Mehtar

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(→‎Mehtar, Bhang-i, Hari,^ Dom, Lalbegi)
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==Mehtar, Bhang-i, Hari,^ Dom, Lalbegi==
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= Mehtar, Bhangi, Hari, Dom, Lalbegi=
  
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The caste of i imrosvveepers
 
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and scavengers. In 191 1 persons returning them- notice."
 
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selves as Mehtar, Bhangi and Dom were separately classified,
 
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and the total of all three was only 30,000. In this
 
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Province they generally confine themselves to their hereditary
 
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occupation of scavenging, and are rarely met with outside
 
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the towns and large villages. In most localities the supply
 
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of sweepers does not meet the demand.
 
  
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The case is quite
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[_Bibliography_: Mr. R. Greeven's _Knights of the Broom, Benares_
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different in northern India, where the sweeper castes—the
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1894 (pamphlet); Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Bhangi; Sir
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Chuhra in the Punjab, the Bhangi in the United Provinces
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H. Risley's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Hari; Sir E. Maclagan's _Punjab
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and the Dom in Bengal—are all of them of great numerical
+
Census Report_, 1891 (Sweeper Sects); Sir D. Ibbetson's _Punjab Census
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strength. With these castes only a small proportion are
+
Report_, 1881 (art. Chuhra); _Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat_,
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employed on scavengers' work and the rest arc labourers
+
Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam.]
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^ Some information has been obtained from a paper by Mr. Ilarbans Rai,
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Clerk of Court, Damoh.
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215
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+
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like the Chamars and Mahars of the Central Provinces.
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The present sweeper caste is made up of diverse elements,
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and the name Mehtar, generally applied to it, is a title
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meaning a prince or leader. Its application to the caste,
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the most abject and despised in the Hindu community, is
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perhaps partly ironical ; but all the low castes have honorific
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titles, which are used as a method of address either from
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ordinary politeness or by those requiring some service, on the
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principle, as the Hindus say, that you may call an ass your
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uncle if you want him to do something for you.  
+
  
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The regular
 
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caste of sweepers in northern India are the Bhangis, whose
 
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name is derived by Mr. Crooke from the Sanskrit bhanga^
 
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hemp, in allusion to the drunken habits of the caste. In
 
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support of this derivation he advances the Beria custom of
 
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calling their leaders Bhangi or hemp-drinker as a title of
 
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honour.^ In Mr. Greeven's account also, Lalbeg, the patron
 
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saint of the sweepers, is described as intoxicated with the
 
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hemp drug on two occasions." Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam
 
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suggests ^ that Bhangia means broken, and is applied to the
 
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sweepers because they split bamboos. In Kaira, he states, the
 
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regular trade of the Bhangias is the plaiting of baskets and
 
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other articles of split bamboo, and in that part of Gujarat if
 
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a Koli is asked to split a bamboo he will say, * Am I to do
 
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Bhangia's work ? '
 
  
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The derivation from the hemp-plant is,
+
List of Paragraphs
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however, the more probable. In the Punjab, sweepers are
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known as Chuhra, and this name has been derived from
+
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their business of collecting and sweeping up scraps {chiirajhdrna).
+
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Similarly, in Bombay they are known as Olganas
+
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or scrap-eaters.
+
  
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The Bengal name Hari is supposed to
 
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come from haddi, a bone ; the Hari is the bone-gatherer, and
 
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was familiar to early settlers of Calcutta under the quaint
 
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designation of the ' harry-wench.' * In the Central Provinces
 
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sections of the Ghasia, Mahar and Dom castes will do
 
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sweepers' work, and are therefore amalgamated with the
 
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Mehtars. The caste is thus of mixed constitution, and also
 
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forms a refuge for persons expelled from their own societies
 
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for social offences. But though called by different names,
 
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1 Rajendra Lai Mitra, (juoted in ^ Oj>. cit. p. 334.
 
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art. on ]5cria. * Gieeven, p. 66, quoting from
 
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2 Greeven, op. cit. pp. 29, 33. Echoes of Old Calcutta.
 
−
 
 
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the sweeper community in most provinces appears to have
 
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the same stock of traditions and legends. The name of
 
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Mehtar is now generally employed, and has therefore been
 
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taken as the designation of the caste.
 
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Mr. Greeven gives seven main subdivisions, of which 2. Caste
 
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. h
 
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the Lalbegis or the followers of Lalbeg, the patron saint of
 
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^"yjsiong
 
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sweepers, are the most important.
 
  
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The Rawats appear to
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1. _Introductory notice_.
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be an aristocratic subdivision of the Lalbegis, their name
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being a corruption of the Sanskrit Rajputra, a prince. The
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Shaikh Mehtars are the only real Muhammadan branch, for
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though the Lalbegis worship a Musalman saint they remain
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Hindus. The Haris or bone-gatherers, as already stated,
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are the sweepers of Bengal. The Helas may either be
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those who carry baskets of sweepings, or may derive their
+
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name from Jiela, a cry ; and in that case they are so called
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as performing the office of town-criers, a function which the
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Bhangi usually still discharges in northern India.^
+
  
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The other
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2. _Caste subdivisions_.
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subcastes in his list are the Dhanuks or bowmen and the
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Bansphors or cleavers of bamboos. In the Central Provinces
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the Shaikh Mehtars belong principally to Nagpur, and
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another subcaste, the Makhia, is also found in the Maratha
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Districts and in Berar ; those branches of the Ghasia and
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Dom castes who consent to do scavengers' work now form
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separate subcastes of Mehtars in the same locality, and
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another group are called Narnolia, being said to take their
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name from a place called Narnol in the Punjab. The
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Lalbegis are often considered here as Muhammadans rather
+
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than Hindus, and bury their dead. In Saugor the sweepers
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are said to be divided into Lalbegis or Muhammadans and
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Doms or Hindus.  
+
  
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The Lalbegi, Dom or Dumar and the
+
3. _Social organisation_.
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Hela are the principal subcastes of the north of the Province,
+
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and Chuhra Mehtars are found in Chhattlsgarh. Each subcaste
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is divided into a number of exogamous sections named
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after plants and animals.
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In Benares each subdivision, Mr. Greeven states, has 3. Social
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an elaborate and quasi -military organisation. Thus the
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Lalbegi sweepers have eight companies or berJias, consisting
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of the sweepers working in different localities ; these are
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the Sadar, or those employed by private residents in canton-
+
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^ Crooke, op. cit.
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organisation.
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+
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ments ; the Kali Paltan, who serve the Bengal Infantry ;
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the Lai Kurti, or Red-coats, who are employed by the
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British Infantry ; the Teshan (station), or those engaged at
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the three railway stations of the town ; the Shahar, or
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those of the city ; the Ramnagar, taking their name from
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the residence of the Maharaja of Benares, whom they serve.;
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the Kothlwal, or Bungalow men, who belong to residents
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in the civil lines ; and lastly the Genereli, who are the
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descendants of sweepers employed at the military headquarters
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when Benares was commanded by a General of
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Division. This special organisation is obviously copied
+
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from that of the garrison and is not found in other localities,
+
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but deserves mention for its own interest.  
+
  
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All the eight
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4. _Caste punishments_.
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companies are commanded by a Brigadier, the local head
+
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of the caste, whose office is now almost hereditary ; his
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principal duty is to give two dinners to the whole caste on
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election, with sweetmeats to the value of fourteen rupees.
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Each company has four officers—a Jamadar or president, a
+
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Munsif or spokesman, a Chaudhari or treasurer and a Naib
+
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or summoner. These offices are also practically hereditary,
+
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if the candidate entitled by birth can afford to give a dinner
+
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to the whole subcaste and a turban to each President of a
+
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company. All the other members of the company are
+
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designated as Sipahis or soldiers.  
+
  
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A caste dispute is first
+
5. _Admission of outsiders_.
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considered by the inferior officers of each company, who
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report their view to the President ; he confers with the other
+
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Presidents, and when an agreement has been reached the
+
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sentence is formally confirmed by the Brigadier. When
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any dispute arises, the aggrieved party, depositing a processfee
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of a rupee and a quarter, addresses the officers of his
+
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company. Unless the question is so trivial that it can be
+
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settled without caste punishments, the President fixes a time
+
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and place, of which notice is given to the messengers of
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the other companies ; each of these receives a fee of one
+
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and a quarter annas and informs all the Sipahis in his
+
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company.
+
  
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4. Caste Only worthy members of the caste, Mr. Greeven conpunish-
+
6. _Marriage customs_.
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tjmues, are allowed to sit on the tribal matting and smoke the
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tribal pipe (huqqa). The proceedings begin with the outspreading
+
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(usually symbolic) of a carpet and the smoking of
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ments.
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+
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a water-pipe handed in turn to each clansman. For this
+
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purpose the members sit on the carpet in three Hnes, the
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officers in front and the private soldiers behind. The parties
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and their witnesses are heard and examined, and a decision
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is pronounced. The punishments imposed consist of fines,
+
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'Compulsory dinners and expulsion from the caste ; expulsion
+
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being inflicted for failure to comply with an order of fine or
+
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entertainment.  
+
  
−
The formal method of outcasting consists
+
7. _Disposal of the dead_.
−
in seating the culprit on the ground and drawing the
+
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tribal mat over his head, from which the turban is removed ;
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after this the messengers of the eight companies inflict a
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few taps with slippers and birch brooms. It is alleged that
+
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unfaithful women were formerly tied naked to trees and
+
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flogged with birch brooms, but that owing to the fatal
+
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results that occasionally followed such punishment, as in
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the case of the five kicks among Chamars (tanners) and the
+
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scourging with the clothes line which used to prevail among
+
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Dhobis (washermen), the caste has now found it expedient
+
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to abandon these practices. When an outcaste is readmitted
+
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on submission, whether by paying a fine or giving a dinner,
+
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he is seated apart from the tribal mat and does penance by
+
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holding his ears with his hands and confessing his offence.
+
  
−
A new huqqa, which he supplies, is carried round by the
+
8. _Devices for procuring children_.
−
messenger, and a few whiffs are taken by all the officers and
+
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Sipahis in turn. The messenger repeats to the culprit the
+
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council's order, and informs him that should he again offend
+
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his punishment will be doubled. With this warning he
+
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hands him the water-pipe, and after smoking this the
+
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offender is admitted to the carpet and all is forgotten in a
+
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banquet at his expense.
+
  
−
The sweepers will freely admit outsiders into their 5. Admiscommunity,
+
9. _Divination of sex_.
−
and the caste forms a refuge for persons o°t"iders.
+
−
expelled from their own societies for sexual or moral
+
−
offences. Various methods are employed for the initiation
+
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of a neophyte ; in some places he, or more frequently she,
+
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is beaten with a broom made of wood taken from a bier,
+
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and has to give a feast to the caste ; in others a slight
+
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wound is made in his body and the blood of another sweeper
+
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is allowed to flow on to it so that they mix ; and a glass of
+
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sherbet and sugar, known as the cup of nectar, is prepared
+
−
riage
+
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customs.
+
  
