The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India
Chapter 242 : 11. Social rules.Polygamy is permitted but is seldom resorted to, except for the sake

11. Social rules.

Polygamy is permitted but is seldom resorted to, except for the sake of offspring. Neither widow-marriage nor divorce are recognised, and either a girl or married woman is expelled from the caste if detected in a liaison. A man may keep a woman of another caste if he does not eat from her hand nor permit her to eat in the chauk or purified place where he and his family take their meals. The practice of keeping women was formerly common but has now been largely suppressed. Women of all castes were kept except Brahmans and Kayasths. Illegitimate children were known as Dogle or Surait and called Kayasths, ranking as an inferior group of the caste. And it is not unlikely that in the past the descendants of such irregular unions have been admitted to the Dusre or lower branch of the different subcastes.

12. Birth customs.

During the seventh month of a woman's pregnancy a dinner is given to the caste-fellows and songs are sung. After this occasion the woman must not go outside her own village, nor can she go to draw water from a well or to bathe in a tank. She can only go into the street or to another house in her own village.

On the sixth day after a birth a dinner is given to the caste and songs are sung. The women bring small silver coins or rupees and place them in the mother's lap. The occasion of the first appearance of the signs of maturity in a girl is not observed at all if she is in her father's house. But if she has gone to her father-in-law's house, she is dressed in new clothes, her hair after being washed is tied up, and she is seated in the chauk or purified s.p.a.ce, while the women come and sing songs.

13. Religion.

The Kayasths venerate the ordinary Hindu deities. They wors.h.i.+p Chitragupta, their divine ancestor, at weddings and at the Holi and Diwali festivals. Twice a year they venerate the pen and ink, the implements of their profession, to which they owe their great success. The patwaris in Hoshangabad formerly received small fees, known as diwat puja, from the cultivators for wors.h.i.+pping the ink-bottle on their behalf, presumably owing to the idea that, if neglected, it might make a malicious mistake in the record of their rights.

14. Social customs.

The dead are burnt, and the proper offerings are made on the anniversaries, according to the prescribed Hindu ritual. Kayasth names usually end in Prasad, Singh, Baksh, Sewak, and Lala in the Central Provinces. Lala, which is a term of endearment, is often employed as a synonym for the caste. Dada or uncle is a respectful term of address for Kayasths. Two names are usually given to a boy, one for ceremonial and the other for ordinary use.

The Kayasths will take food cooked with water from Brahmans, and that cooked without water (pakki) from Rajputs and Banias. Some Hindustani Brahmans, as well as Khatris and certain cla.s.ses of Banias, will take pakki food from Kayasths. Kayasths of different subcastes will sometimes also take it from each other. They will give the huqqa with the reed in to members of their own subcaste, and without the reed to any Kayasth. The caste eat the flesh of goats, sheep, fish, and birds. They were formerly somewhat notorious for drinking freely, but a great reform has been effected in this respect by the community itself through the agency of their caste conference, and many are now total abstainers.

15. Occupation.

The occupations of the Kayasths have been treated in discussing the origin of the caste. They set the greatest store by their profession of writing and say that the son of a Kayasth should be either literate or dead. The following is the definition of a Lekhak or writer, a term said to be used for the Kayasths in Puranic literature:

"In all courts of justice he who is acquainted with the languages of all countries and conversant with all the Shastras, who can arrange his letters in writing in even and parallel lines, who is possessed of presence of mind, who knows the art of how and what to speak in order to carry out an object in view, who is well versed in all the Shastras, who can express much thought in short and pithy sentences, who is apt to understand the mind of one when one begins to speak, who knows the different divisions of countries and of time, [462]

who is not a slave to his pa.s.sions, and who is faithful to the king deserves the name and rank of a Lekhak or writer." [463]

