The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India
Chapter 230 : that they are the remnants of the Kaikeyas, who before the Christian era dwelt north o

that they are the remnants of the Kaikeyas, who before the Christian era dwelt north of the Jalandhar Doab. Two subcastes exist in Nimar, the Marathas and the Phirasti or wandering Kaikaris, the former no doubt representing recruits from Maratha castes, not improbably from the Kunbis. The Maratha Kaikaris look down on the Phirastis as the latter take cooked food from a number of castes including the Telis, while the Marathas refuse to do this. In the Nagpur country there are several divisions which profess to be endogamous, as the Kamathis or those selling toys made of palm-leaves, the Bhamtis or those who steal from bazars, the Kunbis or cultivators, the Tokriwalas or makers and sellers of baskets and the Boriwalas or those who carry bricks, gravel and stone. Kunbi and Bhamti are the names of other castes, and Kamathi is a general term applied in the Maratha country to Telugu immigrants; the names thus show that the Kaikaris, like other vagrant groups, are largely recruited from persons expelled from their own caste for social offences. These groups cannot really be endogamous as yet, but as in the case of several other wandering tribes they probably have a tendency to become so. In Berar [254]

an entirely different set of 12 1/2 subcastes is recorded, several of which are territorial, and two, the Pungis or blowers of gourds, and the Wajantris or village musicians, are occupational. In Nimar as in Khandesh [255] the Kaikaris have only two exogamous clans, Jadon and Gaikwar, who must marry with each other. In the southern Districts there are a number of exogamous divisions, as Jadon, Mane, k.u.mre, Jeshti, Kade, Dane and others. Jadon is a well-known Rajput sept, and the Kaikaris do not explain how they came by the name, but claim to have fought as soldiers under several kings, during which occasions the name may have been adopted from some Rajput leader in accordance with the common practice of imitation. Mane and Gaikwar are family names of the Maratha caste. The names and varied nomenclature of the subdivisions show that the Kaikaris, as at present const.i.tuted, are a very mixed caste, though they may not improbably have been originally connected with the Korvas of Madras.

2. Marriage.

Marriage within the same gotra or section is prohibited, but with one or two exceptions there are no other restrictions on intermarriage between relatives. A sister's son may marry a brother's daughter, but not vice versa. A man may not marry his wife's elder sister either during his wife's lifetime or after her death, and he may marry her younger sister, but not the younger but one. Girls are generally married between 8 and 12 years of age. If a girl cannot get a partner nothing is done, but when the marriage of a boy has not been arranged, a sham rite is performed with an akao plant (swallow-wort) or with a silver ring, all the ceremonies of a regular marriage being gone through. The tree is subsequently carefully reared, or the ring worn on the finger. Should the tree die or the ring be lost, funeral obsequies are performed for it as for a member of the family. A bride-price is paid which may vary from Rs. 20 to Rs. 100. In the southern Districts the following custom is in vogue at weddings. After the ceremony the bridegroom pretends to be angry and goes out of the mandap or shed, on which the bride runs after him, and throwing a piece of cloth round his neck, drags him back again. Her father then gives him some money or ornaments to pacify him. After this the same performance is gone through with the bride. The bride is taken to her husband's house, but is soon brought back by her relatives. On her second departure the husband himself does not go to fetch her, and she is brought home by his father and other relations, her own family presenting her with new clothes on this occasion. Widow-marriage is permitted, and the widow is expected to marry the next younger brother of the deceased husband. She may not marry any except the next younger, and if another should take her he is expelled from the caste until the connection is severed. If she marries somebody else he must repay to her late husband's brother a half of the expenses incurred on the first marriage. In the southern Districts she may not marry a brother of her husband's at all. A widow cannot be married in her late husband's house, but is taken to her parents' house and married from there. In Nimar her family do not take anything, but in the south they are paid a small sum. Here also the marriage is performed at the second husband's house; the woman carries to it a new earthen pitcher filled with water, and, placing it on the chauk or pattern of lines traced with flour in the courtyard, touches the feet of the Panch or caste committee, after which her skirt is tied to her husband's cloth. The pair are seated on a blanket and new bangles are placed on the woman's wrist, widows officiating at the ceremony. The couple then leave the village and pa.s.s the night outside it, returning next morning, when the woman manages to enter the house without being perceived by a married woman or unmarried girl. A bachelor marrying a widow must first go through the ceremony with a ring or akao plant, as already described, this being his real marriage; if he omits the rite his daughters by the widow will not be considered as members of the caste, though his sons will be admitted. Polygamy is allowed, but the consent of the first wife must be obtained to the taking of a second, and she may require a written promise of good treatment after the second marriage. A second wife is usually only taken if the first is barren, and if she has children her parents usually interfere to dissuade the husband, while other parents are always averse to giving their daughter in marriage to a man under such circ.u.mstances. Divorce is permitted for the usual reasons, a deed being drawn up and attested by the panchayat, to whom the husband pays a fine of Rs. 8 or Rs. 10.

