Teli
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From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India
By R. V. Russell
Of The Indian Civil Service
Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces
Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner
Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.
NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.
NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from a book. During scanning some errors are bound to occur. Some letters get garbled. Footnotes get inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot errors might like to correct them, and shift footnotes gone astray to their rightful place.
Teli
The occupational caste of oil pressers and sellers .The Telis numbered nearly 900,000 persons in 1911 ,being the fifth cate in the province in point of population.They are numerous in the Chhatisgarh and Nagpur divisions,nearly 400,000 belonging to the former ans 200,000 to the latter tract.while in Berar and the north of the province they are sparsely represented.
large landholders. Their distribution thus remains a somewhat curious problem. \\\\\. all over the Province the Telis have generally abandoned their hereditary trade of pressing oil, and have taken to trade and agriculture, the number of those returned as oil-pressers being only about seven per cent of the total strength of the caste. The name comes from the Sanskrit tailika or taila, oil, and this word is derived from the tilli or sesamum plant.
The caste have few traditions of origin. Their usual 2. Origin
story is that during Siva's absence the goddess Parvati felt
^^^ ^^^^^'
nervous because she had no doorkeeper to her palace, and
therefore she made the god Ganesh from the sweat of her
body and set him to guard the southern gate.
But when Siva returned Ganesh did not know him and refused to let him enter ; on which Siva was so enraged that he cut off the head of Ganesh with a stroke of his sword. He then entered the palace, and Parvati, observing the blood on his sword, asked him what had happened, and reproached him bitterly for having slain her son. Siva was distressed, but said that he could not replace the head as it was already reduced to ashes. But he said that if any animal could be found looking towards the south he could put its head on Ganesh and bring him to life.
As it happened a trader was then resting outside the palace and had with him an elephant, which was seated with its head to the south. So Siva quickly struck off the head of the elephant and placed it on the body of Ganesh and brought him to life again, and thus Ganesh got his elephant's head. But the trader made loud lamentation about the loss of his elephant, so to pacify him Siva made a pestle and mortar, utensils till then unknown, and showed him how to pound oil-seeds in them and express the oil, and enjoined him to earn a livelihood in future by this calling, and his descendants after him ; and so the merchant became the first Teli.
And the pestle was considered to be Siva and the mortar Parvati. This last statement affords some support to Mr. Marten's suggestion ^ that a certain veneration attaching to the pestle and mortar and their use in marriage ceremonies may be due to the idea of their ^ C. p. Census Report (191 1), p. 147, referring to Professor Karl Pearson's Chances of Death.
typifying the male and female organs. The fact that Ganesh was set to guard the southern gate, and that the animal whose head could be placed on his body must be looking to the south, probably hinges in some way on the south being the abode of Yama, the god of death, but the connection has been forgotten by the teller of the story; it may also be noted that if the palace was in the Himalayas, the site of Kailas or Siva's heaven, the whole of India would be to the south.
Another story related by Mr. Crooke ^ from Mirzapur is that a
certain man had three sons and owned fifty-two mahua^ trees.
When he became aged and infirm he told his sons to divide
the trees, but after some discussion they decided to divide not
the trees themselves but their produce. One of them fell to
picking up the leaves, and he was the ancestor of the Bharbhunjas
or grain-parchers, who still use leaves in their ovens ;
the second collected the flowers and corollas, and having
distilled liquor from them became a Kalar ; while the third
took the kernels or fruit and crushed the oil out of them,
and was the founder of the Teli caste.
The country spirit generally drunk is distilled from the flowers of the mahua tree, and a cheap vegetable oil in common use is obtained from its seeds. The Telis and Kalars are also castes of about the same status and have other points of resemblance; and the legend connecting them is therefore of some interest. Some groups of Telis who have become landed proprietors or prospered in trade have stories giving them a more exalted origin.
Thus the landholding Rathor Telis of Mandla say that they were Rathor Rajputs who fled from the Muhammadans and threw away their swords and sacred threads ; and the Telis of Nimar, several of whom are wealthy merchants, give out that their ancestors were Modh Banias from Gujarat who had to take to oil-pressing for a livelihood under Muhammadan rule. But these legends may perhaps be considered a natural result of their rise in the world. 3. Endo- The caste has a large number of subdivisions. The gamous principal groups in Chhattlsgarh are the Halia, Jharia and castes. Ekbahia Telis. The Halias, who perhaps take their name from hal^ a plough, are considered to be the best cultivators, and are said to have immigrated from Mandla some genera- ' Tribes and Castes, art. Tcli. ^ Bassia latijolia.
