Chapter 32

Marriage is prohibited between members of the same sept and also between first cousins, and a second sister may not be married during the lifetime of the first. Girls are usually wedded under twelve years of age. In Mandla the father of the boy and his relatives go to discuss the match, and if this is arranged each of them kisses the girl and gives her a piece of small silver. When a Saktaha is going to look for a wife he makes a fire offering to Dulha Deo, the young bridegroom god, whose shrine is in the cook-room, and prays to him saying, 'I am going to such and such a village to ask for a wife; give me good fortune.' The father of the girl at first refuses his consent as a matter of etiquette, but finally agrees to let the marriage take place within a year. The boy pays Rs. 9, which is spent on the feast, and makes a present of clothes and jewels to the bride. In Chanda a _chauka_ or consecrated space spread with cowdung with a pattern of lines of flour is prepared and the fathers of the parties stand inside this, while a member of the Pandwar sept cries out the names of the _gotras_ of the bride and bridegroom and says that the everlasting knot is to be tied between them with the consent of five caste-people and the sun and moon as witnesses. Before the wedding the betrothed couple worship Mahadeo and Parvati under the direction of a Brahman, who also fixes the date of the wedding. This is the only purpose for which a Brahman is employed by the caste. Between this date and that of the marriage neither the boy nor girl should be allowed to go to a tank or cross a river, as it is considered dangerous to their lives. The superstition has apparently some connection with the belief that the Pankas are sprung from water, but its exact meaning cannot be determined. If a girl goes wrong before marriage with a man of the caste, she is given to him as wife without any ceremony. Before the marriage seven small pitchers full of water are placed in a bamboo basket and shaken over the bride's head so that the water may fall on her. The principal ceremony consists in walking round the sacred pole called _magrohan_, the skirts of the pair being knotted together. In some localities this is done twice, a first set of perambulations being called the Kunwari (maiden) Bhanwar, and the second one of seven, the Byahi (married) Bhanwar. After the wedding the bride and her relations return with the bridegroom to his house, their party being known as Chauthia. The couple are taken to a river and throw their tinsel wedding ornaments into the water. The bride then returns home if she is a minor, and when she subsequently goes to live with her husband the _gauna_ ceremony is performed. Widow-marriage is permitted, and divorce may be effected for bad conduct on the part of the wife, the husband giving a sort of funeral feast, called _Marti jiti ka bhat_, to the castefellows. Usually a man gives several warnings to his wife to amend her bad conduct before he finally casts her off.

5. Religion

The Pankas worship only Kabir. They prepare a _chauka_ and, sitting in it, sing songs in his praise, and a cocoanut is afterwards broken and distributed to those who are present. The assembly is presided over by a Mahant or priest and the _chauka_ is prepared by his subordinate called the Diwan. The offices of Mahant and Diwan are hereditary, and they officiate for a collection of ten or fifteen villages. Otherwise the caste perform no special worship, but observe the full moon days of Magh (January), Phagun (February) and Kartik (October) as fasts in honour of Kabir. Some of the Kabirhas observe the Hindu festivals, and the Saktahas, as already stated, have the same religious practices as other Hindus. They admit into the community members of most castes except the impure ones. In Chhattisgarh a new convert is shaved and the other Pankas wash their feet over him in order to purify him. He then breaks a stick in token of having given up his former caste and is invested with a necklace of _tulsi_ [367] beads. A woman of any such caste who has gone wrong with a man of the Panka caste may be admitted after she has lived with him for a certain period on probation, during which her conduct must be satisfactory, her paramour also being put out of caste for the same time. Both are then shaved and invested with the necklaces of _tulsi_ beads. In Mandla a new convert must clean and whitewash his house and then vacate it with his family while the Panch or caste committee come and stay there for some time in order to purify it. While they are there neither the owner nor any member of his family may enter the house. The Panch then proceed to the riverside and cook food, after driving the new convert across the river by pelting him with cowdung. Here he changes his clothes and puts on new ones, and coming back again across the stream is made to stand in the _chauk_ and sip the urine of a calf. The _chauk_ is then washed out and a fresh one made with lines of flour, and standing in this the convert receives to drink the _dal_, that is, water in which a little betel, raw sugar and black pepper have been mixed and a piece of gold dipped. In the evening the Panch again take their food in the convert's house, while he eats outside it at a distance. Then he again sips the _dal_, and the Mahant or priest takes him on his lap and a cloth is put over them both; the Mahant whispers the _mantra_ or sacred verse into his ear, and he is finally considered to have become a full Kabirha Panka and admitted to eat with the Panch.

