Part 45

"In these Khond sacrifices the Meriahs are represented by our authorities as victims offered to propitiate the Earth-Goddess. But from the treatment of the victims both before and after death it appears that the custom cannot be explained as merely a propitiatory sacrifice. A part of the flesh certainly was offered to the Earth-Goddess, but the rest of the flesh was buried by each householder in his fields, and the ashes of the other parts of the body were scattered over the fields, laid as paste on the granaries, or mixed with the new corn. These latter customs imply that to the body of the Meriah there was ascribed a direct or intrinsic power of making the crops to grow, quite independent of the indirect efficacy which it might have as an offering to secure the good-will of the deity. In other words, the flesh and ashes of the victim were believed to be endowed with a magical or physical power of fertilising the land. The same intrinsic power was ascribed to the blood and tears of the Meriah, his blood causing the redness of the turmeric, and his tears producing rain; for it can hardly be doubted that, originally at least, the tears were supposed to bring down the rain, not merely to prognosticate it. Similarly the custom of pouring water on the buried flesh of the Meriah was no doubt a rain-charm. Again, magical power as an attribute of the Meriah appears in the sovereign virtue believed to reside in anything that came from his person, as his hair or spittle. The ascription of such power to the Meriah indicates that he was much more than a mere man sacrificed to propitiate a deity. Once more, the extreme reverence paid him points to the same conclusion. Major Campbell speaks of the Meriah as 'being regarded as something more than mortal,' and Major Macpherson says: 'A species of reverence, which it is not easy to distinguish from adoration, is paid to him.' In short, the Meriah appears to have been regarded as divine. As such, he may originally have represented the Earth-Goddess, or perhaps a deity of vegetation, though in later times he came to be regarded rather as a victim offered to a deity than as himself an incarnate god. This later view of the Meriah as a victim rather than a divinity may perhaps have received undue emphasis from the European writers who have described the Khond religion. Habituated to the later idea of sacrifice as an offering made to a god for the purpose of conciliating his favour, European observers are apt to interpret all religious slaughter in this sense, and to suppose that wherever such slaughter takes place, there must necessarily be a deity to whom the carnage is believed by the slayers to be acceptable. Thus their preconceived ideas unconsciously colour and warp their descriptions of savage rites." [516]

13. Last human sacrifices.

In his Ethnographic Notes in Southern India Mr. Thurston states: [517] "The last recorded Meriah sacrifice in the Ganjam Maliahs 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 Meriah 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 Maliah Agency that there was reason to believe that the Raja 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 Vizagapatam 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 Kiabon (Campbell) Sahib'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 Meriah sacrificers. Having caught the Meriah 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) Sahib 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 Kalahandi 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 Meriah 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 Raja of Kalahandi 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 Meriah 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]

Kir

1. Origin and Traditions.

Kir. [520]--A cultivating caste found principally in the Hoshangabad District. They numbered about 7000 persons in 1911. The Kirs claim to have come from the Jaipur State, and this is borne out by the fact that they still retain a dialect of Marwari, though they have been living among the Hindi-speaking population of Hoshangabad for several generations. According to their traditions they immigrated into the Central Provinces when Raja Man 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 Kirs are akin to the Kirars, and at the India Census of 1901 were amalgamated with them. Like the Kirars they claim to be descended from the mythical Raja Karan of Jaipur. Their story is that on a summer day Mahadeo and Parvati created a melon-garden, and Mahadeo made a man and a woman out of a piece of kusha grass (Eragrostis cynosuroides) to tend the garden. From these the Kirs are descended. The name may possibly be a corruption of karar, a river-bank.

2. Marriage.

The Kirs have no endogamous divisions. For the purpose of marriage the caste is divided into 12 1/2 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, Baman, Nayar, Jat, Huwad, Gadri, Loharia, Hekdya, Mochi and Mali, while the half-gotra contains the Bhats 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--Baman (Brahman), Bania, Mali, Mochi, Gadri (Gadaria), Loharia and Jat--are derived from other castes, and this fact is sufficient to show that the origin of the Kirs 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 chari, 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 panchayat 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 Brahman. 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 Parvati and the Bhairon of Jaria Gowara; the Bania, Nayar, Hekdya and Mochi septs worship Chamunda Mata 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. Kirs revere and worship the cow and the pipal tree. No Kir may sell a cow to a butcher. A man who is about to die makes a present of a cow to a Brahman 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 Kirs 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 Hanuman 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 Kirs 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 Kirs are Diwali and Sitala Athain. They worship their ancestors at Diwali, 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 Athain 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 Kirs 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 Brahman. 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 Kirs do not take food from any caste except the Dadharia Brahmans, who are Marwaris, and act as their family priests. Brahmans and other high castes will drink water brought in a brass vessel by a Kir. The Kirs 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 panchayat, 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 Kirs 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 bajra and arhar, being, like all Marwaris, very fond of bajra. 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 ghanghras 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 Kirs sounds like Marwari, and they are peculiar in their preference for riding on buffaloes.

Kirar

1. Origin and traditions.

Kirar [523] or Kirad.--A cultivating caste found in the Narsinghpur, Hoshangabad, Betul, Seoni, Chhindwara and Nagpur Districts. They numbered 48,000 persons in 1911. The Kirars claim to be Dhakar or bastard Rajputs, and in 1891 more than half of them returned themselves under this designation. About a thousand persons who were returned as Dhakar Rajputs from Hoshangabad in 1901 are probably Kirars. The caste say that they immigrated from Gwalior, and this statement seems to be correct, as about 66,000 of them are found in that State. They claim to have left Gwalior 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 Gwalior, and settled in Chandon, a village in the Sohagpur tahsil of Hoshangabad. But according to the story related to Mr. (Sir Charles) Elliott, the migration took place in A.D. 1650 or at the beginning of Aurangzeb's reign. [524] He quotes the names of the leaders as Alrawat and Dalrawat, 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 Hoshangabad 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 Aurangzeb spent at Burhanpur and in the Deccan, and the immigration of the Kirars may most reasonably be attributed to this period. The Kirars, Gujars, and Raghuvansis 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 Rajputs. The Kirars' 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 Kirar 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 Kirar, a corn-chandler, an occupation which they may originally have followed in combination with agriculture. In the Punjab the name Kirar appears to be given to all the western or Punjabi traders as distinct from a Bania of Hindustan, and is so used even in the Kangra 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 Rakshas or demon, and fell over the steep bank (karar) of a river and was thereupon delivered. The child was consequently called Karar and became the ancestor of the Kirar caste. The name may in fact be derived from the habit which the Kirars have in some localities of cultivating on the banks of rivers, like the Kirs, who are probably a branch of the same caste.

2. Marriage.