The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India
Chapter 310 : In 1614 Rana Amar Singh, recognising that further opposition was hopeless, made his su

In 1614 Rana Amar Singh, recognising that further opposition was hopeless, made his submission to the emperor, on the condition that he should never have to present himself in person but might send his two sons in his place. This stipulation being accepted, the heir-apparent Karan Singh proceeded to Ajmer where he was magnanimously treated by Jahangir and shortly afterwards the imperial troops were withdrawn from Chitor. It is the pride of the Udaipur house that it never gave a daughter in marriage to any of the Musalman emperors, and for many years ceased to intermarry with other Rajput families who had formed such alliances. But Amar Singh II. (1698-1710) made a league with the Maharajas of Jodhpur and Jaipur for mutual protection against the Muhammadans; and it was one of the conditions of the compact that the latter chiefs should regain the privilege of marriage with the Udaipur family which had been suspended since they had given daughters in marriage to the emperors. But the Rana unfortunately added a proviso that the son of an Udaipur princess should succeed to the Jodhpur or Jaipur States in preference to any elder son by another mother. The quarrels to which this stipulation gave rise led to the conquest of the country by the Marathas, at whose hands Mewar suffered more cruel devastation than it had ever been subjected to by the Muhammadans. Ruinous war also ensued between Jodhpur and Jaipur for the hand of the famous Udaipur princess Kishen k.u.mari at the time when Rajputana was being devastated by the Marathas and Pindaris; and the quarrel was only settled by the voluntary death of the object of contention, who, after the kinsman sent to slay her had recoiled before her young beauty and innocence, willingly drank the draught of opium four times administered before the fatal result could be produced. [572]

The Maharana of Udaipur is ent.i.tled to a salute of nineteen guns. The Udaipur State has an area of nearly 13,000 square miles and a population of about a million persons. Besides Udaipur three minor states, Partabgarh, Dungarpur and Banswara, are held by members of the Sesodia clan. In the Central Provinces the Sesodias numbered nearly 2000 persons in 1911, being mainly found in the districts of the Nerbudda Division.

Rajput, Solankhi

_Rajput, Solankhi, Solanki, Chalukya._--This clan was one of the Agnikula or fire-born, and are hence considered to have probably been Gurjaras or Gujars. Their original name is said to have been Chaluka, because they were formed in the palm (_chalu_) of the hand. They were not much known in Rajputana, but were very prominent in the Deccan. Here they were generally called Chalukya, though in northern India the name Solankhi is more common. As early as A.D. 350 Pulakesin I. made himself master of the town of Vatapi, the modern Badami In the Bij.a.pur District, and founded a dynasty, which developed into the most powerful kingdom south of the Nerbudda, and lasted for two centuries, when it was overthrown by the Rashtrakutas [573]. Pulakesin II. of this Chalukya dynasty successfully resisted an inroad of the great emperor Harsha Vardhana of Kanauj, who aspired to the conquest of the whole of India. The Rashtrakuta kings governed for two centuries, and in A.D. 973 Taila or Tailapa II., a scion of the old Chalukya stock, restored the family of his ancestors to its former glory, and founded the dynasty known as that of the Chalukyas of Kalyan, which lasted like that which it superseded for nearly two centuries and a quarter, up to about A.D. 1190. In the tenth century apparently another branch of the clan migrated from Rajputana into Gujarat and established a new dynasty there, owing to which Gujarat, which had formerly been known as Lata, obtained its present name [574]. The princ.i.p.al king of this line was Sidh Raj Solankhi, who is well known to tradition. From these Chalukya or Solankhi rulers the Baghel clan arose, which afterwards migrated to Rewah. The Solankhis are found in the United Provinces, and a small number are returned from the Central Provinces, belonging mainly to Hoshangabad and Nimar.