Kewat

1. General notice.

Kewat, Khewat, Kaibartta. [464]--A caste of fishermen, boatmen, grain-parchers, and cultivators, chiefly found in the Chhattisgarh Districts of Drug, Raipur, and Bilaspur. They numbered 170,000 persons in 1911. The Kewats or Kaibarttas, as they are called in Bengal, are the modern representatives of the Kaivartas, a caste mentioned in Hindu cla.s.sical literature. Sir H. Risley explains the origin of the name as follows: [465] "Concerning the origin of the name Kaibartta there has been considerable difference of opinion. Some derive it from ka, water, and vartta, livelihood; but La.s.sen says that the use of ka in this sense is extremely unusual in early Sanskrit, and that the true derivation is Kivarta, a corruption of Kimvarta, meaning a person following a low or degrading occupation. This, he adds, would be in keeping with the pedigree a.s.signed to the caste in Manu, where the Kaivarta, also known as Margava or Dasa, is said to have been begotten by a Nishada father and an Ayogavi mother, and to subsist by his labour in boats. On the other hand, the Brahma-Vaivarta Purana gives the Kaibartta a Kshatriya father and a Vaishya mother, a far more distinguished parentage; for the Ayogavi having been born from a Sudra father and a Vaishya mother is cla.s.sed as pratiloma, begotten against the hair, or in the inverse order of the precedence of the castes." The Kewats are a mixed caste. Mr. Crooke says that they merge on one side into the Mallahs and on the other into the Binds. In the Central Provinces their two princ.i.p.al subdivisions are the Laria and Uriya, or the residents of the Chhattisgarh and Sambalpur plains respectively. The Larias are further split up into the Larias proper, the Kosbonwas, who grow kosa or tasar silk coc.o.o.ns, and the Binjhwars and Dhuris (grain-parchers). The Binjhwars are a Hinduised group of the Baiga tribe, and in Bhandara they have become a separate Hindu caste, dropping the first letter of the name, and being known as Injhwar. The Binjhwar Kewats are a group of the same nature. The Dhuris are grain-parchers, and there is a separate Dhuri caste; but as grain-parching is also a traditional occupation of the Kewats, the Dhuris may be an offshoot from them. The Kewats are so closely connected with the Dhimars that it is difficult to make any distinction; in Chhattisgarh it is said that the Dhimars will not act as ferrymen, while the Kewats will not grow or sell singara or water-nut. The Dhimars wors.h.i.+p their fis.h.i.+ng-nets on the Akti day, which the Kewats will not do. Both the Kewats and Dhimars are almost certainly derived from the primitive tribes. The Kewats say that formerly the Hindus would not take water from them; but on one occasion during his exile Rama came to them and asked them to ferry him across a river; before doing so they washed his feet and drank the water, and since that time the Hindus have considered them pure and take water from their hands. This story has no doubt been invented to explain the fact that Brahmans will take water from the non-Aryan Kewats, the custom having in reality been adopted as a convenience on account of their employment as palanquin-bearers and indoor servants. But in Saugor, where they are not employed as servants, and also grow san-hemp, their position is distinctly lower and no high caste will take water from them.

