The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 3

8. Drunkenness and divine inspiration

The intoxication of alcohol is considered by primitive people as a form of divine inspiration or possession like epileptic fits and insanity. This is apparently the explanation of the Vedic liquor, Soma, being deified as one of the greatest gods. In later Hindu mythology, Varuni, the goddess of wine, was produced when the gods churned the ocean with the mountain Mandara as a churning-stick on the back of the tortoise, Vishnu, and the serpent as a rope, for the purpose of restoring to man the comforts lost during the great flood.278 Varuni was considered to be the consort of Varūna, the Vedic Neptune.

Similarly the Bacchantes in their drunken frenzy were considered to be possessed by the wine-god Dionysus. “The Aztecs regarded pulque or the wine of the country as bad, on account of the wild deeds which men did under its influence. But these wild deeds were believed to be the acts, not of the drunken man, but of the wine-god by whom he was possessed and inspired; and so seriously was this theory of inspiration held that if any one spoke ill of or insulted a tipsy man, he was liable to be punished for disrespect to the wine-god incarnate in his votary.”279 Sir James Frazer thinks that the grape-juice was also considered to be the blood of the vine. At one time the arrack or rice-beer liquor was also considered by the Hindus as holy and purifying. Siva says to his consort: “Oh, sweet-speaking goddess, the salvation of Brāhmans depends on drinking wine.... No one becomes a Brāhman by repeating the Gāyatri, the mother of the Vedas; he is called a Brāhman only when he has knowledge of Brahma. The ambrosia of the gods is their Brahma, and on earth it is arrack, and because one attains the character of a god (suratva) therefore is arrack called sura.”280 The Sākta Tantras insist upon the use of wine as an element of devotion. The Kaulas, who are the most ardent followers of the Sākta Tantras, celebrate their rites at midnight in a closed room, when they sit in a circle round a jar of country arrack, one or more young women of a lewd character being in the company; they drink, drink and drink until they fall down on the ground in utter helplessness, then rising again they drink in the hope of never having a second birth.281 “I knew a highly respectable widow lady, connected with one of the most distinguished families in Calcutta, who belonged to the Kaula sect, and had survived the 75th anniversary of her birthday, who never said her prayers (and she did so regularly every morning and evening) without touching the point of her tongue with a tooth-pick dipped in a phial of arrack, and sprinkling a few drops of the liquor on the flowers which she offered to her god. I doubt very much if she had ever drunk a wine-glassful of arrack at once in all her life, and certain it is that she never had any idea of the pleasures of drinking; but as a faithful Kaula she felt herself in duty bound to observe the mandates of her religion with the greatest scrupulousness.”282 In this case it seems clear that the liquor was considered to have a purifying effect, which was perhaps especially requisite for the offerings of a widow.

9. Sanctity of liquor among the Gonds and other castes

Similarly the Gonds and Baigas revere the mahua tree and consider the liquor distilled from its flowers as sacred and purificatory. At a Gond wedding the sacred post round which the couple go is made of the wood of the mahua tree. The Bhatras of Bastar also use the mahua for the wedding post, and the Sonkars of Chhattīsgarh a forked branch of the tree. Minor caste offences are expiated among the Gonds by a fine of liquor, and by drinking it the culprit is purified. At a Gond funeral one man may be seen walking with a bottle or two of liquor slung to his side; this is drunk by all the party on the spot after the burial or burning of the corpse as a means of purification. Among the Korwas and other tribes the Baiga or priest protects the village from ghosts by sprinkling a line of liquor all round the boundary, over which the ghosts cannot pass. Similarly during epidemics of cholera liquor is largely used in the rites of the Baigas for averting the disease and is offered to the goddess. At their weddings the Mahārs drink together ceremoniously, a pot of liquor being placed on a folded cloth and all the guests sitting round it in a circle. An elder man then lays a new piece of cloth on the pot and worships it. He takes a cup of the liquor himself and hands round a cupful to every person present. At the Hareli or festival of the new green vegetation in July the Gonds take the branches of four kinds of trees and place them at the corners of their fields and also inside the house over the door. They pour ghī (butter) on the fire as incense and an offering to the deities. Then they go to the meeting-place of the village and there they all take a bottle or two of liquor each and drink together, having first thrown a little on the ground as an offering. Then they invite each other to their houses to take food. The Baigas do not observe Hareli, but on any moonlight night in Shrāwan (July) they will go to the field where they have sown grain and root up a few plants and bring them to the house, and, laying them on a clean place, pour ghī and a little liquor over them. Then they take the corn plants back to the field and replace them. For these rites and for offerings to the deities of disease the Gonds say that the liquor should be distilled at home by the person who offers the sacrifice and not purchased from the Government contractor. This is a reason or at any rate an excuse for the continuance of the practice of illicit distillation. Hindus generally make a libation to Devi before drinking liquor. They pour a little into their hand and sprinkle it in a circle on the ground, invoking the goddess. The palm-tree is also held sacred on account of the tāri or toddy obtained from it. “The shreds of the holy palm-tree, holy because liquor-yielding, are worn by some of the early Konkan tribes and by some of the Konkan village gods. The strip of palm-leaf is the origin of the shape of one of the favourite Hindu gold bracelet patterns.”283