3. Religion.

The tutelary G.o.d of the Kaikaris is the Nag or cobra, who is wors.h.i.+pped at marriages and on the day of Nag-Panchmi. Every family has in the house a platform dedicated to Khandoba, the Maratha G.o.d of war. They also wors.h.i.+p Marimata, to whom flowers are offered at festivals, and a little ghi is poured out in her honour by way of incense. When the juari harvest is gathered, dalias or cakes of boiled juari and a ewe are offered to Marimata. They do not revere the Hindu sacred trees, the pipal and banyan, nor the basil plant, and will readily cut them down. They both burn and bury the dead. The Jadons burn all married persons, but if they cannot afford firewood they touch the corpse with a burning cinder and then bury it. The Gaikwars always bury their dead, the corpse being laid naked on its back with the feet pointing to the south. On returning from the burial-ground each relative of the deceased gives one roti or wheaten cake to the bereaved family, and they eat, sharing the cakes with the panchayat. Bread is also presented on the second day, and on the third the family begin to cook again. Mourning lasts for ten days, and on the last day the house is cleaned and the earthen pots thrown out; the clothes of the family are washed and the males are shaved. Ten b.a.l.l.s of rice cooked in milk are offered to the soul of the dead person and a feast is given to the caste. After a birth the mother remains impure for five weeks. For the first five days both the mother and child are bathed daily. The navel cord and after-birth are buried by the midwife in a rubbish heap. When the milk teeth fall out they are placed in a ball of the dung of an a.s.s and thrown on to the roof of the house. It is considered that the rats or mice, who have very good and sharp teeth, will take them and give the child good teeth in exchange. Women are impure for five days during the menstrual period. When a girl attains maturity a ceremony called G.o.d-bharni is performed. The neighbours are invited and songs are sung and the girl is seated in the chauk or pattern of lines traced with flour. She is given new clothes and bangles by her father, or her father-in-law if she is married, and rice and plantains, cocoanuts and other fruits are tied up in her skirt. This is no doubt done so that the girl may in like manner be fruitful, the cocoanuts perhaps being meant to represent human heads, as they usually do.

