The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India
Chapter 67 : 43. Other agents in the formation of castes.The great majority of castes have been form

43. Other agents in the formation of castes.

The great majority of castes have been formed from occupation, but other sources of origin can be traced. Several castes are of mixed descent, as the Vidurs, the descendants of Brahman fathers and mothers of other castes; the Bhilalas, by Rajput fathers and Bhil mothers; the Chauhans, Audhelias, Khangars and Dhakars of Bastar, probably by Hindu fathers and women of various indigenous tribes; the Kirars of mixed Rajput descent, and others. These also now generally take rank according to their occupation and position in the world. The Vidurs served as village accountants and ranked below the cultivators, but since they are well educated and have done well in Government service their status is rapidly improving. The Bhilalas are landholders and rank as a good cultivating caste. The Chauhans and Khangars are village watchmen and rank as menials below the cultivators, the Dhakars are farmservants and labourers with a similar position, while the Audhelias are labourers who keep pigs and are hence regarded as impure. The Halbas or 'ploughmen' are another mixed caste, probably the descendants of house-servants of the Uriya Rajas, who, like the Khandaits, formed a sort of militia for the maintenance of the chiefs authority. They are now mainly farmservants, as the name denotes, but where they hold land, as in Bastar, they rank higher, almost as a good cultivating caste.

Again, very occasionally a caste may be formed from a religious sect or order. The Bishnois were originally a Vaishnava sect, wors.h.i.+pping Vishnu as an unseen G.o.d, and refusing to employ Brahmans. They have now become cultivators, and though they retain their sectarian beliefs, and have no Brahman priests, are generally regarded as a Hindu cultivating caste. The Pankas are members of the impure Ganda caste who adhered to the Kabirpanthi sect. They are now a separate caste and are usually employed as village watchmen, ranking with menials above the Gandas and other similar castes. The Lingayats are a large sect of southern India, devoted to the wors.h.i.+p of Siva and called after the _lingam_ or phallic emblem which they wear. They have their own priests, denying the authority of Brahmans, but the tendency now is for members of those castes which have become Lingayats to marry among themselves and retain their relative social status, thus forming a sort of inner microcosm of Hinduism.

44. Caste occupations divinely ordained.

Occupation is the real determining factor of social status in India as in all other societies of at all advanced organisation. But though in reality the status of occupations and of castes depends roughly on the degree to which they are lucrative and respectable, this is not ostensibly the case, but their precedence, as already seen, is held to be regulated by the degree of ceremonial purity or impurity attaching to them. The Hindus have retained, in form at any rate, the religious const.i.tution which is common or universal in primitive societies. The majority of castes are provided with a legend devised by the Brahmans to show that their first ancestor was especially created by a G.o.d to follow their caste calling, or at least that this was a.s.signed to him by a G.o.d. The ancestors of the bearer-caste of Kahars were created by Siva or Mahadeo from the dust to carry his consort Parvati in a litter when she was tired; the first Mang was made by Mahadeo from his own sweat to castrate the divine bull Nandi when he was fractious, and his descendants have ever since followed the same calling, the impiety of mutilating the sacred bull in such a manner being thus excused by the divine sanction accorded to it. The first Mali or gardener gave a garland to Krishna. The first Chamar or tanner made sandals for Siva from a piece of his own skin; the ancestor of the Kayasth or writer caste, Chitragupta, keeps the record of men's actions by which they are judged in the infernal regions after death; and so on.

