Part 4

Ghosi. [30]--A caste of herdsmen belonging to northern India and found in the Central Provinces in Saugor and other Districts of the Jubbulpore and Nerbudda Divisions. In 1911 they numbered 10,000 persons in this Province out of a strength of about 60,000 in India. The name is said to be derived from the Sanskrit root ghush, to shout, the word ghosha meaning one who shouts as he herds his cattle. A noticeable fact about the caste is that, while in Upper India they are all Muhammadans--and it is considered to be partly on account of the difference in religion that they have become differentiated into a separate caste from the Ahirs--in the Central Provinces they are nearly all Hindus and show no trace of Muhammadan practices. A few Muhammadan Ghosis are found in Nimar and some Muhammadans who call themselves Gaddi in Mandla are believed to be Ghosis. And as the Ghosis of the northern Districts of the Central Provinces must in common with the bulk of the population be descended from immigrants from northern India, it would appear that they must have changed their religion, or rather abandoned one to which their ancestors had only been imperfectly proselytised, when it was no longer the dominant faith of the locality in which they lived. Sir D. Ibbetson says that in the Punjab the name Ghosi is used only for Muhammadans, and is often applied to any cowherd or milkman of that religion, whether Gujar, Ahir or of any other caste, just as Goala is used for a Hindu cowherd. It is said that Hindus will buy pure milk from the Musalman Ghosi, but will reject it if there is any suspicion of its having been watered by the latter, as they must not drink water at his hands. [31] But in Berar Brahmans will now buy milk and curds from Muhammadan milkmen. Mr. Crooke remarks that most of the Ghosis are Ahirs who have been converted to Islam. To the east of the United Provinces they claim a Gujar origin, and here they will not eat beef themselves nor take food with any Muhammadans who consume it. They employ Brahmans to fix the auspicious times for marriage and other ceremonies. The Ghosis of Lucknow have no other employment but the keeping of milch cattle, chiefly buffaloes of all kinds, and they breed buffaloes. [32] This is the case also in Saugor, where the Ghosis are said to rank below ordinary Ahirs because they breed and tend buffaloes instead of cows. Those of Narsinghpur, however, are generally not herdsmen at all but ordinary cultivators. In northern India, owing to the large number of Muhammadans who, other things being equal, would prefer to buy their milk and ghi from co-religionists, there would be an opening for milkmen professing this faith, and on the facts stated above it may perhaps be surmised that the Ghosi caste came into existence to fill the position. Or they may have been forcibly converted as a number of Ahirs in Berar were forcibly converted to Islam, and still call themselves Muhammadans, though they can scarcely repeat the Kalma and only go to mosque once a year. [33] But when some of the Ghosis migrated into the Central Provinces, they would find, in the absence of a Musalman clientele, that their religion, instead of being an advantage, was a positive drawback to them, as Hindus would be reluctant to buy milk from a Muhammadan who might be suspected of having mixed it with water; and it would appear that they have relapsed naturally into Hinduism, all traces of their profession of Islam being lost. Even so, however, in Narsinghpur they have had to abandon their old calling and become ordinary cultivators, while in Saugor, perhaps on account of their doubtful status, they are restricted to keeping buffaloes. If this suggestion turned out to be well founded, it would be an interesting instance of a religion being changed to secure a professional advantage. But it can only be considered as a guess. A parallel to the disadvantage of being unable to water their milk without rendering it impure, which attaches to the Ghosis of the Punjab, may be adduced in the case of the Telis of the small town of Multai in Betul District. Here the dairyman's business is for some reason in the hands of Telis (oilmen) and it is stated that from every Teli who engages in it a solemn oath is exacted that he will not put water in the milk, and any violation of this would be punished by expulsion from caste. Because if the Hindus once found that they had been rendered impure by drinking water touched by so low a caste as the Telis, they would decline any longer to purchase milk from them. It is curious that the strict rule of ceremonial purity which obtains in the case of water has apparently no application to milk.

