1. General notice.

Darzi, Shimpi, Chhīpi, Sūji.—The occupational caste of tailors. In 1911 a total of 51,000 persons were returned as belonging to the caste in the Central Provinces and Berār. The Darzis are an urban caste and are most numerous in Districts with large towns. Mr. Crooke derives the word Darzi from the Persian darz, meaning a seam. The name Sūji from sui, a needle, was formerly more common. Shimpi is the Marātha name, and Chhīpi, from Chhīpa a calico-printer or dyer, is another name used for the caste, probably because it is largely recruited from the Chhīpas. In Bombay they say that when Parasurāma was destroying the Kshatriyas, two Rājpūt brothers hid themselves in a temple and were protected by the priest, who set one of them to sew dresses for the idol and the other to dye and stamp them. The first brother was called Chhīpi and from him the Darzis are descended, the name being corrupted to Shimpi, and the second was called Chhīpa and was the ancestor of the dyers. The common title of the Darzis is Khalīfa, an Arabic word meaning ‘The Successor of the Prophet.’ Colonel Temple says that it is not confined to them but is also used by barbers, cooks and monitors in schools.1 The caste is of comparatively recent formation. In fact Sir D. Ibbetson wrote2 that “Darzi, or its Hindi equivalent Sūji, is purely an occupational term, and though there is a Darzi guild in every town, there is no Darzi caste in the proper acceptation of the word. The greater number of Darzis belong perhaps to the Dhobi and Chhīmba castes, more especially to the latter.”

2. Subdivisions.

The Darzis, however, are now recognised as a distinct caste, but their mixed origin is shown by the names of their subcastes and exogamous sections. Thus they have a Bāman subdivision named after the Brāhman caste. These will not take food from any other caste except Brāhmans and are probably an offshoot from them. They are considered to be the highest subdivision, and next to them come the Rai or Rāj Darzis. Another subcaste is named Kaithia, after the Kāyasths, and a third Srivāstab, which is the name of a well-known subcaste of Kāyasths derived from the town of Srāvasti, now Sahet Mahet in the Gonda District.3 In Betūl the Srivāstab Darzis are reported to forbid the remarriage of widows, thus showing that they desire to live up to their distinguished ancestry. A third subcaste is known as Chamarua and appears to be derived from the Chamārs. Other subcastes are of the territorial type as Mālwi, Khāndeshi, Chhattīsgarhi, Mathuria and so on, and the section or family names are usually taken from villages. Among them, however, we find Jugia from Jogi, Thākur or Rājpūt, Gūjar, Khawās or barber, and Baroni, the title of a female Dhīmar. Mr. Crooke gives several other names.

3. Sewn clothes not formerly worn.

It may thus reasonably be concluded that the Darzis are a caste of comparatively recent origin, and the explanation is probably that the use of the needle and thread in making clothes is a new fashion. Buchanan remarks: “The needle indeed seems to have been totally unknown to the Hindus, and I have not been able to learn any Hindi word for sewing except that used to express passing the shuttle in the act of weaving....” “Cloth composed of several pieces sewn together is an abomination to the Hindus, so that every woman of rank when she eats, cooks or prays, must lay aside her petticoat and retain only the wrapper made without the use of scissors or needle”; and again, “The dress of the Hindu men of rank has become nearly the same with that of the Muhammadans4 who did not allow any officer employed by them to appear at their levées (Durbars) except in proper dress. At home, however, the Hindu men, and on all occasions their women, retain almost entirely their native dress, which consists of various pieces of cloth wrapped round them without having been sewn together in any form, and only kept in their place by having their ends thrust under the folds.” And elsewhere he states: “The flowering of cotton cloth with the needle has given a good deal of employment to the Muhammadan women of Maldeh as the needle has never been used by the Hindus.”5 Darzi, as has been seen, is a Persian word, and in northern India many tailors are Muhammadans. And it seems, therefore, a possible hypothesis that the needle and the art of sewing were brought into general use by the Moslem invaders. It is true that in his Indo-Aryans6 Mr. Rājendra Lāl Mitra combats this hypothesis and demonstrates that made-up clothes were known to the Aryans of the Rig-Veda and are found in early statuary. But he admits that the instances are not numerous, and it seems likely that the use of such clothes may have been confined to royal and aristocratic families. It is possible also that the Scythian invasions of the fifth century brought about a partial relapse from civilisation, during which certain arts and industries, and among them that of cutting and sewing cloth, were partially or completely lost. The tailor is not the familiar figure in Hindu social life that he is, for example, in England. Here he is traditionally an object or butt for ridicule as in the saying, ‘Nine tailors make a man,’ and so on; and his weakness is no doubt supposed to be due to the fact that he pursues a sedentary indoor occupation and one more adapted to women than men, the needle being essentially a feminine implement. A similar ridicule, based no doubt on exactly the same grounds, attaches in India to the village weaver, as is evidenced by the proverbs given in the articles on Bhulia, Kori, and Jolāha. No reason exists probably for the contempt in which the weaver class is held other than that their work is considered to be more fitting for women than men. Thus in India the weaver appears to take the place of the tailor, and this leads to the conclusion that woven and not sewn clothes have always been commonly worn.