45. Subcastes. local type.

All important castes are divided into a number of subordinate groups or subcastes, which as a rule marry and take food within their own circle only. Certain differences of status frequently exist among the subcastes of the occupational or social type, but these are usually too minute to be recognised by outsiders. The most common type of subcaste is the local, named after the tract of country in which the members reside or whence they are supposed to have come. Thus the name Kanaujia from the town of Kanauj on the Ganges, famous in ancient Indian history, is borne by subcastes of many castes which have immigrated from northern India. Jaiswar, from the old town of Jais in the Rai Bareli District, is almost equally common. Pardes.h.i.+ or foreign, and Purabia or eastern, are also subcaste names for groups coming from northern India or Oudh. Mahobia is a common name derived from the town of Mahoba in Central India, as are Bundeli from Bundelkhand, Narwaria from Narwar and Marwari from Marwar in Rajputana. Groups belonging to Berar are called Berari, Warade or Baone; those from Gujarat are called Lad, the cla.s.sical term for Gujarat, or Gujarati, and other names are Deccani from the Deccan, Nimari of Nimar, Havelia, the name of the wheat-growing tracts of Jubbulpore and Damoh; Chhattisgarhia, Kosaria, Ratanpuria (from the old town of Ratanpur in Bilaspur), and Raipuria (from Raipur town), all names for residents in Chhattisgarh; and so on. Brahmans are divided into ten main divisions, named after different tracts in the north and south of India where they reside; [88] and these are further subdivided, as the Maharashtra Brahmans of the Maratha country of Bombay into the subcastes of Deshasth (belonging to the country) applied to those of the Poona country above the western Ghats; Karhara or those of the Satara District, from Karhar town; and Konkonasth or those of the Concan, the Bombay coast; similarly the Kanaujia division of the Panch-Gaur or northern Brahmans has as subdivisions the Kanaujia proper, the Jijhotia from Jajhoti, the old name of the Lalitpur and Saugor tract, which is part of Bundelkhand; the Sarwaria or those dwelling round the river Sarju in the United Provinces; the Mathuria from Muttra; and the Prayagwals or those of Allahabad (Prayag), who act as guides and priests to pilgrims who come to bathe in the Ganges at the sacred city. The creation of new local subcastes seems to arise in two ways: when different groups of a caste settle in different tracts of country and are prevented from attending the caste feasts and a.s.semblies, the practice of intermarriage and taking food together gradually ceases, they form separate endogamous groups and for purposes of distinction are named after the territory in which they reside; this is what has happened in the case of Brahmans and many other castes; and, secondly, when a fresh body of a caste arrives and settles in a tract where some of its members already reside, they do not amalgamate with the latter group, but form a fresh one and are named after the territory from which they have come, as in the case of such names as Pardes.h.i.+, Purabia, Gangapari ('from the other side of the Ganges'), and similar ones already cited. In former times, when the difficulties of communication were great, these local subcastes readily multiplied; thus the Kanaujia Brahmans of Chhattisgarh are looked down upon by those of Saugor and Damoh, as Chhattisgarh has been for centuries a backward tract cut off from the rest of India, and they may be suspected of having intermarried with the local people or otherwise derogated from the standard of strict Hinduism. Similarly the Kanaujia Brahmans of Bengal are split into several local subcastes named after tracts in Bengal, who marry among themselves and neither with other Kanaujias of Bengal nor with those of northern India. Since the opening of railways people can travel long distances to marriage and other ceremonies, and the tendency to form new subcastes is somewhat checked; a native gentleman said to me, when speaking of his people, that when a few families of Khedawal Brahmans from Gujarat first settled in Damoh they had the greatest difficulty in arranging their marriages; they could not marry with their caste-fellows in Gujarat because their sons and daughters could not establish themselves, that is, could not prove their ident.i.ty as Khedawal Brahmans; but since the railway has been opened intermarriage takes place freely with other Khedawals in Gujarat and Benares. Proposals are on foot to authorise the intermarriage of the three great subcastes of Maratha Brahmans: Deshasth, Konkonasth and Karhara. As a rule, there is no difference of status between the different local subcastes, and a man's subcaste is often not known except to his own caste-fellows. But occasionally a certain derogatory sense may be conveyed; in several castes of the Central Provinces there is a subcaste called Jharia or jungly, a term applied to the oldest residents, who are considered to have lapsed in a comparatively new and barbarous country from the orthodox practices of Hinduism. The subcaste called Des.h.i.+, or 'belonging to the country,'

sometimes has the same signification. The large majority of subcastes are of the local or territorial type.

46. Occupational subcastes.

Many subcastes are also formed from slight differences of occupation, which are not of sufficient importance to create new castes. Some instances of subcastes formed from growing special plants or crops have been given. Audhia Sunars (goldsmiths) work in bra.s.s and bell-metal, which is less respectable than the sacred metal, gold. The Ekbeile Telis harness one bullock only to the oil-press and the Dobeile two bullocks. As it is thought sinful to use the sacred ox in this manner and to cover his eyes as the Telis do, it may be slightly more sinful to use two bullocks than one. The Udia Ghasias (gra.s.s-cutters) cure raw hides and do scavengers' work, and are hence looked down upon by the others; the Dingkuchia Ghasias castrate cattle and horses, and the Dolboha carry dhoolies and palanquins. The Mangya Chamars are beggars and rank below all other subcastes, from whom they will accept cooked food. Frequently, however, subcastes are formed from a slight distinction of occupation, which connotes no real difference in social status. The Hathgarhia k.u.mhars (potters) are those who used to fas.h.i.+on the clay with their own hands, and the Chakarias those who turned it on a wheel. And though the practice of hand pottery is now abandoned, the divisions remain. The s.h.i.+kari or sportsmen Pardhis (hunters) are those who use firearms, though far from being sportsmen in our sense of the term; the Phanse Pardhis hunt with traps and snares; the Chitewale use a tame leopard to run down deer, and the Gayake stalk their prey behind a bullock. Among the subcastes of Dhimars (fishermen and watermen) are the Singaria, who cultivate the _singara_ or water-nut in tanks, the Tankiwalas or sharpeners of grindstones, the Jhingars or prawn-catchers, the Bansias and Saraias or anglers (from _bansi_ or _sarai_, a bamboo fis.h.i.+ng-rod), the Kasdhonias who wash the sands of the sacred rivers to find the coins thrown or dropped into them by pious pilgrims, and the Sonjharas who wash the sands of auriferous streams for their particles of gold. [89]

The Gariwan Dangris have adopted the comparatively novel occupation of driving carts (_gari_) for a livelihood, and the Panibhar are water-carriers, while the ordinary occupation of the Dangris is to grow melons in river-beds. It is unnecessary to multiply instances; here, as in the case of territorial subcastes, the practice of subdivision appears to have been extended from motives of convenience, and the slight difference of occupation is adopted as a distinguis.h.i.+ng badge.

