The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 1

5. The religious service

A Kabīrpanthi religious service is called Chauka, the name given to the space marked out for it with lines of wheat-flour, 5 or 7½ yards square.293 In the centre is made a pattern of nine lotus flowers to represent the sun, moon and seven planets, and over this a bunch of real flowers is laid. At one corner is a small hollow pillar of dough serving as a candle-stick, in which a stick covered with cotton-wool burns as a lamp, being fed with butter. The Mahant sits at one end and the worshippers sit round. Bhajans or religious songs are sung to the music of cymbals by one or two, and the others repeat the name of Kabīr counting on their kanthi or necklace of beads. The Mahant lights a piece of camphor and waves it backwards and forwards in a dish. This is called Arti, a Hindu rite. He then breaks a cocoanut on a stone, a thing which only a Mahant may do. The flesh of the cocoanut is cut up and distributed to the worshippers with betel-leaf and sugar. Each receives it on his knees, taking the greatest care that none fall on the ground. If any of the cocoanut remain, it is kept by the Mahant for another service. The Hindus think that the cocoanut is a substitute for a human head. It is supposed to have been created by Viswāmitra and the būch or tuft of fibre at the end represents the hair. The Kabīrpanthis will not eat any part of a cocoanut from other Hindus from which this tuft has been removed, as they fear that it may have been broken off in the name of some god or spirit. Once the būch is removed the cocoanut is not an acceptable offering, as its likeness to a human head is considered to be destroyed. After this the Mahant gives an address and an interval occurs. Some little time afterwards the worshippers reassemble. Meanwhile, a servant has taken the dough candle-stick and broken it up, mixing it with fragments of the cocoanut, butter and more flour. It is then brought to the Mahant, who makes it into little puris or wafers. The Mahant has also a number of betel-leaves known as parwāna or message, which have been blessed by the head guru at Kawardha or Dāmākheda. These are cut up into small pieces for delivery to each disciple and are supposed to represent the body of Kabīr. He has also brought Charan Amrita or Nectar of the Feet, consisting of water in which the feet of the head guru have been washed. This is mixed with fine earth and made up into pills. The worshippers reassemble, any who may feel unworthy absenting themselves, and each receives from the Mahant, with one hand folded beneath the other, a wafer of the dough, a piece of the parwāna or betel-leaf, and a pill of the foot-nectar. After partaking of the sacred food they cleanse their hands, and the proceedings conclude with a substantial meal defrayed either by subscription or by a well-to-do member. Bishop Westcott states that the parwāna or betel-leaf is held to represent Kabīr’s body, and the Kabīrpanthis say that the flame of the candle is the life or spirit of Kabīr, so that the dough of the candle-stick might also be taken to symbolise his body. The cocoanut eaten at the preliminary service is undoubtedly offered by Hindus as a substitute for a human body, though the Kabīrpanthis may now disclaim this idea. And the foot-nectar of the guru might be looked upon as a substitute for the blood of Kabīr.

6. Initiation

The initiation of a proselyte is conducted at a similar service, and he is given cocoanut and betel-leaf. He solemnly vows to observe the rules of the sect, and the Mahant whispers a text into his ear and hangs a necklace of wooden beads of the wood of the tulsi or basil round his neck. This kanthi or necklace is the mark of the Kabīrpanthi, but if lost, it can be replaced by any other necklace, not necessarily of tulsi. One man was observed with a necklace of pink beads bought at Allahābād. Sometimes only a single tulsi bead is worn on a string. The convert is also warned against eating the fruit of the gūlar294 fig-tree, as these small figs are always full of insects. Kabīr condemned sect-marks, but many Kabīrpanthis now have them, the mark usually being a single broad streak of white sandalwood from the top of the forehead to the nose.

7. Funeral rites

The Kabīrpanthis are usually buried. Formerly, the bodies of married people both male and female were buried inside the compound of the house, but this is now prohibited on sanitary grounds. A cloth is placed in the grave and the corpse laid on it and another cloth placed over it covering the face. Over the grave a little platform is made on which the Mahant and two or three other persons can sit. On the twenty-first day after the death, if possible, the Mahant should hold a service for the dead. The form of the service is that already described, the Mahant sitting on the grave and the chauka being made in front of it. He lays a cocoanut and flowers on the grave and lights the lamp, afterwards distributing the cocoanut. The Kabīrpanthis think that the soul of the dead person remains in the grave up to this time, but when the lamp is burnt the soul mingles with the flame, which is the soul of Kabīr, and is absorbed into the deity. When breaking a cocoanut over the grave of the dead the Kabīrpanthis say, ‘I am breaking the skull of Yama,’ because they think that the soul of a Kabīrpanthi is absorbed into the deity and therefore is not liable to be taken down to hell and judged by Chitragupta and punished by Yama. From this it would appear that some of them do not believe in the transmigration of souls.