I
tions ago. Probably the bulk of the Hindu population of Chhattisgarh came from this direction. The name Jharia means jungly or savage, and is commonly applied to the oldest residents, but the Jharia Telis are the highest local subcaste. They require the presence of a Brahman at their weddings, and abstain generally from liquor, fowls and pork, to which the Halias are not averse. They also bathe the corpse before it is burnt or buried, an observance omitted by the Halias. The Jharias yoke only one bullock to the oilpress, and the Halias two, a distinction which is elsewhere sufficient of itself to produce separate subcastes.
The Ekbahia (one-armed) Telis are so called because their women wear glass bangles only on the right hand and metal ones on the left. This is a custom of several castes whose women do manual labour, and the reason appears to be one of convenience, as glass bangles on the working arm would be continually getting broken.
Among the Ekbahia Telis it is said that a woman considers it a point of honour to have these metal bangles as numerous and heavy as her arm can bear ; and at a wedding a present of three bracelets from the bridegroom to the bride is held to be indispensable. The Madpotwa are a small subcaste living near the hills, who in former times distilled liquor ; they keep pigs and poultry, and rank below the others. Other groups are the Kosarias, who are called after Kosala, the old name of Chhattisgarh, and the Chhote or Little Telis, who are of illegitimate descent. Children born out of wedlock are relegated to this group.
In the Nagpur country the principal subdivisions are the Ekbaile and Dobaile, so called because they yoke one and two bullocks respectively to the oil-press ; the distinction is still maintained, the Dobaile being also known as Tarane.
This seems a trivial reason for barring intermarriage, but it must be remembered that the yoking of the bullock to the oil-press, coupled as it is with the necessity of blindfolding the animal, is considered a great sin on the Teli's part and a degrading incident of his profession ; the Teli's worst fear is that after death his soul will pass into one of his own bullocks. The Yerande Telis are so called because they formerly pressed only the erandi or castor-oil seed, but the rule is no longer maintained. The Yerande women leave VOL. IV 2 N
off wearing the cJloH or breast-cloth after they have had one child, and have nothing under the sari or body-cloth, but they wear this folded double. The Ruthia group are said to be so called from the noise rut, 7'ut made by the oilmill in turning. They say they are descended from the Nag or cobra. They salute the snake when they see it and refrain from killing it, and they will not make any drawing or sign having the semblance of a snake or use any article which may be supposed to be like it.
The Sao Telis are the highest group in Wardha, and have eschewed the pressing of oil. The word Sao or Sahu is the title of a moneylender, but they are usually cultivators or village proprietors. A Brahman will enter a Sao Teli's house, but not the houses of any other subcaste. Their women wear silver bangles on the right hand and glass ones on the left. The Batri subcaste are said to be so called from their growing the batar, a kind of pea, and the Hardia from raising the haldi or turmeric.
The Teli-Kalars appear to be a mixed group of Kalars who have taken to the oilman's profession, and the Teli-Banias are Telis who have become shopkeepers, and may be expected in the course of time to develop either into a plebeian group of Banias or an aristocratic one of Telis. In Nimar the Gujarati Telis, who have now grown wealthy and prosperous, claim, as already seen, to be Modh Banias, and the same pretension is put forward by their fellow-castemen in Gujarat itself. " The large class of oilmen known in Gujarat as Modh-Ghanelis were originally Modh Banias, who by taking to making and selling oil lost their position as Banias " ;
^ it seems doubtful, however, whether the reverse process has not really taken place. The Umre Telis also have the name of a subcaste of Banias. The landholding Rathor Telis of Mandla, who now claim to be Rathor Rajputs, will be more fully noticed later. There are also several local subcastes, as the Mattha or Maratha Telis, who say they came from Patan in Gujarat, the Sirwas from the ancient city of Sravasti in Gonda District, and the Kanaujia from Oudh. 4. Exo- Each subcaste is divided into a number of exogamous gamous groups for the regulation .of marriages. The names of the divisions.