In the Central Provinces, at least, the Darzi caste is practically confined to the towns, and though cotton jackets are worn even by labourers and shirts by the better-to-do, these are usually bought ready-made at the more important markets. Women, more conservative in their dress than men, have only one garment prepared with the needle, the small bodice known as choli or angia. And in Chhattīsgarh, a landlocked tract very backward in civilisation, the choli has hitherto not been worn and is only now being introduced. Though he first copied the Muhammadan and now shows a partiality for the English style of dress for outdoor use, the Hindu when indoors still reverts to the one cloth round the waist and a second over the shoulders, which was probably once the regular garb of his countrymen. For meals the latter is discarded, and this costume, so strange to English ideas, while partly based on considerations of ceremonial purity, may also be due to a conservative adherence to the ancient fashion, when sewn clothes were not worn. It is noticeable also that high-caste Hindus, though they may wear a coat of cloth or tasar silk and cotton trousers, copying the English, still often carry the dupatta or shoulder-cloth hanging round the neck. This now appears a useless encumbrance, but may be the relic of the old body-cloth and therefore interesting as a survival in dress, like the buttons on the back of our tail-coats to which the flaps were once hooked up for riding, or the seams on the backs of gloves, a relic of the time when the glove consisted simply of finger-lengths sewn together.7 More recently the dupatta has been made to fulfil the function of a pocket-handkerchief, while the educated are now discarding the dupatta and carry their handkerchiefs in their pockets. The old dress of ceremony for landowners is the angarkha, a long coat reaching to the knees and with flaps folding over the breast and tied with strings. This is worn with pyjamas and is probably the Muhammadan ceremonial costume as remarked by Buchanan. In its correct form, at, least it has no buttons, and recalls the time when a similar state of things prevailed in English dress and the ‘trussing of his points’ was a laborious daily task for every English gentleman. The ghundis or small pieces of cloth made up into a ball, which were the precursors of the button, may still be seen on the cotton coats of rustics in the rural area.

The substitution of clothes cut and sewn to fit the body for draped clothes is a matter of regret from an artistic or picturesque point of view, as the latter have usually a more graceful appearance. This is shown by the difficulty of reproducing modern clothes in statuary, trousers being usually the despair of the sculptor. But sewn clothes, when once introduced, must always prevail from considerations of comfort. When a Hindu pulls his dhoti or loin-cloth up his legs and tucks it in round his hips in order to run or play a game he presumably performs the act described in the Bible as ‘girding up his loins.’

