The Castes and Tribes of H.E.H. the Nizam's Dominions
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िव�ा �सारक मंडळ, ठाणे Title : Castes and Tribes of H.E.H. Nizam's Dominions : Vol. I. Author : Hassan, Syed Siraj UL Publisher : Bombay : The Times Press Publication Year : 1920 Pages : 658 pgs. गणपुस्त �व�ा �सारत मंडळाच्ा “�ंथाल्” �तल्पा्गर् िनिमर्त गणपुस्क िन�म्ी वषर : 2014 गणपुस्क �मांक : 102 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924088964154 [^ THE CASTES AND TRIBES OF H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S DOMINIONS o Z BY SYED SIRAJ UL HASSAN Of Merton College, Oxford, Trinity College, Dublin, and Middle Temple, London. One of the Judges of H. E. H. the Nizam's High Court of Judicature : Lr tely Director of Public Instruction. Volume I BOMBAY THE tlMES PRESS 1920 '' ^ ^ PREFACE. ^ This work was undertaken with great enthusiasm, jf not by •'myself certainly ""by a devoted band, headed by the late Mr. Kale of the Educational Department, who travelled through the Domi- nions and thus obtained at first hand valuable information regarding the Tribes and Castes that inhabit the Hyderabad Deccan : I » followed them, not everywhere but as far as I was able, to check their investigations and revise the monographs prepared by Mr. Kale. The Fates were against us from the outset : a serious affection of the eyes—not to mention my official and numerous other engage- ments—made> me despair of these pages ever seeing the light of day. A more severe loss was the sudden death of Mr. Kale when the last pages^of the draft lay before him. If kind friends had not come :Jo my assistance, I could not have consented to the publica- tion of the work at all, despite the gentle and kindly pressure of the Department of Finance which had entrusted me with the work. I am, however, hopeful that the material which has been collected may afford others an opportunity of contributing, in better shape ^and form, to ethnographic literature. D I must acknowledge my indebtedness to the learned gentleman who produced similar work in Bombay, for to make our own efforts complete, we had to look for help from the other side with regar(i to such castes as the "Ahirs" and others, who' are to be found in the fronti^t districts of Khandesh and Nasik. I would have acknowledged in detail the various monographs from which we borrowed; but as Mr. Kale is no more, I am hardly in a position to do so. My thanks are especially due to my old and capable friend Mr. J. E. Lee, who very kindly saw the work through the Press; also to Mr. Shawcross for looking over some of the articles as they came from the Typist. A word of thanks to the eminent Surgeon Oculist who attended me will not be out of place; for it is due entirely to the great skill of Dr. Duggan that I am able to read these pages at all. No further apology is needed to the readers of these monographs when they know under what physical strain I had to bring out the work. Its deficiencies will no douJ)t be patent and I shall always be grate- ful for friendly criticism which will help to improve a later edition. o ' s"s. H. CONTENTS. Page I—Ahir : ... , 1 II—Andh 8 III—Are Katika 12 IV—Banjara 15 V—Barai 28 VI—Bedar 34 VII.-Bhadbhunja 44 VIII—Bhamta 48 • IX—Bhandari 51 • X—Bhat 53 XI—Bhatraja 56 XII—Bhavsar 60 XIII—Bhil 66 XIV—Bhoi 77 XV—Bhute 88 . XVI—Bogam 91 XVII—Bprul 96 XVIII—Brahman 99 XIX—Budbudke 134 X>^—Burud 135 XXI—Chakla or Dhobi 143 XXII—Chanchu 149 XXIII—Darji 153 XXIV—Dasri 157 XXV—Devanga 162 XXVI—Dhangar 166 XXVlII—Dhor 171 XXVIII—Domara 177 XXIX—Erakala 185 XXX—Gavli 196 XXXI—Ghisadi 201 XXXII—Golia .J , 204 '. XXXIII—Gond ... ^.. 216 XXXIV—Gondhali 233 XXXV—Gopai 237 CONTENTS. Page. ^ 240 XXXVI—Goundala ... 248 XXXVIl—Hatkar 256 XXXVIII—Jain 273 XXXIX—Jingar 278 XL—Jogi , 286 XLI—Johari 290 XLII—Joshi XLIII—Kachhi 297 XLIV—Kahar 300 c XLV—Kalal 303 '306 XLVI—Kapu XLVII—Kasar 320 XLVIII—Kayasth 322 XLIX—Khatik 326 L—Khatri 328 LI—Koli 332^ Lll—Komti 340 LIII—Kummara 357 LIV—Kuruma 362 LV—Kurmi 370 LVI—Lalbeji 380 LVII—Lingayit 383 LVIII—Lodhe 400 LIX—Lonari 404 LX—Madiga 409 LXI—Mahar 421 LXII—Mala 428 LXIII—Mali 439 LXIV—Mali Gujarathi 447 LXV—Manbhao 450 LXVl—Mang 458 LXVII—Mangala or Barber 463 LXVIII—Mang Garodi 469 LXIX—Maratha ' ... 473 LXX—Marwadi (Bania) 492 LXXI—Mendicant Telegas 503 CONTENTS. • Page, LXXII—Mochi ,. ... 508 LXXIII—Mondiwadu ^515 LXXIV—Munur 518 LXXV—Muttasi 525 • LXXVI—Otari 532 LXXVII—I^adma Sale ... 536 LXXVIII—Panchal 544 LXXIX-J^angul 555 • LXXX—Pardhi ... 