Waddar: Deccan
Contents |
Waddar
This article is an extract from THE CASTES AND TRIBES OF H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S DOMINIONS 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 : Lately Director of Public Instruction. BOMBAY THE TlMES PRESS 1920 Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees |
Origin
Waddar, Ode, Wadu Rajlu, Odewandlu, Kalkola (Carnatic) — wandering nawies and earth workers, found all over the Hyderabad Territory
Tradition ascribes their origin to one Reimudi, the son of a beautiful queen Balanagu and the king Ode Raj of Gulpattan. One day while the queen was standing on the threshold of the 6001, a Fakir came to solicit alms and was so smitten with the matchless beauty of the queen that he became enamoured of her and carried her off to his dwelling in a mountain cave. The king and his brothers had been out hunting and, on their return when they heard the sad news, they set out in pursuit of the Fakir, follow- ing the track marked by pearls which the queen had dropped, on the way, from her niecklaces. The Fakir was a great conjurer and, as he saw the "men approaching, he turned them all into stones. Ramudi, then only a 'baby, was brought up by his aunts and, when he was twelve years old, came accidently to know of the sad condition to which his parents and uncles had been doomed. The gallant boy re- solved to be avenged and making his way, unperceived, to the Fakir s den he killed the magician and set his mother free. Learning from her that the Fakir had possessed two enchanted rods, one to petrify human beings and the other to revivify them, he found them out and using the latter, restored his father and uncles to life. Ramudi was married in great pomp and was crowned king by his father. The spirit of mischief seized him, however, and he began to abuse the power of the rods. Every person he met with was turned into stone and with the stones thus formed he commenced the building of a ladder which, he thought, would lead to heaven. As he began to ascend it the great god, in his anger, hurled him down, broke his wadder to pieces, find condemned him and his descendants to the- profusion of stone cutters and stone-excavators. As regards- the uncles who were restored to life by iheir nephew, it is <f' said that their wives remarried them after twelve years of widowh&od during which they had put away their glass bangles and'^ bodices, the emblems of the married life. The women, even after their remarricige, wore glass bangles only on the right anns putting on pewter bracelets on the other, while they discarded bodices altor gether. All Waddar females have, a^ a respect to their memory, followed this example to this day.
The Pangul Waddars of the Nalguncfe district claim their descent from one king Masgar who had a hundred sons. The king's horse was missing one day and some of his sons went to heaven in search, while others began a search in the nether world by digging into the earth. These digging oi>erations ruined the tombs of the great Munis and Rishis who, incensed thereby, icursed the offenders, condemning them and their progeny to the occupation of diggers of and workers in earth.
It may be worth while to remark that the scenes of the legends are laid in the Nalgunda District, which may favour the view that the Waddars are indigenous to the Nizam's Territory or at least that a Waddar dynasty ruled somewhere in the Nalgunda District.
Internal Structure
The caste is divided into eight sub- castes : —
(1) Chilka or Kasi Waddar.
(2) Kunda.
(3) Lagolla.
(4) Godandala.
(5) Matti.
(6) Bandi or Gadi.
(7) Satarwaru.
(8) Uppara.
(1) The Chilkas claim to be of the highest rank following, as their name suggests, the profession of agriculturists (Chilkfl meaning pickaxe or land). Making mill-stones and digging earth are held in low esteem by the members of the caste and entail social degrada- tion. They are also employed as day labourers. It is incumbc'.it on the members of Ae caste that they should wear 'Langotis' r(loin cloth) of the 'maltadu (?) plant.
(2)_Kunda (stone) and Bmii (carts) Waddars are stone quarriers, making mill-stones and selling them.
(3) Lagolla Waddars are so called because they wear trousers in the Mohamedan fashion. They work in mud and build walls. Their huts are made of grass and canied from place to place on donkeys. , i
(4) Godandala Wadclars are so called because they dig earth with an implement called "Godali."
(5) Matti Waddars : — Members of this sub-caste are earth diggers and earth-workers. They sink wells and dig tanks. They are reported to be pick-pockets.
The members of the above classes interdine but do not intermarry.
(6) Satarwaru and Upparawaru Waddars are supposed to be the illegitimate offsprings of the Kunda Waddars by prostitutes. They work as mason.s and stone cutters. The members of these two classes interdine but do not intermarry and are regarded as degraded by the other sub-CciJtes of Waddars.
In addition to these sub-castes there are two more who follow no definite occupation and are reputed to be inveterate criminals. They are Sanki Eind Man Waddars.
The Waddars have got seventy-two exogamous sections and observe a very complicated system of exogamy. The following will serve as an illustration : —
Intermaniage is forbidden between members of the gotra under 1 and of those of Gotras under II.