groups appear to be taken either from villages or titles or
nicknames. Most of them cannot be recognised, but the
following are a {q\v : Baghmare, a tiger-killer ; Deshmukh, a
village officer ; Vaidya, a physician ; Bavvankule, the fifty-two
septs ; Badwaik, the great ones ; Satpute, seven sons ; Bhajikhfiya,
an eater of vegetables ; Satapaise, seven pice ; Ghoremadia,
a horse-killer ; Chaudhri, a caste headman ; Ardona, a
kind of gram ; Malghati, a valley; Chandan-malagar, one who
presented sandalwood ; and Sanichara, born on Saturday.
Three septs, Dhurwa, Besram, a hawk, and Sonwani, goldwater, belong to the Gonds or other tribes. The clans of the Rathor Telis of Mandla are said to be named after villages in Jubbulpore and Maihar State. The marriage of persons of the same sept and of first 5. Marcousins is usually forbidden. A man ma}^ marry his wife's "uTtoms.
younger sister while she herself is alive, but never her elder
sister. An unmarried girl becoming pregnant by a man of
the caste is married to him by the ceremony used for a
widow, and she may be readmitted even after a liaison with
an outsider among most Telis. In Chanda the parents of
a girl who is not married before puberty are fined. The
proposal comes from the boy's side and a bride-price is
usually paid, though not of large amount.
The Halia Telis of Chhattlsgarh, like other agricultural castes, sometimes betroth their children when they are five or six months old, but as a rule no penalty attaches to the breaking of the betrothal. The betrothal is celebrated by the distribution of one or two rupees' worth of liquor to the neighbours of the caste. As among other low castes, on the day before the wedding procession starts, the bridegroom goes round to all the houses in the village and his sister dances round him with her head bent, and all the people give him presents.
This is known as the Binaiki or Farewell, and the bride does the same in her village. Among the Jharia Telis the women go and worship the marriage-post at the carpenter's house while it is being made. In this subcaste the bridegroom goes to the wedding in a cart and not on horseback or in a litter as among some castes. The rule may perhaps be a recognition of their humble station. The Halia subcaste can dispense with the presence of a Brahman at the wedding, but not the
Jharias. In Wardha the bridegroom's head is covered with a blanket, over which is placed the marriage-crown. On the arrival of the bridegroom's party they are regaled with sherbet or sugar and water by the bride's relatives, and sometimes red pepper is mixed with this by way of a joke. At a wedding of the Gujarati Telis in Nimar the castepriest carries the tutelary goddess Kali in procession, and in front of her a pot filled with burning cotton-seeds and oil. A cloth is held over the pot, and it is believed that the power of the goddess prevents the cloth from taking fire. If this should happen some great calamity would be portended. Rathor Teli girls, whether married or unmarried, go with their heads bare, and a woman draws her cloth over her head for the first time when she begins to live in her husband's house. 6. Widow- Divorce and widow - marriage are permitted. In remarriage, (^hh^ttlsgarh a widow IS always kept in the family if possible, and if her late husband's brother be only a boy she is sometimes induced to put on the bangles and wait for him. If a barandi widow, that is one who has been married but has not lived with her husband, desires to marry again out of his family, the second husband must repay to them the amount spent on her first marriage. In Chanda, on the other hand, some Telis do not permit a widow to marry her late husband's younger brother at all, and others only when he is a bachelor or a widower. Here the minimum period for which a widow must remain single after her husband's death is one month. The engagement with a widow is arranged by the suitor's female relatives, and they pay her a rupee as earnest money. On the day fixed she goes with one or two other widows to the bridegroom's house, and from there to the bazar, where she buys two pairs of bell-metal rings, to be worn on the second toe of each foot, and some glass bangles. She remains sitting in the bazar till well after dark, when some widow goes to fetch her on behalf of her suitor. They bring her to his house, where the couple sit together, and red powder is applied to their foreheads. They then bathe and present their clothes to the washerman, putting on new clothes. The idea in all this is clearly to sever the widow as comII
pletely as possible from her old home and prevent her from being accompanied to the new one by the first husband's spirit. In some localities when a Teli widow remarries it is considered most unlucky for any one to see the face of the bride or bridegroom for twenty-four hours, or as some say for three days after the wedding. The ceremony is therefore held at night, and for this period the couple either remain shut up in the house or retire to the jungle.