558 L>gCXI.-Penta 562 LX:^XII—Perika •. ... 565 LXXXIII—Pichakuntala 568 LXXXIV—Rajput 573 LXXXV—Sale 577 LXXXVI-5anyasi 582 UXXXVII—Satani 585 LX^XVIII—Singi 590 LXXXIX—Sonar 592 XC—Tamdi and Gurgva ... ... ... ... 597 kCI—Telaga 603 XCII—Teli or Gandla 611 XCIII—Uppara or Gavandi 619 XCIV—Vaidu 624 XCV—Vanjari 627 XCVl—Velma 635 XCVII—Viramushti 641 XCVIII—Waddar 645 THE TRIBES AND CASTES OF H. H. ,THE NIZAM'S DOMINIONS Ahir Origin —Ahir, Ahir (Sansk- Abhir)—a large pastoral caste regarding whose origin there has been much controversy. Manu re- presents them as descended from a Brahman and an Ambastha mother, whilev according to the Brahm Puran, they are the offspring of a Kshatriy^ man a I and Vaishya woman. The traditions current among the people profess to trace their descent from the God Krishna, whose gay amours with the gopis, or milkmaids of Brindaban, are set forth at great lepglh in the Bhdgwat and Hariwansha Purdnas. These tradi- tions, as well as their sub-divisions Nandabansi, Yadubansi and Goalbansi, evidently called after Nanda, Yadu and Copal, seem to identify them with the Gopas, who were mentioned in the Buddhist Pali }ata\ds and Hindu Purdnas, as a caste of cowherds, found in Mathura and its neighbourhood and settled down into an orderly community long before the Christian era. These claims of Ahirs to be the descendants of Gopas are not, however, borne out by evidence. The Va'su, Markande^a and Mats^a Purdnas mention the Abhiras with Valhikas and Vatadhanas in the north and Shabaras, Pulindas and Vaidharbas in the south. The Bhdgwat Puran (II. 4-18) associates them with Kiratas, Hunas, Andhras and Pulindas as the tribes purified by Krishna. In the Mahabharata (Musulparva VII) tlsfe Abhiras are "described as Dasyu, or free booters who assailed Arjuna in the Panchanada De^h (the e Punjab) and carried away the widowed wives of Krishna and Yadavas whom he was escorting from Dwarjca with immense riches. 2 Ahir c The Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta also refers to tifc Abhiras as a tr^e and places them on the frontiers of Samudragupta's kingdom. These facts evidently show that the Abhiras were origin- ally a distinct tribe, outside the pale of Hindu Society, who dwelt somewhere in the Punjab and combined the character of banditti with that of herdsmen. This view is favoured by Professor Lassen, who describes the Abhiras as a non-Aryan pastoral race living near the mouth of the Indus, and also by Ptolemy who noticed them as occu- pying Pataline, the country about Tatta on the InEus. The w^rd ' Abhira is first given as a synonym for gopa (cowherd) in the r Amarkosha (550 A.D.), from which it follows that the Abhiras, or Ahirs, became incorporated into the Gopa or Goala caste sometime before 500 A.D. History.—The Ahirs have not, for many centuries, been of any political importance. But the evidence of inscriptions shows that a dynasty of Ahir Kings once ruled over the Deccan and Gujarath. In a cave inscription at Nasik, reference is made to the reign of an Abhira prince named Ishwarasena, son of Shivadatta. Another inscription, found at Gunda and dated 181 A.D., in the reign of the Kshatrapa Rudrasinha, speaks of his General Rudra- bhuti, who is therein called Abhira. The Purdnas describe* them as having ruled as paramount sovereigns after the Andhrabhrityas and in the 8th century, when the Kathis arrived in Gujarath, they found the greater part of the country possessed by the Ahirs. The old fort Ashirgada. in the Khandesh, testifies to their former im- portance and still retains the name of its founder Asa Ahir, or the Ahir prince Asa, who is said to have had 5,000 buffaloes, 5,000 cows and 20,000 sheep. Immense numbers of the Ahir still cling to the nomadic life of their ancestors. Seeking the high grazing ground of Centnai India and the Deccan, they form encampments on the pasture lands, where they reside with their wives, families and herds, till the grass in the neighbourhood is exhausted, subsisting entirely on the prt- ceeds from their cows and buffaloes—milk, butter and 'ghee. The houses they use are constructed of large bamboo matst which can be taken to pieces and removed like tents. Ahir 3 Interiiar Structure —The Ahirs have 6 endogamous* divisions— Nandabansi, Yadubansi, Goalbansi, Lingabansi, Ghosi and Guiar, of whom the Nandabansi are found in very large Slumbers in these Dominions. The Nandabansi trace their pedigree to the cowherd chief Nanda and his wife Yashoda, the foster parents of .