Rajput, Somvansi

_Rajput, Somvansi, Chandravansi._--These two are returned as separate septs, though both names mean 'Descendants of the moon.' Colonel Tod considers Surajvansi and Somvansi, or the descendants of the sun and moon as the first two of the thirty-six royal clans, from which all the others were evolved. But he gives no account of them, nor does it appear that they were regularly recognised clans in Rajputana. It is probable that both Somvansi and Chandravansi, as well as Surajvansi and perhaps Nagvansi (Descendants of the snake) have served as convenient designations for Rajputs of illegitimate birth, or for landholding sections of the cultivating castes and indigenous tribes when they aspired to become Rajputs. Thus the Surajvansis, and Somvansis of different parts of the country might be quite different sets of people. There seems some reason for supposing that the Somvansis of the United Provinces as described by Mr. Crooke are derived from the Bhar tribe; [575] in the Central Provinces a number of Somvansis and Chandravansis are returned from the Feudatory States, and are probably landholders who originally belonged to one of the forest tribes residing in them. I have heard the name Somvansi applied to a boy who belonged to the Baghel clan of Rajputs, but he was of inferior status on account of his mother being a remarried widow, or something of the kind.

Rajput, Surajvansi

_Rajput, Surajvansi._--The Surajvansi (Descendants of the Sun) is recorded as the first of the thirty-six royal clans, but Colonel Tod gives no account of it, and it does not seem to be known to history as a separate clan. Mr. Crooke mentions an early tradition that the Surajvansis migrated from Ajodhia to Gujarat in A.D. 224, but this is scarcely likely to be authentic in view, of the late dates now a.s.signed for the origin of the important Rajput clans. Surajvansi should properly be a generic term denoting any Rajput belonging to a clan of the solar race, and it seems likely that it may at different times have been adopted by Rajputs who were no longer recognised in their own clan, or by families of the cultivating castes or indigenous tribes who aspired to become Rajputs. Thus Mr. Crooke notes that a large section of the Soiris (Savaras or Saonrs) have entirely abandoned their own tribal name and call themselves Surajvansi Rajputs; [576]

and the same thing has probably happened in other cases. In the Central Provinces the Surajvansis belong mainly to Hoshangabad, and here they form a separate caste, marrying among themselves and not with other Rajput clans. Hence they would not be recognised as proper Rajputs, and are probably a promoted group of some cultivating caste.

Rajput, Tomara

_Rajput, Tomara, Tuar, Turtwar_.--This clan is an ancient one, supposed by Colonel Tod to be derived from the Yadavas or lunar race. The name is said to come from _tomar_ a club. [577] The Tomara clan was considered to be a very ancient one, and the great king Vikramaditya, whose reign was the Hindu Golden Age, was held to have been sprung from it. These traditions are, however, now discredited, as well as that of Delhi having been built by a Tomara king, Anang Pal I., in A.D. 733. Mr. V.A. Smith states that Delhi was founded in 993-994, and Anangapala, a Tomara king, built the Red Fort about 1050. In 1052 he removed the celebrated iron pillar, on which the eulogy of Chandragupta Vikramaditya is incised, from its original position, probably at Mathura, and set it up in Delhi as an adjunct to a group of temples from which the Muhammadans afterwards constructed the great mosque. [578] This act apparently led to the tradition that Vikramaditya had been a Tomara, and also to a much longer historical antiquity being ascribed to the clan than it really possessed. The Tomara rule at Delhi only lasted about 150 years, and in the middle of the twelfth century the town was taken by Bisal Deo, the Chauhan chieftain of Ajmer, whose successor, Prithwi Raj, reigned at Delhi, but was defeated and killed by the Muhammadans in A.D. 1192. Subsequently, perhaps in the reign of Ala-ud-Din Khilji, a Tomara dynasty established itself at Gwalior, and one of their kings, Dungara Singh (1425-1454), had executed the celebrated rock-sculptures of Gwalior. [579] In 1518 Gwalior was taken by the Muhammadans, and the last Tomara king reduced to the status of an ordinary jagirdar. The Tomara clan is numerous in the Punjab country near Delhi, where it still possesses high rank, but in the United Provinces it is not so much esteemed. [580] No ruling chief now belongs to this clan. In the Central Provinces the Tomaras or Tunwars belong princ.i.p.ally to the Hoshangabad District The zamindars of Bilaspur, who were originally of the Tawar subcaste of the Kawar tribe, now also claim to be Tomara Rajputs on the strength of the similarity of the name.