6. Other customs

The Pankas are strict vegetarians and do not drink liquor. A Kabirha Panka is put out of caste for eating flesh meat. Both men and women generally wear white clothes, and men have the garland of beads round the neck. The dead are buried, being laid on the back with the head pointing to the north. After a funeral the mourners bathe and then break a cocoanut over the grave and distribute it among themselves. On the tenth day they go again and break a cocoanut and each man buries a little piece of it in the earth over the grave. A little cup made of flour containing a lamp is placed on the grave for three days afterwards, and some food and water are put in a leaf cup outside the house for the same period. During these days the family do not cook for themselves but are supplied with food by their friends. After childbirth a mother is supposed not to eat food during the time that the midwife attends on her, on account of the impurity caused by this woman's presence in the room.

7. Occupation

The caste are generally weavers, producing coarse country cloth, and a number of them serve as village watchmen, while others are cultivators and labourers. They will not grow _san_-hemp nor breed tasar silk cocoons. They are somewhat poorly esteemed by their neighbours, who say of them, 'Where a Panka can get a little boiled rice and a pumpkin, he will stay for ever,' meaning that he is satisfied with this and will not work to get more. Another saying is, 'The Panka felt brave and thought he would go to war; but he set out to fight a frog and was beaten'; and another, 'Every man tells one lie a day; but the Ahir tells sixteen, the Chamar twenty, and the lies of the Panka cannot be counted.' Such gibes, however, do not really mean much. Owing to the abstinence of the Pankas from flesh and liquor they rank above the Gandas and other impure castes. In Bilaspur they are generally held to be quiet and industrious. [368] In Chhattisgarh the Pankas are considered above the average in intelligence and sometimes act as spokesmen for the village people and as advisers to zamindars and village proprietors. Some of them become religious mendicants and act as _gurus_ or preceptors to Kabirpanthis. [369]

Panwar Rajput

List of Paragraphs

1. _Historical notice. The Agnikula clans and the slaughter of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama_. 2. _The legend of Parasurama_. 3. _The Panwar dynasty of Dhar and Ujjain_. 4. _Diffusion of the Panwars over India_. 5. _The Nagpur Panwars_. 6. _Subdivisions_. 7. _Marriage customs_. 8. _Widow-marriage_. 9. _Religion_. 10. _Worship of the spirits of those dying a violent death_. 11. _Funeral rites_. 12. _Caste discipline_. 13. _Social customs_.

1. Historical notice. The Agnikula clans and the slaughter of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama

_Panwar_, [370] _Puar_, _Ponwar_, _Pramara Rajput_.--The Panwar or Pramara is one of the most ancient and famous of the Rajput clans. It was the first of the four Agnikulas, who were created from the fire-pit on the summit of Mount Abu after the Kshatriyas had been exterminated by Parasurama the Brahman. "The fire-fountain was lustrated with the waters of the Ganges; [371] expiatory rites were performed, and after a protracted debate among the gods it was resolved that Indra should initiate the work of recreation. Having formed an image of _duba_ grass he sprinkled it with the water of life and threw it into the fire-fountain. Thence on pronouncing the _sajivan mantra_ (incantation to give life) a figure slowly emerged from the flame, bearing in the right hand a mace and exclaiming, '_Mar, Mar!_' (Slay, slay). He was called Pramar; and Abu, Dhar, and Ujjain were assigned to him as a territory."