4. Occupation.

The social customs of the Darzis present no features of special interest and resemble those of the lower castes in their locality. They rank below the cultivating castes, and Brāhmans will not take water from their hands. Though not often employed by the Hindu villager the Darzi is to Europeans one of the best known of all castes. He is on the whole a capable workman and especially good at copying from a pattern. His proficiency in this respect attracted notice so long ago as 1689, as shown in an interesting quotation in the Bombay Gazetteer referring to the tailors of Surat:8 “The tailors here fashion clothes for the Europeans, either men or women, according to every mode that prevails, and fit up the commodes and towering head-dresses for the women with as much skill as if they had been an Indian fashion, or themselves had been apprenticed at the Royal Exchange. (The commode was a wire structure to raise the cap and hair.)” Since then the Darzi has no doubt copied in turn all the changes of English fashions. He is a familiar figure in the veranda of the houses of Europeans, and his idiosyncrasies have been delightfully described by Eha in Behind the Bungalow. His needles and pins are stuck into the folds of his turban, and Eha says that he is bandy-legged because of the position in which he squats on his feet while sewing. In Gujarāt the tailor is often employed in native households. “Though even in well-to-do families,” Mr. Bhimbhai Kirpāram writes,9 “women sew their bodices and young children’s clothes for everyday wear, every family has its own tailor. As a rule tailors sew in their own houses, and in the tailor’s shop may be seen workmen squatting in rows on a palm-leaf mat or on cotton-stuffed quilts. The wives and sons’ wives of the head of the establishment sit and work in the shop along with the men. Their busy time is during the marriage season from November to June. A village tailor is paid either in cash or grain and is not infrequently a member of the village establishment. During the rains, the tailor’s slack season, he supplements his earnings by tillage, holding land which Government has continued to him on payment of one-half the ordinary rental. In south Gujarāt, in the absence of Brāhmans, a Darzi officiates at Bhāwad marriages, and in some Brāhman marriages a Darzi is called with some ceremony to sew a bodice for the bride. On the other hand, in the Pānch Mahals and Rewa Kantha, besides tailoring Darzis blow trumpets at marriage and other processions and hold so low a position that even Dhedas object to eat their food.” It seems clear that in Gujarāt the Darzi caste is of older standing than in northern India, and it is possible that the art of sewing may have been acquired through the sea trade which was carried on between the western coast and Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Here the Darzi has become a village menial, which he is not recorded as being in any other part of India.

5. Religion.

Like the weaver, the Darzi is of a somewhat religious turn of mind, probably on account of his sedentary calling which gives him plenty of time for reflection. Many of them belong to the Nāmdeo sect, originated by a Chhīpa or dyer, Nāmdeo Sādhu. Nāmdeo is said to have been a contemporary of Kabīr and to have flourished in the twelfth or thirteenth century. He was a great worshipper of the god Vithoba of Pandharpur and is considered by the Marāthas to be their oldest writer, being the author of many Abhangs, or sacred hymns.10 He preached the unity of God, recognising apparently Vithoba or Vishnu as the one deity, and the uselessness of ceremonial. His followers are mainly Dhobis and Chhīpas, the two principal castes from whom the Darzis have originated.11 Nāmdeo’s sect was thus apparently a protest on the part of the Chhīpas and Dhobis against their inferior position in the caste system and the tyranny of the Brāhmans, and resembled the spiritual revolt of the weavers under Kabīr and of the Chamārs under Ghāsi Dās and Jagjīwan Dās.

In Berār it is stated12 that “the Simpi caste has twelve and a half divisions; of these the chief are known as the Jain, Marāthi and Telugu Simpis. The Jain Simpis claim the hero Rimināth as a caste-fellow, while the Marāthas are often Lingāyats and the Telugu division generally Vaishnavas.” Before beginning work in the morning the Darzi bows to his scissors or needle and prays to them for his livelihood for that day.

The Darzi’s occupation, Mr. Crooke remarks, is a poor one and held rather in contempt. The village proverb runs, ‘Darzi ka pūt jab tak jīta tab tak sīta,’ ‘The tailor’s boy will do nothing but sew all his life long.’ Another somewhat more complimentary saying is, ‘Tanak si suiya tak tak kare aur lākh taka ko banj kare,’ or ‘The tiny needle goes tuk tuk, and makes merchandise worth a lakh of rupees.’ The Hindustani version of both proverbs is obviously intended to give the sound of a needle passing through cloth, and it is possible that our word ‘tuck’ has the same origin.

1. General notice.

Dewār.1—(Derived from Devi, whom they worship, or from Diābār, ‘One who lights a lamp,’ because they always practise magic with a lighted lamp.) A Dravidian caste of beggars and musicians. They numbered about 2500 persons in 1911 and are residents of the Chhattīsgarh plain. The Dewārs themselves trace their origin from a Binjhia named Gopāl Rai, who accompanied Rāja Kalyān Sai of Ratanpur on a visit to the Court of Delhi in Akbār’s time. Gopāl Rai was a great wrestler, and while at Delhi he seized and held a mast elephant belonging to the Emperor. When the latter heard of it he ordered a wrestling match to be arranged between Gopāl Rai and his own champion wrestler. Gopāl Rai defeated and killed his opponent, and Kalyān Sai ordered him to compose a triumphal song and sing it in honour of the occasion. He composed his song in favour of Devi Maha Mai, or Devi the Great Mother, and the composition and recitation of similar songs has ever since been the profession of his descendants the Dewārs. The caste is, as is shown by the names of its sections, of mixed origin, and its members are the descendants of Gonds and Kawars reinforced probably by persons who have been expelled from their own caste and have become Dewārs. They will still admit persons of any caste except the very lowest.