−
+
10. _Childbirth_.
−
by the priest and all the members of the committee put
+
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their fingers into it, after which it is given to the candidate
+
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to drink ; or he has to drink water mixed with cowdung
+
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into which the caste-people have dipped their little fingers,
+
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and a lock of his hair is cut off. Or he fasts all day at the
+
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shrine of Lalbeg and in the evening 'drinks sherbet after*
+
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burning incense at the shrine ; and gives three feasts, the
+
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first on the bank of a tank, the second in his courtyard and
+
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the third in his house, representing his gradual purification
+
−
for membership ; at this last he puts a little water into
+
−
every man's cup and receives from him a piece of bread,
+
−
and so becomes a fully qualified caste-man. Owing to this
+
−
reinforcement from higher castes, and perhaps also to their
+
−
flesh diet, the sweepers are not infrequently taller and stronger
+
−
as well as lighter in colour than the average Hindu.
+
  
−
6. Mar- The marriage ceremony in the Central Provinces follows
+
11. _Treatment of the mother_.
−
the ordinary Hindu ritual. The lagan or paper fixing the
+
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date of the wedding is written by a Brahman, who seats
+
−
himself at some distance from the sweeper's house and
+
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composes the letter.  
+
  
−
This paper must not be seen by the
+
12. _Protecting the lives of children_.
−
bride or bridegroom, nor may its contents be read to them,
+
−
as it is believed that to do so would cause them to fall ill
+
−
during the ceremony. Before the bridegroom starts for the
+
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wedding his mother waves a wooden pestle five times over
+
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his head, passing it between his legs and shoulders. After
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this the bridegroom breaks two lamp-saucers with his right
+
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foot, steps over the rice-pounder and departs for the bride's
+
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house without looking behind him.  
+
  
−
The sawdsas or relatives
+
13. _Infantile diseases_.
−
of the parties usually officiate at the ceremony, but the wellto-
+
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do sometimes engage a Brahman, who sits at a distance
+
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from the house and calls out his instructions. When a
+
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man wishes to marry a widow he must pay six rupees to
+
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the caste committee and give a feast to the community.
+
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Divorce is i:)crmitted for incompatibility of temper, or
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immorality on the part of the wife, or if the husband
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suffers from leprosy or impotence. Among the Lalbegis,
+
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when a man wishes to get rid of his wife he assembles the
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brethren and in their presence says to her, ' You are as my
+
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sister,' and she answers, ' You are as my father and brother.' ^
+
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' Crooke, op. cit. para. 52.
+
−
+
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The dead are usually buried, but the well-to-do some- 7. Disposal
+
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times cremate them. In Benares the face or hand of the °^^^^
+
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corpse is scorched with fire to symbolise cremation and it
+
−
is then buried. In the Punjab the ghosts of sweepers are
+
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considered to be malevolent and are much dreaded ; and
+
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their bodies are therefore always buried or burnt face
+
−
downwards to prevent the spirit escaping ; and riots have
+
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taken place and the magistrates have been appealed to to
+
−
prevent a Chuhra from being buried face upwards.^ In
+
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Benares as the" body is lowered into the grave the sheet is
+
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withdrawn for a moment from the features of the departed
+
−
to afford him one last glimpse of the heavens, while with
+
−
Muhammadans the face is turned towards Mecca.  
+
  
−
Each
+
14. _Religion. Valmiki_.
−
clansman flings a handful of dust over the corpse, and after
+
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the earth is filled in crumbles a little bread and sugar-cake
+
−
and sprinkles water upon the grave. A provision of bread,
+
−
sweetmeats and water is also left upon it for the soul of the
+
−
departed." In the Central Provinces the body of a man is
+
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covered with a white winding-sheet and that of a woman
+
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with a red one. If the death occurs during the lunar
+
−
conjunction known as Panchak, four human images of flour
+
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are made and buried with the dead man, as they think
+
−
that if this is not done four more deaths will occur in the
+
−
family.
+
  
−
If a woman greatly desires a child she will go to a 8. Devices
+
15. _Lalbeg_.
−
shrine and lay a stone on it which she calls the dJiavna or '^l^^^T
+
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deposit or pledge. Then she thinks that she has put the children.
+
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god under an obligation to give her a child. She vows that
+
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if she becomes pregnant within a certain period, six or nine
+
−
months, she will make an offering of a certain value.  
+
  
−
If
+
16. _Adoption of foreign religions_.
−
the pregnancy comes she goes to the temple, makes the
+
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offering and removes the stone. If the desired result does
+
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not happen, however, she considers that the god has broken
+
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his obligation and ceases to worship him. If a barren
+
−
woman desires a child she should steal on a Sunday or a
+
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Wednesday a strip from the body-cloth of a fertile woman
+
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when it is hung out to dry ; or she may steal a piece of rope
+
−
from the bed in which a woman has been delivered of a
+
−
child, or a piece of the baby's soiled swaddling clothes or a
+
−
^ Ibbetson, op. cit, para. 227. 2 Qreeven, op. cit. p. 21.
+
−
+
−
piece of cloth stained with the blood of a fertile woman.
+
−
This last she will take and bury in a cemetery and the
+
−
others wear round her waist ; then she will become fertile
+
−
and the fertile woman will become barren. Another device
+
−
is to obtain from the midwife a piece of the navel-string of a
+
−
newborn child and swallow it. For this reason the navelstring
+
−
is always carefully guarded and its disposal seen to.
+
  
−
9. Divina- If a pregnant woman is thin and ailing they think a boy
+
17. _Social status_.
−
tionofsex. ^jjj ^^ ^^^^.^^ . ^^^ j^ ^^j. ^^^^ ^^^j^ ^j^^^ j^. ^yjjj y^^ ^ gjj.|_ ^^
+
−
order to divine the sex of a coming child they pour a little
+
−
oil on the stomach of the woman ; if the oil flows straight
+
−
down it is thought that a boy will be born and if crooked a
+
−
girl. Similarly if the hair on the front of her body grows
+
−
straight they think the child will be a boy, but if crooked a
+
−
girl ; and if the swelling of pregnancy is more apparent on
+
−
the right side a boy is portended, but if on the left side a
+
−
girl.  
+
  
−
If delivery is retarded they go to a gunmaker and
+
18. _Occupation_.
−
obtain from him a gun which has been discharged and the
+
−
soiling of the barrel left uncleaned ; some water is put into
+
−
the barrel and shaken up and then poured into a vessel and
+
−
given to the woman to drink, and it is thought that the
+
−
quality of swift movement appertaining to the bullet which
+
−
soiled the barrel will be communicated to the woman and
+
−
cause the swift expulsion of the child from her womb,
+
−
10. Child- When a woman is in labour she squats down with
+
−
birth.
+
  
−
j^gj. jggg apart holding to the bed in front of her, while the
+
19. _Occupation (continued_).
−
midwife rubs her back. If delivery is retarded the midwife
+
−
gets a broom and sitting behind the woman presses it on
+
−
her stomach, at the same time drawing back the upper
+
−
part of her body. By this means they think the child will
+
−
be forced from the womb. Or the mother of the woman in
+
−
labour will take a grinding-stone and stand holding it on
+
−
her head so long as the child is not born. She says to
+
−
her daughter, ' Take my name,' and the daughter repeats
+
−
her mother's name aloud. Here the idea is apparently that
+
−
the mother takes on herself some of the pain which has to
+
−
be endured by the daughter, and the repetition of her name
+
−
by the daughter will cause the goddess of childbirth to
+
−
hasten the period of delivery in order to terminate the
+
−
unjust sufferings of the mother for which the goddess has
+
−
+
−
become responsible.  
+
  
−
The mother's name exerts pressure or
 
−
influence on the fjoddcss who is at the time occupied with
 
−
the daughter or perhaps sojourning in her bod)-.
 
−
If a child is born in the morning they will give the n. Treatmother
 
−
a little sugar and cocoanut to eat in the evening, u,e"niother.
 
−
but if it is born in the evening they will give her nothing
 
−
till next morning. Milk is given only sparingly as it is
 
−
supposed to produce coughing.
 
  
−
The main idea of treatment
 
−
in childbirth is to prevent either the mother or child
 
−
from taking cold or chill, this being the principal danger
 
−
to which they are thought to be exposed. The door of the
 
−
birth chamber is therefore kept shut and a fire is continually
 
−
burning in it night and day. The woman is not bathed for
 
−
several days, and the atmosphere and general insanitary
 
−
conditions can better be imagined than described. With the
 
−
same end of preventing cold they feed the mother on a hot
 
−
liquid produced by cooking thirty-six ingredients together.
 
  
  
−
Most of these are considered to have the quality of producing
 
−
heat or warmth in the body, and the following are a few
 
−
of them : Pepper, ginger, azgan (a condiment), turmeric,
 
−
nutmeg, ajivdvi (aniseed), dates, almonds, raisins, cocoanut,
 
−
wild singdra or water-nut, cumin, chironji} the gum of the
 
−
babiil' or khairf asafoetida, borax, saffron, clarified butter
 
−
and sugar. The mixture cannot be prepared for less than
 
−
two rupees and the woman is fed on it for five days beginning
 
−
from the second day after birth, if the family can afford the
 
−
expense.
 
