The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India
Chapter 315 : The more ambitious members of the caste abjure all flesh and liquor, and wear the sacr

The more ambitious members of the caste abjure all flesh and liquor, and wear the sacred thread. These will not take cooked food even from a Brahman. Others do not observe these restrictions. Brahmans will usually take water from Sunars, especially from those who wear the sacred thread. Owing to their a.s.sociation with the sacred metal gold, and the fact that they generally live in towns or large villages, and many of their members are well-to-do, the Sunars occupy a fairly high position, ranking equal with, or above the cultivating castes. But, as already stated, the goldsmith was a village menial in the Maratha villages, and Sir D. Ibbetson thinks that the Jat really considers the Sunar to be distinctly inferior to himself.

6. Manufacture of ornaments

The Sunar makes all kinds of ornaments of gold and silver, being usually supplied with the metal by his customers. He is paid according to the weight of metal used, the rate varying from four annas to two rupees with an average of a rupee per tola weight of metal for gold, and from one to two annas per tola weight of silver. [643]

The lowness of these rates is astonis.h.i.+ng when compared with those charged by European jewellers, being less than 10 per cent on the value of the metal for quite delicate ornaments. The reason is partly that ornaments are widely regarded as a means for the safe keeping of money, and to spend a large sum on the goldsmith's labour would defeat this end, as it would be lost on the reconversion of the ornaments into cash. Articles of elaborate workmans.h.i.+p are also easily injured when worn by women who have to labour in the fields or at home. These considerations have probably r.e.t.a.r.ded the development of the goldsmith's art, except in a few isolated localities where it may have had the patronage of native courts, and they account for the often clumsy form and workmans.h.i.+p of his ornaments. The value set on the products of skilled artisans in early times is nevertheless shown by the statement in M'Crindle's _Ancient India_ that any one who caused an artisan to lose the use of an eye or a hand was put to death. [644] In England the jeweller's profit on his wares is from 33 to 50 per cent or more, in which, of course, allowance is made for the large amount of capital locked up in them and the time they may remain on his hands. But the difference in rates is nevertheless striking, and allowance must be made for it in considering the bad reputation which the Sunar has for mixing alloy with the metal. Gold ornaments are simply hammered or punched into shape or rudely engraved, and are practically never cast or moulded. They are often made hollow from thin plate or leaf, the interior being filled up with lac. Silver ones are commonly cast in Saugor and Jubbulpore, but rarely elsewhere. The Sunar's trade appears now to be fairly prosperous, but during the famines it was greatly depressed and many members of the caste took to other occupations. Many Sunars make small articles of bra.s.s, such as chains, bells and little boxes. Others have become cultivators and drive the plough themselves, a practice which has the effect of spoiling their hands, and also prevents them from giving their sons a proper training. To be a good Sunar the hands must be trained from early youth to acquire the necessary delicacy of touch. The Sunar's son sits all day with his father watching him work and handling the ornaments. Formerly the Sunar never touched a plough. Like the Pekin ivory painter--

From early dawn he works; And all day long, and when night comes the lamp Lights up his studious forehead and thin hands.

7. The sanct.i.ty of gold

As already stated, the Sunar obtains some social distinction from working in gold, which is a very sacred metal with the Hindus. Gold ornaments must not on this account be worn below the waist, as to do so would be considered an indignity to the holy material. Maratha and Khedawal Brahman women will not have ornaments for the head and arms of any baser metal than gold. If they cannot afford gold bracelets they wear only gla.s.s ones. Other castes should, if they can afford it, wear only gold on the head. And at any rate the nose-ring and small earrings in the upper ear should be of gold if worn at all. When a man is at the point of death, a little gold, Ganges water, and a leaf of the _tulsi_ or basil plant are placed in his mouth, so that these sacred articles may accompany him to the other world. So valuable as a means of securing a pure death is the presence of gold in the mouth that some castes have small pieces inserted into a couple of their upper teeth, in order that wherever and whenever they may die, the gold may be present to purify them. [645] A similar idea was prevalent in Europe. _Aurum potabile_ [646] or drinkable gold was a favourite nostrum of the Middle Ages, because gold being perfect should produce perfect health; and patients when _in extremis_ were commonly given water in which gold had been washed. And the belief is referred to by Shakespeare:

Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold: Other, less fine in carat, is more precious, Preserving life in medicine potable. [647]

The metals which are used for currency, gold, silver and copper, are all held sacred by the Hindus, and this is easily explained on the grounds of their intrinsic value and their potency when employed as coin. It may be noted that when the nickel anna coinage was introduced, it was held in some localities that the coins could not be presented at temples as this metal was not sacred.