In the Central Provinces the Ghosis have two subcastes, the Havelia or those living in open wheat country, and the Birchheya or residents of jungle tracts. In Saugor they have another set of divisions borrowed from the Ahirs, and here the Muhammadan Ghosis are said to be a separate subcaste, though practically none were returned at the census. They have the usual system of exogamous groups with territorial names derived from those of villages. At their marriages the couple walk six times round the sacred post, reserving the seventh round, if the bride is a child, to be performed subsequently when she goes to her husband. But if she is adult, the full number may be completed, the ceremony known as lot pata coming between the sixth and seventh rounds. In this the bride sits first on the right of her husband and then changes seats so as to be on his left; and she is thus considered to become joined to her husband as the left part of his body, which the Hindus consider the wife to be, holding the same belief as that expressed in Genesis. After this the bride takes some child of the household into her lap and then makes it over to the bridegroom saying, 'Take care of the baby while I go and do the household work.' This ceremony, which has been recorded also of the Kapus in Chanda, is obviously designed as an auspicious omen that the marriage may be blessed with children. Like other castes of their standing, the Ghosis permit polygamy, divorce and the remarriage of widows, but the practice of taking two wives is rare. The dead are burnt, with the exception that the bodies of young children whose ears have not been pierced and of persons dying of smallpox are buried. Children usually have their ears pierced when they are three or four years old. A corpse must not be taken to the pyre at night, as it is thought that in that case it would be born blind in the next birth. The caste have bards and genealogists of their own who are known as Patia. In Damoh the Ghosis are mainly cart-drivers and cultivators and very few of them sell milk. In Nimar there are some Muhammadan Ghosis who deal in milk. Their women are not secluded and may be known by the number of little rings worn in the ear after the Muhammadan custom. Like the Ahirs, the Ghosis are considered to be somewhat stupid. They call themselves Ghosi Thakur, as they claim to be Rajputs, and outsiders also sometimes address them as Thakur. But in Sangor and Damoh these aspirations to Kshatriya rank are so widespread that when one person asks another his caste the usual form of the question is 'What Thakur are you?' The questioner thus politely assumes that his companion must be a Rajput of some sort and leaves it to him to admit or deny the soft impeachment. Another form of this question is to say 'What dudh, or milk, are you?'