  
−
If the mother's milk runs dry, they use the dried bodies 12. Proof
+
==Introductory notice==
−
the little fish caught in the shallow water of fields and Jectmg the
+
−
^ lives of
+
−
tanks, and sometimes supposed to have fallen down with the children.
+
−
rain. They are boiled in a little water and the fish and
+
−
water are given to the woman to consume.
+
  
−
Here the idea
+
Mehtar, Bhangi, Hari, [225] Dom, Lalbegi._ -  
−
is apparently that as the fish has the quality of liquidness
+
−
because it lives in water, so by eating it this will be
+
−
communicated to the breasts and the milk will flow again.
+
−
If a woman's children die, then the next time she is in labour
+
−
they bring a goat all of one colour. When the birth of
+
−
the child takes place and it falls from the womb on to the
+
−
^ The fruit of the achar {Buchanania laiifolia).
+
−
2 Acacia arabica. 3 Acacia catechu.
+
−
fantile
+
−
diseases,
+
−
+
−
ground no one must touch it, but the goat, which should if
+
−
possible be of the same sex as the child, is taken and passed
+
−
over the child twenty-one times. Then they take the goat and
+
−
the after-birth to a cemetery and here cut the goat's throat
+
−
by the haldl rite and bury it with the after-birth.
+
  
−
The
+
The caste of sweepers and
−
idea is thus that the goat's life is a substitute for that of
+
scavengers. In 1911 persons returning themselves as Mehtar, Bhangi
−
the child. By being passed over the child it takes the
+
and Dom were separately classified, and the total of all three was
−
child's evil destiny upon itself, and the burial in a cemetery
+
only 30,000. In this Province they generally confine themselves to
−
causes the goat to resemble a human being, while the afterbirth
+
their hereditary occupation of scavenging, and are rarely met with
−
communicates to it some part of the life of the child.
+
outside the towns and large villages. In most localities the supply
 +
of sweepers does not meet the demand. The case is quite different in
 +
northern India, where the sweeper castes - the Chuhra in the Punjab, the
 +
Bhangi in the United Provinces and the Dom in Bengal - are all of them
 +
of great numerical strength. With these castes only a small proportion
 +
are employed on scavengers' work and the rest are labourers like
 +
the Chamars and Mahars of the Central Provinces. The present sweeper
 +
caste is made up of diverse elements, and the name Mehtar, generally
 +
applied to it, is a title meaning a prince or leader. Its application
 +
to the caste, the most abject and despised in the Hindu community,
 +
is perhaps partly ironical; but all the low castes have honorific
 +
titles, which are used as a method of address either from ordinary
 +
politeness or by those requiring some service, on the principle, as
 +
the Hindus say, that you may call an ass your uncle if you want him to
 +
do something for you. The regular caste of sweepers in northern India
 +
are the Bhangis, whose name is derived by Mr. Crooke from the Sanskrit
 +
_bhanga,_ hemp, in allusion to the drunken habits of the caste. In
 +
support of this derivation he advances the Beria custom of calling
 +
their leaders Bhangi or hemp-drinker as a title of honour. [226] In
 +
Mr. Greeven's account also, Lalbeg, the patron saint of the sweepers,
 +
is described as intoxicated with the hemp drug on two occasions. [227]
 +
Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam suggests [228] that Bhangia means broken, and
 +
is applied to the sweepers because they split bamboos. In Kaira,
 +
he states, the regular trade of the Bhangias is the plaiting of
 +
baskets and other articles of split bamboo, and in that part of
 +
Gujarat if a Koli is asked to split a bamboo he will say, 'Am I to
 +
do Bhangia's work?' The derivation from the hemp-plant is, however,
 +
the more probable. In the Punjab, sweepers are known as Chuhra, and
 +
this, name has been derived from their business of collecting and
 +
sweeping up scraps (_chura-jharna_) Similarly, in Bombay they are
 +
known as Olganas or scrap-eaters. The Bengal name Hari is supposed
 +
to come from _haddi_, a bone; the Hari is the bone-gatherer, and was
 +
familiar to early settlers of Calcutta under the quaint designation
 +
of the 'harry-wench,' [229] In the Central Provinces sections of the
 +
Ghasia, Mahar and Dom castes will do sweepers' work, and are therefore
 +
amalgamated with the Mehtars. The caste is thus of mixed constitution,
 +
and also forms a refuge for persons expelled from their own societies
 +
for social offences. But though called by different names, the
 +
sweeper community in most provinces appears to have the same stock of
 +
traditions and legends. The name of Mehtar is now generally employed,
 +
and has therefore been taken as the designation of the caste.
  
−
If a mother is afraid her child will die, she sells it for a few
 
−
cowries to another woman. Of course the sale is only nominal,
 
−
but the woman who has purchased the child takes a special
 
−
interest in it, and at the naming or other ceremony she will
 
−
give it a jewel or such other present as she can afford. Thus
 
−
she considers that the fictitious sale has had some effect and
 
−
that she has acquired a certain interest in the child.
 
−
13. In- If a baby, especially a girl, has much hair on its body,
 
−
they make a cake of gram-flour and rub it with sesamum
 
−
oil all over the body, and this is supposed to remove the
 
−
hair.
 
  
−
If a child's skin dries up and it pines away, they think
 
−
that an owl has taken away a cloth stained by the child
 
−
when it was hung out to dry. The remedy is to obtain
 
−
the "liver of an owl and hang it round the child's neck.
 
  
−
For jaundice they get the flesh of a yellow snake
 
−
which appears in the rains, and of the roJiu fish which has
 
−
yellowish scales, and hang them to its neck ; or they
 
−
get a verse of the Koran written out by a Maulvi or
 
−
Muhammadan priest and use this as an amulet ; or they catch
 
−
a small frog alive, tie it up in a yellow cloth and hang it to
 
−
the child's neck by a blue thread until it dies. For tetanus
 
−
the jaws are branded outside and a little musk is placed
 
−
on the mother's breast so that the child may drink it with the
 
−
milk.
 
  
−
When the child begins to cut its teeth they put
+
== Caste subdivisions==
−
honey on the gums and think that this will make the teeth
+
−
slip out early as the honey is smooth and slippery. But
+
−
as the child licks the gums when the honey is on them they
+
−
fear that this may cause the teeth to grow broad and crooked
+
−
like the tongue. Another device is to pass a piece of gold
+
−
+
−
round the child's gums. If they want the child to have
+
−
pretty teeth its maternal uncle threads a number of grains
+
−
of rice on a piece of string and hangs them round its neck,
+
−
so that the teeth may grow like the rice. If the child's
+
−
navel is swollen, the maternal uncle will go out for a walk
+
−
and on his return place his turban over the navel.
+
  
−
For
+
Mr. Greeven gives seven main subdivisions, of which the Lalbegis or
−
averting the evil eye the liver of the Indian badger is worn
+
the followers of Lalbeg, the patron saint of sweepers, are the most
−
in an amulet, this badger being supposed to haunt cemeteries
+
important. The Rawats appear to be an aristocratic subdivision of the
−
and feed on corpses ; some hairs of a bear also form
+
Lalbegis, their name being a corruption of the Sanskrit Rajputra,
−
a very favourite amulet, or a tiger's claws set in silver, or
+
a prince. The Shaikh Mehtars are the only real Muhammadan branch,
−
the tail of a lizard enclosed in lac and made into a ring.
+
for though the Lalbegis worship a Musalman saint they remain
−
The religion of the sweepers has been described at 14. Reiilength
+
Hindus. The Haris or bone-gatherers, as already stated, are the
−
by Mr. Greevcn and Mr. Crooke. It centres round
+
sweepers of Bengal. The Helas may either be those who carry baskets
−
+
of sweepings, or may derive their name from _hela_, a cry; and in
−
the worship of two saints, Lalbcg or Bale Shah and Balnck
+
that case they are so called as performing the office of town-criers,
−
or Balmik, who is really the huntsman Valmiki, the reputed
+
a function which the Bhangi usually still discharges in northern India
−
author of the Ramayana. Bfdmlk was originally a lowcaste
+
[230]. The other subcastes in his list are the Dhanuks or bowmen and
−
hunter called Ratnakar, and when he could not get
+
the Bansphors or cleavers of bamboos. In the Central Provinces the
−
game he was accustomed to rob and kill travellers.  
+
Shaikh Mehtars belong principally to Nagpur, and another subcaste,
 +
the Makhia, is also found in the Maratha Districts and in Berar; those
 +
branches of the Ghasia and Dom castes who consent to do scavengers'
 +
work now form separate subcastes of Mehtars in the same locality,
 +
and another group are called Narnolia, being said to take their name
 +
from a place called Narnol in the Punjab. The Lalbegis are often
 +
considered here as Muhammadans rather than Hindus, and bury their
 +
dead. In Saugor the sweepers are said to be divided into Lalbegis or
 +
Muhammadans and Doms or Hindus. The Lalbegi, Dom or Dumar and the
 +
Hela are the principal subcastes of the north of the Province, and
 +
Chuhra Mehtars are found in Chhattisgarh. Each subcaste is divided
 +
into a number of exogamous sections named after plants and animals.
  
−
But
 
−
one day he met Brahma and wished to kill him ; but he
 
−
could not raise his club against Brahma, and the god spoke
 
−
and convinced him of his sins, directing him to repeat the
 
−
name of Rama until he should be purified of them. But the
 
−
hunter's heart was so evil that he could not pronounce the
 
−
divine name, and instead he repeated ' Mara, Mara ' {struck,
 
−
struck), but in the end by repetition this came to the same
 
−
thing. Mr. Greeven's account continues : "As a small spark
 
−
of fire burneth up a heap of cotton, so the word Rama
 
−
cleaneth a man of all his sins. So the words ' Ram, Ram,'
 
−
were taught unto Ratnakar who ever repeated them for
 
−
sixty thousand years at the self- same spot with a heart
 
−
sincere.
 
  
−
All his skin was eaten up by the white ants. Only
 
−
the skeleton remained. Mud had been heaped over the body
 
−
and grass had grown up, yet within the mound of mud the
 
−
saint was still repeating the name of Rama. After sixty
 
−
thousand years Brahma returned. No man could he see,
 
−
yet he heard the voice of Ram, Ram, rising from the mound
 
−
of mud. Then Brahma bethought him that the saint was
 
−
beneath. He besought Indra to pour down rain and to wash
 
−
away the mud. Indra complied with his request and the rain
 
−
washed away the mud. The saint came forth. Nought save
 
−
VOL. IV Q
 
−
 
−
bones remained. Brahma called aloud to the saint. When
 
−
the saint beheld him he prostrated himself and spake
 
−
:
 
−
' Thou hast taught me the words " Ram, Ram," which have
 
−
cleansed away all my sins.' Then spake Brahma :
 
−
' Hitherto
 
−
thou wast Ratnakar. From fo-day thy name shall be Valmlki
 
−
(from valinik, an ant-hill). Now do thou compose a Ramayana
 
−
in seven parts, containing the deeds and exploits of
 
−
Rama.' " Valmiki had been or afterwards became a sweeper
 
−
and was known as ' cooker of dog's food ' (Swapach), a name
 
−
applied to sweepers,^ who have adopted him as their eponymous
 
−
ancestor and patron saint.
 
