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

13. Last human sacrifices

In his Ethnographic Notes in Southern India Mr. Thurston states:517 “The last recorded Meriāh sacrifice in the Ganjam Māliāhs occurred in 1852, and there are still Khonds alive who were present at it. Twenty-five descendants of persons who were reserved for sacrifice, but were rescued by Government officers, returned themselves as Meriāh at the Census of 1901. The Khonds have now substituted a buffalo for a human being. The animal is hewn to pieces while alive, and the villagers rush home to their villages to bury the flesh in the soil, and so secure prosperous crops. The sacrifice is not unaccompanied by risk to the performers, as the buffalo, before dying, frequently kills one or more of its tormentors. It was stated by the officers of the Māliāh Agency that there was reason to believe that the Rāja of Jaipur (Madras), when he was installed at his father’s decease in 1860–61, sacrificed a girl thirteen years of age at the shrine of the Goddess Durga in the town of Jaipur. The last attempted human sacrifice (which was nearly successful) in the Vizagāpatam District, among the Kutia Khonds, was, I believe, in 1880. But the memory of the abandoned practice is kept green by one of the Khond songs, for a translation of which we are indebted to Mr. J. E. Friend-Pereira:518

At the time of the great Kiābon (Campbell) Sāhib’s coming, the country was in darkness; it was enveloped in mist.

Having sent paiks to collect the people of the land, they, having surrounded them, caught the Meriāh sacrificers.

Having caught the Meriāh sacrificers, they brought them; and again they went and seized the evil councillors.

Having seen the chains and shackles, the people were afraid; murder and bloodshed were quelled.

Then the land became beautiful; and a certain Mokodella (Macpherson) Sāhib came.

He destroyed the lairs of the tigers and bears in the hills and rocks, and taught wisdom to the people.

After the lapse of a month he built bungalows and schools; and he advised them to learn reading and law.

They learnt wisdom and reading; they acquired silver and gold. Then all the people became wealthy.

14. Khond rising in 1882

In 1882 an armed rising of the Khonds of the Kālāhandi State occurred as a result of agrarian trouble. The Feudatory Chief had encouraged the settlement in the State of members of the Kolta caste who are excellent cultivators and keenly acquisitive of land. They soon got the Khonds heavily indebted to them for loans of food and seed-grain, and began to oust them from their villages. The Khonds, recognising with some justice that this process was likely to end in their total expropriation from the soil, concerted a conspiracy, and in May 1882 rose and murdered the Koltas of a number of villages. The signal for the outbreak was given by passing a knotted string from village to village; other signals were a bent arrow and a branch of a mahua tree. When the Khond leaders were assembled an axe was thrown on to the ground and each of them grasping it in turn swore to join in the rising and support his fellows. The taint of cruelty in the tribe is shown by the fact that the Kutia Khonds, on being requested to join in the rising, replied that if plunder was the only object they would not do so, but if the Koltas were to be murdered they agreed. Some of the murdered Koltas were anointed with turmeric and offered at temples, the Khonds calling them their goats, and in one case a Kolta is believed to have been made a Meriāh sacrifice to the earth god. The Khonds appeared before the police, who were protecting a body of refugees at the village of Norla, with the hair and scalps of their murdered victims tied to their bows. To the Political Officer, who was sent to suppress the rising, the Khonds complained that the Koltas had degraded them from the position of lords of the soil to that of servants, and justified their plundering of the Koltas on the ground that they were merely taking back the produce of their own land, which the Koltas had stolen from them. They said that if they were not to have back their land Government might either drive them out of the country or exterminate them, and that Koltas and Khonds could no more live together than tigers and goats. Another grievance was that a new Rāja of Kālāhandi had been installed without their consent having been obtained. The Political Officer, Mr. Berry, hanged seven of the Khond ringleaders and effected a settlement of their grievances. Peace was restored and has not since been broken. At a later date in the same year, 1882, and independently of the rising, a Khond landholder was convicted and executed for having offered a five-year-old girl as a Meriāh sacrifice.

