The tribes and castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, Volume 2 (of 4)

Chapter D (9)

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[Physical appearance of the Gonds.] 4. Of the physical appearance of the Gonds Mr. Hislop writes:—“All are a little below the average size of Europeans, and in complexion darker than the generality of Hindus. Their bodies are well proportioned, but their features are rather ugly. They have a roundish head, distended nostrils, wide mouth, thickish lips, straight, black hair, and scanty beard and moustache. It has been supposed that some of the aborigines of Central India have woolly hair; but this is a mistake. Among the thousands I have seen I have not found one with hair like a Negro. A few, indeed, have curly locks, as a few Britons have; but I have not met with one inhabitant of the forest who exhibited any marked resemblance to the African race. On the contrary, both their hair and features are decidedly Mongolian.” “Their women,” writes Captain Forsyth, [461] “differ among themselves more than do the men of these races. Those of the Gonds are somewhat lighter in colour and less fleshy than the Korkus. But the Gond women of different parts of the country vary greatly in appearance, many of them in the opener parts near the plains being great robust creatures; finer animals by far than the men, and here Hindu blood may be fairly expected. In the interior, again, bevies of Gond women may be seen who are liker monkeys than human beings. The features of all are strongly marked and coarse. The girls occasionally possess such comeliness as attaches to general plumpness and a good-humoured expression of face; but when their short youth is over, all pass at once into a hideous age. Their hard lives, sharing as they do all the labours of the men, except that of hunting, suffice to account for this. They dress decently enough, in a short petticoat, often dyed blue, tucked in between the legs so as to leave them naked to the thigh, and a mantle of white cotton covering the upper part of the body, with a fold thrown over the head. The most eastern section of the Korkus add a boddice, as do some of the Hinduised Gonds. The Gond women have the legs as far as they are suffered to be seen tattooed in a variety of fantastic patterns, done in indigo or gun-powder blue. The Pardhâns are the great artists in this line, and the figures they design are almost the only ornamental art attempted by these tribes. It is done when the girl becomes marriageable; and the traveller will sometimes hear dreadful shrieks issuing from their villages, which will be attributed to some young Gondin being operated upon with the tattooing needle. Like all barbarians, both races deck themselves with an inordinate amount of what they consider ornaments. Quantity rather than quality is aimed at; and both arms and legs are usually loaded with tiers of heavy rings, in silver among the more wealthy, but, rather than not at all, then in brass, iron, or coloured glass. Ear and noserings and bulky necklaces of coins and beads are also common; and their ambrosial locks are intertwined on State occasions with the hair of goats and other animals.”

[Domestic rites—Marriage.] 5. The following account of Gond domestic ceremonies by a writer in the Central Provinces Gazette may be quoted [462], as the book is rare:—“Some of the Gond ceremonies are peculiar. Thus, they have seven different kinds of marriages, some much more binding than others, but all supposed to contain a sufficient quantum of matrimonial sanctity about them. The first and surest is when a Gond wants to marry his daughter, he first looks for a husband among his sister’s children, as it is considered the proper thing for first cousins to marry whenever such an arrangement is possible; though, strange to say, the rule is only thought absolutely binding when the brother’s child happens to be a girl, and the sister’s a boy. Even in the opposite case, however, it is very commonly done, as by so providing for a relation for life, the man is said to have performed a very right and proper act. Another reason is that less expense is entailed in marrying a relation than the daughter of a stranger, who is apt to be more exacting. Among the poorer classes who can afford no money as a dower, the bridegroom serves the bride’s father for periods varying from seven or eight months to three years, or sometimes more, according to arrangements made by the parents. When the children are ten or eleven years old, a committee of the village elders is generally held, and the term of apprenticeship decided; the term of service being usually somewhat longer when the youth is serving his uncle for his cousin, as relations are not supposed to exact so much work from the Lamjina. The youth lives in one of the outhouses, and has to perform all the menial work of the household, both in the house and in the field. During his period of probation he is forbidden to hold any intercourse with the girl.

6. “Another description of marriage is when the woman makes her own match, and declining the husband provided for her by her relatives, runs away with the man of her choice. A case of this sort seldom happens. It is, however, quite recognised among the Gonds that the women have the right to take their own way if they have the courage; and the elders of the village in which the man resides generally endeavour to arrange matters to the satisfaction of both parties. Connected with this is compulsory marriage. Even after the girl has run away from her father’s house, and taken up her residence in the house of the man of her choice, it is quite allowable for the man she has deserted to assert his rights to her person by carrying her off by force; in fact not only is this right allowed to the deserted lover, but any one of the girl’s first cousins may forcibly abduct her and keep her for himself, if he has the power. Once carried off, she is kept in the house of her captor, carefully watched, until she finds it useless to attempt to resist, and gives in. Occasionally where the girl has made what is considered an objectionable match with a poor man, who has few friends, abductions of this sort are successfully carried out; but, as a rule, they are not attempted. The last form is for very poor people, or girls with no relations. In the latter case she selects some man of her acquaintance, and going to his house takes up her abode there. He signifies his acceptance by putting on her arms bangles (chûri) and giving a small feast to the village elders. Sometimes he objects, if the woman is useless or of bad character; but he gets little redress from the elders; and unless he can induce some other man to take her off his hands he is generally supposed to be bound to keep the woman. As, however, the women are usually good labourers, and well worthy of their hire, a man of property seldom raises any objection, and the women, too, are usually sufficiently worldly-wise to choose for their keepers men fairly well-to-do.”