8. Ornaments. The marriage ornaments

It can scarcely also be doubted in view of this feeling that the wearing of both gold and silver in ornaments is considered to have a protective magical effect, like that attributed to charms and amulets. And the suggestion has been made that this was the object with which all ornaments were originally worn. Professor Robertson Smith remarks: [648] "Jewels, too, such as women wore in the sanctuary, had a sacred character; the Syriac word for an earring is _c' dasha_, 'the holy thing,' and generally speaking, jewels serve as amulets. As such they are mainly worn to protect the chief organs of action (the hands and feet), but especially the orifices of the body, as earrings; nose-rings hanging over the mouth; jewels on the forehead hanging down and protecting the eyes." The precious metals, as has been seen, are usually sacred among primitive people, and when made into ornaments they have the same sanct.i.ty and protective virtue as jewels. The subject has been treated [649] with great fullness of detail by Sir J. Campbell, and the different ornaments worn by Hindu women of the Central Provinces point to the same conclusion. The _bindia_ or head ornament of a Maratha Brahman woman consists of two chains of silver or gold and in the centre an image of a cobra erect. This is Shesh-Nag, the sacred snake, who spreads his hood over all the _lingas_ of Mahadeo and is placed on the woman's head to guard her in the same way. The Kurmis and other castes do not have Shesh-Nag, but instead the centre of the _bindia_ consists of an ornament known as _bija_, which represents the custard-apple, the sacred fruit of Sita. The _nathni_ or nose-ring, which was formerly confined to high-caste women, represents the sun and moon. The large hoop circle is the sun, and underneath in the part below the nose is a small segment, which is the crescent moon and is hidden when the ornament is in wear. On the front side of this are red stones, representing the sun, and on the underside white ones for the moon. The _nathni_ has some mysterious connection with a woman's virtue, and to take off her nose-ring--_nathni utdarna_--signifies to dishonour a woman (Platts). In northern India women wear the nose-ring very large and sometimes cover it with a piece of cloth to guard it from view or keep it in _parda_. It is possible that the practice of Hindu husbands of cutting off the nose of a wife detected in adultery has some similar a.s.sociation, and is partly intended to prevent her from again wearing a nose-ring. The toe ornament of a high-caste woman is called _b.i.+.c.hhia_ and it represents a scorpion (_b.i.+.c.hhu_). A ring on the big toe stands for the scorpion's head, a silver chain across the foot ending in another ring on the little toe is his body, and three rings with high projecting k.n.o.bs on the middle toes are the joints of his tail folded back. It is of course supposed that the ornament protects the feet from scorpion bites. These three ornaments, the _bindia_, the _nathni_ and the _b.i.+.c.hhia_, must form part of the Sohag or wedding dowry of every high-caste Hindu girl in the northern Districts, and she cannot be married without them. But if the family is poor a _laong_ or gold stud to be worn in the nose may be subst.i.tuted for the nose-ring. This stud, as its name indicates, is in the form of a clove, which is sacred food and is eaten on fast-days. Burning cloves are often used to brand children for cold; a fresh one being employed for each mark. A widow may not wear any of these ornaments; she is always impure, being perpetually haunted by the ghost of her dead husband, and they could thus be of no advantage to her; while, on the other hand, her wearing them would probably be considered a kind of sacrilege or pollution of the holy ornaments.

