread, and, on being questioned, stated that his grandfather had purchased the right from the Raja for Rs. 50. The privileges of wearing gold ear ornaments, carrying an umbrella, and riding on horseback were obtainable in a similar manner. It is also related that when one Raja imported the first pair of boots seen in his State, the local landholders were allowed to wear them in turn for a few minutes on payment of five rupees each, as a token of their right thereafter to procure and wear boots of their own. In Damoh and Jubbulpore another set of Paiks is to be found who also claim to be Rajputs, and are commonly so called, though true Rajputs will not eat or intermarry with them. These are quite distinct from the Sambalpur Paiks, but have probably been formed into a caste in exactly the same manner. The sept or family names of the Uriya Paiks sufficiently indicate their mixed descent. Some of them are as follows: Dube (a Brahman title), Chalak Bansi (of the Chalukya royal family), Chhit Karan (belonging to the Karans or Uriya Kayasths), Sahani (a sais or groom), Sudh (the name of an Uriya caste), Benet Uriya (a subdivision of the Uriya or Od mason caste), and so on. It is clear that members of different castes who became Paiks founded separate families, which in time developed into exogamous septs. Some of the septs will not eat food cooked with water in company with the rest of the caste, though they do not object to intermarrying with them. After her marriage a girl may not take food cooked by her parents nor will they accept it from her. And at a marriage party each guest is supplied with grain and cooks it himself, but everybody will eat with the bride and bridegroom as a special concession to their position. Besides the exogamous clans the Paiks have totemistic _gots_ or groups named after plants and animals, as Harin (a deer), Kadamb (a tree), and so on. But these have no bearing on marriage, and the bulk of the caste have the Nagesh or cobra as their sept name. It is said that anybody who does not know his sept considers himself to be a Nagesh, and if he does not know his clan, he calls himself a Mahanti. Each family among the Paiks has also a Sainga or title, of a high-sounding nature, as Naik (lord), Pujari (worshipper), Baidya (physician), Raut (noble), and so on. Marriages are generally celebrated in early youth, but no penalty is incurred for a breach of this rule. If the signs of adolescence appear in a girl for the first time on a Tuesday, Saturday or Sunday, it is considered a bad omen, and she is sometimes married to a tree to avert the consequences. Widow-marriage and divorce are freely permitted. The caste burn their dead and perform the _shraddh_ ceremony. The women are tattooed, and men sometimes tattoo their arms with figures of the sun and moon in the belief that this will protect them from snake-bite. The Paiks eat flesh and fish, but abstain from fowls and other unclean animals and from liquor. Brahmans will not take water from them, but other castes generally do so. Some of them are still employed as armed retainers and are remunerated by free grants of land.

Panka

List of Paragraphs

1. _Origin of the caste._
2. _Caste subdivisions._
3. _Endogamous divisions._
4. _Marriage._
5. _Religion._
6. _Other customs._
7. _Occupation._

1. Origin of the caste

_Panka._ [366]--A Dravidian caste of weavers and labourers found in Mandla, Raipur and Bilaspur, and numbering 215,000 persons in 1911. The name is a variant on that of the Pan tribe of Orissa and Chota Nagpur, who are also known as Panika, Chik, Ganda and by various other designations. In the Central Provinces it has, however, a peculiar application; for while the Pan tribe proper is called Ganda in Chhattisgarh and the Uriya country, the Pankas form a separate division of the Gandas, consisting of those who have become members of the Kabirpanthi sect. In this way the name has been found very convenient, for since Kabir, the founder of the sect, was discovered by a weaver woman lying on the lotus leaves of a tank, like Moses in the bulrushes, and as a newly initiated convert is purified with water, so the Pankas hold that their name Is _pani ka_ or 'from water.' As far as possible then they disown their connection with the Gandas, one of the most despised castes, and say that they are a separate caste consisting of the disciples of Kabir. This has given rise to the following doggerel rhyme about them:

Pani se Panka bhae, bundan rache sharir,
Age age Panka bhae, pachhe Das Kabir.

Which may be rendered, 'The Panka indeed is born of water, and his body is made of drops of water, but there were Pankas before Kabir.' Or another rendering of the second line is, 'First he was a Panka, and afterwards he became a disciple of Kabir,' Nevertheless the Pankas have been successful in obtaining a somewhat higher position than the Gandas, in that their touch is not considered to convey impurity. This is therefore an instance of a body of persons from a low caste embracing a new religion and thereby forming themselves into a separate caste and obtaining an advance in social position.

2. Caste subdivisions

Of the whole caste 84 per cent are Kabirpanthis and these form one subcaste; but there are a few others. The Manikpuria say that their ancestors came from Manikpur in Darbhanga State about three centuries ago; the Saktaha are those who profess to belong to the Sakta sect, which simply means that they eat flesh and drink liquor, being unwilling to submit to the restrictions imposed on Kabirpanthis; the Bajania are those who play on musical instruments, an occupation which tends to lower them in Hindu eyes; and the Dom Pankas are probably a section of the Dom or sweeper caste who have somehow managed to become Pankas. The main distinction is however between the Kabirha, who have abjured flesh and liquor, and the Saktaha, who indulge in them; and the Saktaha group is naturally recruited from backsliding Kabirpanthis. Properly the Kabirha and Saktaha do not intermarry, but if a girl from either section goes to a man of the other she will be admitted into the community and recognised as his wife, though the regular ceremony is not performed. The Saktaha worship all the ordinary village deities, but some of the Kabirha at any rate entirely refrain from doing so, and have no religious rites except when a priest of their sect comes round, when he gives them a discourse and they sing religious songs.