The caste especially revere Mahadeo or Siva, who gave 7. Reiithem the oil-mill. In the Nagpur country they do not work ^'°"j^ the mill on Monday, because it is Mahadeo's day, he having deities, the moon on his forehead. They revere the oil-mill, and when the trunk is brought to be set up in the house, if there is difficulty in moving it they make offerings to it of a goat or wheat-cakes or cocoanuts, after which it moves easily. When a Teli first sets the trunk-socket of the oil-press in the ground he buries beneath it five pieces of turmeric, some cowries and an areca-nut. In the northern Districts the Telis worship Masan Baba, who is supposed to be the ghost of a Teli boy. He is a boy about three feet in height, black-coloured, with a long black scalp-lock. Some Telis have Masan Baba in their possession, and when they are turning the oil-press they set him on top of it, and he makes the bullocks keep on working, so that the master can go away and leave the press. But in order to prevent him from getting into mischief a cake of flour mixed with human hair must be placed in front of the press ; he will eat this, but will first pick out all the hairs one by one, and this will occupy him the whole night ; but if no cake is put for him he will eat all the food in the house. A Teli who has not got Masan must go to one who has and hire him for Rs. 1-4 a night. They then both go to the owner's oilpress, and the hirer says, ' I have hired you to-night,' and the owner says, ' Yes, I have let you for to-night ' ; and then the hirer goes away, and Masan Baba follows him and will turn the oil-mill all night. A Teli who has not got Masan Baba puts a stone on the oil-mill, and then the bullock thinks that his master Masan is sitting on it, and will go on turning the press ; but this is not so good as having Masan Baba. out evil.
Some say that he will repay his hirer the sum of Rs. 1-4 by stealing something during the year and giving it to him. Masan may perhaps be considered as a divine personification of the oil-press, and as being the Teli's explanation of the fact that the bullock goes on turning the press without being driven, which he does not attribute simply to the animal's docility. In Chhattisgarh Dulha Deo is the household god of the caste, and he is said not to have any visible image or symbol, but is considered to reside in a cupboard in the house. When any member of the family falls ill it is thought that Dulha Deo is angry, and a goat is offered to appease him. Like the other low castes the Telis of the Nagpur country make the sacrifice of a pig to Narayan Deo or the Sun at intervals.
8. Driving Here on the third day after the Pola festival in the rains the women of the caste bring the branches of a thorny creeper, with very small leaves, and call it Marbod, and sweep out the whole house with it, saying : ' /;'«, pu'a^ khatka, khatkira, Khd7isi, kokhala^ rai, rog, Miirkuto gheimja ga Marbod,^ or, ' Oh Marbod ! sweep away all diseases, pains, coughs, bugs, flies and mosquitoes.' And then they take the pot of sweepings and throw it outside the village. Marbod is the deity represented by the branch of the creeper. This rite takes place in the middle of the rainy season, when all kinds of insects infest the house, and colds and fever are prevalent. Mr. H. R. Crosthwaite sends the following explanation given by a Teli cultivator of an eclipse of the sun : " The Sun is indebted to a sweeper. The sweeper has gone to collect the debt and the Sun has refused to pay. The sweeper is in need of the money and is sitting dharna at the Sun's door ; you can see his shadow across the Sun's threshold. Presently the debt will be paid and the sweeper will go away." The Telis of Nimar observe various Muhammadan practices. They fast during the month of Ramazan, taking their food in the morning before sunrise ; and at Id they eat the vermicelli and dates which the Muhammadans eat in memory of the time when their forefathers lived on this food in the
Arabian desert. Such custcms are a relic of the long period of Muhammadan dominance in Nimar, when the Hindus conformed partly to the religion of their masters. Many Talis are also members of the Swami-Narayan reforming sect, which may have attracted them by its disregard of the distinctions of caste and of the low status which attaches to them under Hinduism. In Patna State a pregnant woman must not cross a river 9. Customs nor eat any fruit or vegetables of red colour, nor wear any ^)j^"^e*ath black cloth. These taboos preserve her health and that of her unborn child. After the b)irth of a child a woman is impure for seven or nine days in Chhattlsgarh, and is then permitted to cook. The dead are either buried or burnt, cremation being an honour reserved for the old. The body is placed in both cases with the head to the north and face downwards or upwards for a male or female respectively. The social status of the Telis is low, in the group of castes 10. Social from which Brahmans will not take water, and below such ^^^'^^• menials as the blacksmith and carpenter. Manu classes them with butchers and liquor-vendors : " From a king not born in the military class let a Brahman accept no gift nor from such as keep a slaughter-house, or an oil-press, or put out a vintner's flag or subsist by the gains of prostitutes." This is much about the position which the Telis have occupied till recently. Brahmans will not usually enter their houses, though they have begun to do so in the case of the landholding