8. Idol worship

Ordinarily the Kabīrpanthis have no regular worship except on the occasion of a visit of the guru. But sometimes in the morning they fold their hands and say ‘Sat Sāhib,’ or the ‘True God,’ two or three times. They also clean a space with cowdung and place a lighted lamp on it and say ‘Jai Kabīr Ki,’ or ‘Victory to Kabīr.’ They conceive of the deity as consisting of light, and therefore it seems probable that, like the other Vaishnava sects, they really take him to be the Sun. Kabīr prohibited the worship of all idols and visible symbols, but as might be expected the illiterate Kabīrpanthis cannot adhere strictly to this. Some of them worship the Bījak, the principal sacred book of their sect. At Rudri near Dhamtari on the Mahānadi one of the Gurus is buried, and a religious fair is held there. Recently a platform has been made with a footprint of Kabīr marked on it, and this is venerated by the pilgrims. Similarly, Kudarmāl is held to contain the grave of Churāman, the first guru after Dharam Dās, and a religious fair is held here at which the Kabīrpanthis attend and venerate the grave. Dharam Dās himself is said to be buried at Puri, the site of Jagannāth’s temple, but it seems doubtful whether this story may not have been devised in order to give the Kabīrpanthis a valid reason for going on pilgrimage to Puri. Similarly, an arch and platform in the court of the temple of Rāma at Rāmtek is considered to belong to the Kabīrpanthis, though the Brāhmans of the temple say that the arch was really made by the daughter of a Sūrajvansi king of the locality in order to fasten her swing to it. Once in three years the Mahār Kabīrpanthis of Mandla make a sacrificial offering of a goat to Dulha Deo, the bridegroom god, and eat the flesh, burying the remains beneath the floor. On this occasion they also drink liquor. Other Kabīrpanthis venerate Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, and light a lamp and burn camphor in their names, but do not make idols of them. They will accept the cooked food offered to Vishnu as Satnārāyan and a piece of the cocoanut kernel offered to Devi, but not the offerings to any other deities. And a number even of illiterate Kabīrpanthis appear to abstain from any kind of idol-worship.

9. Statistics of the sect

About 600,000 Kabīrpanthis were returned in the Central Provinces in 1911, this being equivalent to an increase of 19 per cent since the previous census. As this was less than the increase in the total population the sect appears to be stationary or declining in numbers. The weaving castes are usually Kabīrpanthis, because Kabīr was a weaver. The Brāhmans call it ‘The weaver’s religion.’ Of the Panka caste 84 per cent were returned as members of the sect, and this caste appears to be of sectarian formation, consisting of Pāns or Gāndas who have become Kabīrpanthis. Other weaving castes such as Balāhis, Koris, Koshtis and Mahārs belong to the sect in considerable numbers, and it is also largely professed by other low castes as the Telis or oilmen, of whom 16 per cent adhere to it, and by Dhobis and Chamārs; and by some castes from whom a Brāhman will take water, as the Ahīrs, Kurmis, Lodhis and Kāchhis. Though there seems little doubt that one of the principal aims of Kabīr’s preaching was the abolition of the social tyranny of the caste system, which is the most real and to the lower classes the most hateful and burdensome feature of Hinduism, yet as in the case of so many other reformers his crusade has failed, and a man who becomes a Kabīrpanthi does not cease to be a member of his caste or to conform to its observances. And a few Brāhmans who have been converted, though renounced by their own caste, have, it is said, been compensated by receiving high posts in the hierarchy of the sect. Formerly all members of the sect took food together at the conclusion of each Chauka or service conducted by a Mahant. But this is no longer the case, and presumably different Chaukas are now held for communities of different castes. Only on the 13th day of Bhādon (August), which was the birthday of Kabīr, as many Kabīrpanthis as can meet at the headquarters of the Guru take food together without distinction of caste in memory of their Founder’s doctrine. Otherwise the Kabīrpanthis of each caste make a separate group within it, but among the lower castes they take food and marry with members of the caste who are not Kabīrpanthis. These latter are commonly known as Saktāha, a term which in Chhattīsgarh signifies an eater of meat as opposed to a Kabīrpanthi who refrains from it. The Mahārs and Pankas permit intermarriage between Kabīrpanthi and Saktāha families, the wife in each case adopting the customs and beliefs of her husband. Kabīrpanthis also wear the choti or scalp-lock and shave the head for the death of a relative, in spite of Kabīr’s contempt of the custom. Still, the sect has in the past afforded to the uneducated classes a somewhat higher ideal of spiritual life than the chaotic medley of primitive superstitions and beliefs in witchcraft and devil worship, from which the Brāhmans, caring only for the recognition of their social supremacy, made no attempt to raise them.