Rajput; Yadu

_Rajput; Yadu, Yadava, Yadu-Bhatti, Jadon._ [581]--The Yadus are a well-known historical clan. Colonel Tod says that the Yadu was the most ill.u.s.trious of all the tribes of Ind, and became the patronymic of the descendants of Buddha, progenitor of the lunar (Indu) race. It is not clear, even according to legendary tradition, what, if any, connection the Yadus had with Buddha, but Krishna is held to have been a prince of this tribe and founded Dwarka in Gujarat with them, in which locality he is afterwards supposed to have been killed. Colonel Tod states that the Yadu after the death of Krishna, and their expulsion from Dwarka and Delhi, the last stronghold of their power, retired by Multan across the Indus, founded Ghazni in Afghanistan, and peopled these countries even to Samarcand. Again driven back on the Indus they obtained possession of the Punjab and founded Salbhanpur. Thence expelled they retired across the Sutlej and Gara into the Indian deserts, where they founded Tannote, Derawal and Jaisalmer, the last in A.D. 1157. It has been suggested in the main article on Rajput that the Yadus might have been the Sakas, who invaded India in the second century A.D. This is only a speculation. At a later date a Yadava kingdom existed in the Deccan, with its capital at Deogiri or Daulatabad and its territory lying between that place and Nasik. [582] Mr. Smith states that these Yadava kings were descendants of feudatory n.o.bles of the Chalukya kingdom, which embraced parts of western India and also Gujarat. The Yadu clan can scarcely, however, be a more recent one than the Chalukya, as in that case it would not probably have been credited with having had Krishna as its member. The Yadava dynasty only lasted from A.D. 1150 to 1318, when the last prince of the line, Harapala, stirred up a revolt against the Muhammadans to whom the king, his father-in-law, had submitted, and being defeated, was flayed alive and decapitated. It is noticeable that the Yadu-Bhatti Rajputs of Jaisalmer claim descent from Salivahana, who founded the Saka era in A.D. 78, and it is believed that this era belonged to the Saka dynasty of Gujarat, where, according to the tradition given above, the Yadus also settled. This point is not important, but so far as it goes would favour the identification of the Sakas with the Yadavas.

The Bhatti branch of the Yadus claim descent from Bhati, the grandson of Salivahana. They have no legend of having come from Gujarat, but they had the t.i.tle of Rawal, which is used in Gujarat, and also by the Sesodia clan who came from there. The Bhattis are said to have arrived in Jaisalmer about the middle of the eighth century, Jaisalmer city being founded much later in A.D. 1183. Jaisalmer State, the third in Rajputana, has an area of 16,000 square miles, most of which is desert, and a population of about 100,000 persons. The chief has the t.i.tle of Maharawal and receives a salute of fifteen guns. The Jareja Rajputs of Sind and Cutch are another branch of the Yadus who have largely intermarried with Muhammadans. They now claim descent from Jams.h.i.+d, the Persian hero, and on this account, Colonel Tod states, the t.i.tle of their rulers is Jam. They were formerly much addicted to female infanticide. The name Yadu has in other parts of India been corrupted into Jadon, and the cla.s.s of Jadon Rajputs is fairly numerous in the United Provinces, and in some places is said to have become a caste, its members marrying among themselves. This is also the case in the Central Provinces, where they are known as Jadum, and have been treated under that name in a separate article. The small State of Karauli in Rajputana is held by a Jadon chief.