Most of the sections are totemistic, though the totems do not appear to be held in special .reverence by the members bearing their names. The 'rule of exogamy is of the standard type that a man may not marry a woman of his own section or of the sections which come under the prohibited degrees. He may also marry the dauehter of his sister. "
Marriage
Both infant and adult marriages are recognised by the caste, but the former is deemed the more respectable and is resort- ed to by all well-to-do members. Sexual intercourse before marriage is tolerated and iF an unmarried girl becomes pregnant her lover is required to pay fine of between Rs. 25 to Rs. 600 and to marry her.
The marriage ceremony takes place on a Saturday after sunset. A bough of Jasmine or Pipal, planted near Raoi Reni vessels, is worshipped. The bridegroom, dagger in hand, goes with his friends to the bride's house, taking with him a pig to furnish the wedding feast. The bride and bridegroom walk five times round a wooden post struck in the ground near the Jasmine bough, and the bride- groom ties a necklace of black glass beads round the bride's neck, this last ritual forming the essential part of the ceremony. The bridal pair are then bathed in turmeric water and ^on^anams (thread bracelets) with mango-leaves are fcistened on their wrists. The married couple cire seated face to face and eat out of the same dish. The proceedings are concluded by a feast given to the assembled guests. Polygamy is permitted. A man may have as many wives as he can afford to maintain.
Widow-Marriage and Divorce
A widow may marry again, but not her deceased husband's brother, the marriage contracts being effected by the payment to the widow of one rupee for the purchase of bangles and toe-rings and eight rupees to her parents. Divorce is per- mitted and is effected, in the presence of the caste Panchayat, by re- moving the upper garment from the woman's head and driving her out of the house with five rupees tied in her cloth. If the husband claims divorce on the ground that she has committed adultery, he is entitled to receive Rs. 60 from the man whom she afterwards marries. If the husband abandons his wife without sufficient reason being given for his act, the wife claims from him alimony to the amount of Rs.10 Adultery with a member of a higher caste may be tolerated, but with one of a lower caste is punished with .expulsion from the caste.
Inheritance
In the division of property the eldest son gets an extra share.
Religion
The Waddars profess to be Hindus and worship Hindu gods and observe Hindu festivals. They are divided as Vibhutidharis and Tirmanidharis, the latter besmearing their fore- heads with ashes and the former with streaks of sandal-wood paste.
Their favourite and patron deity is 'Gorappa', worshipped every Thursday with offerings of goats and sweetmeats. Balanagu, Pochamma and Vyankatesh are propitiated on Mondays and Saturdays, - when goats and fowls are sacrificed before the deities and partaken of by the worshippers. The females of the household preside at the worship of these animistic deities. On the Til Sankrant day (when the sun enters the tropic of Capricorn) a pig is sacrificed and cooked and the pork distributed among all the household members, who are supposed to be blessed thereby. Brahmans are not engaged either for ceremonial or religious purposes. Mohamedan saints and Pin are also duly honoured by the members of the caste.'
Disposal of the Dead
Waddars bury their dead with face downwcirds and head towards the south. The corpse is washed and being enveloped in a cloth is carried to the burial place. On the third day after death, rice mixed with the flesh of a field rat is cooked and placed on the grave of the deceased £is food for crows and other birds. On the 10th day mutton is thrown to the birds, the principal mourner is shaved and a Matangi (mala woman) sprinkles water by means of a nhnh bough (Azadirachta indica) on all the mourners who, thereupon, become ceremonially clean. No shradha ceremony is performed to propitiate the deceased.
Occupation and Social Status
The caste regard the excava- , tion of stone from quarries, and working in earth to be their original occupation. They «u:e alto engaged in tank digging, well-sinking, road making, making mill-stones, building mud walls,filling tank embank- ments and i» all kinds of out-door labour. A -few have taken to agricul- ture and trading and have secured occupancy rights. The social status of the caste cannot be clearly defined. They are supposed to rank higiier than Erkalas and lower than all the castes whose touch is regarded as f lean by Brahmans. They eat field rats, pork, fowl, porcu- pine and carrioH and indulge in Ganja and opium and in fermented chlid Spirituous liquors. They eat the leavings of the higher castes. They do not eat kachi from the hands of Mangalas, Dhobis, Panch- dayis and Jingars.
Characteristics
Waddar females, when married, wear pewter bracelets on the right and glass bangles on the left arm. No head ornaments cire worn. In their nostrils they wear a peculiar nose-ring called Wadi mukeda. The wearing of bodices by women and shoes by men is strictly forbidden on pain of social disgrace. The tradi- tional memory of Balanagu's capture has been preserved and a Fakir is not given alnjs. If the sound of a jackal is heard at a night meal, it is at once abandoned. Caste Panchayai exists and the decision of the panch is thoroughly binding.