9. Beads and other ornaments

In the Maratha Districts an essential feature of a wedding is the hanging of the _mangal-sutram_ or necklace of black beads round the bride's neck. All beads which s.h.i.+ne and reflect the light are considered to be efficacious in averting the evil eye, and a peculiar virtue, Sir J. Campbell states, attaches to black beads. A woman wears the _mangalsutram_ or marriage string of beads all her life, and considers that her husband's life is to some extent bound up in it. If she breaks the thread she will not say 'my thread is broken,'

but 'my thread has increased'; and she will not let her husband see her until she has got a new thread, as she thinks that to do so would cause his death. The many necklaces of beads worn by the primitive tribes and the strings of blue beads tied round the necks of oxen and ponies have the same end in view. A similar belief was probably partly responsible for the value set on precious stones as ornaments, and especially on diamonds, which sparkle most of all. The pearl is very sacred among the Hindus, and Madrasis put a pearl into the mouth at the time of death instead of gold. Partly at least for this purpose pearls are worn set in a ring of gold in the ear, so that they may be available at need. Coral is also highly esteemed as an amulet, largely because it is supposed to change colour. The coral given to babies to suck may have been intended to render the soft and swollen gums at teething hard like the hard red stone. Another favourite shape for beads of gold is that of grains of rice, rice being a sacred grain. The gold ornament called _kantha_ worn on the neck has carvings of the flowers of the _singara_ or water-nut This is a holy plant, the eating of which on fast-days gives purity. Hence women think that water thrown over the carved flowers of the ornament when bathing will have greater virtue to purify their bodies. Another favourite ornament is the _hamel_ or necklace of rupees. The sanct.i.ty of coined metal would probably be increased by the royal image and superscription and also by its virtue as currency. Mr. Nunn states that gold mohur coins are still made solely for the purpose of ornament, being commonly engraved with the formula of belief of Islam and worn by Muhammadans as a charm. Suspended to the _hamel_ or necklace of rupees in front is a silver pendant in the shape of a betel-leaf, this leaf being very efficacious in magic; and on this is carved either the image of Hanuman, the G.o.d of strength, or a peac.o.c.k's feather as a symbol of Kartikeya, the G.o.d of war. The silver bar necklet known as _hasli_ is intended to resemble the collar-bone. Children carried in their mother's cloth are liable to be jarred and shaken against her body, so that the collar-bone is bruised and becomes painful. It is thought that the wearing of a silver collar-bone will prevent this, just as silver eyes are offered in smallpox to protect the sufferer's eyes and a silver wire to save his throat from being choked. Little children sometimes have round the waist a band of silver beads which is called _bora_; these beads are meant to resemble the smallpox pustules and the _bora_ protects the wearer from smallpox. There are usually 84 beads, this number being lucky among the Hindus. At her wedding a Hindu bride must wear a wristlet of nine little cones of silver like the _kalas_ or pinnacle of a temple. This is called _nau-graha_ or _nau-giri_ and represents the nine planets which are wors.h.i.+pped at weddings--that is, the sun, moon and the five planets, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, which were known to the ancients and gave their names to the days of the week in many of the Aryan languages; while the remaining two are said to have been Rahu and Ketu, the nodes of the moon and the demons which cause eclipses. The _bonhta_ or _bankra_, the rigid circular bangle on the upper arm, is supposed to make a woman's arm stronger by the pressure exercised on the veins and muscles. Circular ornaments worn on the legs similarly strengthen them and prevent a woman from getting stiffness or pins and needles in her legs after long squatting on the ground. The _chutka_, a large silver ring worn by men on the big toe, is believed to attract to itself the ends of all the veins and ligaments from the navel downwards, and hold them all braced in their proper position, thus preventing rupture.

On their feet children and young girls wear the _paijan_ or hollow anklet with tinkling b.a.l.l.s inside. But when a married woman has had two or three children she leaves off the _paijan_ and wears a solid anklet like the _tora_ or _kasa_. It is now said that the reason why girls wear sounding anklets is that their whereabouts may be known and they may be prevented from getting into mischief in dark corners. But the real reason was probably that they served as spirit scarers, which they would do in effect by frightening away snakes, scorpions and noxious insects; for it is clear that the bites of such reptiles and insects, which often escape unseen, must be largely responsible for the vast imaginative fabric of the belief in evil spirits, just as Professor Robertson Smith demonstrates that the _jins_ or _genii_ of Arabia were really wild animals. [650] In India, owing to the early age of marriage and the superst.i.tious maltreatment of women at child-birth, the mortality among girls at this period is very high; and the Hindus, ignorant of the true causes, probably consider them especially susceptible to the attacks of evil spirits.