2. Subdivisions.

The caste has two principal divisions according to locality, named Raipūria and Ratanpūria, Raipur and Ratanpur having been formerly the two principal towns of Chhattīsgarh. Within these are several other local subdivisions, e.g. Navāgarhia or those belonging to Nawāgarh in Bilāspur, Sonākhania from Sonākhān south of the Mahānadi, Chātarrājiha from Chāter Raj, in Raipur, and Sārangarhia from Sārangarh State. Some other divisions are either occupational or social; thus the Baghurra Dewārs are those who tame tigers and usually live in the direction of Bastar, the Baipāri Dewārs are petty traders in brass or pewter ornaments which they sell to Banjāra women, and the Lohār and Jogi Dewārs may be so called either because their ancestors belonged to these castes, or because they have adopted the profession of blacksmiths and beggars respectively. Probably both reasons are partly applicable. These subdivisions are not strictly endogamous, but show a tendency to become so. The two main subcastes, Raipūria and Ratanpūria, are distinguished by the musical instruments which they play on while begging. That of the Raipūrias is a sort of rude fiddle called sārangi, which has a cocoanut shell as a resonator with horsehair strings, and is played with a bow. The Ratanpūrias have an instrument called dhungru, which consists of a piece of bamboo about three feet long with a hollow gourd as a resonator and catgut strings. In the latter the resonator is held uppermost and rests against the shoulder of the player, while in the former it is at the lower end and is placed against his waist. The section names of the Dewārs are almost all of Dravidian origin. Sonwānia, Markām, Marai, Dhurwa, Ojha, Netām, Salām, Katlām and Jagat are the names of well-known Gond septs which are also possessed by the Dewārs, and Telāsi, Karsayal, Son-Mungir and others are Kawar septs which they have adopted. They admit that their ancestors were members of these septs among the Gonds and Kawars. Where the name of the ancestor has a meaning which they understand, some totemistic observances survive. Thus the members of the Karsayal sept will not kill or eat a deer. The septs are exogamous, but there is no other restriction on marriage and the union of first cousins is permissible.

3. Marriage customs.

Adult marriage is usual, and if a husband cannot be found for a girl who has reached maturity she is given to her sister’s husband as a second wife, or to any other married person who will take her and give a feast to the caste. In some localities the boy who is to be married is sent with a few relatives to the girl’s house. On arrival he places a pot of wine and a nut before the girl’s father, who, if he is willing to carry out the marriage, orders the nut to be pounded up. This is always done by a member of the Sonwāni sept, a similar respect being paid to this sept among some of the Dravidian tribes. The foreheads of the betrothed couple are smeared with the nut and with some yellow-coloured rice and they bow low to the elders of the caste. Usually a bride-price of Rs. 5 or 10 is then paid to the parents of the girl together with two pieces of cloth intended for their use. A feast follows, which consists merely of the distribution of uncooked food, as the Dewārs, like some other low castes, will not take cooked food from each other. Pork and wine are essential ingredients in the feast or the ceremony cannot be completed. If liquor is not available, water from the house of a Kalār (distiller) will do instead, but there is no substitute for pork. This, however, is as a rule easily supplied as nearly all the Dewārs keep pigs, which are retailed to the Gonds for their sacrifices. The marriage ceremony is performed within three or four months at most after the betrothal. Before entering the Mandwa or marriage-shed the bridegroom must place a jar of liquor in front of his prospective father-in-law. The bridegroom must also place a ring on the little finger of the bride’s right hand, while she resists him as much as she can, her hand having previously been smeared with castor oil in order to make the task more difficult. Before taking the bride away the new husband must pay her father Rs. 20, and if he cannot do this, and in default of arrangements for remission which are sometimes made, must remain domiciled in his house for a certain period. As the bride is usually adult there is no necessity for a gauna ceremony, and she leaves for her husband’s house once for all. Thereafter when she visits the house of her parents she does so as a stranger, and they will not accept cooked food at her hands nor she at theirs. Neither will her husband’s parents accept food from her, and each couple with their unmarried children form an exclusive group in this respect. Such a practice is found only among the low castes of mixed origin where nobody is certain of his neighbour’s standing. If a woman has gone wrong before marriage, most of the ceremonies are omitted. In such a case the bridegroom catches hold of the bride by the hair and gives her a blow by way of punishment for her sin, and they then walk seven times round the sacred pole, the whole ceremony taking less than an hour. The bride-price is under these circumstances reduced to Rs. 15. Widow-marriage is permitted, and while in some localities the new husband need give nothing, in others he must pay as much as Rs. 50 to the relatives of the deceased husband. If a woman runs away from her husband to another man, the latter must pay to the husband double the ordinary amount payable for a widow. If he cannot afford this, he must return the woman with Rs. 10 as compensation for the wrong he has done. The Dewārs are also reported to have the practice of mortgaging their wives or making them over temporarily to a creditor in return for a loan. Divorce is allowed for the usual causes and by mutual consent. The husband must give a feast to the caste, which is looked on as the funeral ceremony of the woman so far as he is concerned; thereafter she is dead to him and he cannot marry her again on pain of the permanent exclusion of both from the caste. But a divorced woman can marry any other Dewār. Polygamy is freely allowed.