[Widow-marriage.] 7. “Widows are expected to re-marry, and the Gond customs provide for their re-marriage in two ways. The first consists simply in the woman proceeding to the house of the man she has agreed to live with after her husband’s death. The other is where the younger brother marries his elder brother’s widow, which he is expected to do by the custom of the tribe, unless the widow should insist on making some other arrangement for herself. The ceremony in both the cases consists simply of a presentation of bangles by the husband to the wife, and a feast to the village elders. Elder brothers are not allowed to marry the widows of their younger brothers. The only limit to the number of wives a Gond may have is his means of supporting them.

[Death rites.] 8. “Cremation is considered the most honourable mode of disposing of the dead, but being expensive is very seldom resorted to, except in the case of elders of the tribe. The rule is that, if possible, men over fifty should be burned; but as these wild tribes have no means of telling the ages of their friends, it results that all old men are burnt. Women are always buried. Formerly the Gonds used to bury their dead in the houses in which they died, just deep enough to prevent their being dug up again by the dogs; now they have generally some place, set apart as a burial-ground near the village. Their funeral ceremonies are very few; the grave is dug so that the head shall lie to the south and the feet to the north; the idea being that the deceased has gone to the home of the deities, which is supposed to be somewhere in the north; but the Gonds do not appear to have any real theory as regards an after-life, or the immortality of the soul. They seem to consider that man is born to live a certain number of years on the earth, and, having fulfilled his time, to disappear. When the father of a family dies, his spirit is supposed to haunt the house in which he lived until it is laid. The ceremony for this purpose may be gone through apparently at any time after death, from one month to a year and-a-half, or even to two years. During that period the spirit of the deceased is the only object of worship in the house. A share of the family food is set aside for him, and he is supposed to remain in the house and watch over its inmates. After his funeral, when, if the relatives can afford it, they clothe the corpse in a new dress, a little turmeric and a pice is tied up in a cloth, and suspended by the Baiga to one of the beams of the house; there it remains till the time comes to lay the spirit, which is done by the Baiga removing the cloth and offering it, with a portion of the flesh of a goat or a pig, to the god of the village; a feast is given to the relations and elders, and the ceremony is complete.”

[Religion.] 9. In Jhânsi they worship all the ordinary Hindu gods, Mahâdeva, Bhawâni, Râma, Krishna, Mahâbîr, and Hardaul; but their special tribal deity is Gonr Bâba, who is apparently one of the deified worthies of the tribe. They seem to have become completely Hinduised: cremate their dead, throw the ashes into the Ganges or one of its tributaries, and employ the ordinary village Brâhmans in their domestic ceremonies.

10. In their real home the number of their deities seems everywhere to differ. Mr. Hislop says that he could never get any one man to name more than seven. The best known are Dulha Deo, Nârâyan Deo, Sûraj Deo, Mâta, Devi, Bara Deo, Khair Mâta, Thâkur Deo and Gansyâm Deo. Besides these, the Gond peoples the forests in which he lives with spirits of all kinds, most of them vested with the power of inflicting evil, and quite inclined to use their power. To propitiate these he sets up a shrine (pâl) in spots selected either by himself or by his ancestors, and there performs certain rites, generally consisting of small offerings on certain days. These shrines are sometimes merely a bamboo with a piece of rag tied to the end, a heap of stones, or perhaps only a few pieces of rag tied to the branches of a tree. However, the spirit is supposed to have taken up its abode there, and, in consequence, on the occasion of any event of importance happening in the Gond’s family, the spirit has his share of the good things going, in the shape of a little spirit and possibly a fowl sacrificed to him. In Mandla Thâkur Deo is supposed to represent especially the household deity, and to preside over the wellbeing of the house and farmyard; he has no special residence, but has the credit of being omnipresent, and is consequently not represented by any image. In Râmgarh, too, this deity is held in great reverence; but there he is supposed to occupy more than one shape. One village in the Shahpur Ta’aluqa is said to be very highly favoured as one of the residences of their deity. Captain Ward was shown there a few links of a roughly forged chain which the superstition of the people had gifted with the power of voluntary motion; this chain looked very old, and no one could say how long it had been at Jata; it was occasionally found hanging on a ber tree, sometimes on a stone under the tree, at others in the bed of a neighbouring stream. At the time of Captain Ward’s visit it was on a stone under the tree, from which it was said to have descended four days before. Each of these movements is made the occasion for some petty sacrifice, of which the attendant Baiga reaps the benefit, so that it is, of course, his advantage to work on the credulity of the Gonds; he does not appear, however, to abuse his power, as these movements only occur about once in four months; so that the Gonds can hardly complain of being priest-ridden to any extent.

11. The following account of Gansyâm Deo may be compared with what has been elsewhere said about this deity. [463] “Throughout the greater part of Râmgarh, and also in parts of Mandla, Gansyâm Deo is held in great reverence, and about one hundred yards from each village where he is in favour, a small hut is built for him. It is generally of the rudest material, with little attempt at ornamentation. A bamboo, with a red or yellow flag tied to the end, is planted in one corner, an old withered garland or two is hung up, and a few blocks of rough stone, some smeared with vermilion, are strewn about the place, which is thus especially dedicated to Gansyâm Deo. He is considered the protector of the crops, and in the month of Kârttik (November) the whole village assembles at his shrine to worship him: sacrifices of fowls and spirits, or a pig occasionally, according to the size of the village, are offered, and Gansyâm is said to descend on the head of one of the worshippers, who is suddenly seized with a sort of fit, and after staggering about for a little, rushes off into the wildest jungles, where, the popular theory is, if not pursued and brought back, he would inevitably die of starvation, a raving lunatic; for as it is, after being brought back, he does not recover his senses for one or two days. The idea is that one man is thus singled out as a scapegoat for the sins of the rest of the village.”