10. Ear-piercing

Before treating of ear-ornaments it will be convenient to mention briefly the custom of ear-piercing. This is universal among Hindus and Muhammadans, both male and female, and the operation is often performed by the Sunar. The lower Hindu castes and the Gonds consider piercing the ears to be the mark of admission to the caste community. It is done when the child is four or five years old, and till then he or she is not considered to be a member of the caste and may consequently take food from anybody. The Raj-Gonds will not have the ears of their children pierced by any one but a Sunar; and for this they give him _sidha_ or a seer [651] of wheat, a seer of rice and an anna. Hindus employ a Sunar when one is available, but if not, an old man of the family may act. After the piercing a peac.o.c.k's feather or some stalks of gra.s.s or straw are put in to keep the hole open and enlarge it. A Hindu girl has her ear pierced in five places, three being in the upper ear, one in the lobe and one in the small flap over the orifice. Muhammadans make a large number of holes all down the ear and in each of these they place a gold or silver ring, so that the ears are dragged down by the weight. Similarly their women will have ten or fifteen bangles on the legs. The Hindus also have this custom in Bhopal, but if they do it in the Central Provinces they are chaffed with having become Muhammadans. In the upper ear Hindu women have an ornament in the shape of the _genda_ or marigold, a sacred flower which is offered to all the deities. The holes in the upper and middle ear are only large enough to contain a small ring, but that in the lobe is greatly distended among the lower castes. The _tarkhi_ or Gond ear-ornament consists of a gla.s.s plate fixed on to a stem of _ambari_ fibre nearly an inch thick, which pa.s.ses through the lobe. As a consequence the lower rim is a thin pendulous strip of flesh, very liable to get torn. But to have the hole torn open is one of the worst social mishaps which can happen to a woman. She is immediately put out of caste for a long period, and only readmitted after severe penalties, equivalent to those inflicted for getting vermin in a wound. When a woman gets her ear torn she sits weeping in her house and refuses to be comforted. At the ceremony of readmission a Sunar is sometimes called in who st.i.tches up the ear with silver thread. [652] Low-caste Hindu and Gond women often wear a large circular embossed silver ornament over the ear which is known as _dhara_ or s.h.i.+eld and is in the shape of an Indian s.h.i.+eld. This is secured by chains to the hair and apparently affords some support to the lower part of the ear, which it also covers. Its object seems to be to s.h.i.+eld and protect the lobe, which is so vulnerable in a woman, and hence the name. A similar ornament worn in Bengal is known as _dhenri_ and consists of a s.h.i.+eld-shaped disk of gold, worn on the lobe of the ear, sometimes with and sometimes without a pendant. [653]

11. Origin of ear-piercing

The character of the special significance which apparently attaches to the custom of ear-piercing is obscure. Dr. Jevons considers that it is merely a relic of the practice of shedding the blood of different parts of the body as an offering to the deity, and a.n.a.logous to the various methods of self-mutilation, flagellation and gas.h.i.+ng of the flesh, whose common origin is ascribed to the same custom. "To commend themselves and their prayers the Quiches pierced their ears and gashed their arms and offered the sacrifice of their blood to their G.o.ds. The practice of drawing blood from the ears is said by Bastian to be common in the Orient; and Lippert conjectures that the marks left in the ears were valued as visible and permanent indications that the person possessing them was under the protection of the G.o.d with whom the wors.h.i.+pper had united himself by his blood offering. In that case earrings were originally designed, not for ornament, but to keep open and therefore permanently visible the marks of former wors.h.i.+p. The marks or scars left on legs or arms from which blood had been drawn were probably the origin of tattooing, as has occurred to various anthropologists." [654] This explanation, while it may account for the general custom of ear-piercing, does not explain the special guilt imputed by the Hindus to getting the lobe of the ear torn. Apparently the penalty is not imposed for the tearing of the upper part of the ear, and it is not known whether men are held liable as well as women; but as large holes are not made in the upper ear at all, nor by men in the lobe, such cases would very seldom occur. The suggestion may be made as a speculation that the continuous distension of the lobe of the ear by women and the large hole produced is supposed to have some sympathetic effect in opening the womb and making child-birth more easy. The tearing of the ear might then be considered to render, the women incapable of bearing a child, and the penalties attached to it would be sufficiently explained.