2. Exogamous divisions and marriage.

The caste have also a number of exogamous groups, generally named after plants or animals, or bearing some nickname given to the reputed founder. Instances of the first cla.s.s are Tuma, a gourd, Karsayal, a deer, Bhalwa, a bear, Ghughu, an owl, and so on. Members of such a sept abstain from injuring the animal after which the sept is named or eating its flesh; those of the Tuma sept wors.h.i.+p a gourd with offerings of milk and a cocoanut at the Holi festival. Instances of t.i.tular names are Garhtod, one who destroyed a fort, Jhagarha quarrelsome, Dehri priest, Kala black, and so on. One sept is named Rawat, its founder having probably belonged to the grazier caste. Members of this sept must not visit the temple of Mahadeo at Rajim during the annual fair, but give no explanation of the prohibition. Others are the Ahira, also from the Ahir (herdsman) caste; the Rautele, which is the name of a subdivision of Kols and other tribes; and the Sonwani or 'gold water' sept, which is often found among the primitive tribes. In some localities these three have now developed into separate subcastes, marrying among themselves; and if any of their members become Kabirpanthis, the others refuse to eat and intermarry with them. The marriage of members of the same sept is prohibited, and also the union of first cousins. Girls are generally married under ten years of age, but if a suitable husband cannot be found for a daughter, the parents will make her over to any member of the caste who offers himself on condition that he bears the expenses of the marriage. In Sambalpur she is married to a flower. Sir H. Risley notes [466] the curious fact that in Bihar it is deemed less material that the bridegroom should be older than the bride than that he should be taller. "This point is of the first importance, and is ascertained by actual measurement. If the boy shorter than the girl, or if his height is exactly the same as hers, it is believed that the union of the two would bring ill-luck, and the match is at once broken off." The marriage is celebrated in the customary manner by walking round the sacred pole, after which the bridegroom marks the forehead of the bride seven times with vermilion, parts her hair with a comb, and then draws her cloth over her head. The last act signifies that the bride has become a married woman, as a girl never covers her head. In Bengal [467] a drop of blood is drawn from the fingers of the bride and bridegroom and mixed with rice, and each eats the rice containing the blood of the other. The anointing with vermilion is probably a subst.i.tute for this. Widow-remarriage and divorce are permitted. In Sambalpur a girl who is left a widow under ten years of age is remarried with full rites as a virgin.

3. Social customs.

The Kewats wors.h.i.+p the ordinary Hindu deities and believe that a special G.o.ddess, Chaurasi Devi, dwells in their boats and keeps them from sinking. She is propitiated at the beginning of the rains and in times of flood, and an image of her is painted on their boats. They bury the dead, laying the corpse with the feet to the south, while some clothes, cotton, til and salt are placed in the grave, apparently as a provision for the dead man's soul. They wors.h.i.+p their ancestors at intervals on a Monday or a Sat.u.r.day with an offering of a fowl. As is usual in Chhattisgarh, their rules as to food are very lax, and they will eat both fowls and pork. Nevertheless Brahmans will take water at their hands and eat the rice and gram which they have parched. The caste consider fis.h.i.+ng to have been their original occupation, and tell a story to the effect that their ancestors saved the deity in their boat on the occasion of the Deluge, and in return were given the power of catching three or four times as many fish as ordinary persons in the same s.p.a.ce of time. Some of them parch gram and rice, and others act as coolies and banghy-bearers. [468] Kewats are usually in poor circ.u.mstances, but they boast that the town of Bilaspur is named after Bilasa Keotin, a woman of their caste. She was married, but was sought after by the king of the country, so she held out her cloth to the sun, calling on him to set it on fire, and was burnt alive, preserving her virtue. Her husband burnt himself with her, and the pair ascended to heaven.

KHAIRWAR

[Authorities: Colonel Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal; Sir H. Risley's Tribes and Castes of Bengal; Mr. Crooke's Tribes and Castes of the N.-W.P. and Oudh.]