  
  
−
15. Laibeg. Lalbeg, who is still more widely venerated, is considered
+
==Social organisation==
−
to have been Ghazi Miyan, the nephew of Sultan Muhammad
+
−
of Ghazni, and a saint much worshipped in the Punjab. Many
+
−
legends are told of Lalbeg, and his worship is described by
+
−
Mr. Greeven as follows :
+
−
^ " The ritual of Lalbeg is conducted
+
−
in the presence of the whole brotherhood, as a rule
+
−
at the festival of the Diwali and on other occasions when
+
−
special business arises. The time for worship is after
+
−
sunset and if possible at midnight. His shrine consists of a
+
−
mud platform surrounded by steps, with four little turrets at
+
−
the corners and a spire in the centre, in which is placed a
+
−
lamp filled with clarified butter and containing a wick of
+
−
twisted tow. Incense is thrown into the flame and offerings
+
−
of cakes and sweetmeats are made.
+
  
−
A lighted huqqa is
+
In Benares each subdivision, Mr. Greeven states, has an elaborate
−
placed before the altar and as soon as the smoke rises it is
+
and quasi-military organisation. Thus the Lalbegi sweepers have eight
−
understood that a whiff has been drawn by the hero.
+
companies or _berhas_, consisting of the sweepers working in different
 +
localities; these are the Sadar, or those employed by private residents
 +
in cantonments; the Kali Paltan, who serve the Bengal Infantry; the
 +
Lal Kurti, or Red-coats, who are employed by the British Infantry;
 +
the Teshan (station), or those engaged at the three railway stations
 +
of the town; the Shahar, or those of the city; the Ramnagar, taking
 +
their name from the residence of the Maharaja of Benares, whom they
 +
serve; the Kothiwal, or Bungalow men, who belong to residents in
 +
the civil lines; and lastly the Genereli, who are the descendants
 +
of sweepers employed at the military headquarters when Benares was
 +
commanded by a General of Division. This special organisation is
 +
obviously copied from that of the garrison and is not found in other
 +
localities, but deserves mention for its own interest. All the eight
 +
companies are commanded by a Brigadier, the local head of the caste,
 +
whose office is now almost hereditary; his principal duty is to give
 +
two dinners to the whole caste on election, with sweetmeats to the
 +
value of fourteen rupees. Each company has four officers - a Jamadar
 +
or president, a Munsif or spokesman, a Chaudhari or treasurer and
 +
a Naib or summoner. These offices are also practically hereditary,
 +
if the candidate entitled by birth can afford to give a dinner to the
 +
whole subcaste and a turban to each President of a company. All the
 +
other members of the company are designated as Sipahis or soldiers. A
 +
caste dispute is first considered by the inferior officers of each
 +
company, who report their view to the President; he confers with
 +
the other Presidents, and when an agreement has been reached the
 +
sentence is formally confirmed by the Brigadier. When any dispute
 +
arises, the aggrieved party, depositing a process-fee of a rupee and
 +
a quarter, addresses the officers of his company. Unless the question
 +
is so trivial that it can be settled without caste punishments, the
 +
President fixes a time and place, of which notice is given to the
 +
messengers of the other companies; each of these receives a fee of
 +
one and a quarter annas and informs all the Sipahis in his company.
  
−
" A
 
−
cock is offered to Lalbeg at the Dasahra festival. When a
 
−
man is believed to have been affected by the evil eye they
 
−
wave a broom in front of the sufferer muttering the name of
 
−
the saint. In the Damoh District the guru or priest who is
 
−
the successor of Lalbeg comes from the Punjab every year
 
−
or two. He is richly clad and is followed by a sweeper
 
−
carrying an umbrella. Other Hindus say that his teaching
 
−
is that no one who is not a Lalbeg! can go to heaven, but
 
−
those on whom the dust raised by a Lalbegi sweeping settles
 
−
acquire some modicum of virtue. Similarly Mr. Greeven
 
−
* Some writers consider that Balmik, the sweeper-saint, and Valmlki, the author
 
−
of the Ramayana, are not identicah
 
−
 
−
remarks :
 
−
' " Sweepers by no means endorse the humble
 
−
opinion entertained with respect to them ; for they allude to
 
−
castes such as Kunbis and Chamars as petty {chJiotd), while
 
−
a common anecdote is related to the effect that a Lalbegi,
 
−
when asked whether Muhammadans could obtain salvation,
 
−
replied :
 
−
' I never heard of it, but perhaps they might slip
 
−
in behind Lalbeg.'"
 
−
On the whole the religion of the Lrdbegis appears to 16. Adopbe
 
−
monotheistic and of a sufficiently elevated character,
 
−
 
−
resembling that of the Kablrpanthis and other reforming religions,
 
−
sects. Its claim to the exclusive possession of the way of
 
−
salvation is a method of revolt against the menial and
 
−
debased position of the caste. Similarly many sweepers
 
−
have become Muhammadans and Sikhs with the same end
 
−
in view, as stated by Mr. Greeven :
 
  
  
−
- " As may be readily
 
−
imagined, the scavengers are merely in name the disciples of
 
−
Nanak Shah, professing in fact to be his followers just as
 
−
they are prepared at a moment's notice to become Christians
 
−
or Muhammadans. Their object is, of course, merely to
 
−
acquire a status which may elevate them above the utter
 
−
degradation of their caste. The acquaintance of most of
 
−
them with the doctrines of Nanak Shah is at zero.
 
  
−
They
+
==Caste punishments==
−
know little and care less about his rules of life, habitually
+
−
disregarding, for instance, the prohibitions against smoking
+
−
and hair-cutting. In fact, a scavenger at Benares no more
+
−
becomes a Sikh by taking Nanak Shah's motto than he
+
−
becomes a Christian by wearing a round hat and a pair
+
−
of trousers." It was probably with a similar leaning
+
−
towards the more liberal religion that the Lalbegis, though
+
−
themselves Hindus, adopted a Muhammadan for their
+
−
tutelary saint.
+
  
−
In the Punjab Muhammadan sweepers who
+
Only worthy members of the caste, Mr. Greeven continues, are allowed
−
have given up eating carrion and refuse to remove nightsoil
+
to sit on the tribal matting and smoke the tribal pipe (huqqa). The
−
rank higher than the others, and are known as Musalli.^
+
proceedings begin with the outspreading (usually symbolic) of
−
And in Saugor the Muhammadans allow the sweepers to
+
a carpet and the smoking of a water-pipe handed in turn to each
−
come into a mosque and to stand at the back, whereas,
+
clansman. For this purpose the members sit on the carpet in three
−
of course, they cannot approach a Hindu temple. Again
+
lines, the officers in front and the private soldiers behind. The
−
in Bengal it is stated, " The Dom is regarded with both
+
parties and their witnesses are heard and examined, and a decision
−
disgust and fear by all classes of Hindus, not only on
+
is pronounced. The punishments imposed consist of fines, compulsory
−
1 Page 8. - Page 54.
+
dinners and expulsion from the caste; expulsion being inflicted for
−
3 Punjab Census Report (1881), para. 599.
+
failure to comply with an order of fine or entertainment. The formal
−
+
method of outcasting consists in seating the culprit on the ground
−
account of his habits being abhorrent and abominable, but
+
and drawing the tribal mat over his head, from which the turban is
−
also because he is believed to have no humane or kindlyfeelings
+
removed; after this the messengers of the eight companies inflict a
−
" ; and further, " It is universally believed that
+
few taps with slippers and birch brooms. It is alleged that unfaithful
−
Doms do not bury or burn their dead, but dismember the
+
women were formerly tied naked to trees and flogged with birch brooms,
−
corpse at night like the inhabitants of Thibet, placing the
+
but that owing to the fatal results that occasionally followed such
−
fragments in a pot and sinking them in the nearest river or
+
punishment, as in the case of the five kicks among Chamars (tanners)
−
reservoir. This horrid idea probably originated from the
+
and the scourging with the clothes line which used to prevail among
−
old Hindu law, which compelled the Doms to bury their
+
Dhobis (washer men), the caste has now found it expedient to abandon
−
dead at night." ^ It is not astonishing that the sweepers
+
these practices. When an outcaste is readmitted on submission,
−
prefer a religion whose followers will treat them somewhat
+
whether by paying a fine or giving a dinner, he is seated apart
−
more kindly. Another Muhammadan saint revered by the
+
from the tribal mat and does penance by holding his ears with his
−
sweepers of Saugor is one Zahir Pir.  
+
hands and confessing his offence. A new huqqa, which he supplies,
 +
is carried round by the messenger, and a few whiffs are taken by
 +
all the officers and Sipahis in turn. The messenger repeats to the
 +
culprit the council's order, and informs him that should he again
 +
offend his punishment will be doubled. With this warning he hands
 +
him the water-pipe, and after smoking this the offender is admitted
 +
to the carpet and all is forgotten in a banquet at his expense.
  
−
At the fasts in Chait
 
−
and Kunwar (March and September) they tie cocoanuts
 
−
wrapped in cloth to the top of a long bamboo, and marching
 
−
to the tomb of Zahir Pir make offerings of cakes and
 
−
sweetmeats. Before starting for his day's work the sweeper
 
−
does obeisance to his basket and broom.
 
−
17 Social The sweeper stands at the very bottom of the social
 
−
status. ladder of Hinduism. He is considered to be the representative
 
−
of the Chandala of Manu,^ who was said to be
 
−
descended of a Sudra father and a Brahman woman. " It
 
−
was ordained that the Chandala should live without the
 
−
town ; his sole wealth should be dogs and asses ; his clothes
 
−
should consist of the cerecloths of the dead ; his dishes
 
−
should be broken pots and his ornaments rusty iron.
 
  
−
No
 
−
one who regarded his duties should hold intercourse with
 
−
the Chandalas and they should marry only among themselves.
 
−
By day they might roam about for the purposes
 
−
of work, but should be distinguished by the badges of the
 
−
Raja, and should carry out the corpse of any one who died
 
−
without kindred.
 
  
−
They should always be employed to
 
−
slay those who by the law were sentenced to be put to
 
−
death, and they might take the clothes of the slain, their
 
−
beds and their ornaments." Elsewhere the Chandala is
 
−
said to rank in impurity with the town boar, the dog, a
 
−
woman during her monthly illness and a eunuch, none of
 
−
whom must a Brahman allow to see him when eating.^
 
−
Like the Chandala, the sweeper cannot be touched, and he
 
−
1 Sir II. Risley, I.e., art. Dom. 3 Jbidem, iv. 239, quoted by Mr.
 
−
'^ hislittUes, X. 12-29-30. Crooke, art. Dom.
 
−
 
−
himself acquiesces in this and walks apart. In large towns
 
−
he sometimes carries a kite's wing in his turban to show his
 
−
caste, or goes aloof saying pois, which is equivalent to a
 
−
warning. When the sweeper is in company he will efface
 
−
himself as far as possible behind other people. He is
 
−
known by his basket and broom, and men of other castes
 
−
will not carry these articles lest they should be mistaken
 
−
for a sweeper.
 