47. Subcastes formed from social or religious differences, or from mixed descent.

Subcastes are also occasionally formed from differences of social practice which produce some slight gain or loss of status. Thus the Biyahut or 'Married' Kalars prohibit the remarriage of widows, saying that a woman is married once for all, and hence rank a little higher than the others. The Dosar Banias, on the other hand, are said to take their name from _dusra_, second, because they allow a widow to marry a second time and are hence looked upon by the others as a second-cla.s.s lot. The Khedawal Brahmans are divided into the 'outer'

and 'inner': the inner subdivision being said to exist of those who accepted presents from the Raja of Kaira and remained in his town, while the outer refused the presents, quitted the town and dwelt outside. The latter rank a little higher than the former. The Suvarha Dhimars keep pigs and the Gadhewale donkeys, and are considered to partake of the impure nature of these animals. The Gobardhua Chamars wash out and eat the undigested grain from the droppings of cattle on the thres.h.i.+ng-floors. The Chungia group of the Satnami Chamars are those who smoke the _chongi_ or leaf-pipe, though smoking is prohibited to the Satnamis. The Nagle or 'naked' Khonds have only a negligible amount of clothing and are looked down upon by the others. The Makaria Kamars eat monkeys and are similarly despised.

Subcastes are also formed from mixed descent. The Dauwa Ahirs are held to be the offspring of Ahir women who were employed as wet-nurses in the houses of Bundela Rajputs and bore children to their masters. The Halbas and Rautias are divided into subcastes known as Purait or 'pure,' and Surait or of 'mixed' descent. Many castes have a subcaste to which the progeny of illicit unions is relegated, such as the Dogle Kayasths, and the Lahuri Sen subcaste of Barais, Banias and other castes. Illegitimate children in the Kasar (bra.s.s-worker) caste form a subcaste known as Takle or 'thrown out,' Vidur or 'illegitimate,'

or Laondi Bachcha, the issue of a kept wife. In Berar the Mahadeo Kolis, called after the Mahadeo or Pachmarhi hills, are divided into the Khas, or 'pure,' and the Akaramase or 'mixed'; this latter word means gold or silver composed of eleven parts pure metal and one part alloy. Many subcastes of Bania have subcastes known as Bisa or Dasa, that is 'Twenty' or 'Ten' groups, the former being of pure descent or twenty-carat, as it were, and the latter the offspring of remarried widows or other illicit unions. In the course of some generations such mixed groups frequently regain full status in the caste.

Subcastes are also formed from members of other castes who have taken to the occupation of the caste in question and become amalgamated with it; thus the Korchamars are Koris (weavers) adopted into the Chamar (tanner) caste; Khatri Chhipas are Khatris who have become dyers and printers; the small Dangri caste has subcastes called Teli, Kalar and Kunbi, apparently consisting of members of those castes who have become Dangris; the Baman Darzis or tailors will not take food from any one except Brahmans and may perhaps be derived from them, and the Kaith Darzis may be Kayasths; and so on.

Occasionally subcastes may be formed from differences of religious belief or sectarian practice. In northern India even such leading Hindu castes as Rajputs and Jats have large Muhammadan branches, who as a rule do not intermarry with Hindus. The ordinary Hindu sects seldom, however, operate as a bar to marriage, Hinduism being tolerant of all forms of religious belief. Those Chamars of Chhattisgarh who have embraced the doctrines of the Satnami reforming sect form a separate endogamous subcaste, and sometimes the members of the Kabirpanthi sect within a caste marry among themselves.

Statistics of the subcastes are not available, but their numbers are very extensive in proportion to the population, and even in the same subcaste the members living within a comparatively small local area often marry among themselves and attend exclusively at their own caste feasts, though in the case of educated and well-to-do Hindus the construction of railways has modified this rule and connections are kept up between distant groups of relatives. Clearly therefore differences of occupation or social status are not primarily responsible for the subcastes, because in the majority of cases no such differences really exist. I think the real reason for their multiplication was the necessity that the members of a subcaste should attend at the caste feasts on the occasion of marriages, deaths and readmission of offenders, these feasts being of the nature of a sacrificial or religious meal. The grounds for this view will be given subsequently.