Rajwar

_Rajwar._ [583]--A low cultivating caste of Bihar and Chota Nagpur, who are probably an offshoot of the Bhuiyas. In 1911 a total of 25,000 Rajwars were returned in the Central Provinces, of whom 22,000 belong to the Sarguja State recently transferred from Bengal. Another 2000 persons are shown in Bilaspur, but these are Mowars, an offshoot of the Rajwars, who have taken to the profession of gardening and have changed their name. They probably rank a little higher than the bulk of the Rajwars. "Traditionally," Colonel Dalton states, "the Rajwars appear to connect themselves with the Bhuiyas; but this is only in Bihar. The Rajwars in Sarguja and the adjoining States are peaceably disposed cultivators, who declare themselves to be fallen Kshatriyas; they do not, however, conform to Hindu customs, and they are skilled in a dance called Chailo, which I believe to be of Dravidian origin. The Rajwars of Bengal admit that they are the descendants of mixed unions between Kurmis and Kols. They are looked upon as very impure by the Hindus, who will not take water from their hands." The Rajwars of Bihar told Buchanan that their ancestor was a certain Ris.h.i.+, who had two sons. From the elder were descended the Rajwars, who became soldiers and obtained their n.o.ble t.i.tle; and from the younger the Musahars, who were so called from their practice of eating rats, which the Rajwars rejected. The Musahars, as shown by Sir H. Risley, are probably Bhuiyas degraded to servitude in Hindu villages, and this story confirms the Bhuiya origin of the Rajwars. In the Central Provinces the Bhuiyas have a subcaste called Rajwar, which further supports this hypothesis, and in the absence of evidence to the contrary it is reasonable to suppose that the Rajwars are an offshoot of the Bhuiyas, as they themselves say, in Bihar. The subst.i.tution of Kols for Bhuiyas in Bengal need not cause much concern in view of the great admixture of blood and confused nomenclature of all the Chota Nagpur tribes. In Bengal, where the Bhuiyas have settled in Hindu villages, and according to the usual lot of the forest tribes who entered the Hindu system have been degraded into the servile and impure caste of Musahars, the Rajwars have shared their fate, and are also looked upon as impure. But in Chota Nagpur the Bhuiyas have their own villages and live apart from the Hindus, and here the Rajwars, like the landholding branches of other forest tribes, claim to be an inferior cla.s.s of Rajputs.

In Sarguja the caste have largely adopted Hindu customs. They abstain from liquor, employ low-cla.s.s Brahmans as priests, and wors.h.i.+p the Hindu deities. When a man wishes to arrange a match for his son he takes a basket of wheat-cakes and proceeding to the house of the girl's father sets them down outside. If the match is acceptable the girl's mother comes and takes the cakes into the house and the betrothal is then considered to be ratified. At the wedding the bridegroom smears vermilion seven times on the parting of the bride's hair, and the bride's younger sister then wipes a little of it off with the end of the cloth. For this service she is paid a rupee by the bridegroom. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. After the birth of a child the mother is given neither food nor water for two whole days; on the third day she gets only boiled water to drink and on the fourth day receives some food. The period of impurity after a birth extends to twelve days. When the navel-string drops it is carefully put away until the next Dasahra, together with the child's hair, which is cut on the sixth day. On the Dasahra festival all the women of the village take them to a tank, where a lotus plant is wors.h.i.+pped and anointed with oil and vermilion, and the hair and navel-string are then buried at its roots. The dead are burned, and the more pious keep the bones with a view to carrying them to the Ganges or some other sacred river. Pending this, the bones are deposited in the cow-house, and a lamp is kept burning in it every night so long as they are there. The Rajwars believe that every man has a soul or Pran, and they think that the soul leaves the body, not only at death, but whenever he is asleep or becomes unconscious owing to injury or illness. Dreams are the adventures of the soul while wandering over the world apart from the body. They think it very unlucky for a man to see his own reflection in water and carefully avoid doing so.

Ramosi

1. General notice

_Ramosi, Ramos.h.i.+._--A criminal tribe of the Bombay Presidency, of which about 150 persons were returned from the Central Provinces and Berar in 1911. They belong to the western tract of the Satpuras adjoining Khandesh. The name is supposed to be a corruption of Ramvansi, meaning 'The descendants of Rama.' They say [584] that when Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, was driven from his kingdom by his step-mother Kaikeyi, he went to the forest land south of the Nerbudda. His brother Bharat, who had been raised to the throne, could not bear to part with Rama, so he followed him to the forest, began to do penance, and made friends with a rough but kindly forest tribe. After Rama's restoration Bharat took two foresters with him to Ajodhia (Oudh) and brought them to the notice of Rama, who appointed them village watchmen and allowed them to take his name. If this is the correct derivation it may be compared with the name of Rawanvansi or Children of Rawan, the opponent of Rama, which is applied to the Gonds of the Central Provinces. The Ramosis appear to be a Hinduised caste derived from the Bhils or Kolis or a mixture of the two tribes. They were formerly a well-known cla.s.s of robbers and dacoits. The princ.i.p.al scenes of their depredations were the western Ghats, and an interesting description of their methods is given by Captain Mackintosh in his account of the tribe. [585]

Some extracts from this are here reproduced.