  
−
The sweeper's broom is made of bamboo,
+
==Admission of outsiders==
−
whereas the ordinary house-broom is made of date-palm
+
 
−
leaves. The house-broom is considered sacred as the implement
+
The sweepers will freely admit outsiders into their community, and the
−
of Lakshhmi used in cleaning the house. No one should
+
caste forms a refuge for persons expelled from their own societies
−
tread upon or touch it with his foot. The sweeper's broom
+
for sexual or moral offences. Various methods are employed for the
−
is a powerful agent for curing the evil eye, and mothers get
+
initiation of a neophyte; in some places he, or more frequently she,
−
him to come and wave it up and down in front of a sick
+
is beaten with a broom made of wood taken from a bier, and has to give
−
child for this purpose. Nevertheless it is lucky to see a
+
a feast to the caste; in others a slight wound is made in his body and
−
sweeper in the morning, especially if he has his basket with
+
the blood of another sweeper is allowed to flow on to it so that they
−
him.  
+
mix; and a glass of sherbet and sugar, known as the cup of nectar,
 +
is prepared by the priest and all the members of the committee put
 +
their fingers into it, after which it is given to the candidate to
 +
drink; or he has to drink water mixed with cowdung into which the
 +
caste-people have dipped their little fingers, and a lock of his
 +
hair is cut off. Or he fasts all day at the shrine of Lalbeg and
 +
in the evening drinks sherbet after burning incense at the shrine;
 +
and gives three feasts, the first on the bank of a tank, the second
 +
in his courtyard and the third in his house, representing his gradual
 +
purification for membership; at this last he puts a little water into
 +
every man's cup and receives from him a piece of bread, and so becomes
 +
a fully qualified caste-man. Owing to this reinforcement from higher
 +
castes, and perhaps also to their flesh diet, the sweepers are not
 +
infrequently taller and stronger as well as lighter in colour than
 +
the average Hindu.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Marriage customs==
 +
 
 +
The marriage ceremony in the Central Provinces follows the ordinary
 +
Hindu ritual. The _lagan_ or paper fixing the date of the wedding
 +
is written by a Brahman, who seats himself at some distance from the
 +
sweeper's house and composes the letter. This paper must not be seen
 +
by the bride or bridegroom, nor may its contents be read to them,
 +
as it is believed that to do so would cause them to fall ill during
 +
the ceremony. Before the bridegroom starts for the wedding his mother
 +
waves a wooden pestle five times over his head, passing it between his
 +
legs and shoulders. After this the bridegroom breaks two lamp-saucers
 +
with his right foot, steps over the rice-pounder and departs for the
 +
bride's house without looking behind him. The _sawasas_ or relatives
 +
of the parties usually officiate at the ceremony, but the well-to-do
 +
sometimes engage a Brahman, who sits at a distance from the house
 +
and calls out his instructions. When a man wishes to marry a widow
 +
he must pay six rupees to the caste committee and give a feast to
 +
the community. Divorce is permitted for incompatibility of temper,
 +
or immorality on the part of the wife, or if the husband suffers
 +
from leprosy or impotence. Among the Lalbegis, when a man wishes to
 +
get rid of his wife he assembles the brethren and in their presence
 +
says to her, 'You are as my sister,' and she answers, 'You are as my
 +
father and brother.' [231]
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Disposal of the dead==
 +
 
 +
The dead are usually buried, but the well-to-do sometimes cremate
 +
them. In Benares the face or hand of the corpse is scorched with fire
 +
to symbolise cremation and it is then buried. In the Punjab the ghosts
 +
of sweepers are considered to be malevolent and are much dreaded;
 +
and their bodies are therefore always buried or burnt face downwards
 +
to prevent the spirit escaping; and riots have taken place and the
 +
magistrates have been appealed to to prevent a Chuhra from being
 +
buried face upwards. [232] In Benares as the body is lowered into the
 +
grave the sheet is withdrawn for a moment from the features of the
 +
departed to afford him one last glimpse of the heavens, while with
 +
Muhammadans the face is turned towards Mecca. Each clansman flings
 +
a handful of dust over the corpse, and after the earth is filled in
 +
crumbles a little bread and sugar-cake and sprinkles water upon the
 +
grave. A provision of bread, sweetmeats and water is also left upon
 +
it for the soul of the departed. [233] In the Central Provinces the
 +
body of a man is covered with a white winding-sheet and that of a
 +
woman with a red one. If the death occurs during the lunar conjunction
 +
known as Panchak, four human images of flour are made and buried with
 +
the dead man, as they think that if this is not done four more deaths
 +
will occur in the family.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Devices for procuring children==
 +
 
 +
If a woman greatly desires a child she will go to a shrine and lay a
 +
stone on it which she calls the _dharna_ or deposit or pledge. Then
 +
she thinks that she has put the god under an obligation to give her a
 +
child. She vows that if she becomes pregnant within a certain period,
 +
six or nine months, she will make an offering of a certain value. If
 +
the pregnancy comes she goes to the temple, makes the offering and
 +
removes the stone. If the desired result does not happen, however,
 +
she considers that the god has broken his obligation and ceases to
 +
worship him. If a barren woman desires a child she should steal on a
 +
Sunday or a Wednesday a strip from the body-cloth of a fertile woman
 +
when it is hung out to dry; or she may steal a piece of rope from
 +
the bed in which a woman has been delivered of a child, or a piece of
 +
the baby's soiled swaddling clothes or a piece of cloth stained with
 +
the blood of a fertile woman. This last she will take and bury in a
 +
cemetery and the others wear round her waist; then she will become
 +
fertile and the fertile woman will become barren. Another device is
 +
to obtain from the midwife a piece of the navel-string of a newborn
 +
child and swallow it. For this reason the navel-string is always
 +
carefully guarded and its disposal seen to.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Divination of sex [gender]==
 +
 
 +
If a pregnant woman is thin and ailing they think a boy will be born;
 +
but if fat and well that it will be a girl. In order to divine the sex
 +
of a coming child they pour a little oil on the stomach of the woman;
 +
if the oil flows straight down it is thought that a boy will be born
 +
and if crooked a girl. Similarly if the hair on the front of her body
 +
grows straight they think the child will be a boy, but if crooked a
 +
girl; and if the swelling of pregnancy is more apparent on the right
 +
side a boy is portended, but if on the left side a girl. If delivery
 +
is retarded they go to a gunmaker and obtain from him a gun which
 +
has been discharged and the soiling of the barrel left uncleaned;
 +
some water is put into the barrel and shaken up and then poured into
 +
a vessel and given to the woman to drink, and it is thought that the
 +
quality of swift movement appertaining to the bullet which soiled
 +
the barrel will be communicated to the woman and cause the swift
 +
expulsion of the child from her womb.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Childbirth==
 +
 
 +
When a woman is in labour she squats down with her legs apart holding
 +
to the bed in front of her, while the midwife rubs her back. If
 +
delivery is retarded the midwife gets a broom and sitting behind
 +
the woman presses it on her stomach, at the same time drawing back
 +
the upper part of her body. By this means they think the child will
 +
be forced from the womb. Or the mother of the woman in labour will
 +
take a grinding-stone and stand holding it on her head so long as
 +
the child is not born. She says to her daughter, 'Take my name,'
 +
and the daughter repeats her mother's name aloud. Here the idea is
 +
apparently that the mother takes on herself some of the pain which
 +
has to be endured by the daughter, and the repetition of her name
 +
by the daughter will cause the goddess of childbirth to hasten the
 +
period of delivery in order to terminate the unjust sufferings of
 +
the mother for which the goddess has become responsible. The mother's
 +
name exerts pressure or influence on the goddess who is at the time
 +
occupied with the daughter or perhaps sojourning in her body.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Treatment of the mother==
 +
 
 +
If a child is born in the morning they will give the mother a little
 +
sugar and cocoanut to eat in the evening, but if it is born in the
 +
evening they will give her nothing till next morning. Milk is given
 +
only sparingly as it is supposed to produce coughing. The main idea of
 +
treatment in childbirth is to prevent either the mother or child from
 +
taking cold or chill, this being the principal danger to which they
 +
are thought to be exposed. The door of the birth chamber is therefore
 +
kept shut and a fire is continually burning in it night and day. The
 +
woman is not bathed for several days, and the atmosphere and general
 +
insanitary conditions can better be imagined than described. With
 +
the same end of preventing cold they feed the mother on a hot liquid
 +
produced by cooking thirty-six ingredients together. Most of these
 +
are considered to have the quality of producing heat or warmth in the
 +
body, and the following are a few of them: Pepper, ginger, _azgan_
 +
(a condiment), turmeric, nutmeg, _ajwain_ (aniseed), dates, almonds,
 +
raisins, cocoanut, wild _singara_ or water-nut, cumin, _chironji_,
 +
[234] the gum of the _babul_ [235] or _khair_, [236] asafoetida, borax,
 +
saffron, clarified butter and sugar. The mixture cannot be prepared for
 +
less than two rupees and the woman is fed on it for five days beginning
 +
from the second day after birth, if the family can afford the expense.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Protecting the lives of children==
 +
 
 +
If the mother's milk runs dry, they use the dried bodies of the little
 +
fish caught in the shallow water of fields and tanks, and sometimes
 +
supposed to have fallen down with the rain. They are boiled in a little
 +
water and the fish and water are given to the woman to consume. Here
 +
the idea is apparently that as the fish has the quality of liquidness
 +
because it lives in water, so by eating it this will be communicated
 +
to the breasts and the milk will flow again. If a woman's children
 +
die, then the next time she is in labour they bring a goat all of
 +
one colour. When the birth of the child takes place and it falls
 +
from the womb on to the ground no one must touch it, but the goat,
 +
which should if possible be of the same sex as the child, is taken
 +
and passed over the child twenty-one times. Then they take the goat
 +
and the after-birth to a cemetery and here cut the goat's throat by
 +
the _halal_ rite and bury it with the after-birth. The idea is thus
 +
that the goat's life is a substitute for that of the child. By being
 +
passed over the child it takes the child's evil destiny upon itself,
 +
and the burial in a cemetery causes the goat to resemble a human being,
 +
while the after-birth communicates to it some part of the life of
 +
the child. If a mother is afraid her child will die, she sells it for
 +
a few cowries to another woman. Of course the sale is only nominal,
 +
but the woman who has purchased the child takes a special interest
 +
in it, and at the naming or other ceremony she will give it a jewel
 +
or such other present as she can afford. Thus she considers that
 +
the fictitious sale has had some effect and that she has acquired a
 +
certain interest in the child.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Infantile diseases==
 +
 
 +
If a baby, especially a girl, has much hair on its body, they make
 +
a cake of gram-flour and rub it with sesamum oil all over the body,
 +
and this is supposed to remove the hair.
 +
 
 +
If a child's skin dries up and it pines away, they think that an owl
 +
has taken away a cloth stained by the child when it was hung out to
 +
dry. The remedy is to obtain the liver of an owl and hang it round
 +
the child's neck.
 +
 