4. Religion and social practices.

The Dewārs especially worship Devi Maha Mai and Dūlha Deo. To the former they offer a she-goat and to the latter a he-goat which must be of a dark colour. They worship their dhungru or musical instrument on the day of Dasahra. They consider the sun and the moon to be brother and sister, and both to be manifestations of the deity. They bury their dead, but those who are in good circumstances dig up the bones after a year or two and burn them, taking the ashes to a sacred river. Mourning lasts for seven or ten days according as the deceased is unmarried or married, and during this time they abjure flesh and oil. Their social rules are peculiar. Though considered impure by the higher castes, they will not take cooked food from a Brāhman, whom they call a Kumhāti Kīda, or an insect which effects the metamorphosis of others into his own form, and who will therefore change them into his own caste. Nor will they take cooked food from members of their own caste, but they accept it from several of the lower castes including Gonds, whose leavings they will eat. This is probably because they beg from Gonds and attend their weddings. They keep pigs and pork is their favourite food, but they do not eat beef. They have a tribal council with a headman called Gaontia or Jemādar, who always belongs either to the Sonwāni or Telāsi section. Among offences for which a man is temporarily put out of caste is that of naming his younger brother’s wife. He must also abstain from going into her room or touching her clothes. This rule does not apply to an elder brother’s wife.

5. Occupation.

The Dewārs are professional beggars, and play on the musical instruments called dhungru and sārangi which have already been described. The Ratanpūrias usually celebrate in an exaggerated style the praises of Gopāl Rai, their mythical ancestor. One of his exploits was to sever with a single sword-stroke the stalk of a plantain inside which the Emperor of Delhi had caused a solid bar of iron to be placed. The Raipūrias prefer a song, called Gujrīgīt, about curds and milk. They also sing various songs relating how a woman is beloved by a Rāja who tries to seduce her, but her chastity is miraculously saved by some curious combination of circumstances. They exorcise ghosts, train monkeys, bears and tigers for exhibition, and sell ornaments of base metal. In Raipur the men take about performing monkeys and the women do tattooing, for which they usually receive payment in the shape of an old or new cloth. A few have settled down to cultivation, but as a rule they are wanderers, carrying from place to place their scanty outfit of a small tent and mattress, both made of old rags, and a few vessels. They meet at central villages during the Holi festival. The family is restricted to the parents and unmarried children, separation usually taking place on marriage.