48. Exogamous groups.

The caste or subcaste forms the outer circle within which a man must marry. Inside it are a set of further subdivisions which prohibit the marriage of persons related through males. These are called exogamous groups or clans, and their name among the higher castes is _gotra_. The theory is that all persons belonging to the same _gotra_ are descended from the same male ancestor, and so related. The relations.h.i.+p in the _gotra_ now only goes by the father's side; when a woman marries she is taken into the clan of her husband and her children belong to it. Marriage is not allowed within the clan and in the course of a few generations the marriage of persons related through males or agnates is prohibited within a very wide circle. But on the mother's side the _gotra_ does not serve as a bar to marriage and the union of first cousins would be possible, other than the children of two brothers. According to Hindu law, intermarriage is prohibited within four degrees between persons related through females. But generally the children of first cousins are allowed to marry, when related partly through females. And several castes allow the intermarriage of first cousins, that of a brother's daughter to a sister's son and in a less degree of a brother's son to a sister's daughter being specially favoured. One or two Madras castes allow a man to marry his niece, and the small Dhoba caste of Mandla permit the union of children of the same mother but different fathers.

Sir Herbert Risley cla.s.sed the names of exogamous divisions as eponymous, territorial or local, t.i.tular and totemistic. In the body of this work the word clan is usually applied only to the large exogamous groups of the Rajputs and one or two other military castes. The small local or t.i.tular groups of ordinary Hindu castes are called 'section,'

and the totemic groups of the primitive tribes 'sept.' But perhaps it is simpler to use the word 'clan' throughout according to the practice of Sir J.G. Frazer. The vernacular designations of the clans or sections are _gotra_, which originally meant a stall or cow-pen; _khero_, a village; _dih_, a village site; _baink_, a t.i.tle; _mul_ or _mur_, literally a root, hence an origin; and _kul_ or _kuri_, a family. The sections called eponymous are named after Ris.h.i.+s or saints mentioned in the Vedas and other scriptures and are found among the Brahmans and a few of the higher castes, such as Vasishta, Garga, Bharadwaj, Vishvamitra, Kashyap and so on. A few Rajput clans are named after kings or heroes, as the Raghuvansis from king Raghu of Ajodhia and the Tilokchandi Bais from a famous king of that name. The t.i.tular cla.s.s of names comprise names of offices supposed to have been held by the founder of the clan, or t.i.tles and names referring to a personal defect or quality, and nicknames. Instances of the former are Kotwar (village watchman), Chaudhri, Meher or Mahto (caste headman), Bhagat (saint), Thakuria and Rawat (lord or prince), Vaidya (physician); and of t.i.tular names and nicknames: Kuldip (lamp of the family), Mohjaria (one with a burnt mouth), Jachak (beggar), Garkata (cut-throat), Bhatpagar (one serving on a pittance of boiled rice), Kangali (poor), Chikat (dirty), Petdukh (stomach-ache), Ghunnere (worm-eater) and so on. A special cla.s.s of names are those of offices held at the caste feasts; thus the clans of the Chitrakathi caste are the Atak or Mankari, who furnish the headman of the caste _panchayat_ or committee; the Bhojin who serve the food at marriages and other ceremonies; the Kakra who arrange for the lighting; the Gotharya who keep the provisions, and the Gh.o.r.erao (_ghora_, a horse) who have the duty of looking after the horses and bullock-carts of the caste-men who a.s.semble. Similarly the five princ.i.p.al clans of the small Turi caste are named after the five sons of Singhbonga or the sun: the eldest son was called Mailuar and his descendants are the leaders or headmen of the caste; the descendants of the second son, Chardhagia, purify and readmit offenders to caste intercourse; those of the third son, Suremar, conduct the ceremonial shaving of such offenders, and those of the fourth son bring water for the ceremony and are called Tirkuar. The youngest brother, Hasdagia, is said to have committed some caste offence, and the four other brothers took the parts which are still played by their descendants in his ceremony of purification. In many cases exogamous clans are named after other castes or subcastes. Many low castes have adopted the names of the Rajput clans, either from simple vanity as people may take an aristocratic surname, or because they were in the service of Rajputs, and have adopted the names of their masters or are partly descended from them. Other names of castes found among exogamous groups probably indicate that an ancestor belonging to that caste was taken into the one in which the group is found. The Bhaina tribe have clans named after the Dhobi, Ahir, Gond, Mali and Panka castes. The members of such clans pay respect to any man belonging to the caste after which they are named and avoid picking a quarrel with him; they also wors.h.i.+p the family G.o.ds of the caste.

Territorial names are very common, and are taken from that of some town or village in which the ancestor of the clan or the members of the clan themselves resided. [90] The names are frequently distorted, and it seems probable that the majority of the large number of clan names for which no meaning can be discovered were those of villages. These unknown names are probably more numerous than the total of all those cla.s.ses of names to which a meaning can be a.s.signed.