3. Endogamous divisions

The caste have a number of exogamous septs, many of which are named after plants and animals: as Tandia an earthen pot, Chhura a razor, Neora the mongoose, Parewa the wild pigeon, and others. Other septs are Panaria the bringer of betel-leaf, Kuldip the lamp-lighter, Pandwar the washer of feet, Ghughua one who eats the leavings of the assembly, and Khetgarhia, one who watches the fields during religious worship. The Sonwania or 'Gold-water' sept has among the Pankas, as with several of the primitive tribes, the duty of readmitting persons temporarily put out of caste; while the Naurang or nine-coloured sept may be the offspring of some illegitimate unions. The Sati sept apparently commemorate by their name an ancestress who distinguished herself by self-immolation, naturally a very rare occurrence in so low a caste as the Pankas. Each sept has its own Bhat or genealogist who begs only from members of the sept and takes food from them.

4. Marriage

Marriage is prohibited between members of the same sept and also between first cousins, and a second sister may not be married during the lifetime of the first. Girls are usually wedded under twelve years of age. In Mandla the father of the boy and his relatives go to discuss the match, and if this is arranged each of them kisses the girl and gives her a piece of small silver. When a Saktaha is going to look for a wife he makes a fire offering to Dulha Deo, the young bridegroom god, whose shrine is in the cook-room, and prays to him saying, 'I am going to such and such a village to ask for a wife; give me good fortune.' The father of the girl at first refuses his consent as a matter of etiquette, but finally agrees to let the marriage take place within a year. The boy pays Rs. 9, which is spent on the feast, and makes a present of clothes and jewels to the bride. In Chanda a _chauka_ or consecrated space spread with cowdung with a pattern of lines of flour is prepared and the fathers of the parties stand inside this, while a member of the Pandwar sept cries out the names of the _gotras_ of the bride and bridegroom and says that the everlasting knot is to be tied between them with the consent of five caste-people and the sun and moon as witnesses. Before the wedding the betrothed couple worship Mahadeo and Parvati under the direction of a Brahman, who also fixes the date of the wedding. This is the only purpose for which a Brahman is employed by the caste. Between this date and that of the marriage neither the boy nor girl should be allowed to go to a tank or cross a river, as it is considered dangerous to their lives. The superstition has apparently some connection with the belief that the Pankas are sprung from water, but its exact meaning cannot be determined. If a girl goes wrong before marriage with a man of the caste, she is given to him as wife without any ceremony. Before the marriage seven small pitchers full of water are placed in a bamboo basket and shaken over the bride's head so that the water may fall on her. The principal ceremony consists in walking round the sacred pole called _magrohan_, the skirts of the pair being knotted together. In some localities this is done twice, a first set of perambulations being called the Kunwari (maiden) Bhanwar, and the second one of seven, the Byahi (married) Bhanwar. After the wedding the bride and her relations return with the bridegroom to his house, their party being known as Chauthia. The couple are taken to a river and throw their tinsel wedding ornaments into the water. The bride then returns home if she is a minor, and when she subsequently goes to live with her husband the _gauna_ ceremony is performed. Widow-marriage is permitted, and divorce may be effected for bad conduct on the part of the wife, the husband giving a sort of funeral feast, called _Marti jiti ka bhat_, to the castefellows. Usually a man gives several warnings to his wife to amend her bad conduct before he finally casts her off.

5. Religion

The Pankas worship only Kabir. They prepare a _chauka_ and, sitting in it, sing songs in his praise, and a cocoanut is afterwards broken and distributed to those who are present. The assembly is presided over by a Mahant or priest and the _chauka_ is prepared by his subordinate called the Diwan. The offices of Mahant and Diwan are hereditary, and they officiate for a collection of ten or fifteen villages. Otherwise the caste perform no special worship, but observe the full moon days of Magh (January), Phagun (February) and Kartik (October) as fasts in honour of Kabir. Some of the Kabirhas observe the Hindu festivals, and the Saktahas, as already stated, have the same religious practices as other Hindus. They admit into the community members of most castes except the impure ones. In Chhattisgarh a new convert is shaved and the other Pankas wash their feet over him in order to purify him. He then breaks a stick in token of having given up his former caste and is invested with a necklace of _tulsi_ [367] beads. A woman of any such caste who has gone wrong with a man of the Panka caste may be admitted after she has lived with him for a certain period on probation, during which her conduct must be satisfactory, her paramour also being put out of caste for the same time. Both are then shaved and invested with the necklaces of _tulsi_ beads. In Mandla a new convert must clean and whitewash his house and then vacate it with his family while the Panch or caste committee come and stay there for some time in order to purify it. While they are there neither the owner nor any member of his family may enter the house. The Panch then proceed to the riverside and cook food, after driving the new convert across the river by pelting him with cowdung. Here he changes his clothes and puts on new ones, and coming back again across the stream is made to stand in the _chauk_ and sip the urine of a calf. The _chauk_ is then washed out and a fresh one made with lines of flour, and standing in this the convert receives to drink the _dal_, that is, water in which a little betel, raw sugar and black pepper have been mixed and a piece of gold dipped. In the evening the Panch again take their food in the convert's house, while he eats outside it at a distance. Then he again sips the _dal_, and the Mahant or priest takes him on his lap and a cloth is put over them both; the Mahant whispers the _mantra_ or sacred verse into his ear, and he is finally considered to have become a full Kabirha Panka and admitted to eat with the Panch.