15. Language

The Khond or Kandh language, called Kui by the Khonds themselves, is spoken by rather more than half of the total body of the tribe. It is much more nearly related to Telugu than is Gondi and has no written character.519

Kīr

1. Origin and Traditions

Kīr.520—A cultivating caste found principally in the Hoshangābād District. They numbered about 7000 persons in 1911. The Kīrs claim to have come from the Jaipur State, and this is borne out by the fact that they still retain a dialect of Mārwāri, though they have been living among the Hindi-speaking population of Hoshangābād for several generations. According to their traditions they immigrated into the Central Provinces when Rāja Mān was ruling at Jaipur. He was a contemporary of Akbar’s and died in A.D. 1615.521 This story tallies with Colonel Sleeman’s statement that the first important influx of Hindus into the Nerbudda valley took place in the time of Akbar.522 The Kīrs are akin to the Kirārs, and at the India Census of 1901 were amalgamated with them. Like the Kirārs they claim to be descended from the mythical Rāja Karan of Jaipur. Their story is that on a summer day Mahādeo and Pārvati created a melon-garden, and Mahādeo made a man and a woman out of a piece of kusha grass (Eragrostis cynosuroides) to tend the garden. From these the Kīrs are descended. The name may possibly be a corruption of karar, a river-bank.

2. Marriage

The Kīrs have no endogamous divisions. For the purpose of marriage the caste is divided into 12½ gotras or sections. A man must not marry within his own gotra or in that to which his mother belonged. The names of the 12 gotras are as follows: Namchuria, Daima, Bania, Bāman, Nāyar, Jāt, Huwād, Gādri, Lohāria, Hekdya, Mochi and Māli, while the half-gotra contains the Bhāts or genealogists of the caste, who are not allowed to marry with the other subdivisions and have now formed one of their own. Of the twelve names of gotras at least seven—Bāman (Brāhman), Bania, Māli, Mochi, Gādri (Gadaria), Lohāria and Jāt—are derived from other castes, and this fact is sufficient to show that the origin of the Kīrs is occupational, and that they are made up of recruits from different castes. Infant-marriage is customary, but no penalty is incurred if a girl remains unmarried after puberty. Only the poorest members of the caste, however, fail to marry their daughters at an early age. For the marriage of girls who are left unprovided for, a subscription is raised among the caste-fellows in accordance with the usual Hindu practice, the giving of money for this purpose being considered to be an especially pious act. At the time of the betrothal a bride-price called chāri, varying between Rs. 14 and Rs. 20, is paid by the boy’s father, and the deed of betrothal, called lagan, is then drawn up in the presence of the caste panchāyat who are regaled with liquor purchased out of the bride-price. A peculiarity of the marriage ceremony is that the bridegroom is taken to the bride’s house riding on a buffalo. This custom is noteworthy, since other Hindus will not usually ride on a buffalo, as being the animal on which Yama, the god of death, rides. After the marriage the bride returns to the bridegroom’s house with the wedding party and stays there for eight days, during which period she worships the family gods of her father-in-law’s house. The cost of the marriage is usually Rs. 60 for the boy’s party and Rs. 40 for the girl’s. But a widower on his remarriage has to spend double this sum. The ceremonies called Gauna and Rauna are both performed after the marriage. The former generally takes place within a year, the bride being dressed in special new clothes called bes, and sent with ceremony to her husband’s house on an auspicious day fixed by a Brāhman. She remains there for two months and the marriage is consummated, when she returns to her father’s house. Four months afterwards the bridegroom again goes to fetch her and takes her away permanently, this being the Rauna ceremony. No social stigma attaches to polygamy, and divorce is allowed on the usual grounds. Widow-marriage is permitted, the ceremony consisting in giving new clothes and ornaments to the widow and feeding the Panch for a day.