10. Drugs also considered divine

The abstinence from liquor enjoined by modern Hinduism to the higher castes of Hindus has unfortunately not extended to the harmful drugs, opium, and gānja284 or Indian hemp with its preparations. On the contrary gānja is regularly consumed by Hindu ascetics, whether devotees of Siva or Vishnu, though it is more favoured by the Sivite Jogis. The blue throat of Siva or Mahādeo is said to be due to the enormous draughts of bhāng285 which he was accustomed to swallow. The veneration attached to these drugs may probably be explained by the delusion that the pleasant dreams and visions obtained under their influence are excursions of the spirit into paradise. It is a common belief among primitive people that during sleep the soul leaves the body and that dreams are the actual experiences of the soul when travelling over the world apart from the body.286 The principal aim of Hindu asceticism is also the complete conquest of all sensation and movement in the body, so that while it is immobile the spirit freed from the trammels of the body and from all worldly cares and concerns may, as it is imagined, enter into communion with and be absorbed in the deity. Hence the physical inertia and abnormal mental exaltation produced by these drugs would be an ideal condition to the Hindu ascetic; the body is lulled to immobility and it is natural that he should imagine that the delightful fantasies of his drugged brain are beatific visions of heaven. Gānja and bhāng are now considered sacred as being consumed by Mahādeo, and are offered to him. Before smoking gānja a Hindu will say, ‘May it reach you, Shankar,’287 that is, the smoke of the gānja, like the sweet savour of a sacrifice; and before drinking bhāng he will pour a little on the ground and say ‘Jai Shankar.’288 Similarly when cholera visits a village and various articles of dress with food and liquor are offered to the cholera goddess, Marhai Māta, smokers of gānja and madak289 will offer a little of their drugs. Hindu ascetics who smoke gānja are accustomed to mix with it some seeds of the dhatura (Datura alba), which have a powerful stupefying effect. In large quantities these seeds are a common narcotic poison, being administered to travellers and others by criminals. This tree is sacred to Siva, and the purple and white flowers are offered on his altars, and probably for this reason it is often found growing in villages so that the poisonous seeds are readily available. Its sanctity apparently arises from the narcotic effects produced by the seeds.

The conclusion of hostilities and ratification of peace after a Bhīl fight was marked by the solemn administration of opium to all present by the Jogi or Gammaiti priests.290 This incident recalls the pipe of peace of the North American Indians, among whom a similar divine virtue was no doubt ascribed to tobacco. In ancient Greece the priestesses of Apollo consumed the leaves of the laurel to produce the prophetic ecstasy; the tree was therefore held sacred and associated with Apollo and afterwards developed into a goddess in the shape of Daphne pursued by Apollo and transformed into a laurel.291 The laurel was also considered to have a purifying or expiatory effect like alcoholic liquor in India. Wreaths of laurel were worn by such heroes as Apollo and Cadmus before engaging in battle to cleanse themselves from the pollution of bloodshed, and hence the laurel-wreath afterwards became the crown of victory.292

In India bhāng was regularly drunk by the Rājpūts before going into battle, to excite their courage and render them insensible to pain. The effects produced were probably held to be caused by divine agency. Herodotus says that the Scythians had a custom of burning the seeds of the hemp plant in religious ceremonies and that they became intoxicated with the fumes.293 Gānja is the hashīsh of the Old Man of the Mountain and of Monte Cristo. The term hashshāsh, meaning ‘a smoker or eater of hemp,’ was first applied to Arab warriors in Syria at the time of the Crusades; from its plural hashshāsheen our word assassin is derived.294