1. Origin and subdivisions.

Dhākar.1—A small caste belonging solely to the Bastar State. In 1911 they numbered 5500 persons in Bastar, and it is noticeable that there were nearly twice as many women as men. The term Dhākar connotes a man of illegitimate descent and is applied to the Kirārs of the Central Provinces and perhaps to other castes of mixed Rājpūt origin. But in Bastar it is the special designation of a considerable class of persons who are the descendants of alliances between Brāhman and Rājpūt immigrants and women of the indigenous tribes. They are divided, like the Halbas, into two groups—Purāit or pure, and Surāit or mixed. The son of a Brāhman or Rājpūt father by a Rāwat (herdsman) or Halba mother is a Purāit, but one born from a woman of the Muria, Marār, Nai or Kalār castes is a Surāit. But these latter can become Purāits after two or three generations, and the same rule applies to the son of a Dhākar father by a Halba or Rāwat woman, who also ranks in the first place as a Surāit. Descendants of a Dhākar father by a Muria or other low-caste woman, however, always remain Surāits. The Purāits and Surāits form endogamous groups, and the latter will accept cooked food from the former. The more respectable Dhākars round Jagdalpur are now tending, however, to call themselves Rājpūts and refuse to admit any one of mixed birth into their community.

One legend of their origin is that the first Dhākar was the offspring of a Brāhman cook of the Rāja of Bastar with a Kosaria Rāwat woman; and though this is discredited by the Dhākars it is probably a fairly correct version of the facts. An inferior branch of the caste exists which is known as Chikrasār; it is related of them that their ancestors once went out hunting and set the forest on fire as a method of driving the game, as they occasionally do still. They came across the roasted body of a dog in the forest and ate it without knowing what animal it was. In the stomach, however, some cooked rice was found, and hence it was known as a dog and they were branded as dog-eaters. As a penalty the Rāja imposed on them the duty of thatching a hut for him at the Dasahra festival, which their descendants still perform. The other Dhākars refuse to marry or eat with them, and it is clear from the custom of thatching the Rāja’s hut that they are a primitive and jungly branch of the caste.

2. Marriage.

If a girl becomes with child by a member of the caste she is made over to him without a marriage, or to the man to whom she was previously betrothed if he is still willing to take her. Neither is she expelled if the same event occurs with a man of any higher caste, but if he be of lower caste she is thrown out. Marriages are usually arranged by the parents but an adult girl may choose her own husband, and she is then wedded to him with abbreviated rites so that her family may avoid the disgrace of her entering his house like a widow or kept woman. Formerly a Dhākar might marry his granddaughter, but this is no longer done. When the signs of puberty first appear in a girl she is secluded and must not see or be seen by any man. They think that the souls of dead ancestors are reborn in children, and if a child refuses to suck they ask which of their ancestors he is and what he wants, or they offer it some present such as a silver bangle, and if the child then takes to the breast they give away the bangle to a Brāhman. The sixth day after a child is born the paternal aunt prepares lamp-black from a lamp fed with melted butter and rubs it on the child’s eyes and receives a small present.

3. Funeral rites.

The period of mourning or impurity after a death must terminate with a feast to the caste-men, and it continues until this is given. Consequently the other caste-men subscribe for a poor member, so that he may give the feast and resume his ordinary avocations. On this occasion one of the guests puts a small fish in a leaf-cup full of water, which no doubt represents the spirit of the deceased, and all the mourners touch this cup and are freed from their impurity. A Brāhman is also invited, who lights a lamp fed with melted butter and then asks for a cow or some other valuable present as a recompense for his service of blowing out the lamp. Until this is done the Dhākars think that the soul of the departed is tortured by the flame of the lamp. If the Brāhman is pleased, he pours some curds over the lamp and this acts as a cooling balm to the soul. When a member of the family dies the mourners shave the whole head with beard and moustache.

4. Occupation and social status.

The Dhākars are mainly engaged in cultivation as farmservants and labourers. Like the Halbas, they consider it a sin to heat or forge iron, looking upon the metal as sacred. They eat the flesh of clean animals, but abstain from both pigs and chickens, and some also do not eat the peacock. A man as well as a woman is permanently expelled for adultery with a person of lower caste, the idea of this rule being no doubt to prevent degradation in the status of the caste from the admission of the offspring of such unions. If one Dhākar beats another with a shoe, both are temporarily put out of caste. But if a man seduces a caste-man’s wife and is beaten with a shoe by the husband, he is permanently expelled, while the husband is readmitted after a feast. On being received back into caste intercourse an offender is purified by drinking water in which the image of a local god has been dipped or the Rāja of Bastar has placed his toe. Like other low castes of mixed origin, they are very particular about each other’s status and will only accept cooked food from families who are well known to them. At caste feasts each family or group of families cooks for itself, and in some cases parents refuse to eat with the family into which their daughter has married and hence cannot do so with the girl herself.

