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‎Majhwar

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This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in<br/>1916 its contents related only to Central India and did not claim to be true <br />of all of India. It has been archived for its historical value as well as for<br/>the insights it gives into British colonial writing about the various communities<br/>of India. Indpaedia neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this <br/> article. Readers who wish to add fresh information can create a Part II of this <br/> article. The general rule is that if we have nothing nice to say about <br/> communities other than our own it is best to say nothing at all. <br/>

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[[Category:India|M]]
[[Category:Communities|M]]
[[Category:Name|Alphabet]]
[[Category:Name|Alphabet]]
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 the original book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot these footnotes gone astray might like to shift them to their correct place.

=Majhwar=

==Majhwar, Manjhi, Majhia
A small mixed tribe who i. Origin
have apparently originated from the Gonds, Mundas and ^^-^^^
Kawars. About 14,000 Majhwars were returned in 191
1
from the Raigarh, Sarguja and Udaipur States. The word
Manjhi means the headman of a tribal subdivision, being
derived from the Sanskrit inadhya, or he who is in the centre."^
In Bengal Manjhi has the meaning of the steersman of a boat
or a ferryman, and this may have been its original application,
as the steersman might well be he who sat in the centre.^
When a tribal party makes an expedition by boat, the leader
would naturally occupy the position of steersman, and hence
it is easy to see how the term Manjhi came to be applied to
the leader or head of the clan and to be retained as a title
for general use. Sir H.

Risley gives it as a title of the
Kewats or fishermen and many other castes and tribes in
Bengal. But it is also the name for a village headman
among the Santals, and whether this meaning is derived
from the prior signification of steersman or is of independent
origin is uncertain. In Raigarh Mr. Hira Lai states that
the Manjhis or Majhias are fishermen and are sometimes
classed with the Kewats. They appear to be Kols who
' This article is based on papers by his Tribes and Castes.
Mr. Hira Lai and Surai Baksh Singh, o ^ , .. ht -u - „ t
. .
, „ .
,' TT , • ' Crooke, art. Majhwar, para. i.
Assistant Superintendent, Udaipur
State, with references to Mr. Crooke's ^ Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art.
exhaustive article on the Majhwars in Manjhi.

2. The
Mirzapur
Majhwars
derived
from the
Gonds.
have taken to fishing and, being looked down on by the
other Kols on this account, took the name of Majhia or
Manjhi, which they now derive from Machh, a fish. " The
appearance of the Majhias whom I saw and examined was
typically aboriginal and their language was a curious mixture
of Mundari, Santal and Korwa, though they stoutly repudiated
connection with any of these tribes.

They could count
only up to three in their own language, using the Santal
words mit^ baria, pia. Most of their terms for parts of the
body were derived from Mundari, but they also used some
Santali and Korwa words. In their own language they
called themselves Hor, which means a man, and is the tribal
name of the Mundas."
On the other hand the Majhwars of Mirzapur, of whom
Mr. Crooke gives a detailed and interesting account, clearly
appear to be derived from the Gonds.

They have five subdivisions,
which they say are descended from the five sons
of their first Gond ancestor. These are Poiya, Tekam,
Marai, Chika and Oiku. Four of these names are those of
Gond clans, and each of the five subtribes is further divided
into a number of exogamous septs, of which a large proportion
bear typical Gond names, as Markam, Netam, Tekam,
Masham, Sindram and so on.

The Majhwars of Mirzapur
also,, like the Gonds, employ Patharis or Pardhans as their
priests, and there can thus be no doubt that they are mainly
derived from the Gonds, They would appear to have come
to Mirzapur from Sarguja and the Vindhyan and Satpura
hills, as they say that their ancestors ruled from the forts of
Mandla, Garha in Jubbulpore, Sarangarh, Raigarh and other
places in the Central Provinces.^

They worship a deified
Ahir, whose legs were cut off in a fight with some Raja,
since when he has become a troublesome ghost. " He now
lives on the Ahlor hill in Sarguja, where his petrified body
may still be seen, and the Manjhis go there to worship him.
His wife lives on the Jhoba hill in Sarguja. Nobody but a
Baiga dares to ascend the hill, and even the Raja of Sarguja
when he visits the neighbourhood sacrifices a black goat.