subcastes. It is noticeable that the Teli has a much better position in Bengal than elsewhere. Sir H. Risley says : " Their original profession was probably oil-pressing, and the caste may be regarded as a functional group recruited from the respectable middle class of Hindu society. Oil is used by all Hindus for domestic and ceremonial purposes, and its manufacture could only be carried on by men whose social purity w-as beyond dispute." This is, however, quite exceptional, and Mr. Crooke, Mr. Nesfield and Sir D. Ibbetson are agreed as to his inferior, if not partly impure, status. This is only one of several instances, such as those of the barber, the potter and the weaver, of menial castes which in Bengal have now obtained a position above the agricultural castes. It may be suggested in explanation that the old fabric of
Hindu society, that is the village community, has long decayed in Bengal owing to Muhammadan dominance, the concentration of estates in the hands of large proprietors and the weakening or lapse of the customary rights of tenants. Coupled with this has been the growth of an important urban population, in which the castes mentioned have raised themselves from their menial position in the villages and attained wealth and influence, just as the Gujarati Telis are now doing in Burhanpur, while the agricultural castes of Bengal have been comparatively depressed. Hence the urban industrial castes have obtained a great rise in status. Sir H. Risley's emphasis of the importance of oil in Hindu domestic ceremonial is no doubt quite true, though it is perhaps little used in sacrifices, butter being generally preferred as a product of the sacred cow. But the inference does not seem necessarily to follow that the producer of any article shares exactly in the estimation attaching to the thing itself. Turmeric, for instance, is a sacred plant and indispensable at every wedding ; but those who grow turmeric always incur a certain stigma and loss in social position. The reason for the impurity of the Teli's calling seems somewhat doubtful. That generally given is his sinful conduct in harnessing the sacred ox and blindfolding the animal's eyes to make it work continuously on the tread-mill. The labour is said to be very severe, and the bullocks often die after two or three years. As already seen, the Teli fears that after death his soul may pass into one of his own bullocks in retribution for his treatment of them during life. Another reason which may be suggested is that the crushing of oil-seeds must involve a large destruction of insect life, many of the seeds being at times infested with insects. The Teli's occupation would naturally rank with the other village industries, that is below agriculture ; and prior to the introduction of cash coinage he must have received contributions of grain from the tenants for supplying them with oil like the other village menials. He still takes his oil to the fields at harvest-time and gets his sheat of grain from each holding. II. Social The Telis will take cooked food from Kurmis and Kunbis, ol!!i'°"^"L and in some localities from a Lobar or Barhai. Dhlmars are ana caste penalties, the highest caste which will take food from them. In Mandla
if a man docs not attend the meeting of the panchdyat when summoned for some special purpose, he is fined. In Chanda a Teh beaten with a shoe by any other caste has to have his head shaved and pay a rupee or two to the priest. In Mandla the Tehs have made it a rule that not less than four puris or wheat-cakes fried in butter ^ must be given to each guest at a caste-feast, besides rice and pulse. But if an offender is poor only four or five men go to his feast, while if he is rich the whole caste go. The Rathor Telis of Mandla hold a number of villages. 12. The They now call themselves Rathor, and entirely disown the -^^^^^^ name of Teli. They say that they came from the Maihar State near Panna, and that the title of Mahto, from inahat, great, which is borne by the leading men of the caste, was conferred on them by the Raja of Maihar. Another story is that, as already related, they are debased Rathor Rajputs. Recently they have given up eating fowls and drinking liquor. They are good cultivators, borrowing among themselves at low interest and avoiding debt, and their villages are generally prosperous. Again, as has been seen, the Gujarati Telis of Burhanpur 13. have taken to trade, and some of them have become wealthy -j-dj^'^of' merchants and capitalists from their dealings in cotton. The Nimar. position of Telis in Burhanpur was apparently one of peculiar degradation under Muhammadan rule. According to local tradition they had to remove the corpses of dead elephants, which no other caste would consent to do, and also to dig the graves of Muhammadans. It is also said that even now a Hindu becomes impure by passing under the eaves of a Teli's house, and that no dancing-girl may dance before a Teli, and if she does so will incur a penalty of Rs. 50 to her caste. The Telis, on the other hand, vigorously repudiate these allegations, which no doubt are due partly to jealousy of their present prosperity and consequent attempts to better their status. The Telis allege that they were Modh Banias in Gujarat and when they came to Burhanpur adopted the occupation of oil-pressing, which is also countenanced by the Shastras for a Vaishya. They say that formerly they did not permit widow-marriage, but when living under Muham- 1 Weighing 2 oz. each.