DISTRIBUTION OF THE GONDS ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891.

===========+========+========+=======+=======
Districts. |Dhuriya.|Jetwant.|Others.|Total.
~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Cawnpur | ... | ... | 7| 7
Bânda | ... | ... | 166| 166
Allahâbâd | 15| ... | 6| 21
Jhânsi | ... | ... | 8| 8
Jâlaun | ... | ... | 10| 10
Lalitpur | ... | ... | 525| 525
Benares | 11,363| 9| 1,407| 12,779
Mirzapur | 8,368| ... | 493| 8,861
Jaunpur | 2,171| ... | ... | 2,171
Ghâzipur | 5,976| 6,407| 1,926| 14,309
Ballia | 1,227| 23,358| 4,200| 28,785
Gorakhpur | 7,431| 38,503| 1,950| 47,884
Azamgarh | 4,585| ... | 4,387| 8,972
Unâo | 2| ... | ... | 2
Bahrâich | ... | 1| 3| 4
+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Total | 41,138| 68,278| 15,088|124,504
===========+========+========+======+========

Goriya, Guriya.—A fishing and cultivating caste of the Eastern Districts, in all respects analogous to the Gonrhi or Gunrhi of Bihâr. [464] They are usually treated as a sub-caste of Mallâh. They correspond closely to the other allied castes in manners and customs; but their women are said to bear an indifferent character—a state of things naturally resulting in a caste the male members of which are compelled by the nature of their occupation to absent themselves from home for long periods. Their tribal gods are the Pânchonpîr. “Some again worship a water god called Koila Bâba, described as an old grey-bearded person, who, as Ganga ji ka beldâr, ‘the navvy of our lady the Ganges’ saps and swallows up whatever opposes the sacred stream. Before casting a new net or starting on a commercial venture, offerings of molasses and seven kinds of grain, kneaded into balls, are offered to him, and at the end of the ceremony one of the balls is placed on the edge of the water, another on the bow of the boat. Another rite common to many, if not to all fisher castes, is the Barwariya or Barahi Pûja, when a subscription is made, and in the absence of a Brâhman a pig is sacrificed in a garden or on a patch of waste land outside a village. Jay Sinh, Amar Sinh, Chand Sinh, Dayâl Sinh, Kewal, Marang Bandi, Goraiya, and a river named Kamalaji, are regularly worshipped. Jay Sinh, who is also a favourite deity of the Tiyar caste, is said to have been a Gonrhi of Ujjain who had a large timber trade in the Sundariban. On one occasion the Râja of the Sundariban imprisoned 700 Gonrhis in consequence of a dispute about the price of wood. Jay Sinh slew the Râja and released the prisoners, and has ever since been honoured with daily worship. Goats, sweetmeats, wheaten cakes, pân supâri and flowers are offered to him at regular intervals, and no Gonrhi will light a pipe or embark on a fishing excursion without first invoking the name of Jay Sinh. Once a year, in the month of Srâvan, a flag is set up in honour of Hanumân on a bamboo pole in the courtyard, and offerings of sweetmeats and fruits are presented to the god. These offerings are received by the Brâhmans who officiate as priests, while the articles of food given to the minor gods are eaten by the members of the caste. The dead are buried, usually on the brink of a river, and the ashes thrown into the stream. In Supal the practice is to burn in a mango grove. Srâddha is performed on the thirteenth day after death.” [465]

Govindpanthi, Gobindpanthi.—A Vaishnava sect whose adherents at the last Census numbered 4,605 persons. It was founded by Govind Dâs, a mendicant buried at Ahrauli, in the Faizâbâd District, in whose honour an annual fair, attended by several thousand worshippers, is held in the month of Aghan. [466]

Gûjar, Gujar. [467]—An important agricultural and pastoral tribe found principally in the Western Districts. They take their name from the Sanskrit Gurjara, the original name of the country now called Gujarât. The current derivation from gâû-charâna “to pasture cattle” cannot be accepted; as a curiosity of folk etymology it may be added that some derive it from the fact that the tribe once took to feeding their cattle on carrots (gâjar). The traditions of the tribe give little information as to their origin or history. By one legend current in the Panjâb they claim descent from a certain Nand Mihr, who is perhaps Nanda, the foster father of Krishna, who was raised to distinction because he slaked the thirst of Alexander the Great with a draught of buffalo milk. They are identified by General Cunningham [468] with the Kushan or Yuchi or Tochari, a tribe of Eastern Tartars. “About a century before Christ their Chief conquered Kâbul and the Peshâwar country; while his son, Vima Kadphises, so well known to the numismatologist, extended his sway over the whole of the Upper Panjâb and the banks of the Jumna as far down as Mathura and the Vindhyas, and his successor, the no less familiar King Kanishka, the first Indo-Scythian Buddhist prince, annexed Kashmîr to the kingdom of the Tochari. These Tochari or Kushan are the Kaspeiræi of Ptolemy; and in the middle of the second century of our era, Kaspeira, Kasyapura or Multân was one of their chief cities. Probably about the beginning of the third century after Christ, the attack of the White Huns recalled the last king of the united Yuchi to the West, and he left his son in charge of an independent Province, whose capital was fixed at Peshâwar; and from that time the Yuchi of Kâbul are known as the Great Yuchi, and those of the Panjâb as the Kator or Little Yuchi. Before the end of the third century a portion of the Gûjars had begun to move southward down the Indus, and were shortly afterwards separated from their northern brethren by another Indo-Scythian wave from the North. In the middle of the fifth century there was a Gûjar kingdom in South-Western Râjputâna, whence they were driven by the Balas into Gujarât of the Bombay Presidency; and about the end of the ninth century, Ala Khân, the Gûjar King of Jammu, ceded the present Gûjardesa, corresponding very nearly with the Gujarât District, to the King of Kashmîr. The town of Gujarât is said to have been built or restored by Ala Khân Gûjar in the time of Akbar.”