List of Paragraphs

1. Historical notice of the tribe.

2. Its origin.

3. Tribal subdivisions.

4. Exogamous septs.

5. Marriage.

6. Disposal of the dead.

7. Religion.

8. Inheritance.

9. The Khairwas of Damoh.

1. Historical notice of the tribe.

Khairwar, Kharwar, Khaira, Khairwa. [469]--A primitive tribe of the Chota Nagpur plateau and Bihar. Nearly 20,000 Khairwars are now under the jurisdiction of the Central Provinces, of whom two-thirds belong to the recently acquired Sarguja State, and the remainder to the adjoining States and the Bilaspur District. A few hundred Khairwars or Khairwas are also returned from the Damoh District in the Bundelkhand country. Colonel Dalton considers the Khairwars to be closely connected with the Cheros. He relates that the Cheros, once dominant in Gorakhpur and Shahabad, were expelled from these tracts many centuries ago by the Gorkhas and other tribes, and came into Palamau. "It is said that the Palamau population then consisted of Kharwars, Gonds, Mars, Korwas, Parheyas and Kisans. Of these the Kharwars were the people of most consideration. The Cheros conciliated them and allowed them to remain in peaceful possession of the hill tracts bordering on Sarguja; all the Cheros of note who a.s.sisted in the expedition obtained military service grants of land, which they still retain. It is popularly a.s.serted that at the commencement of the Chero rule in Palamau they numbered twelve thousand families and the Kharwars eighteen thousand, and if an individual of one or the other is asked to what tribe he belongs, he will say not that he is a Chero or a Kharwar, but that he belongs to the twelve thousand or the eighteen thousand, as the case may be. Intermarriages between Chero and Kharwar families have taken place. A relative of the Palamau Raja married a sister of Maninath Singh, Raja of Ramgarh, and this is among themselves an admission of ident.i.ty of origin, as both claiming to be Rajputs they could not intermarry till it was proved to the satisfaction of the family priest that the parties belonged to the same cla.s.s.... The Rajas of Ramgarh and Jashpur are members of this tribe, who have nearly succeeded in obliterating their Turanian traits by successive intermarriages with Aryan families. The Jashpur Raja is wedded to a lady of pure Rajput blood, and by liberal dowries has succeeded in obtaining a similar union for three of his daughters. It is a costly ambition, but there is no doubt that the liberal infusion of fresh blood greatly improves the Kharwar physique." [470] This pa.s.sage demonstrates the existence of a close connection between the Cheros and Khairwars. Elsewhere Colonel Dalton connects the Santals with the Khairwars as follows: [471] "A wild goose coming from the great ocean alighted at Ahiri Pipri and there laid two eggs. From these two eggs a male and female were produced, who were the parents of the Santal race. From Ahiri Pipri our (Santal) ancestors migrated to Hara Dutti, and there they greatly increased and multiplied and were called Kharwar." This also affords some reason for supposing that the Khairwars are an offshoot of the Cheros and Santals. Mr. Crooke remarks, "That in Mirzapur the people themselves derive their name either from their occupation as makers of catechu (khair) or on account of their emigration from some place called Khairagarh, regarding which there is a great difference of opinion. If the Santal tradition is to be accepted, Khairagarh is the place of that name in the Hazaribagh District; but the Mirzapur tradition seems to point to some locality in the south or west, in which case Khairagarh may be identified with the most important of the Chhattisgarh Feudatory States, or with the pargana of that name in the Allahabad District." [472] According to their own traditions in Chota Nagpur, Sir H. Risley states that, [473]

"The Kharwars declare their original seat to have been the fort of Rohtas, so called as having been the chosen abode of Rohitaswa, son of Harischandra, of the family of the Sun. From this ancient house they also claim descent, calling themselves Surajvansis, and wearing the Janeo or caste thread distinguis.h.i.+ng the Rajputs. A less flattering tradition makes them out to be the offspring of a marriage between a Kshatriya man and a Bhar woman contracted in the days of King Ben, when distinctions of caste were abolished and men might marry whom they would." A somewhat similar story of themselves is told by the tribe in the Bamra State. Here they say that their original ancestors were the Sun and a daughter of Lakshmi, the G.o.ddess of wealth, who lived in the town of Sara. She was very beautiful and the Sun desired her, and began blowing into a conch-sh.e.l.l to express his pa.s.sion. While the girl was gaping at the sight and sound, a drop of the spittle fell into her mouth and impregnated her. Subsequently a son was born from her arm and a daughter from her thigh, who were known as Bhujbalrai and Janghrai. [474] Bhujbalrai was given great strength by the Sun, and he fought with the people of the country, and became king of Rathgarh. But in consequence of this he and his family grew proud, and Lakshmi determined to test them whether they were worthy of the riches she had given them. So she came in the guise of a beggar to the door, but was driven away without alms. On this she cursed them, and said that their descendants, the Khairwars, should always be poor, and should eke out a scanty subsistence from the forests. And in consequence the Khairwars have ever since been engaged in boiling wood for catechu. Mr. Hira Lal identifies the Rathgarh of this story with the tract of Rath in the north of the Raigarh State and the town of Sara, where Lakshmi's daughter lived and her children were born, with Saria in Sarangarh.