6. Other customs

The Pankas are strict vegetarians and do not drink liquor. A Kabirha Panka is put out of caste for eating flesh meat. Both men and women generally wear white clothes, and men have the garland of beads round the neck. The dead are buried, being laid on the back with the head pointing to the north. After a funeral the mourners bathe and then break a cocoanut over the grave and distribute it among themselves. On the tenth day they go again and break a cocoanut and each man buries a little piece of it in the earth over the grave. A little cup made of flour containing a lamp is placed on the grave for three days afterwards, and some food and water are put in a leaf cup outside the house for the same period. During these days the family do not cook for themselves but are supplied with food by their friends. After childbirth a mother is supposed not to eat food during the time that the midwife attends on her, on account of the impurity caused by this woman's presence in the room.

7. Occupation

The caste are generally weavers, producing coarse country cloth, and a number of them serve as village watchmen, while others are cultivators and labourers. They will not grow _san_-hemp nor breed tasar silk cocoons. They are somewhat poorly esteemed by their neighbours, who say of them, 'Where a Panka can get a little boiled rice and a pumpkin, he will stay for ever,' meaning that he is satisfied with this and will not work to get more. Another saying is, 'The Panka felt brave and thought he would go to war; but he set out to fight a frog and was beaten'; and another, 'Every man tells one lie a day; but the Ahir tells sixteen, the Chamar twenty, and the lies of the Panka cannot be counted.' Such gibes, however, do not really mean much. Owing to the abstinence of the Pankas from flesh and liquor they rank above the Gandas and other impure castes. In Bilaspur they are generally held to be quiet and industrious. [368] In Chhattisgarh the Pankas are considered above the average in intelligence and sometimes act as spokesmen for the village people and as advisers to zamindars and village proprietors. Some of them become religious mendicants and act as _gurus_ or preceptors to Kabirpanthis. [369]

Panwar Rajput

List of Paragraphs

1. _Historical notice. The Agnikula clans and the slaughter of
the Kshatriyas by Parasurama_.
2. _The legend of Parasurama_.
3. _The Panwar dynasty of Dhar and Ujjain_.
4. _Diffusion of the Panwars over India_.
5. _The Nagpur Panwars_.
6. _Subdivisions_.
7. _Marriage customs_.
8. _Widow-marriage_.
9. _Religion_.
10. _Worship of the spirits of those dying a violent death_.
11. _Funeral rites_.
12. _Caste discipline_.
13. _Social customs_.

1. Historical notice. The Agnikula clans and the slaughter of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama

_Panwar_, [370] _Puar_, _Ponwar_, _Pramara Rajput_.--The Panwar or Pramara is one of the most ancient and famous of the Rajput clans. It was the first of the four Agnikulas, who were created from the fire-pit on the summit of Mount Abu after the Kshatriyas had been exterminated by Parasurama the Brahman. "The fire-fountain was lustrated with the waters of the Ganges; [371] expiatory rites were performed, and after a protracted debate among the gods it was resolved that Indra should initiate the work of recreation. Having formed an image of _duba_ grass he sprinkled it with the water of life and threw it into the fire-fountain. Thence on pronouncing the _sajivan mantra_ (incantation to give life) a figure slowly emerged from the flame, bearing in the right hand a mace and exclaiming, '_Mar, Mar!_' (Slay, slay). He was called Pramar; and Abu, Dhar, and Ujjain were assigned to him as a territory."