2. The present distribution of the Gûjars is thus described by General Cunningham: [469]—“At the present day the Gûjars are found in great numbers in every part of the north-west of India, from the Indus to the Ganges, and from the Hazâra Mountains to the Peninsula of Gujarât. They are specially numerous along the banks of the Upper Jumna near Jagâdri and Buriya, and in the Sahâranpur District, which during the last century was actually called Gujarât. To the east they occupy the petty State of Samptar, in Bundelkhand, and one of the northern districts of Gwâlior, which is still called Gûjargâr. They are found only in small bodies and much scattered throughout Eastern Râjputâna and Gwâlior; but they are more numerous in the Western States, and especially towards Gujarât, where they form a large part of the population. The Râjas of Riwâri to the south of Delhi are Gûjars. In the Southern Panjâb they are thinly scattered, but their numbers increase rapidly towards the North, where they have given their name to several important places, such as Gujrânwâla, in the Rechna Duâb, Gujarât, in the Chaj Duâb, and Gûjar Khân, in the Sindh Sâgar Duâb. They are numerous about Jahlam and Hasan Abdâl, and throughout the Hazâra District; and they are also found in considerable numbers in the Dardu Districts of Chilâs, Kohli, and Palâs, to the east of the Indus, and in the contiguous districts to the east of the river.”

3. As regards their ethnical affinities Mr. Ibbetson writes: [470]—“It has been suggested, and is, I believe, held by many, that Jâts and Gûjars, and perhaps Ahîrs also, are all of one ethnic stock; and this because there is a close connection between them. It may be that they are the same in their far distant origin. But I think they must have entered India at different times or settled in separate parts, and my reason for thinking so is precisely because they eat and smoke together. In the case of Jât and Râjput the reason for differentiation is obvious, the latter being of higher rank than the former. But the social standing of Jâts, Gûjars, and Ahîrs being practically identical, I do not see why they should ever have separated if they were once the same. It is, however, possible that the Jâts were the camel graziers and perhaps husbandmen, the Gûjars the cowherds of the hills, and the Ahîrs the cowherds of the plains. If this be so, they afford a classification by occupation of the yeoman class, which fill up the gap between, and is absolutely continuous with, the similar classification of the castes above them, as Brâhmans, Banyas, and Râjputs, and of the classes below them, as Tarkhâns, Chamârs, and so forth. But we must know more of the early distribution of the tribes before we can have any opinion on the subject. I have noticed in the early historians a connection between the migrations and location of Gûjars and Râjputs, which has struck me as being more than accidental, and Mr. Wilson notes that the Gûjars and the Bargûjar tribe of Râjputs are often found together, and suggests that the latter may be to the Gûjars what the Khânzâdas are to the Meos, and what most Râjputs are to the Jâts.”

4. In these Provinces they do not, as a rule, claim to be Râjputs: but say they are descended from a Râjput father and a woman of some low caste. The Kalsân branch, in Muzaffarnagar, claim descent from Kalsa, a Râjput chief. “The Râwal Gûjars of Pânipat say that they are descended from a Khokhar Râjput (a clan which has been considered the same as the notorious Ghakkar); the Chhokar from a Jâdon; the Chamâyan from a Tomar; the Kulsiyân of Kairâna and the Mâvi from a Chauhân; the Pilwân from a Pundîr; the Adhâna from a Bargûjar, and the Bhatti from Râja Kansal, a Bhatti Râjput from Jaysalmer.” [471] Besides this an examination of the sections shows that it includes the names of many well-known Râjput septs, such as Bâgri, Bais, Chandel, Chauhân, and Tomar.

5. On the whole it seems probable that in the Panjâb and in the Western Districts of these Provinces, at least, the tribe is fairly free from intermixture with the lower races. Mr. Ibbetson describes the Gûjar as “a fine, stalwart fellow of precisely the same physical type as the Jât, and the theory of aboriginal descent which has sometimes been propounded, is to my mind conclusively negatived by his cast of countenance. He is of the same social condition as the Jât, or perhaps slightly inferior; but the two eat and drink together in common without any scruple, and the proverb says:—“The Jât, the Gûjar, the Ahîr, and Gola, are all four hail fellows well met.” Of the Kashmîr Gûjars Mr. Drew [472] writes:—“The race is Aryan, but their countenance cannot be called high Aryan; their forehead is narrow; they want the well-formed brow of the finer races. The lower part of the face is narrow, too; but the nose has always something of the curve as is often seen in Aryan nations. Some I met with had lighter eyes than are common among the other tribes of the country, and generally their beard was scant. In figure they are tall and gaunt, in motion slow and ungainly. They are rather surly in disposition, having that kind of independence which consists in liking to be left alone, and to have as little as possible to do with other races. When, however, one does come in contact with them they are not bad to deal with.” On the other hand, the eastern branch of the tribe, and particularly those who have become Muhammadans, appear to be very much mixed in blood.