Golar

Golar, [34] Gollam, Golla, Gola, Golkar.--The great shepherd caste of the Telugu country, which numbers nearly 1 1/2 million of persons in Madras and Hyderabad. In the Central Provinces there were under 3000 Golars in 1901, and they were returned principally from the Balaghat and Seoni Districts. But 2500 Golkars, who belonged to Chanda and were classified under Ahirs in 1901, may, in view of the information now available, be considered to belong to the Golar caste. Some 2000 Golars were enumerated in Berar. They are a nomadic people and frequent Balaghat, owing to the large area of grazing land found in the District. The caste come from the south and speak a dialect of Canarese. Hindus liken the conversation of two Golars to two cocks crowing at each other. [35] They seem to have no subcastes except that in Chanda the Yera and Nana, or black and white Golkars, are distinguished. Marriage is regulated by the ordinary system of exogamous groups, but no meaning can be assigned to the names of these. In Seoni they say that their group-names are the same as those of the Gonds, and that they are related to this great tribe; but though both are no doubt of the same Dravidian stock, there is no reason for supposing any closer affinity to exist, and the statement may be explained by the fact that Golars frequently reside in Gond villages in the forest; and in accordance with a practice commonly found among village communities the fiction of relationship has grown up. The children of brothers and sisters are allowed to marry, but not those of two sisters, the reason stated for this prohibition being that during the absence of the mother her sister nurses her children; the children of sisters are therefore often foster brothers and sisters, and this is considered as equivalent to the real relationship. But the marriage of a brother's son to a sister's daughter is held, as among the Gonds, to be a most suitable union. The adult marriage of girls involves no stigma, and the practice of serving for a wife is sometimes followed. Weddings may not be held during the months of Shrawan, Bhadon, Kunwar and Pus. The marriage altar is made of dried cowdung plastered over with mud, in honour perhaps of the animal which affords the Golars their livelihood. The clothes of the bridegroom and bride are knotted together and they walk five times round the altar. In Bhandara the marriages of Golars are celebrated both at the bride's house and the bridegroom's. The bridegroom rides on a horse, and on arrival at the marriage-shed is presented by his future mother-in-law with a cup of milk. The bride and bridegroom sit on a platform together, and each gets up and sits down nine times, whoever accomplishes this first being considered to have won. The bridegroom then takes the bride's little finger in his hand and they walk nine times round the platform. He afterwards falls at the girl's feet, and standing up carries her inside the house, where they eat together out of one dish. After three days the party proceeds to the bridegroom's house, where the same ceremonies are gone through. Here the family barbers of the bride and bridegroom take the couple up in their arms and dance, holding them, and all the party dance too. The remarriage of widows is permitted, a sum of Rs. 25 being usually paid to the parents of the woman by her second husband. Divorce may be effected at the option of either party, and documents are usually drawn up on both sides. The Golars worship Mahadeo and have a special deity, Hularia, who protects their cattle from disease and wild beasts. A clay image of Hularia is erected outside the village every five or ten years and goats are offered to it. Each head of a family is supposed to offer on the first occasion two goats, and on the second and subsequent ones, five, seven, nine and twelve goats respectively. But when a man dies his son starts afresh with an offering of two. The flesh of the animals offered is consumed by the caste-fellows. The name Hularia Deo has some connection with the Holias, a low Telugu caste of leather-workers to whom the Golars appear to be related, as they have the same family names. When a Golar dies a plate of cooked rice is laid on his body and then carried to the burning-ghat. The Holias belonging to the same section go with it, and before arrival the plate of rice is laid on the ground and the Holias eat it. The Golars have various superstitions, and on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays they will not give salt, fire, milk or water to any one. They usually burn the dead, the corpse being laid with the head to the south, though in some localities the Hindu custom of placing the head to the north has been adopted. They employ Brahmans for religious and ceremonial purposes. The occupation of the caste is to breed and tend buffaloes and cattle, and they also deal in live-stock, and sell milk, curds and ghi. They were formerly addicted to dacoity and cattle-theft. They have a caste panchayat, the head of which is designated as Mokasi. Formerly the Mokasi received Rs. 15 on the marriage of a widow, and Rs. 5 when a person temporarily outcasted was readmitted to social intercourse, but these payments are now only occasionally made. The caste drink liquor and eat flesh, including pigs and fowls, but not beef. They employ Brahmans for ceremonial purposes, but their social status is low and they are practically on a level with the Dravidian tribes. The dialect of Canarese spoken by the Golars is known as Golari, Holia or Komtau, and is closely related to the form which that language assumes in Bijapur; [36] but to outsiders they now speak Hindi.

GOND

[Bibliography.--The most important account of the Gond tribe is that contained in the Rev. Stephen Hislop's Papers on the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, published after his death by Sir R. Temple in 1866. Mr. Hislop recorded the legend of Lingo, of which an abstract has been reproduced. Other notices of the Gonds are contained in the ninth volume of General Cunningham's Archaeological Survey Reports, Sir C. Grant's Central Provinces Gazetteer of 1871 (Introduction), Colonel Ward's Mandla Settlement Report (1868), Colonel Lucie Smith's Chanda Settlement Report (1870), and Mr. C. W. Montgomerie's Chhindwara Settlement Report (1900). An excellent monograph on the Bastar Gonds was contributed by Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath, Superintendent of the State, and other monographs by Mr. A. E. Nelson, C.S., Mandla; Mr. Ganga Prasad Khatri, Forest Divisional Officer, Betul; Mr. J. Langhorne, Manager, Ahiri zamindari, Chanda; Mr. R. S. Thakur, tahsildar, Balaghat; and Mr. Din Dayal, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Nandgaon State. Papers were also furnished by the Rev. A. Wood of Chanda; the Rev. H. J. Molony, Mandla; and Major W. D. Sutherland, I.M.S., Saugor. Notes were also collected by the writer in Mandla. Owing to the inclusion of many small details from the different papers it has not been possible to acknowledge them separately.]

List of Paragraphs

(a) Origin and History

1. Numbers and distribution. 2. Gondwana. 3. Derivation of name and origin of the Gonds. 4. History of the Gonds. 5. Mythical traditions. Story of Lingo. 6. Legend of the creation. 7. Creation of the Gonds and their imprisonment by Mahadeo. 8. The birth and history of Lingo. 9. Death and resurrection of Lingo. 10. He releases the Gonds shut up in the cave and constitutes the tribe.