11. Opium and gānja

The sacred or divine character attributed to the Indian drugs in spite of their pernicious effects has thus probably prevented any organised effort for their prohibition. Buchanan notes that “No more blame follows the use of opium and gānja than in Europe that of wine; yet smoking tobacco is considered impure by the highest castes.”295 It is said, however, that a Brāhman should abstain from drugs until he is in the last or ascetic stage of life. In India opium is both eaten and smoked. It is administered to children almost from the time of their birth, partly perhaps because its effects are supposed to be beneficial and also to prevent them from crying and keep them quiet while their parents are at work. One of the favourite methods of killing female children was to place a fatal dose of opium on the nipple of the mother’s breast. Many children continue to receive small quantities of opium till they are several years old, sometimes eight or nine, when it is gradually abandoned. It can scarcely be doubted that the effect of the drug must be to impair their health and enfeeble their vitality. The effect of eating opium on adults is much less pernicious than when the habit of smoking it is acquired. Madak or opium prepared for smoking may not now be sold, but people make it for themselves, heating the opium in a little brass cup over a fire with an infusion of tamarind leaves. It is then made into little balls and put into the pipe. Opium-smokers are gregarious and partake of the drug together. As the fumes mount to their brains, their intellects become enlivened, their tongues unloosed and the conversation ranges over all subjects in heaven and earth. This factitious excitement must no doubt be a powerful attraction to people whose lives are as dull as that of the average Hindu. And thus they become madakis or confirmed opium-smokers and are of no more use in life. Dhīmars or fishermen consume opium and gānja largely under the impression that these drugs prevent them from taking cold. Gānja is smoked and is usually mixed with tobacco. It is much less injurious than opium in the same form, except when taken in large quantities, and is also slower in acquiring a complete hold over its votaries. Many cultivators buy a little gānja at the weekly bazār and have one pipeful each as a treat. Sweepers are greatly addicted to gānja, and their patron saint Lālbeg was frequently in a comatose condition from over-indulgence in the drug. Ahīrs or herdsmen also smoke it to while away the long days in the forests. But the habitual consumers of either kind of drug are now only a small fraction of the population, while English education and the more strenuous conditions of modern life have effected a substantial decline in their numbers, at least among the higher classes. At the same time a progressive increase is being effected by Government in the retail price of the drugs, and the number of vend licences has been very greatly reduced.

The prohibition of wine to Muhammadans is held to include drugs, but it is not known how far the rule is strictly observed. But addiction to drugs is at any rate uncommon among Muhammadans.

12. Tobacco

No kind of sanctity attaches to tobacco and, as has been seen, certain classes of Brāhmans are forbidden to smoke though they may chew the leaves. Tobacco is prohibited by the Sikhs, the Satnāmis and some other Vaishnava sects. The explanation of this attitude is simple if, as is supposed, tobacco was first introduced into India by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century.296 In this case as a new and foreign product it could have no sacred character, only those things being held sacred and the gifts of the gods whose origin is lost in antiquity. In a note on the subject297 Mr. Ganpat Rai shows that several references to smoking and also to the huqqa are found in ancient Sanskrit literature; but it does not seem clear that the plant smoked was tobacco and, on the other hand, the similarity of the vernacular to the English name298 is strong evidence in favour of its foreign origin.

13. Customs in connection with drinking

The country liquor, consisting of spirits distilled from the flowers of the mahua tree, is an indispensable adjunct to marriage and other ceremonial feasts among the lower castes of Hindus and the non-Aryan tribes. It is usually drunk before the meal out of brass vessels, cocoanut-shells or leaf-cups, water being afterwards taken with the food itself. If an offender has to give a penalty feast for readmission to caste but the whole burden of the expense is beyond his means, other persons who may have committed minor offences and owe something to the caste on that account are called upon to provide the liquor. Similarly at the funeral feast the heir and chief mourner may provide the food and more distant relatives the liquor. The Gonds never take food while drinking, and as a rule one man does not drink alone. Three or four of them go to the liquor-shop together and each in turn buys a whole bottle of liquor which they share with each other, each bottle being paid for by one of the company and not jointly. And if a friend from another village turns up and is invited to drink he is not allowed to pay anything. In towns there will be in the vicinity of the liquor-shop retailers of little roasted balls of meat on sticks and cakes of gram-flour fried in salt and chillies. These the customers eat, presumably to stimulate their thirst or as a palliative to the effects of the spirit. Illicit distillation is still habitual among the Gonds of Mandla, who have been accustomed to make their own liquor from time immemorial. In the rains, when travelling is difficult and the excise officers cannot descend on them without notice, they make the liquor in their houses. In the open season they go to the forest and find some spot secluded behind rocks and also near water. When the fermented mahua is ready they put up the distilling vat in the middle of the day so that the smoke may be less perceptible, and one of them will climb a tree and keep watch for the approach of the Excise Sub-Inspector and his myrmidons while the other distils.