49. Totemistic clans.

The last cla.s.s of exogamous divisions are those called totemistic, when the clan is named after a plant or animal or other natural object. These are almost universal among the non-Aryan or primitive tribes, but occur also in most Hindu castes, including some of the highest. The commonest totem names are those of the prominent animals, including several which are held sacred by the Hindus, as _bagh_ or _nahar_, the tiger; _bachas_, the calf; _morkuria_, the peac.o.c.k; _kachhwaha_ or _limuan_, the tortoise; _nagas_, the cobra; _hasti_, the elephant; _bandar_, the monkey; _bhainsa_, the buffalo; _richharia_, the bear; _kuliha_, the jackal; _kukura_, the dog; _karsayal_, the deer; _heran_, the black-buck, and so on. The utmost variety of names is found, and numerous trees, as well as rice, kodon and other crops, salt, sandalwood, cuc.u.mber, pepper, and some household implements, such as the pestle and rolling-slab, serve as names of clans. Names which may be held to have a totemistic origin occur even in the highest castes. Thus among the names of eponymous Ris.h.i.+s or saints, Bharadwaj means a lark, Kaus.h.i.+k may be from the _kusha_ gra.s.s, Agastya from the _agasti_ flower, Kashyap from _kachhap_, a tortoise; Taittiri from _t.i.tar_, a partridge, and so on. Similarly the origin of other Ris.h.i.+s is attributed to animals, as Ris.h.i.+shringa to an antelope, Mandavya to a frog, and Kanada to an owl. [91] An inferior Rajput clan, Meshbansi, signifies descendants of the sheep, while the name of the Baghel clan is derived from the tiger (bagh), that of the Kachhwaha clan perhaps from _kachhap_, a tortoise, of the Haihaivansi from the horse, of the Nagvansi from the cobra, and of the Tomara clan from _tomar_, a club. The Karan or writer caste of Orissa, similarly, have clans derived from the cobra, tortoise and calf, and most of the cultivating and other middle castes have clans with totemistic names. The usual characteristics of totemism, in its later and more common form at any rate, are that members of a clan regard themselves as related to, or descended from, the animal or tree from which the clan takes its name, and abstain from killing or eating it. This was perhaps not the original relation of the clan to its clan totem in the hunting stage, but it is the one commonly found in India, where the settled agricultural stage has long been reached. The Bhaina tribe have among their totems the cobra, tiger, leopard, vulture, hawk, monkey, wild dog, quail, black ant, and so on. Members of a clan will not injure the animal after which it is named, and if they see the corpse of the animal or hear of its death they throw away an earthen cooking-pot, and bathe and shave themselves as for one of the family. At a wedding the bride's father makes an image in clay of the bird or animal of the groom's sept and places it beside the marriage-post. The bridegroom wors.h.i.+ps the image, lighting a sacrificial fire before it, and offers to it the vermilion which he afterwards smears on the forehead of the bride. Women are often tattooed with representations of their totem animal, and men swear by it as their most sacred oath. A similar respect is paid to the inanimate objects after which certain septs are named. Thus members of the Gawad or cowdung clan will not burn cowdung cakes for fuel; and those of the Mircha clan do not use chillies. One clan is named after the sun, and when an eclipse occurs they perform the same formal rites of mourning as others do on the death of their totem animal. The Baghani clan of Majhwars, named after the tiger, think that a tiger will not attack any member of their clan unless he has committed an offence entailing temporary excommunication from caste. Until this offence has been expiated his relations.h.i.+p with the tiger as head of the clan is in abeyance, and the tiger will eat him as he would any other stranger. If a tiger meets a member of the clan who is free from sin, he will run away. Members of the Khoba or peg clan will not make a peg nor drive one into the ground. Those of the Dumar or fig-tree clan say that their first ancestor was born under this tree. They consider the tree to be sacred and never eat its fruit, and wors.h.i.+p it once a year. Sometimes the members of the clan do not revere the object after which it is named but some other important animal or plant. Thus the Markam clan of Gonds, named after the mango-tree, venerate the tortoise and do not kill it. The Kathotia clan of Kols is named after _kathota_, a bowl, but they revere the tiger. Bagheshwar Deo, the tiger-G.o.d, resides on a little platform in their verandas. They may not join in a tiger-beat nor sit up for a tiger over a kill. In the latter case they think that the tiger would not come and would be deprived of his food, and all the members of their family would get ill. The Katharia clan take their name from _kathri_, a mattress. A member of this sept must never have a mattress in his house, nor wear clothes sewn in crosspieces as mattresses are sewn. The name of the Mudia or Mudmudia clan is said to mean shaven head, but they apparently revere the white _k.u.mhra_ or gourd, perhaps because it has some resemblance to a shaven head. They give a white gourd to a woman on the day after she has borne a child, and her family then do not eat this vegetable for three years. The k.u.mraya sept revere the brown _k.u.mhra_ or gourd. They grow this vegetable on the thatch of their house-roof and from the time of planting it till the fruits have been plucked they do not touch it, though of course they afterwards eat the fruits. The Bhuwar sept are named after _bhu_ or _bhumi_, the earth. They must always sleep on the earth and not on cots. The Nun (salt) and Dhan (rice) clans of Oraons cannot dispense with eating their totems or t.i.tular ancestors. But the Dhan Oraons content themselves with refusing to consume the sc.u.m which thickens on the surface of the boiled rice, and the Nun sept will not lick a plate in which salt and water have been mixed. At the weddings of the Vulture clan of the small Bhona caste one member of the clan kills a small chicken by biting off the head and then eats it in imitation of a vulture. Definite instances of the sacrificial eating of the totem animal have not been found, but it is said that the tiger and snake clans of the Bhatra tribe formerly ate their totems at a sacrificial meal. The Gonds also wors.h.i.+p the cobra as a household G.o.d, and once a year they eat the flesh of the snake and think that by doing so they will be immune from snake-bite throughout the year. On the festival of Nag-Panchmi the Mahars make an image of a snake with flour and sugar and eat it. It is reported that the Singrore Dhimars who work on rivers and tanks must eat the flesh of a crocodile at their weddings, while the Sonjharas who wash the sands of rivers for gold should catch a live crocodile for the occasion of the wedding and afterwards put it back into the river. These latter customs may probably have fallen into abeyance owing to the difficulty of catching a crocodile, and in any case the animals are tribal G.o.ds rather than totems.