Lingāyat Sect

Lingāyat Sect.—A sect devoted to the worship of Siva which has developed into a caste. The Lingāyat sect is supposed295 to have been founded in the twelfth century by one Bāsava, a Brāhman minister of the king of the Carnatic. He preached the equality of all men and of women also by birth, and the equal treatment of all. Women were to be treated with the same respect as men, and any neglect or incivility to a woman would be an insult to the god whose image she wore and with whom she was one. Caste distinctions were the invention of Brāhmans and consequently unworthy of acceptance. The Madras Census Report296 of 1871 further states that Bāsava preached the immortality of the soul, and mentions a theory that some of the traditions concerning him might have been borrowed from the legends of the Syrian Christians, who had obtained a settlement in Madras at a period not later than the seventh century. The founder of the sect thus took as his fundamental tenet the abolition of caste, but, as is usual in the history of similar movements, the ultimate result has been that the Lingāyats have themselves become a caste. In Bombay they have two main divisions, Mr. Enthoven states:297 the Panchamsālis or descendants of the original converts from Brāhmanism and the non-Panchamsālis or later converts. The latter are further subdivided into a number of groups, apparently endogamous. Converts of each caste becoming Lingāyats form a separate group of their own, as Ahīr Lingāyats, Bania Lingāyats and so on, severing their connection with the parent caste. A third division consists of members of unclean castes attached to the Lingāyat community by reason of performing to it menial service. A marked tendency has recently been displayed by the community in Bombay to revert to the original Brāhmanic configuration of society, from which its founder sought to free it. On the occasion of the census a complete scheme was supplied to the authorities professing to show the division of the Lingāyats into the four groups of Brāhman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sūdra.

In the Central Provinces Lingāyats were not shown as a separate caste, and the only return of members of the sect is from the Bania caste, whose subcastes were abstracted. Lingāyat was recorded as a subcaste by 8000 Banias, and these form a separate endogamous group. But members of other castes as Gaolis, Mālis, Patwas and the Telugu Balijas are also Lingāyats and marry among themselves. A child becomes a Lingāyat by being invested with the lingam or phallic sign of Siva, seven days after its birth, by the Jangam priest. This is afterwards carried round the neck in a small casket of silver, brass or wood throughout life, and is buried with the corpse at death. The corpse of a Lingāyat cannot be burnt because it must not be separated from the lingam, as this is considered to be the incarnation of Siva and must not be destroyed in the fire. If it is lost the owner must be invested with a fresh one by the Jangam in the presence of the caste. It is worshipped three times a day, being washed in the morning with the ashes of cowdung cakes, while in the afternoon leaves of the bel tree and food are offered to it. When a man is initiated as a Lingāyat in after-life, the Jangam invests him with the lingam, pours holy water on to his head and mutters in his ear the sacred text, ‘Aham so aham,’ or ‘I and you are now one and the same.’ The Lingāyats are strict vegetarians, and will not expose their drinking water to the sun, as they think that by doing this insects would be bred in it and that by subsequently swallowing them they would be guilty of the destruction of life. They are careful to leave no remains of a meal uneaten. Their own priests, the Jangams, officiate at their weddings, and after the conclusion of the ceremony the bride and bridegroom break raw cakes of pulse placed on the other’s back, the bride with her foot and the bridegroom with his fist. Widow-marriage is allowed. The dead are buried in a sitting posture with their faces turned towards the east. Water sanctified by the Jangam having dipped his toe into it is placed in the mouth of the corpse. The Jangam presses down the earth over the grave and then stands on it and refuses to come off until he is paid a sum of money varying with the means of the man, the minimum payment being Rs. 1–4. In some cases a platform with an image of Mahādeo is made over the grave. When meeting each other the Lingāyats give the salutation Sharnāt, or, ‘I prostrate myself before you.’ They address the Jangam as Mahārāj and touch his feet with their head. The Lingāyat Banias of the Central Provinces usually belong to Madras and speak Telugu in their houses. As they deny the authority of Brāhmans, the latter have naturally a great antipathy for them, and make various statements to their discredit. One of these is that after a death the Lingāyats have a feast, and, setting up the corpse in the centre, arrange themselves round it and eat their food. But this is not authenticated. Similarly the Abbe Dubois stated:298 “They do not recognise the laws relating to defilement which are generally accepted by other castes, such, for instance, as those occasioned by a woman’s periodical ailments, and by the death and funeral of relations. Their indifference to all such prescriptive customs relating to defilement and cleanliness has given rise to a Hindu proverb which says, ‘There is no river for a Lingāyat,’ meaning that the members of the sect do not recognise, at all events on many occasions, the virtues and merits of ablutions.” The same author also states that they entirely reject the doctrine of migration of souls, and that, in consequence of their peculiar views on this point, they have no tithis or anniversary festivals to commemorate the dead. A Lingāyat is no sooner buried than he is forgotten. In view of these remarks it must be held to be doubtful whether the Lingāyats have the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