The four clans known as Agnikula, or born from the fire-pit, were the Panwar, the Chauhan, the Parihar and the Chalukya or Solanki. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar adduces evidence in support of the opinion that all these were of foreign origin, derived from the Gujars or other Scythian or Hun tribes. [372] And it seems therefore not unlikely that the legend of the fire-pit may commemorate the reconstitution of the Kshatriya aristocracy by the admission of these tribes to Hinduism after its partial extinction during their wars of invasion; the latter event having perhaps been euphemised into the slaughter of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama the Brahman. A great number of Indian castes date their origin from the traditional massacre of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama, saying that their ancestors were Rajputs who escaped and took to various occupations; and it would appear that an event which bulks so largely in popular tradition must have some historical basis. It is noticeable also that Buddhism, which for some five centuries since the time of Asoka Maurya had been the official and principal religion of northern India, had recently entered on its decline. "The restoration of the Brahmanical religion to popular favour and the associated revival of the Sanskrit language first became noticeable in the second century, were fostered by the satraps of Gujarat and Surashtra during the third, and made a success by the Gupta emperors in the fourth century. [373] The decline of Buddhism and the diffusion of Sanskrit proceeded side by side with the result that by the end of the Gupta period the force of Buddhism on Indian soil had been nearly spent; and India with certain local exceptions had again become the land of the Brahman. [374] The Gupta dynasty as an important power ended about A.D. 490 and was overthrown by the Huns, whose leader Toramana was established at Malwa in Central India prior to A.D. 500." [375] The revival of Brahmanism and the Hun supremacy were therefore nearly contemporaneous. Moreover one of the Hun leaders, Mihiragula, was a strong supporter of Brahmanism and an opponent of the Buddhists. Mr. V.A. Smith writes: "The savage invader, who worshipped as his patron deity Siva, the god of destruction, exhibited ferocious hostility against the peaceful Buddhist cult, and remorselessly overthrew the _stupas_ and monasteries, which he plundered of their treasures." [376] This warrior might therefore well be venerated by the Brahmans as the great restorer of their faith and would easily obtain divine honours. The Huns also subdued Rajputana and Central India and were dominant here for a time until their extreme cruelty and oppression led to a concerted rising of the Indian princes by whom they were defeated. The discovery of the Hun or Scythian origin of several of the existing Rajput clans fits in well with the legend. The stories told by many Indian castes of their first ancestors having been Rajputs who escaped from the massacre of Parasurama would then have some historical value as indicating that the existing occupational grouping of castes dates from the period of the revival of the Brahman cult after a long interval of Buddhist supremacy. It is however an objection to the identification of Parasurama with the Huns that he is the sixth incarnation of Vishnu, coming before Rama and being mentioned in the Mahabharata, and thus if he was in any way historical his proper date should be long before their time. As to this it may be said that he might have been interpolated or put back in date, as the Brahmans had a strong interest in demonstrating the continuity of the Kshatriya caste from Vedic times and suppressing the Hun episode, which indeed they have succeeded in doing so well that the foreign origin of several of the most prominent Rajput clans has only been established quite recently by modern historical and archaeological research. The name Parasurama signifies 'Rama with the axe' and seems to indicate that this hero came after the original Rama. And the list of the incarnations of Vishnu is not always the same, as in one list the incarnations are nearly all of the animal type and neither Parasurama, Rama nor Krishna appear.

2. The legend of Parasurama

The legend of Parasurama is not altogether opposed to this view in itself. [377] He was the son of a Brahman Muni or hermit, named Jamadagni, by a lady, Renuka, of the Kshatriya caste. He is therefore not held to have been a Brahman and neither was he a true Kshatriya. This might portray the foreign origin of the Huns. Jamadagni found his wife Renuka to be harbouring thoughts of conjugal infidelity, and commanded his sons, one by one, to slay her. The four elder ones successively refused, and being cursed by Jamadagni lost all understanding and became as idiots; but the youngest, Parasurama, at his father's bidding, struck off his mother's head with a blow of his axe. Jamadagni thereupon was very pleased and promised to give Parasurama whatever he might desire. On which Parasurama begged first for the restoration of his mother to life, with forgetfulness of his having slain her and purification from all defilement; secondly, the return of his brothers to sanity and understanding; and for himself that he should live long and be invincible in battle; and all these boons his father bestowed. Here the hermit Jamadagni might represent the Brahman priesthood, and his wife Renuka might be India, unfaithful to the Brahmans and turning towards the Buddhist heresy. The four elder sons would typify the princes of India refusing to respond to the exhortations of the Brahmans for the suppression of Buddhism, and hence themselves made blind to the true faith and their understandings darkened with Buddhist falsehood. But Parasurama, the youngest, killed his mother, that is, the Huns devastated India and slaughtered the Buddhists; in reward for this he was made invincible as the Huns were, and his mother, India, and his brothers, the indigenous princes, regained life and understanding, that is, returned to the true Brahman faith. Afterwards, the legend proceeds, the king Karrtavirya, the head of the Haihaya tribe of Kshatriyas, stole the calf of the sacred cow Kamdhenu from Jamadagni's hermitage and cut down the trees surrounding it. When Parasurama returned, his father told him what had happened, and he followed Karrtavirya and killed him in battle. But in revenge for this the sons of the king, when Parasurama was away, returned to the hermitage and slew the pious and unresisting sage Jamadagni, who called fruitlessly for succour on his valiant son. When Parasurama returned and found his father dead he vowed to extirpate the whole Kshatriya race. 'Thrice times seven did he clear the earth of the Kshatriya caste,' says the Mahabharata. If the first part of the story refers to the Hun conquest of northern India and the overthrow of the Gupta dynasty, the second may similarly portray their invasion of Rajputana. The theft of the cow and desecration of Jamadagni's hermitage by the Haihaya Rajputs would represent the apostasy of the Rajput princes to Buddhist monotheism, the consequent abandonment of the veneration of the cow and the spoliation of the Brahman shrines; while the Hun invasions of Rajputana and the accompanying slaughter of Rajputs would be Parasurama's terrible revenge.