The four clans known as Agnikula, or born from the fire-pit, were the Panwar, the Chauhan, the Parihar and the Chalukya or Solanki. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar adduces evidence in support of the opinion that all these were of foreign origin, derived from the Gujars or other Scythian or Hun tribes. [372] And it seems therefore not unlikely that the legend of the fire-pit may commemorate the reconstitution of the Kshatriya aristocracy by the admission of these tribes to Hinduism after its partial extinction during their wars of invasion; the latter event having perhaps been euphemised into the slaughter of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama the Brahman. A great number of Indian castes date their origin from the traditional massacre of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama, saying that their ancestors were Rajputs who escaped and took to various occupations; and it would appear that an event which bulks so largely in popular tradition must have some historical basis. It is noticeable also that Buddhism, which for some five centuries since the time of Asoka Maurya had been the official and principal religion of northern India, had recently entered on its decline. "The restoration of the Brahmanical religion to popular favour and the associated revival of the Sanskrit language first became noticeable in the second century, were fostered by the satraps of Gujarat and Surashtra during the third, and made a success by the Gupta emperors in the fourth century. [373] The decline of Buddhism and the diffusion of Sanskrit proceeded side by side with the result that by the end of the Gupta period the force of Buddhism on Indian soil had been nearly spent; and India with certain local exceptions had again become the land of the Brahman. [374] The Gupta dynasty as an important power ended about A.D. 490 and was overthrown by the Huns, whose leader Toramana was established at Malwa in Central India prior to A.D. 500." [375] The revival of Brahmanism and the Hun supremacy were therefore nearly contemporaneous. Moreover one of the Hun leaders, Mihiragula, was a strong supporter of Brahmanism and an opponent of the Buddhists. Mr. V.A. Smith writes: "The savage invader, who worshipped as his patron deity Siva, the god of destruction, exhibited ferocious hostility against the peaceful Buddhist cult, and remorselessly overthrew the _stupas_ and monasteries, which he plundered of their treasures." [376] This warrior might therefore well be venerated by the Brahmans as the great restorer of their faith and would easily obtain divine honours. The Huns also subdued Rajputana and Central India and were dominant here for a time until their extreme cruelty and oppression led to a concerted rising of the Indian princes by whom they were defeated. The discovery of the Hun or Scythian origin of several of the existing Rajput clans fits in well with the legend. The stories told by many Indian castes of their first ancestors having been Rajputs who escaped from the massacre of Parasurama would then have some historical value as indicating that the existing occupational grouping of castes dates from the period of the revival of the Brahman cult after a long interval of Buddhist supremacy. It is however an objection to the identification of Parasurama with the Huns that he is the sixth incarnation of Vishnu, coming before Rama and being mentioned in the Mahabharata, and thus if he was in any way historical his proper date should be long before their time. As to this it may be said that he might have been interpolated or put back in date, as the Brahmans had a strong interest in demonstrating the continuity of the Kshatriya caste from Vedic times and suppressing the Hun episode, which indeed they have succeeded in doing so well that the foreign origin of several of the most prominent Rajput clans has only been established quite recently by modern historical and archaeological research. The name Parasurama signifies 'Rama with the axe' and seems to indicate that this hero came after the original Rama. And the list of the incarnations of Vishnu is not always the same, as in one list the incarnations are nearly all of the animal type and neither Parasurama, Rama nor Krishna appear.

2. The legend of Parasurama

The legend of Parasurama is not altogether opposed to this view in itself. [377] He was the son of a Brahman Muni or hermit, named Jamadagni, by a lady, Renuka, of the Kshatriya caste. He is therefore not held to have been a Brahman and neither was he a true Kshatriya. This might portray the foreign origin of the Huns. Jamadagni found his wife Renuka to be harbouring thoughts of conjugal infidelity, and commanded his sons, one by one, to slay her. The four elder ones successively refused, and being cursed by Jamadagni lost all understanding and became as idiots; but the youngest, Parasurama, at his father's bidding, struck off his mother's head with a blow of his axe. Jamadagni thereupon was very pleased and promised to give Parasurama whatever he might desire. On which Parasurama begged first for the restoration of his mother to life, with forgetfulness of his having slain her and purification from all defilement; secondly, the return of his brothers to sanity and understanding; and for himself that he should live long and be invincible in battle; and all these boons his father bestowed. Here the hermit Jamadagni might represent the Brahman priesthood, and his wife Renuka might be India, unfaithful to the Brahmans and turning towards the Buddhist heresy. The four elder sons would typify the princes of India refusing to respond to the exhortations of the Brahmans for the suppression of Buddhism, and hence themselves made blind to the true faith and their understandings darkened with Buddhist falsehood. But Parasurama, the youngest, killed his mother, that is, the Huns devastated India and slaughtered the Buddhists; in reward for this he was made invincible as the Huns were, and his mother, India, and his brothers, the indigenous princes, regained life and understanding, that is, returned to the true Brahman faith. Afterwards, the legend proceeds, the king Karrtavirya, the head of the Haihaya tribe of Kshatriyas, stole the calf of the sacred cow Kamdhenu from Jamadagni's hermitage and cut down the trees surrounding it. When Parasurama returned, his father told him what had happened, and he followed Karrtavirya and killed him in battle. But in revenge for this the sons of the king, when Parasurama was away, returned to the hermitage and slew the pious and unresisting sage Jamadagni, who called fruitlessly for succour on his valiant son. When Parasurama returned and found his father dead he vowed to extirpate the whole Kshatriya race. 'Thrice times seven did he clear the earth of the Kshatriya caste,' says the Mahabharata. If the first part of the story refers to the Hun conquest of northern India and the overthrow of the Gupta dynasty, the second may similarly portray their invasion of Rajputana. The theft of the cow and desecration of Jamadagni's hermitage by the Haihaya Rajputs would represent the apostasy of the Rajput princes to Buddhist monotheism, the consequent abandonment of the veneration of the cow and the spoliation of the Brahman shrines; while the Hun invasions of Rajputana and the accompanying slaughter of Rajputs would be Parasurama's terrible revenge.