[Tribal organisation.] 6. Like many castes which have a preference for seven or one of its multiples, the Gûjars pretend to have eighty-four exogamous gotras or sections. It has been found impossible to procure any consistent or definite list of these. In the appendix to this article three lists are given, two of the Hindu Gûjars of the Upper Duâb, one from Bulandshahr, and the other collated from Sir H. M. Elliot’s account of the tribe; the third of the Musalmân Gûjars of Sultânpur. The Census lists contain no less than 1,178 gotras of the Hindu and 380 of the Muhammadan branch. Of these those locally of most importance are the Batar, Buchar, Chhotkana, Hamar, Kanas, Khatâna, Khûbar, Rathê, and Râwal, in Sahâranpur: the Kalsiyân and Khûbar, of Muzaffarnagar, the Adhâna, Bhatti, Chandela, Dhandhal, Hela, Kasâna, Kharê, Khûbar, Marsi, and Nagari, of Meerut: the Adhâna, Bhadâna, Bhatti, Kasâna, and Nagari, of Bulandshahr: the Tomar, of Mathura: the Dalel and Pomar, of Agra: the Lohâr, of Jâlaun. It will be seen that the names differ almost all through the lists. Most of these names are said to be derived from the titles of tribal leaders or from the villages in which their early settlements were formed. It is now impossible to identify many of these with any degree of certainty. The most important sections in the Upper Duâb are the Bhatti, who claim descent from Bhatti Râjputs, and date their settlement from the time of Prithivi Râja. One of them was given the office of “thief taker” (chormâri) by the Emperor Shâh Alam. The Nagari say that they are the illegitimate descendants of Râja Nâgrâj, fourth in descent from Anikpâl Tomar of Delhi. They date their immigration from Hastinapur in 799 A.D., when they expelled the aboriginal Botiyas, with whom and the Gûjars they intermarried and thus became degraded. The Nadwasiya claim to be Panwâr Râjputs, and are said to have come from Badli in the thirteenth century, and settled on the banks of the Kâlinadi, whence they take their name. [473] It also appears that hypergamy occurs among some of the sections; thus in Sahâranpur the Kalsiyân, Khaprâê, Râthi, and Rausê sections hold the highest rank and intermarry, while the Kalsiyân will not give their daughters to the Chhokar, Diveru, and Dâpu sections. The sections, as already stated, are exogamous; but they have an additional formula of exogamy, which is thus stated by the Sahâranpur branch of the tribe. A girl may be married who is not of the gotra of the paternal or maternal ancestors of the boy within six generations, or who is not shown by her family name to be of the same stock as his father or mother. But this rule seems not to be of general application. In Bulandshahr a man will not marry within his own section or that of his maternal uncle; but the chief rule which seems to be most generally observed is that a man will not marry in his own village and will not give a bride to a family from which within ordinary memory they have received a bride. On the other hand, there seems no doubt that Gûjars are very lax in their matrimonial arrangements. The infanticide reports swarm with instances of those clans, who used to practice this form of crime, supplying the resultant want of wives by the introduction of women of other castes, and even now-a-days when infanticide has practically disappeared, as is believed, among them, they take concubines freely from other castes, and their offspring are in most cases recognised as legitimate. [474]

[Polyandry.] 7. Another social arrangement arising from the same cause is polyandry, of which we have perhaps the only well established instance among the Hindus of the plains. On this subject Râja Lachhman Sinh, who is a most competent authority regarding the Hindus of the Bulandshahr District, has kindly furnished the following note:—“I was assured on the spot that in almost every Gûjar village in the vicinity of the Jumna, in the Bulandshahr District, polyandry was a fact. The custom was mainly due to the scarcity of women in the tribe, and this scarcity was the result of female infanticide, which several sections of the caste practised very largely before the passing of the Infanticide Act of 1870. Polyandry was not recognised as an acknowledged or legal custom; but if adopted in a village the neighbours made no objection to it, nor was it considered a serious scandal. It was to the benefit of the married brother and his wife that all the brothers should live together, and that the joint earnings should be enjoyed by the single wife and her children. It was through this feeling of self-interest that the wife and her real husband permitted the other brothers to share her favours. The custom prevailed only among the poorer families, the male members of which found it difficult to get married in consequence of the scarcity of girls in the caste, and also from the natural desire of parents to marry their daughters to as affluent persons as possible. Brothers only and not other relations or strangers were allowed to be the joint husbands. The wife was formally married to one of the brothers, usually to the eldest, if he were not too old, and her children were known as his children only, though he as well as the other brothers knew that she was at the disposal of all of them. Now as the Infanticide Act has put a stop to the murder of infant girls the scarcity of women is no longer felt, the custom of polyandry is dying out, and will soon be a thing of the past. While making these enquiries I was struck with the fact that polyandry did not, as might have been expected to be the case, affect the child-bearing powers of the women who practised it, that is to say, these women gave birth to as many children as those who had but a single husband. I questioned my informants on this subject, and was informed that the visits of the brothers were not so frequent as to produce any effect of this kind.” [475]

[Marriage.] 8. Girls are allowed no freedom before marriage, and an unmarried girl detected in immorality is expelled from the community. It is only if her lover be a member of the tribe that she can be restored and remarried in the tribe if her parents feed the clansmen. Marriage usually takes place between the age of nine and sixteen. A wife may procure a separation if her husband be impotent, and he can put her away for infidelity proved to the satisfaction of the brethren. Widow-marriage and the levirate under the usual restriction are permitted. Betrothal consists in the acceptance of a sum of money in the presence of the brethren, and then the girl’s barber, who acts as envoy, makes a knot in the boy’s sheet, which clenches the engagement. The marriage is of the usual respectable form, and the binding part of the ceremony is the giving away of the bride (kanyâdân), and the usual procession of the pair (bhanwari) round the marriage shed.