4. Social customs and position.

The Kaikaris eat flesh, including pork and fowls, but not beef. In Nimar the animals which they eat must have their throats cut by a Muhammadan with the proper formula, otherwise it is considered as murder to slaughter them. Both men and women drink liquor. They take food cooked with water from Kunbis and Malis and take water from the same castes, but not from Dhimars, Nais or Kahars. No caste will take food from a Kaikari. Their touch is considered to defile a Brahman, Bania, Kalar and other castes, but not a Kunbi. They are not allowed to enter temples but may live inside the village. Their status is thus very low. They have a caste panchayat or committee, and punishments are imposed for the usual offences. Permanent exclusion from caste is rarely or never inflicted, and even a woman who has gone wrong with an outsider may be readmitted after a peculiar ceremony of purification. The delinquent is taken to a river, tank or well, and is there shaved clean. Her tongue is branded with a ring or other article of gold, and she is then seated under a wooden shed having two doors. She goes in by one door and sits in the shed, which is set on fire. She must remain seated until the whole shed is burning and is then allowed to escape by the other door. A young boy of the caste is finally asked to eat from her hand, and thus purified she is readmitted to social intercourse. Fire is the great purifier, and this ceremony probably symbolises the immolation of the delinquent and her new birth. A similar ordeal is practised among the Korvas of Bombay, and this fact may be taken as affording further evidence of the ident.i.ty of the two castes. [256] The morals of the caste are, however, by no means good, and some of them are said to live by prost.i.tuting their women. The dog is held especially sacred as with all wors.h.i.+ppers of Khandoba, and to swear by a dog is Khandoba's oath and is considered the most binding. The Kaikaris are of dark colour and have repulsive features. They do not bathe or change their clothes for days together. They are also quarrelsome, and in Bombay the word Kaikarin is a proverbial term for a dirty shrew. Women are profusely tattooed, because tattooing is considered to be a record of the virtuous acts performed in this world and must be displayed to the deity after death. If no marks of tattooing are found the soul is sent to h.e.l.l and punished for having acquired no piety.

5. Occupation.

Basket-making is the traditional occupation of the Kaikaris and is still followed by them. They do not however make baskets from bamboos, but from cotton-stalks, palm-leaves and gra.s.s. In the south they are princ.i.p.ally employed as carriers of stone, lime, bricks and gravel. Like most wandering castes they have a bad character. In Berar the Ran Kaikaris are said to be the most criminal cla.s.s. [257] They act under a chief who is elected for life, and wander about in the cold weather, usually carrying their property on donkeys. Their ostensible occupations are to make baskets and mend grinding mills. A notice of them in Lawrence's Settlement Report of Bhandara (1867) stated that they were then professional thieves, openly avowing their dependence on predatory occupations for subsistence, and being particularly dexterous at digging through the walls of houses and secret pilfering.

Kalanga

1. Origin.

Kalanga.--A cultivating caste of Chhattisgarh numbering 1800 persons in 1911. In Sambalpur they live princ.i.p.ally in the Phuljhar zamindari on the border, between Chhattisgarh and the Uriya track. The Kalangas appear to be a Dravidian tribe who took up military service and therefore adopted a territorial name, Kalanga being probably derived from Kalinga, the name of the sea-board of the Telugu country. The Kalangas may be a branch of the great Kalingi tribe of Madras. They have mixed much with the Kawars, and in Phuljhar say that they have three branches, the Kalingia, Kawar and Chero Kalangas; Kawar and Chero are names for the same tribe, and the last two branches are thus probably a mixture of Kalingis and Kawars, while the first comprises the original Kalingis. The Kalangas themselves, like the Kawars, say that they are the descendants of the Kauravas of the Mahabharata, and that they came from northern India with the Rajas of Patna, whom they still serve. But their features indicate their Dravidian descent as also their social customs, especially that of killing a c.o.c.k with the bare hands on the birth of a child, and anointing the infant's forehead with its blood. They have not retained their Telugu language, however, and like the Kawars now speak a dialect of Chhattisgarhi at home, while many also know Uriya.

2. Subdivisions.

The Kalangas have no real endogamous divisions but a large number of exogamous groups or bargas, the names of which are derived from animals, plants, or material objects, nicknames, occupations or t.i.tles. Instances of the totemistic groups are Barha the wild boar, Magar the crocodile, b.i.+.c.hhi the scorpion, Saria a variety of rice, Chhati a mushroom, Khumri a leaf umbrella, and several others. The members of the group revere the animal, plant or other object from which it takes its name and would refuse to injure it or use it for food. They salute the object whenever they see it. Instances of other group names are Manjhi a headman, Behra a cook, Gunda dusty, Kapat a shutter, Bhundi a hole, Chika muddy, Bhil a tribe, Rendia quarrelsome, and Bersia a Thug or strangler. Some of the nicknames or t.i.tles are curious, as for instance Kapat, a shutter, which stands for gate-keeper, and Bhundi, a hole, which indicates a defective person. Some of the group names are those of other castes, and this probably indicates the admission of families of other castes among the Kalangas. One of the groups is called Kusundi, the meaning of which is not known, but whenever any one of the caste gets maggots in a wound and is temporarily expelled, it is a member of the Kusundi group, if one is available, who gives him water on his readmission into caste. This is a dangerous service, because it renders the performer liable to the burden of the other's sin, and when no Kusundi is present five or seven men of other groups combine in doing it so as to reduce the risk to a fraction. But why this function of a scapegoat should be imposed upon the Kusundi group, or whether it possesses any peculiar sanct.i.ty which protects it from danger, cannot be explained.