3. The Panwar dynasty of Dhar and Ujjain

The Kings of Malwa or Ujjain who reigned at Dhar and flourished from the ninth to the twelfth centuries were of the Panwar clan. The seventh and ninth kings of this dynasty rendered it famous. [378] "Raja Munja, the seventh king (974-995), renowned for his learning and eloquence, was not only a patron of poets, but was himself a poet of no small reputation, the anthologies including various works from his pen. He penetrated in a career of conquest as far as the Godavari, but was finally defeated and executed there by the Chalukya king. His nephew, the famous Bhoja, ascended the throne of Dhara about A.D. 1018 and reigned gloriously for more than forty years. Like his uncle he cultivated with equal assiduity the arts of peace and war. Though his fights with neighbouring powers, including one of the Muhammadan armies of Mahmud of Ghazni, are now forgotten, his fame as an enlightened patron of learning and a skilled author remains undimmed, and his name has become proverbial as that of the model king according to the Hindu standard. Works on astronomy, architecture, the art of poetry and other subjects are attributed to him. About A.D. 1060 Bhoja was attacked and defeated by the confederate kings of Gujarat and Chedi, and the Panwar kingdom was reduced to a petty local dynasty until the thirteenth century. It was finally superseded by the chiefs of the Tomara and Chauhan clans, who in their turn succumbed to the Muhammadans in 1401." The city of Ujjain was at this time a centre of Indian intellectual life. Some celebrated astronomers made it their home, and it was adopted as the basis of the Hindu meridional system like Greenwich in England. The capital of the state was changed from Ujjain to Dhar or Dharanagra by the Raja Bhoja already mentioned; [379] and the name of Dhar is better remembered in connection with the Panwars than Ujjain.

A saying about it quoted by Colonel Tod was:

Jahan Puar tahan Dhar hai; Aur Dhar jahan Puar; Dhar bina Puar nahin; Aur nahin Puar bina Dhar:

or, "Where the Panwar is there is Dhar, and Dhar is where the Panwar is; without the Panwars Dhar cannot stand, nor the Panwars without Dhar." It is related that in consequence of one of his merchants having been held to ransom by the ruler of Dhar, the Bhatti Raja of Jaisalmer made a vow to subdue the town. But as he found the undertaking too great for him, in order to fulfil his vow he had a model of the city made in clay and was about to break it up. But there were Panwars in his army, and they stood out to defend their mock capital, repeating as their reason the above lines; and in resisting the Raja were cut to pieces to the number of a hundred and twenty. [380] There is little reason to doubt that the incident, if historical, was produced by the belief in sympathetic magic; the Panwars really thought that by destroying its image the Raja could effect injury to the capital itself, [381] just as many primitive races believe that if they make a doll as a model of an enemy and stick pins into or otherwise injure it, the man himself is similarly affected. A kindred belief prevails concerning certain mythical old kings of the Golden Age of India, of whom it is said that to destroy their opponents all they had to do was to collect a bundle of juari stalks and cut off the heads, when the heads of their enemies flew off in unison.

The Panwars were held to have ruled from nine castles over the Marusthali or 'Region of death,' the name given to the great desert of Rajputana, which extends from Sind to the Aravalli mountains and from the great salt lake to the flat skirting the Garah. The principal of these castles were Abu, Nundore, Umarkot, Arore, and Lodorva. [382] And, 'The world is the Pramara's,' was another saying expressive of the resplendent position of Dharanagra or Ujjain at this epoch. The siege and capture of the town by the Muhammadans and consequent expulsion of the Panwars are still a well-remembered tradition, and certain castes of the Central Provinces, as the Bhoyars and Korkus, say that their ancestors formed part of the garrison and fled to the Satpura hills after the fall of Dharanagra. Mr. Crooke [383] states that the expulsion of the Panwars from Ujjain under their leader Mitra Sen is ascribed to the attack of the Muhammadans under Shahab-ud-din Ghori about A.D. 1190.

4. Diffusion of the Panwars over India