Manjhis believe that if these two deities are duly propitiated
they can give anything they need." The story makes it
^ Crooke, Tribes and Castes of Beui^al, art. Manjhi, para. 4.

probable that the ancestors of these Manjhis dwelt in
Sarguja. The Manjhis of Mlrzapur are not boatmen or
fishermen and have no traditions of having ever been so.
They are a backward tribe and practise shifting cultivation
on burnt-out patches of forest. It is possible that they may
have abandoned their former aquatic profession on leaving
the neighbourhood of the rivers, or they may have simply
adopted the name, especially since it has the meaning of a
village headman and is used as a title by the Santals and
other castes and tribes. Similarly the term Munda, which
at first meant the headman of a Kol village, is now the
common name for the Kol tribe in Chota Nagpur.

Again the Manjhis appear to be connected with the 3- Con-
Kawar tribe. Mr. Hira Lai states that in Raigarh they will
"v^|^h"the
take food with Kewats, Gonds, Kawars and Rawats or Ahirs, Kawars.
but they will not eat rice and pulse, the most important and
sacred food, with any outsiders except Kawars ; and this
they explain by the statement that their ancestors and those
of the Kawars were connected. In Mlrzapur the Kaurai
Ahirs will take food and water from the Majhwars, and these
AhIrs are not improbably derived from the Kawars.^

Here
the Majhwars also hold an oath taken when touching a
broadsword as most binding, and the Kawars of the Central
Provinces worship a sword as one of their principal deities."'^
Not improbably the Manjhis may include some Kewats, as
this caste also use Manjhi for a title ; and Manjhi is both
a subcaste and title of the Khairwars. The general conclusion
from the above evidence appears to be that the caste
is a very heterogeneous group whose most important constituents
come from the Gond, Munda, Santal and Kawar
tribes. Whether the original bond of connection among the
various people who call themselves Manjhi was the common
occupation of boating and fishing is a doubtful point.

The Manjhis of Sarguja, like those of Raigarh, appear 4. Exoto
be of Munda and Santal rather than of Gond origin. fo""mism.
They have no subdivisions, but a number of totemistic septs.
Those of the Bhainsa or buffalo sept are split into the Lotan
and Singhan subsepts, lotan meaning a place where buffaloes
^ Crooke, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Manjhi, para. 63.
2 Ibidem, para. 54.

wallow and singh a horn. The Lotan Bhainsa sept saythat
their ancestor was born in a place where a buffalo had
wallowed, and the Singhan Bhainsa that their ancestor was
born while his mother was holding the horn of a buffalo.
These septs consider the buffalo sacred and will not yoke it
to a plough or cart, though they will drink its milk. They
think that if one of them killed a buffalo their clan would
become extinct.

The Baghani Majhwars, named after the
bdgJi or tiger, think that a tiger will not attack any member
of their sept unless he has committed an offence entailing
temporary excommunication from caste. Until this offence
has been expiated his relationship with the tiger as head of
his sept is in abeyance and the tiger will eat him as he
would any other stranger. If a tiger meets a member of
the sept who is free from sin, he will run away.

When the
Baghani sept hear that any Majhwar has killed a tiger they
purify their houses by washing them with cowdung and
water. Members of the Khoba or peg sept will not make
a peg or drive one into the ground. Those of the Dumar ^
or fig-tree sept say that their first ancestor was born under
this tree. They consider the tree to be sacred and never
eat its fruit, and worship it once a year. Members of the
sept named after the sJiiroti tree worship the tree every
Sunday.

5. Mar- Marriage within the sept is prohibited and for three
nage generations between persons related through females.
customs. o J. o
Marriage is adult, but matches are arranged by the parents
of the parties. At betrothal the elders of the caste must
be regaled with cheora or parched rice and liquor. A brideprice
of Rs. 10 is paid, but a suitor who cannot afford this
may do service to his father-in-law for one or two years in
lieu of it.