3. The Panwar dynasty of Dhar and Ujjain

The Kings of Malwa or Ujjain who reigned at Dhar and flourished from the ninth to the twelfth centuries were of the Panwar clan. The seventh and ninth kings of this dynasty rendered it famous. [378] "Raja Munja, the seventh king (974-995), renowned for his learning and eloquence, was not only a patron of poets, but was himself a poet of no small reputation, the anthologies including various works from his pen. He penetrated in a career of conquest as far as the Godavari, but was finally defeated and executed there by the Chalukya king. His nephew, the famous Bhoja, ascended the throne of Dhara about A.D. 1018 and reigned gloriously for more than forty years. Like his uncle he cultivated with equal assiduity the arts of peace and war. Though his fights with neighbouring powers, including one of the Muhammadan armies of Mahmud of Ghazni, are now forgotten, his fame as an enlightened patron of learning and a skilled author remains undimmed, and his name has become proverbial as that of the model king according to the Hindu standard. Works on astronomy, architecture, the art of poetry and other subjects are attributed to him. About A.D. 1060 Bhoja was attacked and defeated by the confederate kings of Gujarat and Chedi, and the Panwar kingdom was reduced to a petty local dynasty until the thirteenth century. It was finally superseded by the chiefs of the Tomara and Chauhan clans, who in their turn succumbed to the Muhammadans in 1401." The city of Ujjain was at this time a centre of Indian intellectual life. Some celebrated astronomers made it their home, and it was adopted as the basis of the Hindu meridional system like Greenwich in England. The capital of the state was changed from Ujjain to Dhar or Dharanagra by the Raja Bhoja already mentioned; [379] and the name of Dhar is better remembered in connection with the Panwars than Ujjain.

A saying about it quoted by Colonel Tod was:

Jahan Puar tahan Dhar hai;
Aur Dhar jahan Puar;
Dhar bina Puar nahin;
Aur nahin Puar bina Dhar:

or, "Where the Panwar is there is Dhar, and Dhar is where the Panwar is; without the Panwars Dhar cannot stand, nor the Panwars without Dhar." It is related that in consequence of one of his merchants having been held to ransom by the ruler of Dhar, the Bhatti Raja of Jaisalmer made a vow to subdue the town. But as he found the undertaking too great for him, in order to fulfil his vow he had a model of the city made in clay and was about to break it up. But there were Panwars in his army, and they stood out to defend their mock capital, repeating as their reason the above lines; and in resisting the Raja were cut to pieces to the number of a hundred and twenty. [380] There is little reason to doubt that the incident, if historical, was produced by the belief in sympathetic magic; the Panwars really thought that by destroying its image the Raja could effect injury to the capital itself, [381] just as many primitive races believe that if they make a doll as a model of an enemy and stick pins into or otherwise injure it, the man himself is similarly affected. A kindred belief prevails concerning certain mythical old kings of the Golden Age of India, of whom it is said that to destroy their opponents all they had to do was to collect a bundle of juari stalks and cut off the heads, when the heads of their enemies flew off in unison.

The Panwars were held to have ruled from nine castles over the Marusthali or 'Region of death,' the name given to the great desert of Rajputana, which extends from Sind to the Aravalli mountains and from the great salt lake to the flat skirting the Garah. The principal of these castles were Abu, Nundore, Umarkot, Arore, and Lodorva. [382] And, 'The world is the Pramara's,' was another saying expressive of the resplendent position of Dharanagra or Ujjain at this epoch. The siege and capture of the town by the Muhammadans and consequent expulsion of the Panwars are still a well-remembered tradition, and certain castes of the Central Provinces, as the Bhoyars and Korkus, say that their ancestors formed part of the garrison and fled to the Satpura hills after the fall of Dharanagra. Mr. Crooke [383] states that the expulsion of the Panwars from Ujjain under their leader Mitra Sen is ascribed to the attack of the Muhammadans under Shahab-ud-din Ghori about A.D. 1190.