2. Methods of robbery

They armed themselves chiefly with swords, taking one, two or three matchlocks, or more should they judge it necessary. Several also carried their s.h.i.+elds and a few had merely sticks, which were in general shod with small bars of iron from eight to twelve inches in length, strongly secured by means of rings and somewhat resembling the ancient mace. One of the party carried a small copper or earthen pot or a cocoanut-sh.e.l.l with a supply of _ghi_ or clarified b.u.t.ter in it, to moisten their torches with before they commenced their operations. The Ramosis endeavoured as much as possible to avoid being seen by anybody either when they were proceeding to the object of their attack or returning afterwards to their houses. They therefore travelled during the night-time; and before daylight in the morning they concealed themselves in a jungle or ravine near some water, and slept all day, proceeding in this way for a long distance till they reached the vicinity of the village to be attacked. When they were pursued and much pressed, at times they would throw themselves into a bush or under a p.r.i.c.kly pear plant, coiling themselves up so carefully that the chances were their pursuers would pa.s.s them unnoticed. If they intended to attack a treasure party they would wait at some convenient spot on the road and sally out when it came abreast of them, first girding up their loins and twisting a cloth tightly round their faces, to prevent the features from being recognised. Before entering the village where their dacoity or _durrowa_ was to be perpetrated, torches were made from the turban of one of the party, which was torn into three, five or seven pieces, but never into more, the pieces being then soaked with b.u.t.ter. The same man always supplied the turban and received in exchange the best one taken in the robbery. Those who were unarmed collected bags of stones, and these were thrown at any people who tried to interfere with them during the dacoity. They carried firearms, but avoided using them if possible, as their discharge might summon defenders from a distance. They seldom killed or mutilated their victims, except in a fight, but occasionally travellers were killed after being robbed as a measure of precaution. They retreated with their spoils as rapidly as possible to the nearest forest or hill, and from there, after distributing the booty into bags to make it portable, they marched off in a different direction from that in which they had come. Before reaching their homes one of the party was deputed with an offering of one, two or five rupees to be presented as an offering to their G.o.d Khandoba or the G.o.ddess Bhawani in fulfilment of a vow. All the spoil was then deposited before their Naik or headman, who divided it into equal shares for members of the gang, keeping a double share for himself.

3. Ramosis employed as village watchmen

In order to protect themselves from the depredations of these gangs the villagers adopted a system of hiring a Ramosi as a surety to be responsible for their property, and this man gradually became a Rakhwaldar or village watchman. He received a grant of land rent-free and other perquisites, and also a fee from all travellers and gangs of traders who halted in the village in return for his protection during the night. If a theft or house-breaking occurred in a village, the Ramosi was held responsible to the owner for the value of the property, unless a large gang had been engaged. If he failed to discover the thief he engaged to make the lost property good to the owner within fifteen days or a month unless its value was considerable. If a gang had been engaged, the Ramosi, accompanied by the patel and other village officials and cultivators, proceeded to track them by their footprints. Obtaining a stick he cut it to the exact length of the footprint, or several such if a number of prints could be discovered, and followed the tracks, measuring the footprints, to the boundary of the village. The inhabitants of the adjoining village were then called and were responsible for carrying on the trail through their village. The measures of footprints were handed over to them, and after satisfying themselves that the marks came from outside and extended into their land they took up the trail accompanied by the Ramosi. In this way the gang was tracked from village to village, and if it was run to earth the residents of the villages to which it belonged had to make good the loss. If the tracks were lost owing to the robbers having waded along a stream or got on to rocky ground or into a public road, then the residents of the village in whose borders the line failed were considered responsible for the stolen property. Usually, however, a compromise was made, and they paid half, while the other half was raised from the village in which the theft occurred. If the Ramosi failed to track the thieves out of the village he had to make good the value of the theft, but he was usually a.s.sisted by the village officer. Often, too, the owner had to be contented with half or a quarter of the amount lost as compensation. In the early part of the century the Ramosis of Poona became very troublesome and constantly committed robberies in the houses of Europeans. As a consequence a custom grew up of employing a Ramosi as chaukidar or watchman for guarding the bungalow at night on a salary of seven rupees a month, and soon became general. It was the business of the Ramosi watchman to prevent other Ramosis from robbing the house. Apparently this was the common motive for the custom, prevalent up to recent years, of paying a man solely for the purpose of watching the house at night, and it originated, as in Poona, as a form of insurance and an application of the proverb of setting a thief to catch a thief. The selection of village watchmen from among the low, criminal castes appears to have been made on the same principle.