At the wedding the bridegroom puts a copper
ring on the bride's finger and marks her forehead with
vermilion. The couple walk seven times round the sacred
post, and seven little heaps of rice and pieces of turmeric
are arranged so that they may touch one of them with their
big toes at each round. The bride's mother and seven other
women place some rice in the skirts of their cloths and the
bridegroom throws this over his shoulder. After this he
' Fictis irlonierala.
and funeral
rites.
ous dance.

picks up the rice and distributes it to all the women present,
and the bride goes through the same ceremony. The rice
is no doubt an emblem of fertility, and its presentation to
the women may perhaps be expected to render them fertile.
On the birth of a child the navel-string is buried in front 6. Birth
of the house. When a man is at the point of death they
place a little cooked rice and curds in his mouth so that he
may not go hungry to the other world, in view of the fact that
he has probably eaten very little during his illness.

Some
cotton and rice are also placed near the head of the corpse
in the grave so that he may have food and clothing in the
next world. Mourning is observed for five days, and at the
end of this period the mourners should have their hair cut,
but if they cannot get it done on this day, the rite may be
performed on the same day in the following year.
The tribe worship DCilha Ueo, the bridegroom god, and 7. Reiigi
also make offerings to their ploughs at the time of eating
the new rice and at the Holi and Dasahra festivals.

They
dance the karma dance in the months of Asarh and Kunwar
or at the beginning and end of the rains. When the time
has come the Gaontia headman or the Baiga priest fetches
a branch of the karma tree from the forest and sets it up
in his yard as a notice and invitation to the village. After
sunset all the people, men, women and children, assemble
and dance round the tree, to the accompaniment of a drum
known as Mandar.

The dancing continues all night, and in
the morning the host plucks up the branch of the karma
tree and consigns it to a stream, at the same time regaling
the dancers with rice, pulse and a goat This dance is a
religious rite in honour of Karam Raja, and is believed to
keep sickness from the village and bring it prosperity. The
tribe eat flesh, but abstain from beef and pork. Girls are
tattooed on arrival at puberty with representations of the
tnlsi or basil, four arrow-heads in the form of a cross, and
the foot-ornament known as pairi.

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:11, 28 November 2016
Line 265:		Line 265:
	tnlsi or basil, four arrow-heads in the form of a cross, and		tnlsi or basil, four arrow-heads in the form of a cross, and
	the foot-ornament known as pairi.		the foot-ornament known as pairi.
		+	=Majhwar=
		+	(From ''People of India/ National Series Volume VIII.'' Readers who wish to share additional information/ photographs may please send them as messages to the Facebook community, [http://www.facebook.com/Indpaedia Indpaedia.com]. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.)
		+
		+	Groups/subgroups: Bode Majhwar, Majhwar [Madhya Pra
		+	desh and/or Chhattisgarh]
		+	Marai, Olku, Pathari, Tekma, Waika [W. Croolce]
		+	Surnames: Sai [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh]
		+	*Exogamous septs: Baghani, Bhainsa, Dumar, Khoba, Lotan, Sinehan [Russell & Hiralal]
		+	Armor, Arpatti, Dadaichi, Kargoti, Kariyam, Karpatti, Karpe, Koaichi, Koram, Kusro, Kussenga, Markam,
		+	Marpachi,
		+	Masram, Netam, Neti, Oima, Pandaru, Poiya, Posam, P
		+	urkela, Sarotiya Sindram, Sirso, Soima, Tekam, Ulan
		+	gwati
		+	[W. Crooke]
		+	Exogamous units/clans: Bhaisa (buffalo), Bharadi, D
		+	ang, Jhinga (prawn), Kachua (tortoise), Kahaya, Nag
		+	(cobra),
		+	Sahada, Velowa [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh]

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 =Majhwar=
-==Majhwar, Manjhi, Majhia
+==Majhwar, Manjhi, Majhia==
 A small mixed tribe who i. Origin
 have apparently originated from the Gonds, Mundas and ^^-^^^

Majhwar - Revision history

Pdewan at 17:11, 28 November 2016

Pdewan: /* Majhwar */

Pdewan: Created page with " {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"| This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in1916 its contents related only ..."

Pdewan: Created page with " {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in
1916 its contents related only ..."