50. Terms of relations.h.i.+p.

Exogamy and totemism are found not only in India, but are the characteristics of primitive social groups over the greater part of the world. Totemism establishes a relation of kins.h.i.+p between persons belonging to one clan who are not related by blood, and exogamy prescribes that the persons held to be so related shall not intermarry. Further, when terms of relations.h.i.+p come into existence it is found that they are applied not to members of one family, but to all the persons of the clan who might have stood in each particular relations.h.i.+p to the person addressing them. Thus a man will address as mother not only his own mother, but all the women of his clan who might have stood to him in the relation of mother. Similarly he will address all the old men and women as grandfather or grandmother or aunt, and the boys and girls of his own generation as brother and sister, and so on. With the development of the recognition of the consanguineous family, the use of terms of relations.h.i.+p tends to be restricted to persons who have actual kins.h.i.+p; thus a boy will address only his father's brothers as father, and his cousins as brothers and sisters; but sufficient traces of the older system of clan kins.h.i.+p remain to attest its former existence. But it seems also clear that some, at least, of the terms of relations.h.i.+p were first used between persons really related; thus the word for mother must have been taught by mothers to their own babies beginning to speak, as it is a paramount necessity for a small child to have a name by which to call its mother when it is wholly dependent on her; if the period of infancy is got over without the use of this term of address there is no reason why it should be introduced in later life, when in the primitive clan the child quickly ceased to be dependent on its mother or to retain any strong affection for her. Similarly, as shown by Sir J.G. Frazer in _Totemism and Exogamy_, there is often a special name for the mother's brother when other uncles or aunts are addressed simply as father or mother. This name must therefore have been brought into existence to distinguish the mother's brother at the time when, under the system of female descent, he stood in the relation of a protector and parent to the child. Where the names for grandfather and grandmother are a form of duplication of those for father and mother as in English, they would appear to imply a definite recognition of the idea of family descent. The majority of the special names for other relatives, such as fraternal and maternal uncles and aunts, must also have been devised to designate those relatives in particular, and hence there is a probability that the terms for father and brother and sister, which on _a priori_ grounds may be considered doubtful, were also first applied to real or putative fathers and brothers and sisters. But, as already seen, under the cla.s.sificatory system of relations.h.i.+p these same terms are addressed to members of the same clan who might by age and s.e.x have stood in such a relations.h.i.+p to the person addressing them, but are not actually akin to him at all. And hence it seems a valid and necessary conclusion that at the time when the family terms of relations.h.i.+p came into existence, the clan sentiment of kins.h.i.+p was stronger than the family sentiment; that is, a boy was taught or made to feel that all the women of the clan of about the same age as his mother were as nearly akin to him as his own mother, and that he should regard them all in the same relation. And similarly he looked on all the men of the clan of an age enabling them to be his fathers in the same light as his own father, and all the children of or about his own age as his brothers and sisters. The above seems a necessary conclusion from the existence of the cla.s.sificatory system of relations.h.i.+p, which is very widely spread among savages, and if admitted, it follows that the sentiment of kins.h.i.+p within the clan was already established when the family terms of relations.h.i.+p were devised, and therefore that the clan was prior to the family as a social unit. This conclusion is fortified by the rule of exogamy which prohibits marriage between persons of the same clan between whom no blood-relations.h.i.+p can be traced, and therefore shows that some kind of kins.h.i.+p was believed to exist between them, independent of and stronger than the link of consanguinity. Further, Mr. Hartland shows in _Primitive Paternity_ [92] that during the period of female descent when physical paternity has been recognised, but the father and mother belong to different clans, the children, being of the mother's clan, will avenge a blood-feud of their clan upon their own father; and this custom seems to show clearly that the sentiment of clan-kins.h.i.+p was prior to and stronger than that of family kins.h.i.+p.