1. Traditions and structure of the caste.

Dhangar.1—The Marātha caste of shepherds and blanket-weavers, numbering 96,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berār. They reside principally in the Nāgpur, Wardha, Chānda and Nimār Districts of the Central Provinces and in all Districts of Berār. The Dhangars are a very numerous caste in Bombay and Hyderābād. The name is derived either from the Sanskrit dhenu, a cow, or more probably from dhan,2 wealth, a term which is commonly applied to flocks of sheep and goats. It is said that the first sheep and goats came out of an ant-hill and scattering over the fields began to damage the crops of the cultivators. They, being helpless, prayed to Mahādeo to rescue them from this pest and he thereupon created the first Dhangar to tend the flocks. The Dhangars consequently revere an ant-hill, and never remove one from their fields, while they worship it on the Diwāli day with offerings of rice, flowers and part of the ear of a goat. When tending and driving sheep and goats they ejaculate ‘Har, Har,’ which is a name of Mahādeo used by devotees in worshipping him. The Dhangars furnished a valuable contingent to Sivaji’s guerilla soldiery, and the ruling family of Indore State belong to this caste. It is divided into the following subcastes: Varādi or Barāde, belonging to Berār; Kānore or Kānade, of Kanara; Jhāde, or those belonging to the Bhandāra, Bālāghāt and Chhindwāra Districts, called the Jhādi or hill country; Lādse, found in Hyderābād; Gādri, from gādar, a sheep, a division probably consisting of northerners, as the name for the cognate caste of shepherds in Hindustān is Gadaria; Telange, belonging to the Telugu country; Marāthe, of the Marātha country; Māhurai from Māhur in Hyderābād, and one or two others. Eleven subcastes in all are reported. For the purposes of marriage a number of exogamous groups or septs exist which may be classified according to their nomenclature as titular and totemistic, many having also the names of other castes. Examples of sept names are: Powār, a Rājpūt sept; Dokra, an old man; Mārte, a murderer or slayer; Sarodi, the name of a caste of mendicants; Mhāli, a barber; Kaode, a crow; Chambhāde, a Chamār; Gūjde, a Gūjar; Juāde, a gambler; Lamchote, long-haired; Bodke, bald-headed; Khatīk, a butcher; Chāndekar, from Chānda; Dambhāde, one having pimples on the body; Halle, a he-buffalo; Moya, a grass, and others. The sept names show that the caste is a functional one of very mixed composition, partly recruited from members of other castes who have taken to sheep-tending and generally from the non-Aryan tribes.

2. Marriage.

A man must not marry within his own sept or that of his mother, nor may he marry a first cousin. He may wed a younger sister of his wife during her lifetime, and the practice of marrying a girl and boy into the same family, called Anta Sānta or exchange, is permitted. Occasionally the husband does service for his wife in his father-in-law’s house. In Wardha the Dhangars measure the heights of a prospective bride and bridegroom with a piece of string and consider it a suitable match if the husband is taller than the wife, whether he be older or not. Marriages may be infant or adult, and polygamy is permitted, no stigma attaching to the taking of a second wife. Weddings may be celebrated in the rains up to the month of Kunwār (September), this provision probably arising from the fact that many Dhangars wander about the country during the open season, and are only at home during the rainy months. Perhaps for the same reason the wedding may, if the officiating priest so directs, be held at the house of a Brāhman. This happens only when the Brāhman has sown an offering of rice, called Gāg, in the name of the goddess Rāna Devi, the favourite deity of the Dhangars. On his way to the bride’s house the bridegroom must be covered with a black blanket. Nowadays the wedding is sometimes held at the bridegroom’s house and the bride comes for it. The caste say that this is done because there are not infrequently among the members of the bridegroom’s family widows who have remarried or women who have been kept by men of higher castes or been guilty of adultery. The bride’s female relatives refuse to wash the feet of these women and this provokes quarrels. To meet such cases the new rule has been introduced. At the wedding the priest sits on the roof of the house facing the west, and the bride and bridegroom stand below with a curtain between them. As the sun is half set he claps his hands and the bridegroom takes the clasped hands of the bride within his own, the curtain being withdrawn. The bridegroom ties round the bride’s neck a yellow thread of seven strands, and when this is done she is married. Next morning a black bead necklace is substituted for the thread. The expenses of the bridegroom’s party are about Rs. 50, and of the bride’s about Rs. 30. The remaining procedure follows the customary usage of the Marātha Districts. Widows are permitted to marry again, but must not take a second husband from the sept to which the first belonged. A considerable price is paid for a widow, and it is often more expensive to marry one than a girl. A Brāhman and the mālguzār (village proprietor) should be present at the ceremony. If a bachelor marries a widow he must first go through the ceremony with a silver ring, and if the ring is subsequently lost or broken, its funeral rites must be performed. Divorce is allowed in the presence of the caste panchāyat at the instance of either party for sufficient reason, as the misconduct or bad temper of the wife or the impotency of the husband.