Kamār299

1. Origin and traditions

Kamār.—A small Dravidian tribe exclusively found in the Raipur District and adjoining States. They numbered about 7000 persons in 1911, and live principally in the Khariār and Bindrānawāgarh zamīndāris of Raipur. In Bengal and Chota Nāgpur the term Kamār is merely occupational, implying a worker in iron, and similarly Kammala in the Telugu country is a designation given to the five artisan castes. Though the name is probably the same the Kamārs of the Central Provinces are a purely aboriginal tribe and there is little doubt that they are an offshoot of the Gonds, nor have they any traditions of ever having been metal-workers. They claim to be autochthonous like most of the primitive tribes. They tell a long story of their former ascendancy, saying that a Kamār was the original ruler of Bindrānawāgarh. But a number of Kamārs one day killed the bhimrāj bird which had been tamed and taught hawking by a foreigner from Delhi. He demanded satisfaction, and when it was refused went to Delhi and brought man-eating soldiers from there, who ate up all the Kamārs except one pregnant woman. She took refuge in a Brāhman’s hut in Patna and there had a son, whom she exposed on a dung-heap for fear of scandal, as she was a widow at the time. Hence the boy was called Kachra-Dhurwa or rubbish and dust. This name may be a token of the belief of the Kamārs that they were born from the earth as insects generate in dung and decaying organisms. Similarly one great subtribe of the Gonds are called Dhur or dust Gonds. Kachra-Dhurwa was endowed with divine strength and severed the head of a goat made of iron with a stick of bamboo. On growing up he collected his fellow-tribesmen and slaughtered all the cannibal soldiers, regaining his ancestral seat in Bindrānawāgarh. It is noticeable that the Kamārs call the cannibal soldiers Aghori, the name of a sect of ascetics who eat human flesh. They still point to various heaps of lime-encrusted fossils in Bindrānawāgarh as the bones of the cannibal soldiers. The state of the Kamārs is so primitive that it does not seem possible that they could ever have been workers in iron, but they may perhaps, like the Agarias, be a group of the Gonds who formerly quarried iron and thus obtained their distinctive name.

2. Subdivisions and marriage

They have two subdivisions, the Bundhrajia and Mākadia. The latter are so called because they eat monkeys and are looked down on by the others. They have only a few gots or septs, all of which have the same names as those of Gond septs. The meaning of the names has now been forgotten. Their ceremonies also resemble those of the Gonds, and there can be little doubt that they are an offshoot of that tribe. Marriage within the sept is prohibited, but is permitted between the children of brothers and sisters or of two sisters. Those who are well-to-do marry their children at about ten years old, but among the bulk of the caste adult-marriage is in fashion, and the youths and maidens are sometimes allowed to make their own choice. At the betrothal the boy and girl are made to stand together so that the caste panchāyat or elders may see the suitability of the match, and a little wine is sprinkled in the name of the gods. The marriage ceremony is a simple one, the marriage-post being erected at the boy’s house. The party go to the girl’s house to fetch her, and there is a feast, followed by a night of singing and dancing. They then return to the boy’s house and the couple go round the sacred pole and throw rice over each other seven times. All the guests also throw rice over the couple with the object, it is said, of scaring off the spirits who are always present on this occasion, and protecting the bride and bridegroom from harm. But perhaps the rice is really meant to give fertility to the match. The wife remains with her husband for four days and then they return to the house of her parents, where the wedding clothes stained yellow with turmeric must be washed. After this they again proceed to the bridegroom’s house and live together. Polygamy and widow-marriage are allowed, the ceremony in the marriage of a widow consisting simply in putting bangles on her wrists and giving her a piece of new cloth. The Kamārs never divorce their wives, however loose their conduct may be, as they say that a lawful wife is above all suspicion. They also consider it sinful to divorce a wife. The liaison of an unmarried girl is passed over even with a man outside the caste, unless he is of a very low caste, such as a Gānda.

3. The sister’s son

As among some of the other primitive tribes, a man stands in a special relation to his sister’s children. The marriage of his children with his sister’s children is considered as the most suitable union. If a man’s sister is poor he will arrange for the wedding of her children. He will never beat his sister’s children, however much they may deserve it, and he will not permit his sister’s son or daughter to eat from the dish from which he eats. This special connection between a maternal uncle and his nephew is held to be a survival of the matriarchate, when a man stood in the place a father now occupies to his sister’s children, the real father having nothing to do with them.