3. Marriage.

Marriage within the same barga or group is prohibited and also the union of first cousins. Marriage is usually adult and matches are arranged between the parents of the parties. A considerable quant.i.ty of grain with five pieces of cloth and Rs. 5 are given to the father of the bride. A marriage-shed is erected and a post of the mahua tree fixed inside it. Three days before the wedding a Ganda goes to the shed with some pomp and wors.h.i.+ps the village G.o.ds there. In the ceremony the bridegroom and bride proceed separately seven times round the post, this rite being performed for three days running. During the four days of the wedding the fathers of the bride and bridegroom each give one meal to the whole caste on two days, while the other meal on all four days is given to the wedding party by the members of the caste resident in the village. This may be a survival of the time when all members of the village community were held to be related. Widow-marriage is allowed, but the widow must obtain the consent of the caste people before taking a second husband, and a feast must be given to them. If the widow has no children and there are no relatives to succeed to her late husband's property, it is expended on feeding the caste people. Divorce is permitted and is effected by breaking the woman's bangles in front of the caste panchayat. In memory perhaps of their former military profession the Kalangas wors.h.i.+p the sword on the 15th day of Shrawan and the 9th day of Kunwar. Offerings are made to the dead in the latter month, but not to persons who have died a violent death. The spirits of these must be laid lest they should trouble the living, and this is done in the following manner: a handful of rice is placed at the threshold of the house, and a ring is suspended by a thread so as to touch the rice. A goat is then brought up, and when it eats the rice, the spirit of the dead person is considered to have entered into the goat, which is thereupon killed and eaten by the family so as to dispose of him once for all. If the goat will not eat the rice it is made to do so. The spirit of a man who has been killed by a tiger must, however, be laid by the Sulia or sorcerer of the caste, who goes through the formula of pretending to be a tiger and of mauling another sorcerer.

4. Social position.

The Kalangas are at present cultivators and many of them are farmservants. They do not now admit outsiders into the caste, but they will receive the children begotten on any woman by a Kalanga man. They take food cooked without water from a Guria, but katchi food from n.o.body. Only the lowest castes will take food from them. They drink liquor and eat fowls and rats, but not beef or pork. A man who gets his ear torn is temporarily excluded from caste, and this penalty is also imposed for the other usual offences. A woman committing adultery with a man of another caste is permanently expelled. The Kalangas are somewhat tall in stature. Their features are Dravidian, and in their dress and ornaments they follow the Chhattisgarhi style.

KALAR

List of Paragraphs

1. Strength of the caste.

2. Internal structure.

3. Dandsena Kalars in Chhattisgarh.

4. Social customs.

5. Liquor held divine in Vedic times.

6. Subsequent prohibition of alcohol.

7. Spirits habitually drunk in ancient times.

8. Drunkenness and divine inspiration.

9. Sanct.i.ty of liquor among the Gonds and other castes.

10. Drugs also considered divine.

11. Opium and ganja.

12. Tobacco.

13. Customs in connection with drinking.

1. Strength of the caste.

Kalar, Kalwar. [258]--The occupational caste of distillers and sellers of fermented liquor. In 1911 the Kalars numbered nearly 200,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar, or rather more than one per cent of the population; so they are a somewhat important caste numerically. The name is derived from the Sanskrit Kalyapala, a distiller of liquor.

2. Internal structure.