51. Clan kins.h.i.+p and totemism.

The same argument seems to demonstrate that the idea of kins.h.i.+p within the clan was prior to the idea of descent from a common ancestor, whether an animal or plant, a G.o.d, hero or nicknamed ancestor. Because it is obvious that a set of persons otherwise unconnected could not suddenly and without reason have believed themselves to be descended from a common ancestor and hence related. If a number of persons not demonstrably connected by blood believe themselves to be akin simply on account of their descent from a common ancestor, it can only be because they are an expanded family, either actually or by fiction, which really had or might have had a common ancestor. That is, the clan tracing its descent from a common ancestor, if this was the primary type of clan, must have been subsequent to the family as a social inst.i.tution. But as already seen the sentiment of kins.h.i.+p within the clan was prior to that within the family, and therefore the genesis of the clan from an expanded family is an impossible hypothesis; and it follows that the members of the clan must first have believed themselves to be bound together by some tie equivalent to or stronger than that of consanguineous kins.h.i.+p, and afterwards, when the primary belief was falling into abeyance, that of descent from a common ancestor came into existence to account for the clan sentiment of kins.h.i.+p already existing. If then the first form of a.s.sociation of human beings was in small groups, which led a migratory life and subsisted mainly by hunting and the consumption of fruits and roots, as the Australian natives still do, the sentiment of kins.h.i.+p must first have arisen, as stated by Mr. M'Lennan, in that small body which lived and hunted together, and was due simply to the fact that they were so a.s.sociated, that they obtained food for each other, and on occasion protected and preserved each other's lives. [93] These small bodies of persons were the first social units, and according to our knowledge of the savage peoples who are nearest to the original migratory and hunting condition of life, without settled habitations, domestic animals or cultivated plants, they first called themselves after some animal or plant, usually, as Sir J.G. Frazer has shown in _Totemism and Exogamy_, [94] after some edible animal or plant. The most probable theory of totemism on _a priori_ grounds seems therefore to be that the original small bodies who lived and hunted together, or totem-clans, called themselves after the edible animal or plant from which they princ.i.p.ally derived their sustenance, or that which gave them life. While the real tie which connected them was that of living together, they did not realise this, and supposed themselves to be akin because they commonly ate this animal or plant together. This theory of totemism was first promulgated by Professor Robertson Smith and, though much disputed, appears to me to be the most probable. It has also been advocated by Dr. A.C. Haddon, F.R.S. [95] The Gaelic names for family, _teadhloch_ and _cuedichc_ or _coedichc_, mean, the first, 'having a common residence,' the second, 'those who eat together.' [96]

The detailed accounts of the totems of the Australian, Red Indian and African tribes, now brought together by Sir J.G. Frazer in _Totemism and Exogamy_, show a considerable amount of evidence that the early totems were not only as a rule edible animals, but the animals eaten by the totem-clans which bore their names. [97] But after the domestication of animals and the culture of plants had been attained to, the totems ceased to be the chief means of subsistence. Hence the original tie of kins.h.i.+p was supplanted by another and wider one in the tribe, and though the totem-clans remained and continued to fulfil an important purpose, they were no longer the chief social group. And in many cases, as man had also by now begun to speculate on his origin, the totems came to be regarded as ancestors, and the totem-clans, retaining their sentiment of kins.h.i.+p, accounted for it by supposing themselves to be descended from a common ancestor. They thus also came to base the belief in clan-kins.h.i.+p on the tie of consanguinity recognised in the family, which had by now come into existence. This late and secondary form of totemism is that which obtains in India, where the migratory and hunting stage has long been pa.s.sed. The Indian evidence is, however, of great value because we find here in the same community, occasionally in the same caste, exogamous clans which trace their descent sometimes from animals and plants, or totems, and sometimes from G.o.ds, heroes, or t.i.tular ancestors, while many of the clans are named after villages or have names to which no meaning can be attached. As has been seen, there is good reason to suppose that all these forms of the exogamous clan are developed from the earliest form of the totem-clan; and since this later type of clan has developed from the totem-clan in India, it is a legitimate deduction that wherever elsewhere exogamous clans are found tracing their descent from a common ancestor or with unintelligible names, probably derived from places, they were probably also evolved from the totem-clan. This type of clan is shown in Professor Hearn's _Aryan Household_ to have been the common unit of society over much of Europe, where no traces of the existence of totemism are established. [98]

And from the Indian a.n.a.logy it is therefore legitimate to presume that the totem-clan may have been the original unit of society among several European races as well as in America, Africa, Australia and India. Similar exogamous clans exist in China, and many of them have the names of plants and animals. [99]