4. Menstruation

During the period of her monthly impurity a woman is secluded for eight days. She may not prepare food nor draw water nor worship the gods, but she may sweep the house and do outdoor work. She sleeps on the ground and every morning spreads fresh cowdung over the place where she has slept. The Kamārs think that a man who touched a woman in this condition would be destroyed by the household god. When a woman in his household is impure in this manner a man will bathe before going into the forest lest he should pollute the forest gods.

5. Birth customs

A woman is impure for six days after a birth until the performance of the Chathi or sixth-day ceremony, when the child’s head is shaved and the mother and child are bathed and their bodies rubbed with oil and turmeric. After this a woman can go about her work in the house, but she may not cook food nor draw water for two and a half months after the birth of a male child, nor for three months after that of a female one. Till the performance of the Chathi ceremony the husband is also impure, and he may not worship the gods or go hunting or shooting or even go for any distance into the forest. If a child is born within six months of the death of any person in the family, they think that the dead relative has been reborn in the child and give the child the same name, apparently without distinction of sex. If a mother’s milk runs dry and she cannot suckle her child they give her fresh fish and salt to eat, and think that this will cause the milk to flow. The idea of eating the fish is probably that being a denizen of the liquid element it will produce liquid in the mother’s body, but it is not clear whether the salt has any special meaning.

6. Death and inheritance

The dead are buried with the head to the north, and mourning is nominally observed for three days. But they have no rules of abstinence, and do not even bathe to purify themselves as almost all castes do. Sons inherit equally, and daughters do not share with sons. But if there are no sons, then an unmarried daughter or one married to a Lamsena, or man who has served for her, and living in the house, takes the whole property for her lifetime, after which it reverts to her father’s family. Widows, Mr. Ganpati Giri states, only inherit in the absence of male heirs.

7. Religious beliefs

They worship Dūlha Deo and Devi, and have a firm belief in magic. They tell a curious story about the origin of the world, which recalls that of the Flood. They say that in the beginning God created a man and a woman to whom two children of opposite sex were born in their old age. Mahādeo, however, sent a deluge over the world in order to drown a jackal who had angered him. The old couple heard that there was going to be a deluge, so they shut up their children in a hollow piece of wood with provision of food to last them until it should subside. They then closed up the trunk, and the deluge came and lasted for twelve years, the old couple and all other living things on the earth being drowned, but the trunk floated on the face of the waters. After twelve years Mahādeo created two birds and sent them to see whether his enemy the jackal had been drowned. The birds flew over all the corners of the world, but saw nothing except a log of wood floating on the surface of the water, on which they perched. After a short time they heard low and feeble voices coming from inside the log. They heard the children saying to each other that they only had provision for three days left. So the birds flew away and told Mahādeo, who then caused the flood to subside, and taking out the children from the log of wood, heard their story. He thereupon brought them up, and they were married, and Mahādeo gave the name of a different caste to every child who was born to them, and from them all the inhabitants of the world are descended. The fact that the Kamārs should think their deity capable of destroying the whole world by a deluge, in order to drown a jackal which had offended him, indicates how completely they are wanting in any exalted conception of morality. They are said to have no definite ideas of a future life nor any belief in a resurrection of the body. But they believe in future punishment in the case of a thief, who, they say, will be reborn as a bullock in the house of the man whose property he has stolen, or will in some other fashion expiate his crime. They think that the sun and moon are beings in human shape, and that darkness is caused by the sun going to sleep. They also think that a railway train is a live and sentient being, and that the whistle of the engine is its cry, and they propitiate the train with offerings lest it should do them some injury. When a man purposes to go out hunting, Mr. Ganpati Giri states, he consults the village priest, who tells him whether he will fail or succeed. If the prediction is unfavourable he promises a fowl or a goat to his family god in order to obtain his assistance, and then confidently expects success. When an animal has been killed and brought home, the hunter cuts off the head, and after washing it with turmeric powder and water makes an offering of it to the forest god. Ceremonial fishing expeditions are sometimes held, in which all the men and women of the village participate, and on such occasions the favour of the water-goddess is first invoked with an offering of five chickens and various feminine adornments, such as vermilion, lamp-black for the eyes, small glass bangles and a knot of ribbons made of cotton or silk, after which a large catch of fish is anticipated. The men refrain from visiting their wives on the day before they start for a hunting or fishing expedition.