Muhammadan Religion

[Bibliography: Rev. T.P. Hughes, Notes on Muhammadanism, and Dictionary of Islām, London, W.H. Allen, 1895; Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix. Part II. Muhammadans of Gujarāt, by Khān Bahādur Fazalullah Lutfullah Farīdi; Qāun-i-Islām, G.A. Herklots, Madras, Higginbotham, reprint 1895; Muhammadanism and Early Developments of Muhammadanism, by Professor D.S. Margoliouth; Life of Mahomet, by Sir. W. Muir; Mr. J.T. Marten’s Central Provinces Census Report, 1911. This article is mainly compiled from the excellent accounts in the Bombay Gazetteer and the Dictionary of Islām.]

1. Statistics and distribution

Muhammadan Religion.—The Muhammadans numbered nearly 600,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, or about 3 per cent of the population. Of these about two-fifths belong to Berār, the Amraoti and Akola Districts containing more than 70,000 each; while of the 350,000 returned from the Central Provinces proper, about 40,000 reside in each of the Jubbulpore, Nāgpur and Nimār Districts. Berār was for a long period governed by the Muhammadan Bahmani dynasty, and afterwards formed part of the Mughal empire, passing to the Mughal Viceroy, the Nizām of Hyderābād, when he became an independent ruler. Though under British administration, it is still legally a part of Hyderābād territory, and a large proportion of the official classes as well as many descendants of retired soldiers are Muhammadans. Similarly Nimār was held by the Muhammadan Farūki dynasty of Khāndesh for 200 years, and was then included in the Mughal empire, Burhānpur being the seat of a viceroy. At this period a good deal of forcible conversion probably took place, and a considerable section of the Bhīls nominally became Muhammadans.

Beggar on artificial horse at the Muharram festival

When the Gond Rāja of Deogarh embraced Islām after his visit to Delhi, members of this religion entered his service, and he also brought back with him various artificers and craftsmen. The cavalry of the Bhonsla Rāja of Nāgpur was largely composed of Muhammadans, and in many cases their descendants have settled on the land. In the Chhattīsgarh Division and the Feudatory States the number of Muhammadans is extremely small, constituting less than one per cent of the population.

2. Occupations

No less than 37 per cent of the total number of Muhammadans live in towns, though the general proportion of urban population in the Provinces is only 7½ per cent. The number of Muhammadans in Government service excluding the police and army, is quite disproportionate to their small numerical strength in the Provinces, being 20 per cent of all persons employed. In the garrison they actually outnumber Hindus, while in the police they form 37 per cent of the whole force. In the medical and teaching professions also the number of Muhammadans is comparatively large, while of persons of independent means a proportion of 29 per cent are of this religion. Of persons employed in domestic services nearly 14 per cent of the total are Muhammadans, and of beggars, vagrants and prostitutes 23 per cent. Muhammadans are largely engaged in making and selling clothes, outnumbering the Hindus in this trade; they consist of two entirely different classes, the Muhammadan tailors who work for hire, and the Bohra and Khoja shopkeepers who sell all kinds of cloth; but both live in towns. Of dealers in timber and furniture 36 per cent are Muhammadans, and they also engage in all branches of the retail trade in provisions. The occupations of the lower-class Muhammadans are the manufacture of glass bangles and slippers and the dyeing of cloth.299