52. Animate Creation.

In order to render clear the manner in which the clan named after a totem animal (or, less frequently, a plant) came to hold its members akin both to each other and their totem animals, an attempt may be made to indicate, however briefly and imperfectly, some features of primitive man's conception of nature and life. Apparently when they began dimly to observe and form conscious mental impressions of the world around them, our first ancestors made some cardinal, though natural and inevitable, mistakes. In the first place they thought that the whole of nature was animate, and that every animal, plant, or natural object which they saw around them, was alive and self-conscious like themselves. They had, of course, no words or ideas connoting life or consciousness, or distinguis.h.i.+ng animals, vegetables or lifeless objects, and they were naturally quite incapable of distinguis.h.i.+ng them. They merely thought that everything they saw was like themselves, would feel hurt and resentment if injured, and would know what was done to it, and by whom; whenever they saw the movement of an animal, plant, or other object, they thought it was volitional and self-conscious like their own movements. If they saw a tree waving in the wind, having no idea or conception of the wind, they thought the tree was moving its branches about of its own accord; if a stone fell, they, knowing nothing of the force of gravity, thought the stone projected itself from one place to another because it wished to do so. This is exactly the point of view taken by children when they first begin to observe. They also think that everything they see is alive like themselves, and that animals exercise volition and have a self-conscious intelligence like their own. But they quickly learn their mistakes and adopt the point of view of their elders because they are taught. Primitive man had no one to teach him, and as he did not co-ordinate or test his observations, the traces of this first conception of the natural world remain clearly indicated by a vast a.s.sortment of primitive customs and beliefs to the present day. All the most prominent natural objects, the sun and moon, the sky, the sea, high mountains, rivers and springs, the earth, the fire, became objects of veneration and were wors.h.i.+pped as G.o.ds, and this could not possibly have happened unless they had been believed to have life. Stone images and idols are considered as living G.o.ds. In India girls are married to flowers, trees, arrows, swords, and so on. A bachelor is married to a ring or a plant before wedding a widow, and the first ceremony is considered as his true marriage. The Saligram, or ammonite stone, is held to represent the G.o.d Vishnu, perhaps because it was thought to be a thunderbolt and to have fallen from heaven. Its marriage is celebrated with the _tulsi_ or basil-plant, which is considered the consort of Vishnu. Trees are held to be animate and possessed by spirits, and before a man climbs a tree he begs its pardon for the injury he is about to inflict on it. When a tank is dug, its marriage is celebrated. To the ancient Roman his hearth was a G.o.d; the walls and doors and threshold of his house were G.o.ds; the boundaries of his field were also G.o.ds. [100] It is precisely the same with the modern Hindu; he also venerates the threshold of his house, the cooking-hearth, the grinding-mill, and the boundaries of his field. The Jains still think that all animals, plants and inanimate objects have souls or spirits like human beings. The belief in a soul or spirit is naturally not primitive, as man could not at first conceive of anything he did not see or hear, but plants and inanimate objects could not subsequently have been credited with the possession of souls or spirits unless they had previously been thought to be alive. "The Fijians consider that if an animal or a plant dies its soul immediately goes to Bolotoo; if a stone or any other substance is broken, immortality is equally its reward; nay, artificial bodies have equal good luck with men and hogs and yams. If an axe or a chisel is worn out or broken up, away flies its soul for the service of the G.o.ds. If a house is taken down or any way destroyed, its immortal part will find a situation on the plains of Bolotoo. The Finns believed that all inanimate objects had their _haltia_ or soul." [101] The Malays think that animals, vegetables and minerals, as well as human beings, have souls. [102]

The Kawar tribe are reported to believe that all articles of furniture and property have souls or spirits, and if any such is stolen the spirit will punish the thief. Theft is consequently almost unknown among them. All the fables about animals and plants speaking and exercising volition; the practice of ordeals, resting on the belief that the sacred living elements, fire and water, will of themselves discriminate between the innocent and guilty; the propitiatory offerings to the sea and to rivers, such incidents as Xerxes binding the sea with fetters, Ajax defying the lightning, Aaron's rod that budded, the superst.i.tions of sailors about s.h.i.+ps: all result from the same primitive belief. Many other instances of self-conscious life and volition being attributed to animals, plants and natural objects are given by Lord Avebury in _Origin of Civilisation_, by Dr. Westermarck in _The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, [103] and by Sir J.G. Frazer in _The Golden Bough_ [104]

Thus primitive man had no conception of inanimate matter, and it seems probable that he did not either realise the idea of death. Though it may be doubtful whether any race exists at present which does not understand that death is the cessation of life in the body, indications remain that this view was not primary and may not have been acquired for some time. The Gonds apparently once thought that people would not die unless they were killed by magic, and similar beliefs are held by the Australian and African savages. Several customs also point to the belief in the survival of some degree of life in the body after death, apart from the idea of the soul.

53. The distribution of life over the body.