12. Ornaments worn as amulets

The above account of the ornaments of a Hindu woman is sufficient to show that her profuse display of them is not to be attributed, as is often supposed, to the mere desire for adornment. Each ornament originally played its part in protecting some limb or feature from various dangers of the seen or unseen world. And though the reasons which led to their adoption have now been to a large extent forgotten and the ornaments are valued for themselves, the shape and character remain to show their real significance. Women as being weaker and less accustomed to mix in society are naturally more superst.i.tious and fearful of the machinations of spirits. And the same argument applies in greater degree to children. The Hindus have probably recognised that children are very delicate and succ.u.mb easily to disease, and they could scarcely fail to have done so when statistics show that about a quarter of all the babies born in India die in the first year of age. But they do not attribute the mortality to its real causes of congenital weakness arising from the immaturity of the parents, insanitary treatment at and after birth, unsuitable food, and the general frailty of the undeveloped organism. They ascribe the loss of their offspring solely to the machinations of jealous deities and evil spirits, and the envy and admiration of other people, especially childless women and witches, who cast the evil eye upon them. And in order to guard against these dangers their bodies are decorated with amulets and ornaments as a means of protection. But the result is quite other than that intended, and the ornaments which are meant to protect the children from the imaginary terrors of the evil eye, in reality merely serve as a whet to illicit cupidity, and expose them a rich, defenceless prey to the violence of the murderer and the thief.

13. Audhia Sunars

The Audhia Sunars usually work in bell-metal, an alloy of copper or tin and pewter. When used for ornaments the proportion of tin or pewter is increased so as to make them of a light colour, resembling silver as far as may be. Women of the higher castes may wear bell-metal ornaments only on their ankles and feet, and Maratha and Khedawal Brahmans may not wear them at all. In consequence of having adopted this derogatory occupation, as it is considered, the Audhia Sunars are looked down on by the rest of the caste. They travel about to the different village markets carrying their wares on ponies; among these, perhaps, the favourite ornament is the _kara_ or curved bar anklets, which the Audhia works on to the purchaser's feet for her, forcing them over the heels with a piece of iron like a shoe-horn. The process takes time and is often painful, the skin being rasped by the iron. The woman is supported by a friend as her foot is held up behind, and is sometimes reduced to cries and tears. High-caste women do not much affect the _kara_ as they object to having their foot grasped by the Sunar. They wear instead a chain anklet which they can work on themselves. The Sunars set precious stones in ornaments, and this is also done by a cla.s.s of persons called Jadia, who do not appear to be a caste. Another body of persons accessory to the trade are the Niarias, who take the ashes and sweepings from the goldsmith's shop, paying a sum of ten or twenty rupees annually for them. [655] They wash away the refuse and separate the grains of gold and silver, which they sell back to the Sunars. Niaria also appears to be an occupational term, and not a caste.