madan rule they were constrained to get their widows married in the caste, or the Muhammadans would have taken them. The Muhammadan practices already noticed as prevalent among them are being severely repressed, and they are believed to have made a caste rule that any Teli who goes to the house of a Muhammadan will have his hair and beard shaved and be fined Rs. 50. They are also supposed to have made offers to Brahmans of sums of Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 to come and take their food in the verandas of the Telis' houses, but hitherto these have not been accepted. 14. The The Teli is considered a caste of bad omen. The prouniuck^ verb says, ' God protect me from a Teli, a Chamar and a caste. Dhobi ' ; and the Teli is considered the most unlucky of the three. He is also talkative : ' Where there is a Teli there is sure to be contention.' The Teli is thought to be very close-fisted, but occasionally his cunning overreaches itself: 'The Teli counts every drop of oil as it issues from the press, but sometimes he upsets the whole pot.' The reason given for his being unlucky is his practice of harnessing and blindfolding bullocks already mentioned, and also that he presses urad} a black-coloured pulse, the oil from which is offered to the unlucky planet Saturn on Saturdays. ' Teli ka bail,' or * A Teli's bullock,' is a proverbial expression for a man who has to slave very hard for small pay.^ The Teli is believed to have magical powers. A good magician in search of an attendant spirit will, it is said, prefer to raise the corpse of a Teli who died on a Tuesday. He proceeds to the h\irmng-ghdt with chickens, eggs, some vermilion and red cloth. He seats himself near to where the corpse was burnt, and after repeating some spells offers up the chickens and eggs and breaks the cocoanut. Then it is believed that the corpse will gradually rise and take shape and be at the magician's service so long as the latter may desire. The following prescription is given for a love-charm : take the skull of a Teli's wife and cook some rice in it under a babul^ tree on a Sunday. This if given to a girl to eat will make her fall in love with him who gives it to her. ^ Phaseohis raJiatas. 2 Mr. Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art. Teli. ^ Acacta arabica.