 +
For jaundice they get the flesh of a yellow snake which appears in
 +
the rains, and of the _rohu_ fish which has yellowish scales, and
 +
hang them to its neck; or they get a verse of the Koran written out
 +
by a Maulvi or Muhammadan priest and use this as an amulet; or they
 +
catch a small frog alive, tie it up in a yellow cloth and hang it to
 +
the child's neck by a blue thread until it dies. For tetanus the jaws
 +
are branded outside and a little musk is placed on the mother's breast
 +
so that the child may drink it with the milk. When the child begins to
 +
cut its teeth they put honey on the gums and think that this will make
 +
the teeth slip out early as the honey is smooth and slippery. But as
 +
the child licks the gums when the honey is on them they fear that this
 +
may cause the teeth to grow broad and crooked like the tongue. Another
 +
device is to pass a piece of gold round the child's gums. If they want
 +
the child to have pretty teeth its maternal uncle threads a number of
 +
grains of rice on a piece of string and hangs them round its neck,
 +
so that the teeth may grow like the rice. If the child's navel is
 +
swollen, the maternal uncle will go out for a walk and on his return
 +
place his turban over the navel. For averting the evil eye the liver
 +
of the Indian badger is worn in an amulet, this badger being supposed
 +
to haunt cemeteries and feed on corpses; some hairs of a bear also
 +
form a very favourite amulet, or a tiger's claws set in silver,
 +
or the tail of a lizard enclosed in lac and made into a ring.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Religion. Valmiki==
 +
 
 +
The religion of the sweepers has been described at length by
 +
Mr. Greeven and Mr. Crooke. It centres round the worship of two saints,
 +
Lalbeg or Bale Shah and Balnek or Balmik, who is really the huntsman
 +
Valmiki, the reputed author of the Ramayana. Balmik was originally a
 +
low-caste hunter called Ratnakar, and when he could not get game he was
 +
accustomed to rob and kill travellers. But one day he met Brahma and
 +
wished to kill him; but he could not raise his club against Brahma,
 +
and the god spoke and convinced him of his sins, directing him to
 +
repeat the name of Rama until he should be purified of them. But the
 +
hunter's heart was so evil that he could not pronounce the divine name,
 +
and instead he repeated '_Mara, Mara_' (_struck, struck_), but in the
 +
end by repetition this came to the same thing. Mr. Greeven's account
 +
continues: "As a small spark of fire burneth up a heap of cotton, so
 +
the word Rama cleaneth a man of all his sins. So the words 'Ram, Ram,'
 +
were taught unto Ratnakar who ever repeated them for sixty thousand
 +
years at the self-same spot with a heart sincere. All his skin was
 +
eaten up by the white ants. Only the skeleton remained. Mud had been
 +
heaped over the body and grass had grown up, yet within the mound
 +
of mud the saint was still repeating the name of Rama. After sixty
 +
thousand years Brahma returned. No man could he see, yet he heard the
 +
voice of Ram, Ram, rising from the mound of mud. Then Brahma bethought
 +
him that the saint was beneath. He besought Indra to pour down rain
 +
and to wash away the mud. Indra complied with his request and the
 +
rain washed away the mud. The saint came forth. Nought save bones
 +
remained. Brahma called aloud to the saint. When the saint beheld
 +
him he prostrated himself and spake: 'Thou hast taught me the words
 +
"Ram, Ram," which have cleansed away all my sins.' Then spake Brahma:
 +
'Hitherto thou wast Ratnakar. From to-day thy name shall be Valmiki
 +
(from _valmik_, an ant-hill). Now do thou compose a Ramayana in seven
 +
parts, containing the deeds and exploits of Rama.'" Valmiki had been
 +
or afterwards became a sweeper and was known as 'cooker of dog's food'
 +
(Swapach), a name applied to sweepers [237], who have adopted him as
 +
their eponymous ancestor and patron saint.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Lalbeg==
 +
 
 +
Lalbeg, who is still more widely venerated, is considered to have been
 +
Ghazi Miyan, the nephew of Sultan Muhammad of Ghazni, and a saint much
 +
worshipped in the Punjab. Many legends are told of Lalbeg, and his
 +
worship is described by Mr. Greeven as follows: [238] "The ritual
 +
of Lalbeg is conducted in the presence of the whole brotherhood,
 +
as a rule at the festival of the Diwali and on other occasions
 +
when special business arises. The time for worship is after sunset
 +
and if possible at midnight. His shrine consists of a mud platform
 +
surrounded by steps, with four little turrets at the corners and a
 +
spire in the centre, in which is placed a lamp filled with clarified
 +
butter and containing a wick of twisted tow. Incense is thrown into
 +
the flame and offerings of cakes and sweetmeats are made. A lighted
 +
huqqa is placed before the altar and as soon as the smoke rises it
 +
is understood that a whiff has been drawn by the hero." A cock is
 +
offered to Lalbeg at the Dasahra festival. When a man is believed
 +
to have been affected by the evil eye they wave a broom in front of
 +
the sufferer muttering the name of the saint. In the Damoh District
 +
the _guru_ or priest who is the successor of Lalbeg comes from the
 +
Punjab every year or two. He is richly clad and is followed by a
 +
sweeper carrying an umbrella. Other Hindus say that his teaching is
 +
that no one who is not a Lalbegi can go to heaven, but those on whom
 +
the dust raised by a Lalbegi sweeping settles acquire some modicum
 +
of virtue. Similarly Mr. Greeven remarks: [239] "Sweepers by no means
 +
endorse the humble opinion entertained with respect to them; for they
 +
allude to castes such as Kunbis and Chamars as petty (_chhota_),
 +
while a common anecdote is related to the effect that a Lalbegi,
 +
when asked whether Muhammadans could obtain salvation, replied:
 +
'I never heard of it, but perhaps they might slip in behind Lalbeg.'"
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Adoption of foreign religions==
 +
 
 +
On the whole the religion of the Lalbegis appears to be monotheistic
 +
and of a sufficiently elevated character, resembling that of the
 +
Kabirpanthis and other reforming sects. Its claim to the exclusive
 +
possession of the way of salvation is a method of revolt against the
 +
menial and debased position of the caste. Similarly many sweepers have
 +
become Muhammadans and Sikhs with the same end in view, as stated
 +
by Mr. Greeven: [240] "As may be readily imagined, the scavengers
 +
are merely in name the disciples of Nanak Shah, professing in fact
 +
to be his followers just as they are prepared at a moment's notice
 +
to become Christians or Muhammadans. Their object is, of course,
 +
merely to acquire a status which may elevate them above the utter
 +
degradation of their caste. The acquaintance of most of them with the
 +
doctrines of Nanak Shah is at zero. They know little and care less
 +
about his rules of life, habitually disregarding, for instance, the
 +
prohibitions against smoking and hair-cutting. In fact, a scavenger
 +
at Benares no more becomes a Sikh by taking Nanak Shah's motto than he
 +
becomes a Christian by wearing a round hat and a pair of trousers." It
 +
was probably with a similar leaning towards the more liberal religion
 +
that the Lalbegis, though themselves Hindus, adopted a Muhammadan for
 +
their tutelary saint. In the Punjab Muhammadan sweepers who have given
 +
up eating carrion and refuse to remove night-soil rank higher than the
 +
others, and are known as Musalli. [241] And in Saugor the Muhammadans
 +
allow the sweepers to come into a mosque and to stand at the back,
 +
whereas, of course, they cannot approach a Hindu temple. Again in
 +
Bengal it is stated, "The Dom is regarded with both disgust and fear
 +
by all classes of Hindus, not only on account of his habits being
 +
abhorrent and abominable, but also because he is believed to have no
 +
humane or kindly feelings"; and further, "It is universally believed
 +
that Doms do not bury or burn their dead, but dismember the corpse
 +
at night like the inhabitants of Thibet, placing the fragments in a
 +
pot and sinking them in the nearest river or reservoir. This horrid
 +
idea probably originated from the old Hindu law, which compelled
 +
the Doms to bury their dead at night." [242] It is not astonishing
 +
that the sweepers prefer a religion whose followers will treat them
 +
somewhat more kindly. Another Muhammadan saint revered by the sweepers
 +
of Saugor is one Zahir Pir. At the fasts in Chait and Kunwar (March
 +
and September) they tie cocoanuts wrapped in cloth to the top of a
 +
long bamboo, and marching to the tomb of Zahir Pir make offerings of
 +
cakes and sweetmeats. Before starting for his day's work the sweeper
 +
does obeisance to his basket and broom.
 +
 
 +
 
  
−
In Gujarat Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam writes of him :
 
−
" Though he is held to be lower and more unclean, the
 
−
Bhangia is viewed with kindlier feelings than the Dhed
 
−
(Mahar). To meet the basket-bearing Bhangia is lucky, and
 
−
the Bhangia's blessing is valued. Even now if a Government
 
−
officer goes into a Bhangia hamlet the men with
 
−
hands raised in blessing say :
 
−
' May your rule last for ever.'
 
−
"
 
−
A sweeper will eat the leavings of other people, but he will
 
−
not eat in their houses ; he will take the food away to his
 
−
own house. It is related that on one occasion a sweeper
 
−
accompanied a marriage party of Lodhis (cultivators), and
 
−
the Lodhi who was the host was anxious that all should
 
−
share his hospitality and asked the sweeper to eat in his
 
−
house ;
 
  
−
^ but he repeatedly refused, until finally the Lodhi
+
==Social status==
−
gave him a she-buffalo to induce him to eat, so that it might
+
−
not be said that any one had declined to share in his feast.
+
−
No other caste, of course, will accept food or water from a
+
−
sweeper, and only a Chamar (tanner) will take a cJiilani
+
−
or clay pipe-bowl from his hand. The sweeper will eat
+
−
carrion and the flesh of almost all animals, including snakes,
+
−
lizards, crocodiles and tigers, and also the leavings of food
+
−
of almost any caste. Mr. Greeven remarks : "' " Only
+
−
' Probably not within the house but in the veranda or courtyard.
+
−
- Ibidem.
+
−
+
−
Lalbegis and Rawats eat food left by Europeans, but all
+
−
eat food left either by Hindus or Muhammadans ; the Sheikh
+
−
Mehtars as Muhammadans alone are circumcised and reject
+
−
pig's flesh. Each subcaste eats uncooked food with all the
+
−
others, but cooked food alone." From Betul it is reported
+
−
that the Mehtars there will not accept food, water or
+
−
tobacco from a Kayasth, and will not allow one to enter
+
−
their houses.
+
  