[Birth.] 9. There are no ceremonies during pregnancy except an occasional vow to do some act if the delivery be easy. The mother is secluded for ten days, but is not allowed to cook or enter the cooking room for thirty days more. If the first child be a boy the women of the clan assemble daily and sing songs of rejoicing as long as the seclusion of the mother lasts. The family priest offers some dûb grass to the father as a sign of congratulation, and receives a present in return. On the third day the bed of the mother is moved with a rite known as “the coming out” (bâhar nikalna). On the tenth day the confinement room is purified by being plastered with cowdung, and Ganges water is sprinkled on the clothes and utensils of the household. A Brâhman is called in, who recites some verses and does a fire sacrifice (hom), casts the horoscope of the child, after which some Brâhmans are fed.

[Death.] 10. Gûjars cremate their dead, and all the rites are of normal type. They perform the srâddha, and some even go on pilgrimages to Gaya for that purpose.

[Religion.] 11. In religion they appear to be usually Saivas or Sâktas, and are particularly careful in the worship of Sîtala Bhawâni, the small-pox goddess. Among minor gods they worship Châmar, but their real tribal worship is that of Pyârêji [476] and Bâba Sabha Râm. The temple of Pyârêji is at Randewa, the parent (thîka) village of the Dâpu Gûjars, equidistant between Nakur and Ambahta, in the Sahâranpur District. His father, Râmji Padârath, born in Sambat 1545, at Durjanpur, in Pargana Burhâna, of the Muzaffarnagar District, disappeared suddenly after his birth. The consternation of the infant’s father, Sajan, a rope-seller (bâdhfarosh) was, as may be imagined, great. In six days he mysteriously reappeared. After this he was put to herd cattle. One day the herd strayed into a sugarcane field, and the owner made a complaint. Before the official sent to make an investigation could reach the spot, the crop was miraculously restored. The lad then gained many disciples, and he married a daughter of Bhawâni Dâs, rope-seller of Khudi-Shikârpur. Their son was Raghu Nâth, and his son, the famous Pyârêji. About this time there was a feud between the Gûjars and Brâhmans of Sadarpur, in the course of which the Gûjars, having invited the Brâhmans to a feast, treacherously murdered several of them. Their ghosts avenged themselves in the form of terrible Râkshasas, and the Gûjars were in such evil plight that hearing of the fame of Pyârêji, they invited him to take them under his protection. He expelled the demons, and Sadarpur regained its former prosperity, so that its name was changed to Annadeva, “lord of grain,” of which Randeva is said to be a corruption. Pyârêji died there, and prayers are said and offerings made before his cenotaph. His son, Lâlji, having no male issue bequeathed everything to his wife. Jada Bairâgi managed her affairs, and the people elected one of his disciples, Hargovind, to succeed him. Ever since the appointment has been in the hands of the people of the Bâdhfarosh clan, descended from Madâri, brother of Pyârêji, and the brothers of his son’s widow. They own one-third of the village; the Mahants two-thirds. The Saint’s followers are Vaishnavas, and wear black necklaces. His holiday is on the sixth of the dark fortnight of Chait. Bâba Sabha Râm, another tribal worthy, has a shrine on the banks of the Jumna, in the Ambâla District, where the Gûjars make occasional pilgrimages.

[Social status and occupation.] 12. The Gûjars as a tribe have always been noted for their turbulence and habit of cattle-stealing. Bâbar [477] in his Memoirs describes how the commander of the rear guard captured a few Gûjar ruffians who followed the camp, decapitated them and sent their heads to the Emperor. The Gûjars of Pâli and Pâhal became exceedingly audacious while Shîr Shâh was fortifying Delhi, so he marched to the Hills and expelled them so that “not a vestige of their habitations was left.” [478] Jahângîr [479] remarks that the Gûjars live chiefly on milk and curds and seldom cultivate land; and Bâbar [480] says:—“Every time I entered Hindustân the Jâts and Gûjars have regularly poured down in prodigious numbers from the Hills and wilds to carry off oxen and buffaloes. These were the wretches that really inflicted the chief hardships and were guilty of the chief oppression in the country.” They maintained their old reputation in the Mutiny when they perpetrated numerous outrages and seriously impeded the operations of the British Army before Delhi. According to the current wisdom of the country side he is an undesirable neighbour—

Kutta billi do; Gûjar Rânghar do,
Yê char na ho to khulê kiwâré so.

“The dog and the cat, the Gûjar and the Rânghar, if these four were out of the world a man might sleep with his doors open.”

Yâr Dom ne kîna Gûjar,
Chura chura ghar kardiya ûjar.

“When the Dom made friends with the Gûjar he was robbed of house and home.”