The Tcli's oil-press is a very primitive affair. It consists 15. Occuof a hollowed tree-trunk in which a post is placed with oi|.'pressrounded lower end. The top of this projects perhaps three ing. feet above the hollow trunk and is secured by two pieces of wood to a horizontal bar, one end of which presses against the trunk, while the bullock is harnessed to the outer end. The yoke-bar hangs about a foot from the ground, the inner end resting in a groove of the trunk, while the outer is supported by the poles connecting it with the churning-post. From the top of this latter a rope is also tied to the bullock's horn to keep the animal in position. The press is usually set up inside a shed, and it is said that if the bullock were not blindfolded it would quickly become too giddy to work. The bullock drags the yoke-bar round the trunk and this gives a circular movement to the top of the churning-post, causing the lower end of the latter to move as on a pivot inside the trunk. The friction thus produced crushes the oil-seed, and the oil trickles out through a hole in the lower part of the trunk. The oil of ranitilli ox jagni is commonly burnt for lighting in villages, and also that of the mahuaseed. Linseed-oil is generally exported, but if used at home it is mainly as an illuminant. It is mixed with food by the Maratha castes^but not in northern India. All the vegetable oils are rapidly being supplanted by kerosene, even in villages ; but the inferior quality generally purchased, burnt as it is in small open saucers, gives out a great deal of smoke and is said to be very injurious to the eyesight, and students especially sustain permanent injury to the sight by working with these lamps. This want is, however, being met, and cheap lampburners can be bought in Bombay for about twelve annas. Owing to their having until recently supplied the only means of illumination the Telis sometimes call themselves Dlpabans, or ' Sons of the lamp.' Tilli or sesamum is called sweet oil ; it is much eaten by Brahmans and others in the Maratha country, and is always used for rubbing on the hair and body. On the festivals of Diwali and Til Sankrant all Hindus rub sesamum oil on their bodies ; otherwise they put it on their hair once or twice a week, and on their bodies if they get a chill, or as a protective against cold twice or thrice a month in the winter. The Uriya castes rub oil on the
1 6. Trade and agriculture. body if they can afford it every day after bathing and say that it keeps off malaria. Castor-oil is used as a medicine, and by some people even as ordinary food. It is also a good lubricant, being applied to cart-wheels and machinery. Other oils mentioned by Mr. Crooke are poppy - seed, mustard, cocoanut and safflower, and those prepared from almond and the berries of the mm ^ tree. The Teli's occupation is a dirty one, his house being filled with the refuse of oil and oil-seed, and Mr. Gordon notes that leprosy is very prevalent in the caste.^ The Telis are a very enterprising caste, and the great bulk of them have abandoned their traditional occupation and taken to others which are more profitable and respectable. In their trade, like that of the Kalar, cash payment by barter must have been substituted for customary annual contributions at an early period, and hence they learnt to keep accounts when their customers were ignorant of this accomplishment. The knowledge has stood them in good stead. Many of them have become moneylenders in a small way, and by this means have acquired villages. In the Raipur and Bilaspur Districts they own more than 200 villages and 700 in the Central Provinces as a whole. They are also shopkeepers and petty traders, travelling about with pack-bullocks like the Banjaras. Mr. A. K. Smith notes that formerly the Teli hired Banjaras to carry his goods through the jungle, as he would have been killed by them if he had ventured to do so himself. But now he travels with his own bullocks. Even in Mughal times Mr. Smith states Telis occasionally rose to important positions ; Kavvaji Teli was sutler to the Imperial army, and obtained from the Emperor Jahanglr a grant of Ashti in Wardha and an order that no one should plant betel-vine gardens in Ashti without his permission. This rule is still observed and any one wishing to have a betel-vine garden makes a present to the patel. Krishna Kanta Nandi or Kanta Babu, the Banyan of Warren Hastings, was a Teli by caste and did much to raise their position among the Hindus,^ Colonel Tod gives instances in Udaipur of works of ^ McHa indica. ^ Indian Folk Talcs, p. lo. 3 Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Teli. cencc.
beneficence executed by Telis. " The Tcli-ki-Sarai or oil- 17. Teii man's caravanserai is not conspicuous for magnitude ; but ^"^ ' it is remarkable not merely for its utility but even for its elegance of design. The Tcli-ka-Pftl or Oilman's Bridge at Nurabad is a magnificent memorial of the trade and deserves preservation. These Telis perambulate the country with skins of oil on a bullock and from hard-earned pence erect the structures which bear their name." ^ Similarly the temple of Vishnu at Rajim is said to be named after one Rajan Telin, who discovered the image lying abandoned by the roadside. She placed her skin of oil on it to rest herself and on that day her oil never decreased, and when she had finished selling in the market she had all her oil as well as the money. Her husband suspected her of evil practices, but, when next day her mother-in-law laid a skinful of oil on the image and the same thing happened, it was seen that the god had made himself manifest to her, and a temple was built and named after her and the image enshrined in it. Similarly the image of Mahadeo at Pithampur in Bilaspur was seen buried by a Teli in a dream, and he dug it up and made a shrine to it and was cured of dysentery. So an annual fair is held and many people go there to be healed of their diseases. ' Rdjasthan, vol. ii. pp. 678, 679.