−
i8. Occu- Sweeping and scavenging in the streets and in private
+
The sweeper stands at the very bottom of the social ladder of
−
pation. houses are the traditional occupations of the caste, but they
+
Hinduism. He is considered to be the representative of the Chandala
−
have others. In Bombay they serve as night watchmen,
+
of Manu, [243] who was said to be descended of a Sudra father and a
−
town-criers, drummers, trumpeters and hangmen. Formerly
+
Brahman woman. "It was ordained that the Chandala should live without
−
the office of hangman was confined to sweepers, but now
+
the town; his sole wealth should be dogs and asses; his clothes should
−
many low-caste prisoners are willing to undertake it for
+
consist of the cerecloths of the dead; his dishes should be broken pots
−
the sake of the privilege of smoking tobacco in jail which
+
and his ornaments rusty iron. No one who regarded his duties should
−
it confers. In Mlrzapur when a Dom hangman is tying a
+
hold intercourse with the Chandalas and they should marry only among
−
rope round the neck of a criminal he shouts out, ' Dohai
+
themselves. By day they might roam about for the purposes of work,
−
Mahdrdni, Dohai Sarkdr, Dohai Judge Sahib' or ' Hail
+
but should be distinguished by the badges of the Raja, and should
−
Great Queen ! Hail Government ! Hail Judge Sahib !
+
carry out the corpse of any one who died without kindred. They should
−
' in
+
always be employed to slay those who by the law were sentenced to be
−
order to shelter himself under their authority and escape any
+
put to death, and they might take the clothes of the slain, their
−
guilt attaching to the death.^ In the Central Provinces the
+
beds and their ornaments." Elsewhere the Chandala is said to rank
−
hangman was accompanied by four or five other sweepers
+
in impurity with the town boar, the dog, a woman during her monthly
−
of the caste panchdyat, the idea being perhaps that his
+
illness and a eunuch, none of whom must a Brahman allow to see him
−
act should be condoned by their presence and approval and
+
when eating. [244] Like the Chandala, the sweeper cannot be touched,
−
he should escape guilt. In order to free the executioner
+
and he himself acquiesces in this and walks apart. In large towns
−
from blame the prisoner would also say : " Dohai Sarkar
+
he sometimes carries a kite's wing in his turban to show his caste,
−
ke, Dohai Kampani ke ; jaisa maim khun kiya waisa apne
+
or goes aloof saying _pois_, which is equivalent to a warning. When
−
khiin ko pahunchha" or " Hail to the Government and the
+
the sweeper is in company he will efface himself as far as possible
−
Company ; since I caused the death of another, now I am
+
behind other people. He is known by his basket and broom, and men
−
come to my own death "
+
of other castes will not carry these articles lest they should
 +
be mistaken for a sweeper. The sweeper's broom is made of bamboo,
 +
whereas the ordinary house-broom is made of date-palm leaves. The
 +
house-broom is considered sacred as the implement of Lakshmi used
 +
in cleaning the house. No one should tread upon or touch it with
 +
his foot. The sweeper's broom is a powerful agent for curing the
 +
evil eye, and mothers get him to come and wave it up and down in
 +
front of a sick child for this purpose. Nevertheless it is lucky
 +
to see a sweeper in the morning, especially if he has his basket
 +
with him. In Gujarat Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam writes of him: "Though
 +
he is held to be lower and more unclean, the Bhangia is viewed with
 +
kindlier feelings than the Dhed (Mahar). To meet the basket-bearing
 +
Bhangia is lucky, and the Bhangia's blessing is valued. Even now if
 +
a Government officer goes into a Bhangia hamlet the men with hands
 +
raised in blessing say: 'May your rule last for ever.'" A sweeper
 +
will eat the leavings of other people, but he will not eat in their
 +
houses; he will take the food away to his own house. It is related
 +
that on one occasion a sweeper accompanied a marriage party of Lodhis
 +
(cultivators), and the Lodhi who was the host was anxious that all
 +
should share his hospitality and asked the sweeper to eat in his house;
 +
[245] but he repeatedly refused, until finally the Lodhi gave him a
 +
she-buffalo to induce him to eat, so that it might not be said that
 +
any one had declined to share in his feast. No other caste, of course,
 +
will accept food or water from a sweeper, and only a Chamar (tanner)
 +
will take a _chilam_ or clay pipe-bowl from his hand. The sweeper will
 +
eat carrion and the flesh of almost all animals, including snakes,
 +
lizards, crocodiles and tigers, and also the leavings of food of almost
 +
any caste. Mr. Greeven remarks: [246] "Only Lalbegis and Rawats eat
 +
food left by Europeans, but all eat food left either by Hindus or
 +
Muhammadans; the Sheikh Mehtars as Muhammadans alone are circumcised
 +
and reject pig's flesh. Each subcaste eats uncooked food with all the
 +
others, but cooked food alone." From Betul it is reported that the
 +
Mehtars there will not accept food, water or tobacco from a Kayasth,
 +
and will not allow one to enter their houses.
  
−
; and all the PancJies said, ' Ram,
 
−
Rdm.' The hangman received ten rupees as his fee, and of
 
−
this five rupees were given to the caste for a feast and an
 
−
offering to Lalbeg to expiate his sin. In Bundelkhand
 
−
sweepers are employed as grooms by the Lodhis, and may
 
−
put everything on to the horse except a saddle-cloth. They
 
−
are also the village musicians, and some of them play on
 
−
the rustic flute called sJiaJinai at weddings, and receive their
 
−
food all the time that the ceremony lasts. Sweepers are,
 
−
as a rule, to be found only in large villages, as in small ones
 
−
1 Crooke, Tribes and Castes, art. Dom, para. 34.
 
−
II
 
−
 
−
there is no work for them. The caste is none too numerous
 
−
in the Central Provinces, and in villages the sweeper is often
 
−
not available when wanted for cleaning the streets. The
 
−
Chamars of Bundelkhand will not remove the corpses of a
 
−
cat or a dog or a squirrel, and a sweeper must be obtained
 
−
for the purpose. These three animals are in a manner holy,
 
−
and it is considered a sin to kill any one of them. But
 
−
their corpses are unclean.
 
  
−
A Chamar also refuses to touch
 
−
the corpse of a donkey, but a Kumhar (potter) will sometimes
 
−
do this ; if he declines a sweeper must be fetched.
 
−
When a sweeper has to enter a house in order to take out
 
−
the body of an animal, it is cleaned and whitewashed after
 
−
he has been in. In Hoshangabad an objection appears to
 
−
be felt to the entry of a sweeper by the door, as it is stated
 
−
that a ladder is placed for him, so that he presumably climbs
 
−
through a window. Or where there are no windows it is
 
−
possible that the ladder may protect the sacred threshold
 
−
from contact with his feet.
 
  
−
The sweeper also attends at
 
−
funerals and assists to prepare the pyre ; he receives the
 
−
winding-sheet when this is not burnt or buried with the
 
−
corpse, and the copper coins which are left on the ground
 
−
as purchase-money for the site of the grave.
 
  
−
In Bombay
+
==Occupation==
−
in rich families the winding-sheet is often a worked shawl
+
−
costing from fifty to a hundred rupees.^ When a Hindu
+
−
widow breaks her bangles after her husband's death, she
+
−
gives them, including one or two whole ones, to a Bhangia
+
−
woman." A letter announcing a death is always carried by
+
−
a sweeper.^ In Bengal a funeral could not be held without
+
−
the presence of a Dom, whose functions are described by
+
−
Mr. Sherring ^ as follows : " On the arrival of the dead
+
−
body at the place of cremation, which in Benares is at the
+
−
basis of one of the steep stairs or ghats, called the Burning-
+
−
Ghat, leading down from the streets above to the bed of the
+
−
river Ganges, the Dom supplies five logs of wood, which he
+
−
lays in order upon the ground, the rest of the wood being
+
−
given by the family of the deceased. When the pile is
+
−
ready for burning a handful of lighted straw is brought by
+
−
1 Bombay Gazetteer, I.e. Bombay Gazetteer, I.e.
+
−
2 Ibidem. * Hindu Tribes and Castes, quoted
+
−
^ Punjab Census Report (iSSi), and by Sir H. Risley, art. Dom.
+
−
+
  
−
the Doin, and is taken from him and applied by one of the
+
Sweeping and scavenging in the streets and in private houses are the
−
chief members of the family to the wood. The Dom is the
+
traditional occupations of the caste, but they have others. In Bombay
−
only person who can furnish the light for the purpose ; and
+
they serve as night watchmen, town-criers, drummers, trumpeters and
−
if for any reason no Dom is available, great delay and
+
hangmen. Formerly the office of hangman was confined to sweepers,
−
inconvenience are apt to arise.  
+
but now many low-caste prisoners are willing to undertake it for the
 +
sake of the privilege of smoking tobacco in jail which it confers. In
 +
Mirzapur when a Dom hangman is tying a rope round the neck of a
 +
criminal he shouts out, '_Dohai Maharani, Dohai Sarkar, Dohai Judge
 +
Sahib_,' or 'Hail Great Queen! Hail Government! Hail Judge Sahib!' in
 +
order to shelter himself under their authority and escape any guilt
 +
attaching to the death. [247] In the Central Provinces the hangman was
 +
accompanied by four or five other sweepers of the caste _panchayat_
 +
the idea being perhaps that his act should be condoned by their
 +
presence and approval and he should escape guilt. In order to free the
 +
executioner from blame the prisoner would also say: "_Dohai Sarkar ke,
 +
Dohai Kampani ke; jaisa maine khun kiya waisa apne khun ko pahunchha_"
 +
or "Hail to the Government and the Company; since I caused the death of
 +
another, now I am come to my own death"; and all the _Panches_ said,
 +
'_Ram, Ram_.' The hangman received ten rupees as his fee, and of this
 +
five rupees were given to the caste for a feast and an offering to
 +
Lalbeg to expiate his sin. In Bundelkhand sweepers are employed as
 +
grooms by the Lodhis, and may put everything on to the horse except a
 +
saddle-cloth. They are also the village musicians, and some of them
 +
play on the rustic flute called _shahnai_ at weddings, and receive
 +
their food all the time that the ceremony lasts. Sweepers are, as
 +
a rule, to be found only in large villages, as in small ones there
 +
is no work for them. The caste is none too numerous in the Central
 +
Provinces, and in villages the sweeper is often not available when
 +
wanted for cleaning the streets. The Chamars of Bundelkhand will not
 +
remove the corpses of a cat or a dog or a squirrel, and a sweeper must
 +
be obtained for the purpose. These three animals are in a manner holy,
 +
and it is considered a sin to kill any one of them. But their corpses
 +
are unclean. A Chamar also refuses to touch the corpse of a donkey,
 +
but a Kumhar (potter) will sometimes do this; if he declines a sweeper
 +
must be fetched. When a sweeper has to enter a house in order to
 +
take out the body of an animal, it is cleaned and whitewashed after
 +
he has been in. In Hoshangabad an objection appears to be felt to
 +
the entry of a sweeper by the door, as it is stated that a ladder
 +
is placed for him, so that he presumably climbs through a window. Or
 +
where there are no windows it is possible that the ladder may protect
 +
the sacred threshold from contact with his feet. The sweeper also
 +
attends at funerals and assists to prepare the pyre; he receives the
 +
winding-sheet when this is not burnt or buried with the corpse, and
 +
the copper coins which are left on the ground as purchase-money for
 +
the site of the grave. In Bombay in rich families the winding-sheet
 +
is often a worked shawl costing from fifty to a hundred rupees. [248]
 +
When a Hindu widow breaks her bangles after her husband's death, she
 +
gives them, including one or two whole ones, to a Bhangia woman. [249]
 +
A letter announcing a death is always carried by a sweeper. [250]
 +
In Bengal a funeral could not be held without the presence of a Dom,
 +
whose functions are described by Mr. Sherring [251] as follows:
 +
"On the arrival of the dead body at the place of cremation, which
 +
in Benares is at the basis of one of the steep stairs or _ghats_,
 +
called the Burning-Ghat, leading down from the streets above to the
 +
bed of the river Ganges, the Dom supplies five logs of wood, which he
 +
lays in order upon the ground, the rest of the wood being given by the
 +
family of the deceased. When the pile is ready for burning a handful of
 +
lighted straw is brought by the Dom, and is taken from him and applied
 +
by one of the chief members of the family to the wood. The Dom is the
 +
only person who can furnish the light for the purpose; and if for any
 +
reason no Dom is available, great delay and inconvenience are apt to
 +
arise. The Dom exacts his fee for three things, namely, first for the
 +
five logs, secondly for the bunch of straw, and thirdly for the light."
  