3. Religion

The caste worships especially Bhairon and Devi, and each section of it reveres a special incarnation of Devi, and the Bhairon of some particular village. Thus, for instance, the Namchurias worship the goddess Pārvati and the Bhairon of Jaria Gowāra; the Bania, Nāyar, Hekdya and Mochi septs worship Chāmunda Māta and the Bhairon of Jaipur, and so on. Members of the caste get triangular, rectangular or round pieces of silver impressed with the images of these gods, and wear them suspended by a thread from their necks. A similar respect is paid to the Ahut or the spirit of a relative who has met with a violent death or died without progeny or as a bachelor, the spirits of such persons being always prone to trouble their living relatives. In order to appease them songs are sung in their praise on important festivals, the members of the family staying awake the whole night, and wearing their images on a silver piece round the neck. When they eat and drink they first touch the food with the image by way of offering it to the dead, so that their spirits may be appeased and refrain from harassing the living. Kīrs revere and worship the cow and the pīpal tree. No Kīr may sell a cow to a butcher. A man who is about to die makes a present of a cow to a Brāhman or a temple in order that by catching hold of the tail of this cow he may be able to cross the horrible river Vaitarni, the Styx of Hinduism, which bars the passage to the nether regions. The Kīrs believe in magic, and some members of the caste profess to cure snake-bite. The poison-curer, when sent for, has a small space cleared and plastered with cowdung, on which he draws lines with wheat flour. A new earthen pot is then brought and placed over the drawing. On the pot the operator draws a figure of Hanumān in vermilion, and another figure on the nearest wall facing the pot. A brass plate is put over the pot and the person who has been bitten by the snake is brought near it. The snake-charmer then begins to name various gods and goddesses and to play upon the plate, which emits, it is said, a very melancholy sound. This performance is called bharni and is supposed to charm all beings, even gods and serpents. The snake who has inflicted the bite is then believed to appear in an invisible form to listen to the bharni, and to enter into the sufferer. The sufferer is questioned, being supposed to be possessed by the snake, and asked why the bite was inflicted and how the snake can be appeased. The replies are thought to be given by the snake, who explains that he was trampled on, or something to that effect, and asks that milk or some sweet-smelling article be placed at his hole. The offering is promised, and the snake is asked not to kill the sufferer, to which he agrees. The snake usually gives the history of his former human birth, stating his name and village and the cause of his transmigration into the body of a serpent. The Kīrs believe that human beings who commit offences are re-born as snakes, and they think that snakes live for a thousand years. After giving this information the snake departs, and the person who has been bitten is supposed to recover. The chief festivals of the Kīrs are Diwāli and Sitala Athāin. They worship their ancestors at Diwāli, making offerings of cooked food, kusha grass and lamps made of dough at the river-side. The head of the family sprinkles water and throws the kusha grass into the river, lights the wicks placed in the lamps and burns a little food in them, calling on the names of his ancestors. The rest of the food he takes home and distributes to his caste-fellows. Sitala Athāin is observed on the seventh day of the dark fortnight of Chait. Devi is worshipped at night with offerings of milk and whey, and on the next day no food is cooked, the remains of that of the previous day being eaten cold, and the whole day is devoted to singing the praises of the goddess.

4. Birth and death ceremonies

The Kīrs usually burn their dead, but children under twelve are buried. The ashes and bones are either sent to the Ganges or consigned to the nearest river or lake. Children have only one name, which is given on the seventh day after birth by a Brāhman. During the birth ceremony the husband’s younger brother catches hold of the skirt of the child’s mother, who on this pays him a few pice and pulls away her cloth. If this custom has any meaning it is apparently in symbolical memory of polyandry, the women bribing her husband’s younger brother so that he may not claim the child as his own.

5. Food, dress and occupation

The Kīrs do not take food from any caste except the Dadhāria Brāhmans, who are Mārwāris, and act as their family priests. Brāhmans and other high castes will drink water brought in a brass vessel by a Kīr. The Kīrs eat no meat except goats’ flesh and fish, but are much addicted to liquor, which is always conspicuous at their feasts and festivals. They have a caste panchāyat, which deals with the ordinary offences. Temporary excommunication is removed by the offender giving three feasts, on which an amount varying with his social position and means must be expended. The first of these is eaten on a river-bank, the second in a garden, and the third, which confers complete readmission to caste intercourse, in the offender’s house. The Kīrs live along river-banks, where they grow melons in the sand and castor and vegetables in alluvial soil. They are considered very skilful at raising these crops, and fully appreciate the use of manure. For their own consumption they usually grow bājra and arhar, being, like all Mārwāris, very fond of bājra. The members of the caste are easily distinguished by their dress, the men wearing a white mirzai or short coat, a dhoti reaching to the knees, and a head-cloth placed in a crooked position on the head, so as to leave the hair of the scalp uncovered. They wear necklaces of black wooden beads, besides the images of Bhairon and Devi. The women wear Jaipur chunris or over-cloths and ghānghras or skirts. They have red lac bangles on their wrists and arms above the elbow, and ornaments called ramjhul on their legs. The women have a gait like that of men. The speech of the Kīrs sounds like Mārwāri, and they are peculiar in their preference for riding on buffaloes.