(b) Tribal Subdivisions

11. Subcastes. 12. Exogamy. 13. Totemism. 14. Connection of totemism with the gods.

(c) Marriage Customs

15. Prohibitions on intermarriage, and unions of relations. 16. Irregular marriages. 17. Marriage. Arrangement of matches. 18. The marriage ceremony. 19. Wedding expenditure. 20. Special customs. 21. Taking omens. 22. Marriage by capture. Weeping and hiding. 23. Serving for a wife. 24. Widow remarriage. 25. Divorce. 26. Polygamy.

(d) Birth and Pregnancy

27. Menstruation. 28. Superstitions about pregnancy and childbirth. 29. Procedure at a birth. 30. Names. 31. Superstitions about children.

(e) Funeral Rites

32. Disposal of the dead. 33. Funeral ceremony. 34. Mourning and offerings to the dead. 35. Memorial stones to the dead. 36. House abandoned after a death. 37. Bringing back the soul. 38. The dead absorbed in Bura Deo. 39. Belief in a future life.

(f) Religion

40. Nature of the Gond religion. The gods. 41. Tribal gods, and their place of residence. 42. Household gods. 43. Nag Deo. 44. Narayan Deo. 45. Bura Deo. 46. Charms and magic. 47. Omens. 48. Agricultural superstitions. 49. Magical or religious observances in fishing and hunting. 50. Witchcraft. 51. Human sacrifice. 52. Cannibalism. 53. Festivals. The new crops. 54. The Holi Festival. 55. The Meghnath swinging rite. 56. The Karma and other rites.

(g) Appearance and Character and Social Rules and Customs

57. Physical type. 58. Character. 59. Shyness and ignorance. 60. Villages and houses. 61. Clothes and ornaments. 62. Ear-piercing. 63. Hair. 64. Bathing and washing clothes. 65. Tattooing. 66. Special system of tattooing. 67. Branding. 68. Food. 69. Liquor. 70. Admission of outsiders and sexual morality. 71. Common sleeping-houses. 72. Methods of greeting and observances between relatives. 73. The caste panchayat and social offences. 74. Caste penalty feasts. 75. Special purification ceremony. 76. Dancing. 77. Songs. 78. Language.

(h) Occupation

79. Cultivation. 80. Patch cultivation. 81. Hunting. Traps for animals.

(a) Origin and History

1. Numbers and distribution.

Gond.--The principal tribe of the Dravidian family, and perhaps the most important of the non-Aryan or forest tribes in India. In 1911 the Gonds were three million strong, and they are increasing rapidly. The Kolis of western India count half a million persons more than the Gonds, and if the four related tribes Kol, Munda, Ho, and Santal were taken together, they would be stronger by about the same amount. But if historical importance be considered as well as numbers, the first place should be awarded to the Gonds. Of the whole caste the Central Provinces contain 2,300,000 persons, Central India, and Bihar and Orissa about 235,000 persons each, and they are returned in small numbers from Assam, Madras and Hyderabad. The 50,000 Gonds in Assam are no doubt immigrant labourers on the tea-gardens.

2. Gondwana.

In the Central Provinces the Gonds occupy two main tracts. The first is the wide belt of broken hill and forest country in the centre of the Province, which forms the Satpura plateau, and is mainly comprised in the Chhindwara, Betul, Seoni and Mandla Districts, with portions of several others adjoining them. And the second is the still wider and more inaccessible mass of hill ranges extending south of the Chhattisgarh plain, and south-west down to the Godavari, which includes portions of the three Chhattisgarh Districts, the Bastar and Kanker States, and a great part of Chanda. In Mandla the Gonds form nearly half the population, and in Bastar about two-thirds. There is, however, no District or State of the Province which does not contain some Gonds, and it is both on account of their numbers and the fact that Gond dynasties possessed a great part of its area that the territory of the Central Provinces was formerly known as Gondwana, or the country of the Gonds. [37] The existing importance of the Central Provinces dates from recent years, for so late as 1853 it was stated before the Royal Asiatic Society that "at present the Gondwana highlands and jungles comprise such a large tract of unexplored country that they form quite an oasis in our maps." So much of this lately unexplored country as is British territory is now fairly well served by railways, traversed almost throughout by good roads, and provided with village schools at distances of five to ten miles apart, even in the wilder tracts.

3. Derivation of name and origin of the Gonds.