14. The Sunar as money-changer

Formerly Sunars were employed for counting and testing money in the public treasuries, and in this capacity they were designated as Potdar and Saraf or Shroff. Before the introduction of the standard English coinage the money-changer's business was important and profitable, as the rupee varied over different parts of the country exactly as grain measures do now. Thus the Pondicherry rupee was worth 26 annas, while the Gujarat rupee would not fetch 12 1/2 annas in the bazar. In Bengal, [656] at the beginning of the nineteenth century, people who wished to make purchases had first to exchange their rupees for cowries. The Potdar carried his cowries to market in the morning on a bullock, and gave 5760 cowries for a new _kaldar_ or English rupee, while he took 5920 cowries in exchange for a rupee when his customers wanted silver back in the evening to take away with them. The profit on the _kaldar_ rupee was thus one thirty-sixth on the two transactions, while all old rupees, and every kind of rupee but the _kaldar_, paid various rates of exchange or _batta_, according to the will of the money-changers, who made a higher profit on all other kinds of money than the _kaldar_. They therefore resisted the general introduction of these rupees as long as possible, and when this failed they hit on a device of marking the rupees with a stamp, under pretext of ascertaining whether they were true or false; after which the rupee was not exchangeable without paying an additional _batta_, and became as valuable to the money-changers as if it were foreign coin. As justification for their action they pretended to the people that the marks would enable those who had received the rupees to have them changed should any other dealer refuse them, and the necessities of the poor compelled them to agree to any _batta_ or exchange rather than suffer delay. This was apparently the origin of the 'Shroff-marked rupees,' familiar to readers of the _Treasury Manual_; and the line in a Bhat song, 'The English have made current the _kaldar_ (milled) rupee,' is thus seen to be no empty praise.

15. Malpractices of lower-cla.s.s Sumars

As the bulk of the capital of the poorer cla.s.ses is h.o.a.rded in the shape of gold and silver ornaments, these are regularly pledged when ready money is needed, and the Sunar often acts as a p.a.w.nbroker. In this capacity he too often degenerates into a receiver of stolen property, and Mr. Nunn suggested that his proceedings should be supervised by license. Generally, the Sunar is suspected of making an illicit profit by mixing alloy with the metal entrusted to him by his customers, and some bitter sayings are current about him. One of his customs is to filch a little gold from his mother and sister on the last day of Shrawan (July) and make it into a luck-penny. [657]

This has given rise to the saying, 'The Sunar will not respect even his mother's gold'; but the implication appears to be unjust. Another saying is: _'Sona Sunar ka, abharan sansar ka,'_ or, 'The ornament is the customer's, but the gold remains with the Sunar.' [658] Gold is usually melted in the employer's presence, who, to guard against fraud, keeps a small piece of the metal called _chasni_ or _maslo_, that is a sample, and when the ornament is ready sends it with the sample to an a.s.sayer or _Choks.h.i.+_ who, by rubbing them on a touchstone, tells whether the gold in the sample and the ornament is of the same quality. Further, the employer either himself sits near the Sunar while the ornament is being made or sends one of his family to watch. In spite of these precautions the Sunar seldom fails to filch some of the gold while the spy's attention is distracted by the prattling of the parrot, by the coquetting of a handsomely dressed young woman of the family or by some organised mishap in the inner rooms among the women of the house. [659] One of his favourite practices is to subst.i.tute copper for gold in the interior, and this he has the best chance of doing with the marriage ornaments, as many people consider it unlucky to weigh or test the quality of these. [660] The account must, however, be taken to apply only to the small artisans, and well-to-do reputable Sunars would be above such practices.

The goldsmith's industry has. .h.i.therto not been affected to any serious extent by the compet.i.tion of imported goods, and except during periods of agricultural depression the Sunar continues to prosper.

A Persian couplet said by a lover to his mistress is, 'Gold has no scent and in the scent of flowers there is no gold; but thou both art gold and hast scent.'