Kirār

1. Origin and traditions

Kirār523 or Kirād.—A cultivating caste found in the Narsinghpur, Hoshangābād, Betūl, Seoni, Chhindwāra and Nāgpur Districts. They numbered 48,000 persons in 1911. The Kirārs claim to be Dhākar or bastard Rājpūts, and in 1891 more than half of them returned themselves under this designation. About a thousand persons who were returned as Dhākar Rājpūts from Hoshangābād in 1901 are probably Kirārs. The caste say that they immigrated from Gwālior, and this statement seems to be correct, as about 66,000 of them are found in that State. They claim to have left Gwālior as early as Samvat 1525 or A.D. 1468, when Alru and Dalru, the leaders of the migration into the Central Provinces, abandoned their native village, Doderi Kheda in Gwālior, and settled in Chāndon, a village in the Sohāgpur tahsīl of Hoshangābād. But according to the story related to Mr. (Sir Charles) Elliott, the migration took place in A.D. 1650 or at the beginning of Aurāngzeb’s reign.524 He quotes the names of the leaders as Alrāwat and Dalrāwat, and says that the migration took place from the Dholpur country, but this is probably a mistake, as none of the caste are now found in Dholpur. Elliott stated that he could find no traces of any cultivating caste having settled in Hoshangābād as far back as Akbar’s time, though Sir W. Sleeman was of opinion that the first great migration into the Nerbudda valley took place in that reign. The truth is probably that the valley began to be regularly colonised by Hindus during the years that Aurāngzeb spent at Burhānpur and in the Deccan, and the immigration of the Kirārs may most reasonably be attributed to this period. The Kirārs, Gūjars, and Rāghuvansis apparently entered the Central Provinces together, and the fact that they still smoke from the same huqqa and take water from each other’s drinking vessels may be a reminiscence of this bond of fellowship. All these castes claim, and probably with truth, to be degraded Rājpūts. The Kirārs’ version is that they took to widow-marriage and were consequently degraded. According to another story they were driven from their native place by a Muhammadan invasion. Mr. J. D. Cunningham says that the word Kirār in Central India literally means dalesmen or foresters, but during the lapse of centuries has become the name of a caste.525 Another derivation is from Kirār, a corn-chandler, an occupation which they may originally have followed in combination with agriculture. In the Punjab the name Kirār appears to be given to all the western or Punjabi traders as distinct from a Bania of Hindustān, and is so used even in the Kāngra hills, but the Arora, who is the trader par excellence of the south-west of the Punjab, is the person to whom the term is most commonly applied.526 As a curiosity of folk-etymology it may be stated that some derive the caste-name from the fact that a holy sage’s wife, who was about to be delivered of a child, was being pursued by a Rākshas or demon, and fell over the steep bank (karār) of a river and was thereupon delivered. The child was consequently called Karār and became the ancestor of the Kirār caste. The name may in fact be derived from the habit which the Kirārs have in some localities of cultivating on the banks of rivers, like the Kīrs, who are probably a branch of the same caste.