4. Diffusion of the Panwars over India

After this they spread to various places in northern India, and to the Central Provinces and Bombay. The modern state of Dhar is or was recently still held by a Panwar family, who had attained high rank under the Marathas and received it as a grant from the Peshwa. Malcolm considered them to be the descendants of Rajput emigrants to the Deccan. He wrote of them: [384] "In the early period of Maratha history the family of Puar appears to have been one of the most distinguished. They were of the Rajput tribe, numbers of which had been settled in Malwa at a remote era; from whence this branch had migrated to the Deccan. Sivaji Puar, the first of the family that can be traced in the latter country, was a landholder; and his grandsons, Sambaji and Kaloji, were military commanders in the service of the celebrated Sivaji. Anand Rao Puar was vested with authority to collect the Maratha share of the revenue of Malwa and Gujarat in 1734, and he soon afterwards settled at Dhar, which province, with the adjoining districts and the tributes of some neighbouring Rajput chiefs, was assigned for the support of himself and his adherents. It is a curious coincidence that the success of the Marathas should, by making Dhar the capital of Anand Rao and his descendants, restore the sovereignty of a race who had seven centuries before been expelled from the government of that city and territory. But the present family, though of the same tribe (Puar), claim no descent from the ancient Hindu princes of Malwa. They have, like all the Kshatriya tribes who became incorporated with the Marathas, adopted even in their modes of thinking the habits of that people. The heads of the family, with feelings more suited to chiefs of that nation than Rajput princes, have purchased the office of patel or headman in some villages in the Deccan; and their descendants continue to attach value to their ancient, though humble, rights of village officers in that quarter. Notwithstanding that these usages and the connections they formed have amalgamated this family with the Marathas, they still claim, both on account of their high birth and of being officers of the Raja of Satara (not of the Peshwa), rank and precedence over the houses of Sindhia and Holkar; and these claims, even when their fortunes were at the lowest ebb, were always admitted as far as related to points of form and ceremony." The great Maratha house of Nimbhalkar is believed to have originated from ancestors of the Panwar Rajput clan. While one branch of the Panwars went to the Deccan after the fall of Dhar and marrying with the people there became a leading military family of the Marathas, the destiny of another group who migrated to northern India was less distinguished. Here they split into two, and the inferior section is described by Mr. Crooke as follows: [385] "The Khidmatia, Barwar or Chobdar are said to be an inferior branch of the Panwars, descended from a low-caste woman. No high-caste Hindu eats food or drinks water touched by them." According to the Ain-i-Akbari [386] a thousand men of the sept guarded the environs of the palace of Akbar, and Abul Fazl says of them: "The caste to which they belong was notorious for highway robbery, and former rulers were not able to keep them in check. The effective orders of His Majesty have led them to honesty; they are now famous for their trustworthiness. They were formerly called _Mawis_. Their chief has received the title of Khidmat Rao. Being near the person of His Majesty he lives in affluence. His men are called Khidmatias." Thus another body of Panwars went north and sold their swords to the Mughal Emperor, who formed them into a bodyguard. Their case is exactly analogous to that of the Scotch and Swiss Guards of the French kings. In both cases the monarch preferred to entrust the care of his person to foreigners, on whose fidelity he could the better rely, as their only means of support and advancement lay in his personal favour, and they had no local sympathies which could be used as a lever to undermine their loyalty. Buchanan states that a Panwar dynasty ruled for a considerable period over the territory of Shahabad in Bengal. And Jagdeo Panwar was the trusted minister of Sidhraj, the great Solanki Raja of Gujarat. The story of the adventures of Jagdeo and his wife when they set out together to seek their fortune is an interesting episode in the Rasmala. In the Punjab the Panwars are found settled up the whole course of the Sutlej and along the lower Indus, and have also spread up the Bias into Jalandhar and Gurdaspur. [387]

5. The Nagpur Panwars

While the above extracts have been given to show how the Panwars migrated from Dhar to different parts of India in search of fortune, this article is mainly concerned with a branch of the clan who came to Nagpur, and subsequently settled in the rice country of the Wainganga Valley. At the end of the eleventh century Nagpur appears to have been held by a Panwar ruler as an appanage of the kingdom of Malwa. [388] It has already been seen how the kings of Malwa penetrated to Berar and the Godavari, and Nagpur may well also have fallen to them. Mr. Muhammad Yusuf quotes an inscription as existing at Bhandak in Chanda of the year A.D. 1326, in which it is mentioned that the Panwar of Dhar repaired a statue of Jag Narayan in that place. [389] Nothing more is heard of them in Nagpur, and their rule probably came to an end with the subversion of the kingdom of Malwa in the thirteenth century. But there remain in Nagpur and in the districts of Bhandara, Balaghat and Seoni to the north and east of it a large number of Panwars, who have now developed into an agricultural caste. It may be surmised that the ancestors of these people settled in the country at the time when Nagpur was held by their clan, and a second influx may have taken place after the fall of Dhar. According to their own account, they first came to Nagardhan, an older town than Nagpur, and once the headquarters of the locality. One of their legends is that the men who first came had no wives, and were therefore allowed to take widows of other castes into their houses. It seems reasonable to suppose that something of this kind happened, though they probably did not restrict themselves to widows. The existing family names of the caste show that it is of mixed ancestry, but the original Rajput strain is still perfectly apparent in their fair complexions, high foreheads and in many cases grey eyes. The Panwars have still the habit of keeping women of lower castes to a greater degree than the ordinary, and this has been found to be a trait of other castes of mixed origin, and they are sometimes known as Dhakar, a name having the sense of illegitimacy. Though they have lived for centuries among a Marathi-speaking people, the Panwars retain a dialect of their own, the basis of which is Bagheli or eastern Hindi. When the Marathas established themselves at Nagpur in the eighteenth century some of the Panwars took military service under them and accompanied a general of the Bhonsla ruling family on an expedition to Cuttack. In return for this they were rewarded with grants of the waste and forest lands in the valley of the Wainganga river, and here they developed great skill in the construction of tanks and the irrigation of rice land, and are the best agricultural caste in this part of the country. Their customs have many points of interest, and, as is natural, they have abandoned many of the caste observances of the Rajputs. It is to this group of Panwars [390] settled in the Maratha rice country of the Wainganga Valley that the remainder of this article is devoted.