4. Social customs

The princ.i.p.al deity of the Ramosis is Khandoba, the Maratha G.o.d of war. [586] He is the deified sword, the name being _khanda-aba_ or sword-father. An oath taken on the Bhandar or little bag of turmeric dedicated to Khandoba is held by them most sacred and no Ramosi will break this oath. Every Ramosi has a family G.o.d known as Devak, and persons having the same Devak cannot intermarry. The Devak is usually a tree or a bunch of the leaves of several trees. No one may eat the fruit of or otherwise use the tree which is his Devak. At their weddings the branches of several trees are consecrated as Devaks or guardians of the wedding. A Gurao cuts the leafy branches of the mango, _umar_, [587] _jamun_ [588] and of the _rui_ [589] and _shami_ [590] shrubs and a few stalks of gra.s.s and sets them in Hanuman's temple. From here the bridegroom's parents, after wors.h.i.+pping Hanuman with a betel-leaf and five areca-nuts, take them home and fasten them to the front post of the marriage-shed. When the bridegroom is taken before the family G.o.ds of the bride, he steals one of them in token of his profession, but afterwards restores it in return for a payment of money. In social position the Ramosis rank a little above the Mahars and Mangs, not being impure. They speak Marathi but have also a separate thieves' jargon of their own, of which a vocabulary is given in the account of Captain Mackintosh. When a Ramosi child is seven or eight years old he must steal something. If he is caught and goes to prison the people are delighted, fall at his feet when he comes out and try to obtain him as a husband for their daughters. [591]

It is doubtful whether these practices obtain in the Central Provinces, and as the Ramosis are not usually reckoned here among the notorious criminal tribes they may probably have taken to more honest pursuits.

Rangrez

_Rangrez._--The Muhammadan caste of dyers. The caste is found generally in the northern Districts, and in 1901 its members were included with the Chhipas, from whom, however, they should be distinguished as having a different religion and also because they practise a separate branch of the dyeing industry. The strength of the caste in the Central Provinces does not exceed a few hundred persons. The Rangrez is nominally a Muhammadan of the Sunni sect, but the community forms an endogamous group after the Hindu fas.h.i.+on, marrying only among themselves. Good-cla.s.s Muhammadans will neither intermarry with nor even take food from members of the Rangrez community. In Sohagpur town of Hoshangabad this is divided into two branches, the Kheralawalas or immigrants from Kherala in Malwa and the local Rangrezes. These two groups will take food together but will not intermarry. Kheralawala women commonly wear a skirt like Hindu women and not Muhammadan pyjamas. In Jubbulpore the Rangrez community employ Brahmans to conduct their marriage and other ceremonies. Long a.s.sociation with Hindus has as usual caused the Rangrez to conform to their religious practices and the caste might almost be described as a Hindu community with Muhammadan customs. The bulk of them no doubt were originally converted Hindus, but as their ancestors probably immigrated from northern India their present leaning to that religion would perhaps be not so much an obstinate retention of pre-Islamic ritual as a subsequent lapse following on another change of environment. In northern India Mr. Crooke records them as being governed mainly by Muhammadan rules. There [592] they hold themselves to be the descendants of one Khwaja Bali, a very pious man, about whom the following verse is current:

Khwaja Bali Rangrez Range Khuda ki sez:

'Khwaja Bali dyes the bed of G.o.d.' The name is derived from _rang_, colour, and _rez, rekhtan_, to pour. In Bihar, Sir G. Grierson states [593] the word Rangrez is often confounded with 'Angrezi'

or 'English'; and the English are sometimes nicknamed facetiously Rangrez or 'dyers,' The saying, 'Were I a dyer I would dye my own beard first,' in reference to the Muhammadan custom of dyeing the beard, has the meaning of 'Charity begins at home,' [594]