The Gûjar though in popular estimation very closely connected with the Jât is yet much inferior to him in every way. The proverb runs,—

Huqqa, sukka, hurkani, Gûjar aur Jât,
In men atak kaha, Jagannâth ka bhât.

“Pipe, tobacco, courtesan, the Gûjar and the Jât are all one like the rice of Jagannâth’s temple which all castes may eat together.”

The Gûjar is in fact more a man of flocks and herds than the Jât, who is one of the most industrious and skilled cultivators in the province. They will drink spirits and eat mutton, pork, and fowls. They can in most places eat, drink, and smoke with Ahîrs and Jâts. In Bhartpur the Kharê Gûjars are inferior to the Laur, being principally engaged in making butter and ghi, which their women sell, and which is looked on by the others as derogatory. They have a curious custom of making a cow of cowdung, covering it with cotton and going through the process of killing it—a custom which seems to show that the reverence for the cow which they now profess may be of comparatively modern growth. [481]

[Musalmân Gûjars.] 18. The Musalmân Gûjars are most numerous in Oudh and the Meerut Division. They were apparently converted to Islâm at various times; but their tradition in Oudh attributes this to the compulsion of Timur when he attacked Delhi and converted all the people in the neighbourhood by force. Some of them still maintain their Hindu sections and regulate their marriages by them as their Hindu brethren do; but in some places this is being replaced by the Muhammadan law of prohibited degrees. They are mostly Sunnis, and Sunni will not intermarry with Shiah families. In spite of their conversion they retain a number of their old tribal practices. When the bride arrives at the house of her husband her mother-in-law does the wave ceremony (parachhan) over her head to scare evil spirits, and then takes her into the household chapel (deoghar), where she worships the guardian deities of the family, for whom they still retain respect. After this the husband’s mother is allowed to see the face of the bride for the first time, and gives her a present. Widows marry by the nikâh rite, and the levirate is allowed. Some families retain the rule that the elder brother cannot marry the widow of his younger brother, but this is violated by some of the tribe in Oudh.

14. When a baby is born the Chamârin is called in and bathes the child in a broken earthen pot (khapra): in this the father puts two pice (khaprê ka taka), which are the fee of the midwife. Then the Pandit is asked to fix a lucky time for the first bathing (nahân) of the mother, and he again has to fix a time, generally on the twelfth day, when she leaves her room. When a boy is four or five years of age he is circumcised in the usual way.

15. Betrothal is done on a lucky day fixed by the Pandit, and the only rite is that the fathers exchange cups of spirits. When the procession arrives at the house of the bride the usual door rite (duâr ka châr) is performed, and after the document fixing the dower (mahr) payable on divorce is drawn up, the Qâzi reads the nikâh in the ordinary way.

16. They bury their dead. When the burial is over they make a fire offering (agyâri) by burning incense in the name of the dead, and after waiting a short time they upset a pitcher of water near the grave.

17. They visit the shrine of Ghâzi Miyân at Bahrâich, and offer there sweet cakes (malîda). They also venerate various local saints and martyrs, such as Alâ-ud-dîn Shahîd, Madâr Shâh, and Buddhi Chandra Bâba. They employ Sarwariya and Sanâdh Brâhmans to give them omens and propitiate the family gods. They so far observe the Holi and Nâgpanchami festivals that on those days they do not work. On Fridays they make offerings of food to their deceased ancestors, and when a death occurs in their family they feed beggars in the hope that the food will through them reach the dead man in the world of the dead.

18. They observe the ordinary Muhammadan rules about food, and will eat with any Musalmân except a Dhobi, Dhuniya, or Mehtar.

GÛJAR SECTIONS.

DISTRIBUTION OF GÛJARS ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891.

===========================================
Districts. |Hindus.|Muhammadans.| Total.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Dehra Dûn | 527| 439 | 966
Sahâranpur | 57,053| 18,454 | 75,507
Muzaffarnagar | 27,856| 13,239 | 41,065
Meerut | 69,387| 65 | 69,452
Bulandshahr | 46,632| ... | 46,632
Aligarh | 11,397| 11 | 11,408
Mathura | 7,430| 23 | 7,453
Agra | 13,238| 1 | 13,239
Farrukhâbâd | 83| 28 | 111
Mainpuri | 111| ... | 111
Etâwah | 3,113| ... | 3,113
Etah | 9| 22 | 31
Bareilly | 7,361| ... | 7,361
Bijnor | 6,265| 360 | 6,625
Budâun | 2,821| 38 | 2,859
Morâdâbâd | 11,499| 339 | 11,838
Shâhjahânpur | 3,255| ... | 3,255
Pilibhît | 3,460| ... | 3,460
Cawnpur | 278| 10 | 288
Fatehpur | 2| ... | 2
Bânda | 135| ... | 135
Hamîrpur | 12| ... | 12
Allahâbâd | 39| 55 | 94
Jhânsi | 747| 4 | 751
Jâlaun | 5,696| 8 | 5,704
Lalitpur | 229| ... | 229
Benares | ... | 37 | 37
Mirzapur | 368| ... | 368
Jaunpur | ... | 41 | 41
Ghâzipur | ... | 2 | 2
Gorakhpur | 24| 2,248 | 2,272
Basti | ... | 705 | 705
Azamgarh | 2| 675 | 677
Garhwâl | ... | 145 | 145
Tarâi | 973| 22 | 995
Lucknow | 7| 280 | 287
Unâo | ... | 10 | 10
Râê Bareli | ... | 11,959 | 11,959
Sîtapur | 1| ... | 1
Hardoi | 110| ... | 110
Faizâbâd | ... | 229 | 229
Bahrâich | 23| 1,884 | 1,907
Sultânpur | ... | 8,108 | 8,108
Partâbgarh | ... | 344 | 344
Bârabanki | ... | 4,639 | 4,639
+~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~
Total |280,113| 64,424 |344,537
==============+=======+============+========