2. Marriage

In the Central Provinces the Kirārs have no regular subcastes. In Chhindwāra a subdivision is in course of formation from the illegitimate offspring of male Kirārs, who are known as Vidūr or Saoneria. The Dhākar Kirārs do not marry or eat with Saonerias. The section-names of the Kirārs are not eponymous, as might be anticipated from their claim to Rājpūt descent, but they are generally territorial. Instances are Bankhedi, from Bankhedi, a village in Hoshangābād; Garhya, from Garha, near Jubbulpore; and Teharia, from Tehri, a State in Bundelkhand. Other section-names are Chaudharia, from Chaudhari, headman; Khandait or swordsman, and Bānda, or tailless. Some gotras are derived from the names of other castes or subcastes, or of Rājpūt septs, as Lohāria, from Lohār (blacksmith); Chauria, a subcaste of Kurmis; Lilorhia, a subcaste of Gūjars; and Solankī and Chauhān, the names of Rājpūt septs. These names may probably be taken to indicate the mixed origin of the caste, and record the admission of families from other castes. A man cannot marry in his own gotra nor in the families of his grandmother, paternal uncle or maternal aunt to three degrees of consanguinity. Boys and girls are usually married between the ages of five and twelve. Marriages take place so long as the planet Venus or Shukra is visible at nights, i.e. between the months of Aghan (November) and Asārh (June). The proposal for marriage proceeds from the boy’s father, who ascertains the wishes of the girl’s father through a barber. If the latter is willing, the Sagai or betrothal ceremony is performed at the girl’s house. The boy’s father proceeds there with a rupee, two pice and a cocoanut-core, which he presents to the girl, taking her into his lap. The fathers of the boy and girl embrace, and this seals the compact of betrothal. The date of the marriage is usually fixed in consultation with a Brāhman, who computes an auspicious day from the ceremonial names of the couple. But if it is desired to perform the marriage at once, it may take place on Akhātīj, or the third day of the bright fortnight of Baisākh (April–May), which is always auspicious. The lagan or paper containing the date of the marriage is drawn up ceremonially by a Brāhman of the girl’s house, and he also writes another, giving the names of the relatives who are selected to officiate at the ceremony. The first ceremony at the marriage is that of Māngar Māti, or bringing earth for ovens, the earth being worshipped by a burnt offering of butter and sugar, and then dug up by the Sawāsin or girl’s attendant for the marriage, and carried home by several women in baskets. This is done in the morning, and in the evening the boy and girl in their respective houses are anointed with oil and turmeric, a little being first thrown on the ground for the family gods. This ceremony is repeated every evening for some three to fifteen days. The mandwa or marriage-shed is then erected at both houses, under which the ceremony of tel or touching the feet, knees, shoulders and forehead of the boy and the girl with oil is performed. Next day the khām or marriage-post is placed in the mandwa, a little rice, turmeric and two pice being put in the hole in which it is fixed, and the shed is covered with leaves. The bridegroom, clad in a blanket and with date-leaves tied on his head, is taken out for the binaiki or the marriage procession on horseback. Before mounting, he bows to Māta or Devi, Mahābīr, Hardaul Lāla, and Patel Deo, the spirit of the deceased mālguzār of the village. He is taken round to the houses of friends and relatives, who present him with a few pice. On his return he bathes and puts on the marriage dress, which consists of a red or yellow jāma or gown, a pair of trousers, a pagrī, a maur or marriage crown and a cloth about his waist. A few women’s ornaments are put on his neck, and he is furnished with a katār or dagger, and in its absence a nutcracker or knife. He then comes out of the house and the parchhan ceremony is performed, the boy’s mother putting her nipple in his mouth and giving him a little ghī and sugar to eat as a symbol of the termination of his infancy. The Barāt or marriage procession then sets out for the girl’s village, being met on its outskirts by the bride’s father, and the forehead of the bridegroom is marked with sandalwood paste. The bridegroom touches the Mandwa with his hand or throws a bamboo fan over it and returns with his followers to the Janwāsa or lodging given to the Barāt. Next morning the ceremony of Chadhao or decorating the bride is performed, and the bridegroom’s party give her the clothes and ornaments which they have brought for her, these being first offered to an image of Ganesh made of cowdung. The bride is then mounted on a horse provided by the bridegroom’s party and goes round to the houses of the friends of the family, accompanied by music and the women of her party, and receives small presents. The Bhānwar ceremony is performed during the night, the couple being seated near the marriage-post with their backs to the house. A ball of kneaded flour is put in the girl’s right hand, which is then placed on the right hand of the bridegroom, and the bride’s brother pours water over their hands. The bride’s maternal uncle and aunt, with the skirts of their clothes tied together, step forward and wash the feet of the couple and give them presents. The other relatives follow suit, and this completes the ceremony of Paon Pakhurai or Daija, that is giving the dowry. The couple then go round the marriage-post seven times, the girl leading for the first four rounds and the boy for the last three. This is the Bhānwar ceremony or binding portion of the marriage, and the polar star is called on to make it inviolable. The bridegroom’s party are then feasted, the women meantime singing obscene songs. The bride goes back to the bridegroom’s house and stays there for a few days, after which she returns to her parents’ house and does not leave it again until the gauna ceremony is performed. On this occasion the bridegroom’s party go to the girl’s house with a present of sweets and clothes which they present to her parents, and they then take away the girl. Even after this she is again sent back to her parents’ house, and the bridegroom comes a second time to fetch her, on which occasion the parents of the bride have to make a present in return for the sweets and clothes previously given to them. The marriage expenses are said to average between Rs. 50 and Rs. 100, but the extravagance of Kirārs is notorious. Sir R. Craddock says527 that they are much given to display, the richer members of the caste being heavily weighted with jewellery, while a well-to-do Kirār will think nothing of spending Rs. 1000 on his house, or if he is a landowner Rs. 5000. Extravagance ruins a great many of the Kirār community. This statement, however, perhaps applies to those of the Nāgpur District rather than to their comrades of the Nerbudda valley and Satpūra highlands. The remarriage of widows is permitted, and the widow may marry either her husband’s younger brother or any other member of the caste at her choice. The ceremony takes place at night, the woman being brought to her husband’s house by the back door and given a new cloth and bangles. Turmeric is then applied to her body, and the clothes of the couple are tied together. When a bachelor marries a widow, he must first be married to an akau plant (swallow-wort). Divorce may be effected for infidelity on the part of the wife or for serious disagreement. A divorced woman may marry again. Polygamy is allowed, and in Chhindwāra is said to be restricted to three wives, all living within the District, but elsewhere no such limitation is enforced. A man seldom, however, takes more than one wife, except for the sake of children.