3. Religion.

Mahādeo is the special deity of the Dhangars, and they also observe the ordinary Hindu festivals. At Diwāli they worship their goats by dyeing their horns and touching their feet. One Bahrām of Nāchangaon near Pulgaon is the tutelary deity of the Wardha Dhangars and the protector of their flocks. On the last day of the month of Māgh they perform a special ceremony called the Deo Pūja. A Dhīmar acts as priest to the caste on this occasion and fashions some figures of idols out of rice to which vermilion and flowers are offered. He then distributes the grains of rice to the Dhangars who are present, pronouncing a benediction. The Dhīmar receives his food and a present, and it is essential that the act of worship should be performed by one of this caste. In their houses they have Kul-Devi and Khandoba the Marātha hero, who are the family deities. But in large families they are kept only in the house of the eldest brother. Kul-Devi or the goddess of the family is worshipped at weddings, and a goat is offered to her in the month of Chait (March). The head is buried beneath her shrine inside the house and the body is consumed by members of the family only. Khandoba is worshipped on Sundays and they identify him with the sun. Vithoba, a form of Vishnu, is revered on Wednesdays, and Bālāji, the younger brother of Rāma, on Fridays. Many families also make a representation of some deceased bachelor relative, which they call Munjia, and of some married woman who is known as Mairni or Sāsin, and worship them daily.

4. Birth, death and social status.

The Dhangars burn their dead unless they are too poor to purchase wood for fuel, in which case burial is resorted to. Unmarried children and persons dying from smallpox, leprosy, cholera and snake-bite are also buried. At the pyre the widow breaks her bangles and throws her glass beads on to her husband’s body. On returning from the burning ghāt the funeral party drink liquor. Some gānja, tobacco and anything else which the deceased may have been fond of during his life are left near the grave on the first day. Mourning is observed during ten days on the death of an adult and for three days for a child. Children are usually named on the twelfth day after birth, the well-to-do employing a Brāhman for the purpose. On this day the child must not see a lamp, as it is feared that if he should do so he will afterwards have a squint. Only one name is given as a rule, but subsequently when the child comes to be married, if the Brāhman finds that its name does not make the marriage auspicious, he substitutes another and the child is afterwards known by this new name. The caste employ Brāhmans for ceremonies at birth and marriage. They eat flesh including fowls and wild pig, and drink liquor, but abstain from other unclean food. They will take food from a Kunbi, Phūlmāli or a Sunār, and water from any of the good cultivating castes. A Kunbi will take water from them. The women of the caste wear bracelets of lead or brass on the right wrist and glass bangles on the left. Permanent or temporary excommunication from caste is imposed for the usual offences, and among those visited with the minor penalty are selling shoes, touching the carcase of a dog or cat, and killing a cow or buffalo, or allowing one to die with a rope round its neck. No food is cooked for five weeks in a house in which a cat has died. The social standing of the caste is low.

5. Occupation.

The traditional occupation of the Dhangars is to tend sheep and goats, and they also sell goats’ milk, make blankets from the wool of sheep, and sometimes breed and sell stock for slaughter. They generally live near tracts of waste land where grazing is available. Sheep are kept in open and goats in roofed folds. Like English shepherds they carry sticks or staffs and have dogs to assist in driving the flocks, and they sometimes hunt hares with their dogs. Their dress consists frequently only of a loin-cloth and a blanket, and having to bear exposure to all weathers, they are naturally strong and hardy. In appearance they are dark and of medium size. They eat three times a day and bathe in the evening on returning from work, though their ablutions are sometimes omitted in the cold weather.