Gujarâti.—A sub-caste of Banyas who take their name from their place of origin, Gujarât. There are a large number of them in Bombay, where they bear a poor reputation. They are usually Jainas, and much opposed to the killing of animals. Mr. Sinclair [482] describes them—“The males are usually gross in face and the women featureless and clumsy.” Their chief settlement in these Provinces is at Benares, where they are generally Vallabhachâryas. They are keen, perhaps excessively keen, men of business, and strongly inclined to a fanatical observance of their creed.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE GUJARÂTI BANYAS ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891.

Gujarâti.—A territorial division of Brâhmans, those of Gurjarâshtra or Gujarât. Of the Gurjara Brâhmans Dr. Wilson says [483]—“In the general classification of the Brâhmans usually current the Gurjara Brâhmans are said to belong to the Pancha Dravida, though the greater portion of Gujarât lies to the north of the River Narmada and the Vindhya range. An examination of them in detail shows, however, that not a few of their castes belong to the Pancha Gauda, while some of them have been so long isolated from the other Brâhmanical fraternities that they have lost sight altogether of their former connections. They are generally estimated at eighty-four in number.”

[The Bombay Gujarâti Brâhmans.] 2. To quote the best account of this class of Brâhmans in their native home [484]—“In Sholapur the Gujarâti Brâhmans are divided into Audich Nâgar, and Srimali. The names of their family stocks are Bharadvâja, Kapila, and Vasishtha, and persons belonging to the same family stock cannot intermarry. Their surnames are Achârya, Bhat, Pandya, Râul, Thâkur, and Vyâs; and families bearing the same surname can intermarry provided their family stock or gotra is different both on the father’s and on the mother’s sides. They are generally fair, with regular features, and neither very strong nor tall. The men wear the moustache, whiskers and beard. The topknot covers three-fourths of the head, and the hair is black and sometimes curly. The women are fairer than the men, with delicate features, oval face, and small hands and feet.

3. “Their home tongue is Gujarâti, but out-of-doors they speak Hindustâni or Marâthi mixed with Gujarâti. They do not own houses, but live in houses of the middle sort, one story high with mud and stone walls and flat roofs. Their house goods consist of a wooden box or two, one or two cotton bags, a carpet, some pieces of sack-cloth, woollen waistcloths, and a few metal vessels. They keep neither servants nor domestic animals. They are vegetarians, and their staple food is rice, wheat-bread, pulse, butter, sugar or molasses. Their favourite spices are black pepper, cloves, and cinnamon. They generally eat once in the afternoon. They avoid onions, garlic, and masûr pulse, and use no intoxicating drinks. Many drink hemp water at midday and in the afternoon, but eat opium often twice a day—in the morning after bathing and in the afternoon. They neither chew nor smoke tobacco.

3. “The men dress in an irregular, carelessly folded turban, with the end left dangling a foot or a foot and-a-half from the head. It is shorter and not half so broad as the Deccan turban, and is called batti or “the lamp,” because if twisted it would be no thicker than an ordinary lampwick. They wear a fine, white coat reaching to the knees, with creases at the waist; the waistcloth, which is twelve feet long, is worn doubled as Kunbis wear it; the shoulder-cloth is an old waistcloth doubled to make it look short; and their shoes are not double-toed like the Deccan shoes, and have a top to the heel. They generally wear a rudrâksha rosary round their neck. Their women wear the hair in a braid, which they afterwards either twist into a knot, or leave hanging down the waist. They do not wear false hair, or deck their heads either with ornaments or flowers. Their dress includes a petticoat or a short robe, whose skirt they do not pass between the feet; they draw a cloak (orhni) over the head, and wear a short-sleeved, open-backed boddice. The robe is twelve feet long, or only half as long as a Deccan woman’s robe. They sometimes buy a Deccan robe, cut it in two and wear the cut end inside, and the bordered or ornamental end outside, drawn from the left over the head, leaving the left arm bare. The left arm is loaded with ornaments, while the right has no ornaments. Their ornaments are worth Rs. 200–1,000, or more.

4. “These Gujarâti Brâhmans are extremely careful and frugal; they are neither neat nor clean, but sober, thrifty and orderly. They are beggars, astrologers, family priests, and cooks. They are well paid by their Banya patrons, and are free from debt, and generally carry back considerable sums to their native country. They are a religious people. Their family deities are Amba Bâi and Bâlaji, and they worship all Brâhman gods and goddesses, and keep all fasts and festivals. Their priests belong to their own caste, and they go on pilgrimage to Benares, Nâsik, Pândharpur, and Tuljapur. They believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. They are bound together by a strong caste feeling, and settle social disputes at meetings of caste men, and punish breaches of caste rules by fines varying from one to fifty rupees, which are spent on sweetmeats or in the repairs of their temples. They send their boys to school, but do not keep them long there. They take to no new pursuits, and are in easy circumstances.”

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The tribes and castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, Volume 2 (of 4)Chapter D (9)

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