6. Subdivisions

They number about 150,000 persons, and include many village proprietors and substantial cultivators. The quotations already given have shown how this virile clan of Rajputs travelled to the north, south and east from their own country in search of a livelihood. Everywhere they made their mark so that they live in history, but they paid no regard to the purity of their Rajput blood and took to themselves wives from the women of the country as they could get them. The Panwars of the Wainganga Valley have developed into a caste marrying among themselves. They have no subcastes but thirty-six exogamous sections. Some of these have the names of Rajput clans, while others are derived from villages, titles or names of offices, or from other castes. Among the titular names are Chaudhri (headman), Patlia (patel or chief officer of a village) and Sonwania (one who purifies offenders among the Gonds and other tribes). Among the names of other castes are Bopcha or Korku, Bhoyar (a caste of cultivators), Pardhi (hunter), Kohli (a local cultivating caste) and Sahria (from the Saonr tribe). These names indicate how freely they have intermarried. It is noticeable that the Bhoyars and Korkus of Betul both say that their ancestors were Panwars of Dhar, and the occurrence of both names among the Panwars of Balaghat may indicate that these castes also have some Panwar blood. Three names, Rahmat (kind), Turukh or Turk, and Farid (a well-known saint), are of Muhammadan origin, and indicate intermarriage in that quarter.

7. Marriage customs

Girls are usually, but not necessarily, wedded before adolescence. Occasionally a Panwar boy who cannot afford a regular marriage will enter his prospective father-in-law's house and serve him for a year or more, when he will obtain a daughter in marriage. And sometimes a girl will contract a liking for some man or boy of the caste and will go to his house, leaving her home. In such cases the parents accept the accomplished fact, and the couple are married. If the boy's parents refuse their consent they are temporarily put out of caste, and subsequently the neighbours will not pay them the customary visits on the occasions of family joys and griefs. Even if a girl has lived with a man of another caste, as long as she has not borne a child, she may be re-admitted to the community on payment of such penalty as the elders may determine. If her own parents will not take her back, a man of the same _gotra_ or section is appointed as her guardian and she can be married from his house.

The ceremonies of a Panwar marriage are elaborate. Marriage-sheds are erected at the houses both of the bride and bridegroom in accordance with the usual practice, and just before the marriage, parties are given at both houses; the village watchman brings the _toran_ or string of mango-leaves, which is hung round the marriage-shed in the manner of a triumphal arch, and in the evening the party assembles, the men sitting at one side of the shed and the women at the other. Presents of clothes are made to the child who is to be married, and the following song is sung:

The mother of the bride grew angry and went away to the mango
grove.
Come soon, come quickly, Mother, it is the time for giving clothes.
The father of the bridegroom has sent the bride a fold of cloth
from his house,
The fold of it is like the curve of the winnowing-fan, and there
is a bodice decked with coral and pearls.

Before the actual wedding the father of the bridegroom goes to the bride's house and gives her clothes and other presents, and the following is a specimen given by Mr. Muhammad Yusuf of the songs sung on this occasion:

Five years old to-day is Baja Bai the bride;
Send word to the mother of the bridegroom;
Her dress is too short, send for the Koshta, Husband;
The Koshta came and wove a border to the dress.

Afterwards the girl's father goes and makes similar presents to the bridegroom. After many preliminary ceremonies the marriage procession proper sets forth, consisting of men only. Before the boy starts his mother places her breast in his mouth; the maid-servants stand before him with vessels of water, and he puts a pice in each. During the journey songs are sung, of which the following is a specimen:

The linseed and gram are in flower in Chait. [391]
O! the boy bridegroom is going to another country;
O Mother! how may he go to another country?
Make payment before he enters another country;
O Mother! how may he cross the border of another country?
Make payment before he crosses the border of another country;
O Mother! how may he touch another's bower?
Make payment before he touches another's bower;
O Mother! how shall he bathe with strange water?
Make payment before he bathes with strange water;
O Mother! how may he eat another's _banwat_? [392]
Make payment before he eats another's _banwat_;
O Mother! how shall he marry another woman?
He shall wed her holding the little finger of her left hand.

The bridegroom's party are always driven to the wedding in bullock-carts, and when they approach the bride's village her people also come to meet them in carts. All the party then turn and race to the village, and the winner obtains much distinction. The cartmen afterwards go to the bridegroom's father and he has to make them a present of from one to forty rupees. On arriving at the village the bridegroom is carried to Devi's shrine in a man's arms, while four other men hold a canopy over him, and from there to the marriage-shed. He touches a bamboo of this, and a man seated on the top pours turmeric and water over his head. Five men of the groom's party go to the bride's house carrying salt, and here their feet are washed and the _tika_ or mark of anointing is made on their foreheads. Afterwards they carry rice in the same manner and with this is the wedding-rice, coloured yellow with turmeric and known as the Lagun-gath. Before sunset the bridegroom goes to the bride's house for the wedding. Two baskets are hung before Dulha Deo's shrine inside the house, and the couple are seated in these with a cloth between them. The ends of their clothes are knotted, each places the right foot on the left foot of the other and holds the other's ear with the hand. Meanwhile a Brahman has climbed on to the roof of the house, and after saying the names of the bride and bridegroom shouts loudly, '_Ram nawara, Sita nawari, Saodhan_,' or 'Ram, the Bridegroom, and Sita, the Bride, pay heed,' The people inside the house repeat these words and someone beats on a brass plate; the wedding-rice is poured over the heads of the couple, and a quid of betel is placed first in the mouth of one and then of the other. The bridegroom's party dance in the marriage-shed and their feet are washed. Two plough-yokes are brought in and a cloth spread over them, and the couple are seated on them face to face. A string of twisted grass is drawn round their necks and a thread is tied round their marriage-crowns. The bride's dowry is given and her relatives make presents to her. This property is known as _khamora_, and is retained by a wife for her own use, her husband having no control over it. It is customary also in the caste for the parents to supply clothes to a married daughter as long as they live, and during this period a wife will not accept any clothes from her husband. On the following day the maid-servants bring a present of _gulal_ or red powder to the fathers of the bride and bridegroom, who sprinkle it over each other. The bridegroom's father makes them a present of from one to twenty rupees according to his means, and also gives suitable fees to the barber, the washerman, the Barai or betel-leaf seller and the Bhat or bard. The maid-servants then bring vessels of water and throw it over each other in sport. After the evening meal, the party go back, the bride and bridegroom riding in the same cart. As they start the women sing:

Let us go to the basket-maker
And buy a costly pair of fans;
Fans worth a lot of money;
Let us praise the mother of the bride.

8. Widow-marriage

After a few days at her husband's house the bride returns home, and though she pays short visits to his family from time to time, she does not go to live with her husband until she is adolescent, when the usual _pathoni_ or going-away ceremony is performed to celebrate the event. The people repeat a set of verses containing advice which the bride's mother is supposed to give her on this occasion, in which the desire imputed to the caste to make money out of their daughters is satirised. They are no doubt libellous as being a gross exaggeration, but may contain some substratum of truth. The gist of them is as follows: "Girl, if you are my daughter, heed what I say. I will make you many sweetmeats and speak words of wisdom. Always treat your husband better than his parents. Increase your private money (_khamora_) by selling rice and sugar; abuse your sisters-in-law to your husband's mother and become her favourite. Get influence over your husband and make him come with you to live with us. If you cannot persuade him, abandon your modesty and make quarrels in the household. Do not fear the village officers, but go to the houses of the patel [393] and Pandia [394] and ask them to arrange your quarrel."

It is not intended to imply that Panwar women behave in this manner, but the passage is interesting as a sidelight on the joint family system. It concludes by advising the girl, if she cannot detach her husband from his family, to poison him and return as a widow. This last counsel is a gibe at the custom which the caste have of taking large sums of money for a widow on her second marriage. As such a woman is usually adult, and able at once to perform the duties of a wife and to work in the fields, she is highly valued, and her price ranges from Rs. 25 to Rs. 1000. In former times, it is stated, the disposal of widows did not rest with their parents but with the Sendia or headman of the caste. The last of them was Karun Panwar of Tumsar, who was empowered by the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur to act in this manner, and was accustomed to receive an average sum of Rs. 25 for each widow or divorced woman whom he gave away in marriage. His power extended even to the reinstatement of women expelled from the caste, whom he could subsequently make over to any one who would pay for them. At the end of his life he lost his authority among the people by keeping a Dhimar woman as a mistress, and he had no successor. A Panwar widow must not marry again until the expiry of six months after her husband's death. The stool on which a widow sits for her second marriage is afterwards stolen by her husband's friends. After the wedding when she reaches the boundary of his village the axle of her cart is removed, and a new one made of _tendu_ wood is substituted for it. The discarded axle and the shoes worn by the husband at the ceremony are thrown away, and the stolen stool is buried in a field. These things, Mr. Hira Lal points out, are regarded as defiled, because they have been accessories in an unlucky ceremony, that of the marriage of a widow. On this point Dr. Jevons writes [395] that the peculiar characteristic of taboo is this transmissibility of its infection or contagion. In ancient Greece the offerings used for the purification of the murderer became themselves polluted during the process and had to be buried. A similar reasoning applies to the articles employed in the marriage of a widow. The wood of the _tendu_ or ebony tree [396] is chosen for the substituted axle, because it has the valuable property of keeping off spirits and ghosts. When a child is born a plank of this wood is laid along the door of the room to keep the spirits from troubling the mother and the newborn infant. In the same way, no doubt, this wood keeps the ghost of the first husband from entering with the widow into her second husband's village. The reason for the ebony-wood being a spirit-scarer seems to lie in its property of giving out sparks when burnt. "The burning wood gives out showers of sparks, and it is a common amusement to put pieces in a camp fire in order to see the column of sparks ascend." [397] The sparks would have a powerful effect on the primitive mind and probably impart a sacred character to the tree, and as they would scare away wild animals, the property of averting spirits might come to attach to the wood. The Panwars seldom resort to divorce, except in the case of open and flagrant immorality on the part of a wife. "They are not strict," Mr. Low writes, [398] "in the matter of sexual offences within the caste, though they bitterly resent and if able heavily avenge any attempt on the virtue of their women by an outsider. The men of the caste are on the other hand somewhat notorious for the freedom with which they enter into relations with the women of other castes." They not infrequently have Gond and Ahir girls from the families of their farmservants as members of their households.

9. Religion