_Sundi, Sundhi, Sunri or Sondhi._ [661]--The liquor-distilling caste of the Uriya country. The transfer of Sambalpur and the Uriya States to Bihar and Orissa has reduced their strength in the Central Provinces to about 5000, found in the Raipur District and the Bastar and Chota Nagpur Feudatory States. The caste is an important one in Bengal, numbering more than six lakhs of persons and being found in western Bengal and Bihar as well as in Orissa. The word Sundi is derived from the Sanskrit Shaundik, a spirit-seller. The caste has various genealogies of differing degrees of respectability, tracing their origin to cross unions between other castes born of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas. The following story is told of them in Madras. [662] In ancient times a certain Brahman was famous for his magical attainments. The king of the country sent for him one day and asked him to cause the water in a tank to burn. The Brahman saw no way of doing this, and returned homewards uneasy in his mind. On the way he met a distiller who asked him to explain what troubled him. When the Brahman told his story the distiller promised to cause the water to burn on condition that the Brahman gave him his daughter in marriage. This the Brahman agreed to do, and the distiller, after surrept.i.tiously pouring large quant.i.ties of liquor into the tank, set fire to it in the presence of the king. In accordance with the agreement he married the daughter of the Brahman and the pair became the ancestors of the Sundi caste. In confirmation of the story it is alleged that up to the present day the women of the caste maintain the recollection of their Brahman ancestors by refusing to eat fowls or the remains of their husbands' meals. Nor will they take food from the hands of any other caste. Sir H. Risley relates the following stories current about the caste in Bengal, where its status is very low: "According to Hindu ideas, distillers and sellers of strong drink rank among the most degraded castes, and a curious story in the Vaivarta Purana keeps alive the memory of their degradation. It is said that when Sani, the Hindu Saturn, failed to adapt an elephant's head to the mutilated trunk of Ganesh who had been accidentally slain by Siva, Viswakarma, the celestial artificer, was sent for, and by careful dissection and manipulation he fitted the incongruous parts together, and made a man called Kedara Sena from the slices cut off in fas.h.i.+oning his work. This Kedara Sena was ordered to fetch a drink of water for Bhagavati, weary and athirst. Finding on the river's bank a sh.e.l.l full of water he presented it to her, without noticing that a few grains of rice left in it by a parrot had fermented and formed an intoxicating liquid. Bhagavati, as soon as she had drunk, became aware of the fact, and in her anger condemned the offender to the vile and servile occupation of making spirituous liquors for mankind." Like other castes in Sambalpur the Sundis have two subcastes, the Jharua and the Utkal or Uriya, of whom the Jharuas probably immigrated from Orissa at an earlier period and adopted some of the customs of the indigenous tribes; for this reason they are looked down on by the more orthodox Utkalis. The caste say that they belong to the Nagas or snake gotra, because they consider themselves to be descended from Basuki, the serpent with a thousand heads who formed a canopy for Vishnu. They also have _bargas_ or family t.i.tles, but these at present exercise no influence on marriage. The Sundis have in fact outgrown the system of exogamy and regulate their marriages by a table of prohibited degrees in the ordinary manner, the unions of _sapindas_ or persons who observe mourning together at a death being prohibited. The prohibition does not extend to cognatic relations.h.i.+p, but a man must not marry into the family of his paternal aunt. The fact that the old _bargas_ or exogamous groups are still in existence is interesting, and an intermediate step in the process of their abandonment may be recognised in the fact that some of them are subdivided. Thus the Sahu (lord) group has split into the Gaj Sahu (lord of the elephant), Dhavila Sahu (white lord), and Amila Sahu sub-groups, and it need not be doubted that this was a convenient method adopted for splitting up the Sahu group when it became so large as to include persons so distantly connected with each other that the prohibition of marriage between them was obviously ridiculous. As the number of Sundis in the Central Provinces is now insignificant no detailed description of their customs need be given, but one or two interesting points may be noted. Their method of observing the _pitripaksh_ or wors.h.i.+p of ancestors is as follows: A human figure is made of _kusha_ gra.s.s and placed under a miniature straw hut. A lamp is kept burning before it for ten days, and every day a twig for cleaning the teeth is placed before it, and it is supplied with fried rice in the morning and rice, pulse and vegetables in the evening. On the tenth day the priest comes, and after bathing the figure seven times, places boiled rice before it for the last meal, and then sets fire to the hut and burns it, while repeating sacred verses. On the eleventh day after a death, when presents for the use of the deceased are made to a priest as his representative, the priest lies down in the new bed which is given to him, and the members of the family rub his feet and attend on him as if he were the dead man. He is also given a present sufficient to purchase food for him for a year. The Sundis wors.h.i.+p Suradevi or the G.o.ddess of wine, whom they consider as their mother, and they refuse to drink liquor, saying that this would be to enjoy their own mother. They wors.h.i.+p the still and all articles used in distillation at the rice-harvest and when the new mango crop appears. Large numbers of them have taken to cultivation.

Tamera