3. Muhammadan castes

About 14 per cent of the Muhammadans returned caste names. The principal castes are the Bohra and Khoja merchants, who are of the Shiah sect, and the Cutchis or Memans from Gujarāt, who are also traders; these classes are foreigners in the Province, and many of them do not bring their wives, though they have now begun to settle here. The resident castes of Muhammadans are the Bahnas or cotton-cleaners; Julāhas, weavers; Kacheras, glass bangle-makers; Kunjras, greengrocers; Kasais, butchers; and the Rangrez caste of dyers who dye with safflower. As already stated, a section of the Bhīls are at least nominally Muhammadans, and the Fakīrs or Muhammadan beggars are also considered a separate caste. But no caste of good standing such as the Rājpūt and Jāt includes any considerable number of Muhammadans in the Central Provinces, though in northern India large numbers of them belong to this religion, while retaining substantially their caste usages. The Muhammadan castes in the Central Provinces probably consist to a large extent of the descendants of Hindu converts. Their religious observances present a curious mixture of Hindu and Muhammadan rites, as shown in the separate articles on these castes. Proper Muhammadans look down on them and decline to take food or intermarry with them.

4. The four tribal divisions

The Muhammadans proper are usually divided into four classes, Shaikh, Saiyad, Mughal and Pathān. Of these the Shaikhs number nearly 300,000, the Pathāns nearly 150,000, the Saiyads under 50,000, and the Pathāns about 9000 in the Central Provinces. The term Saiyad properly means a descendant of Ali, the son-in-law, and the lady Fātimah, the daughter of the Prophet. They use the title Saiyad or Mir300 before, and sometimes Shāh after, their name, while women employ that of Begum. Many Saiyads act as Pīrs or spiritual guides to other Muhammadan families. The external mark of a Saiyad is the right to wear a green turban, but this is of course no longer legally secured to them. The title Shaikh properly belongs only to three branches of the Quraish tribe or that of Muhammad: the Siddīkis, who claim descent from Abu Bakr Siddīk,301 the father-in-law of the Prophet and the second Caliph; the Fārūkis claiming it from Umar ul Fārūk, the third Caliph, and also the father-in-law of the Prophet; and the Abbāsis, descended from Abbas, one of the Prophet’s nine uncles. The Fārūkis are divided into two families, the Chistis and Fāridīs. Both these titles, however, and especially Shaikh, are now arrogated by large numbers of persons who cannot have any pretence to the above descent. Sir D. Ibbetson quotes a proverb, ‘Last year I was a butcher; this year I am a Shaikh; next year if prices rise I shall become a Saiyad.’ And Sir H. M. Elliot relates that much amusement was caused in 1860 at Gujarāt by the Sherishtadār or principal officer of the judicial department describing himself in an official return as Saiyad Hashimi Quraishi, that is, of the family and lineage of the Prophet. His father, who was living in obscurity in his native town, was discovered to be a Lohār or blacksmith.302 The term Shaikh means properly an elder, and is freely taken by persons of respectable position. Shaikhs commonly use either Shaikh or Muhammad as their first names. The Pathans were originally the descendants of Afghān immigrants. The name is probably the Indian form of the word Pushtūn (plural Pushtānah), now given to themselves by speakers of the Pushtu language.303 The men add Khān to their names and the women Khātun or Khātū. It is not at all likely either that the bulk of the Muhammadans who returned themselves as Pathāns in the Central Provinces are really of Afghān descent. The Mughals proper are of two classes, Irāni or Persian, who belong to the Shiah sect, and Turāni, Turkish or Tartar, who are Sunnis. Mughals use the title Mīrza (short for Amīrzāda, son of a prince) before their names, and add Beg after them. It is said that the Prophet addressed a Mughal by the title of Beg after winning a victory, and since then it has always been used. Mughal women have the designation Khānum after their names.304 Formerly the Saiyads and Mughals constituted the superior class of Muhammadan gentry, and never touched a plough themselves, like the Hindu Brāhmans and Rājpūts. These four divisions are not proper subcastes as they are not endogamous. A man of one group can marry a woman of any other and she becomes a member of her husband’s group; but the daughters of Saiyads do not usually marry others than Saiyads. Nor is there any real distinction of occupation between them, the men following any occupation indifferently. In fact, the divisions are now little more than titular, a certain distinction attaching to the titles Saiyad and Shaikh when borne by families who have a hereditary or prescriptive right to use them.