−
The Dom exacts his fee
 
−
for three things, namely, first for the five logs, secondly for
 
−
the bunch of straw, and thirdly for the light."
 
−
During an eclipse the sweepers reap a good harvest ;
 
−
for it is believed that Rahu, the demon who devours the sun
 
−
and moon and thus causes an eclipse, was either a sweeper
 
−
or the deity of the sweepers, and alms given to them at this
 
−
time will appease him and cause him to let the luminaries
 
−
go. Or, according to another account, the sun and moon are
 
−
in Rahu's debt, and he comes and duns them, and this is the
 
−
eclipse ; and the alms given to sweepers are a means of
 
−
paying the debt.
 
  
−
In Gujarat as soon as the darkening sets
 
−
in the Bhangis go about shouting, ' Garhanddn, Vastraddn,
 
−
Rupdddnl or ' Gifts for the eclipse, gifts of clothes, gifts of
 
−
silver.' ^ The sweepers are no doubt derived from the
 
−
primitive or Dravidian tribes, and, as has been seen, they also
 
−
practise the art of making bamboo mats and baskets, being
 
−
known as Bansphor in Bombay on this account. In the
 
−
Punjab the Chuhras are a very numerous caste, being
 
−
exceeded only by the Jats, Rajputs and Brahmans. Only
 
−
a small proportion of them naturally find employment as
 
−
scavengers, and the remainder are agricultural labourers, and
 
−
together with the vagrants and gipsies are the hereditary
 
−
workers in grass and reeds.^
 
  
−
They are closely connected
 
−
with the Dhanuks, a caste of hunters, fowlers and village
 
−
watchmen, being of nearly the same status.^ And Dhanuk,
 
−
again, is in some localities a complimentary term for a Basor
 
−
or bamboo-worker. It has been seen that Valmiki, the
 
−
patron saint of the sweepers, was a low-caste hunter, and
 
−
this gives some reason for the supposition that the primary
 
−
occupations of the Chuhras and Bhangis were hunting and
 
−
working in grass and bamboo. In one of the legends of
 
−
the sweeper saint Balmlk or Valmiki given by Mr. Greeven,*
 
−
Balmlk was the youngest of the five Pandava brothers, and
 
−
1 Bombay Gazetteer, I.e.
 
−
'^ Ibbetson, I.e. para. 596.
 
−
•^ Ibidem, para. 601.
 
−
* L.c. pp. 25, 26.
 
  
−
+
==Occupation (continued) ==
−
was persuaded by the others to remove the body of a calf
+
−
which had died in their courtyard. But after he had done
+
−
so they refused to touch him, so he went into the wilderness
+
−
with the body ; and when he did not know how to feed
+
−
himself the carcase started into life and gave him milk until
+
−
he was full grown, when it died again of its own accord.
+
  
−
Balmlk burst into tears, not knowing how he was to live
+
During an eclipse the sweepers reap a good harvest; for it is believed
−
henceforward, but a voice cried from heaven saying, " Of
+
that Rahu, the demon who devours the sun and moon and thus causes
−
the sinews (of the calfs body) do thou tie winnows {siif),
+
an eclipse, was either a sweeper or the deity of the sweepers,
−
and of the caul do thou plait sieves {chalni)." Balmlk
+
and alms given to them at this time will appease him and cause
−
obeyed, and by his handiwork gained the name of Supaj or
+
him to let the luminaries go. Or, according to another account,
−
the maker of winnowing-fans. These are natural occupations
+
the sun and moon are in Rahu's debt, and he comes and duns them,
−
of the non-Aryan forest tribes, and are now practised
+
and this is the eclipse; and the alms given to sweepers are a means
−
by the Gonds.
+
of paying the debt. In Gujarat as soon as the darkening sets in the
 +
Bhangis go about shouting, '_Garhandan, Vastradan, Rupadan_,' or
 +
'Gifts for the eclipse, gifts of clothes, gifts of silver.' [252]
 +
The sweepers are no doubt derived from the primitive or Dravidian
 +
tribes, and, as has been seen, they also practise the art of making
 +
bamboo mats and baskets, being known as Bansphor in Bombay on
 +
this account. In the Punjab the Chuhras are a very numerous caste,
 +
being exceeded only by the Jats, Rajputs and Brahmans. Only a small
 +
proportion of them naturally find employment as scavengers, and the
 +
remainder are agricultural labourers, and together with the vagrants
 +
and gipsies are the hereditary workers in grass and reeds. [253]
 +
They are closely connected with the Dhanuks, a caste of hunters,
 +
fowlers and village watchmen, being of nearly the same status. [254]
 +
And Dhanuk, again, is in some localities a complimentary term for a
 +
Basor or bamboo-worker. It has been seen that Valmiki, the patron saint
 +
of the sweepers, was a low-caste hunter, and this gives some reason
 +
for the supposition that the primary occupations of the Chuhras and
 +
Bhangis were hunting and working in grass and bamboo. In one of the
 +
legends of the sweeper saint Balmik or Valmiki given by Mr. Greeven,
 +
[255] Balmik was the youngest of the five Pandava brothers, and was
 +
persuaded by the others to remove the body of a calf which had died in
 +
their courtyard. But after he had done so they refused to touch him,
 +
so he went into the wilderness with the body; and when he did not know
 +
how to feed himself the carcase started into life and gave him milk
 +
until he was full grown, when it died again of its own accord. Balmik
 +
burst into tears, not knowing how he was to live henceforward, but a
 +
voice cried from heaven saying, "Of the sinews (of the calf's body)
 +
do thou tie winnows (_sup_), and of the caul do thou plait sieves
 +
(_chalni_)." Balmik obeyed, and by his handiwork gained the name of
 +
Supaj or the maker of winnowing-fans. These are natural occupations
 +
of the non-Aryan forest tribes, and are now practised by the Gonds.

Revision as of 20:02, 7 March 2019

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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 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.

Contents

Mehtar

Mehtar, Bhangi, Hari, Dom, Lalbegi

[_Bibliography_: Mr. R. Greeven's _Knights of the Broom, Benares_ 1894 (pamphlet); Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Bhangi; Sir H. Risley's _Tribes and Castes_, art. Hari; Sir E. Maclagan's _Punjab Census Report_, 1891 (Sweeper Sects); Sir D. Ibbetson's _Punjab Census Report_, 1881 (art. Chuhra); _Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat_, Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam.]


List of Paragraphs


1. _Introductory notice_.

2. _Caste subdivisions_.

3. _Social organisation_.

4. _Caste punishments_.

5. _Admission of outsiders_.

6. _Marriage customs_.

7. _Disposal of the dead_.

8. _Devices for procuring children_.

9. _Divination of sex_.

10. _Childbirth_.

11. _Treatment of the mother_.

12. _Protecting the lives of children_.

13. _Infantile diseases_.

14. _Religion. Valmiki_.

15. _Lalbeg_.

16. _Adoption of foreign religions_.

17. _Social status_.

18. _Occupation_.

19. _Occupation (continued_).



Introductory notice

Mehtar, Bhangi, Hari, [225] Dom, Lalbegi._ -

The caste of sweepers and scavengers. In 1911 persons returning themselves as Mehtar, Bhangi and Dom were separately classified, and the total of all three was only 30,000. In this Province they generally confine themselves to their hereditary occupation of scavenging, and are rarely met with outside the towns and large villages. In most localities the supply of sweepers does not meet the demand. The case is quite different in northern India, where the sweeper castes - the Chuhra in the Punjab, the Bhangi in the United Provinces and the Dom in Bengal - are all of them of great numerical strength. With these castes only a small proportion are employed on scavengers' work and the rest are labourers like the Chamars and Mahars of the Central Provinces. The present sweeper caste is made up of diverse elements, and the name Mehtar, generally applied to it, is a title meaning a prince or leader. Its application to the caste, the most abject and despised in the Hindu community, is perhaps partly ironical; but all the low castes have honorific titles, which are used as a method of address either from ordinary politeness or by those requiring some service, on the principle, as the Hindus say, that you may call an ass your uncle if you want him to do something for you. The regular caste of sweepers in northern India are the Bhangis, whose name is derived by Mr. Crooke from the Sanskrit _bhanga,_ hemp, in allusion to the drunken habits of the caste. In support of this derivation he advances the Beria custom of calling their leaders Bhangi or hemp-drinker as a title of honour. [226] In Mr. Greeven's account also, Lalbeg, the patron saint of the sweepers, is described as intoxicated with the hemp drug on two occasions. [227] Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam suggests [228] that Bhangia means broken, and is applied to the sweepers because they split bamboos. In Kaira, he states, the regular trade of the Bhangias is the plaiting of baskets and other articles of split bamboo, and in that part of Gujarat if a Koli is asked to split a bamboo he will say, 'Am I to do Bhangia's work?' The derivation from the hemp-plant is, however, the more probable. In the Punjab, sweepers are known as Chuhra, and this, name has been derived from their business of collecting and sweeping up scraps (_chura-jharna_) Similarly, in Bombay they are known as Olganas or scrap-eaters. The Bengal name Hari is supposed to come from _haddi_, a bone; the Hari is the bone-gatherer, and was familiar to early settlers of Calcutta under the quaint designation of the 'harry-wench,' [229] In the Central Provinces sections of the Ghasia, Mahar and Dom castes will do sweepers' work, and are therefore amalgamated with the Mehtars. The caste is thus of mixed constitution, and also forms a refuge for persons expelled from their own societies for social offences. But though called by different names, the sweeper community in most provinces appears to have the same stock of traditions and legends. The name of Mehtar is now generally employed, and has therefore been taken as the designation of the caste.



Caste subdivisions

Mr. Greeven gives seven main subdivisions, of which the Lalbegis or the followers of Lalbeg, the patron saint of sweepers, are the most important. The Rawats appear to be an aristocratic subdivision of the Lalbegis, their name being a corruption of the Sanskrit Rajputra, a prince. The Shaikh Mehtars are the only real Muhammadan branch, for though the Lalbegis worship a Musalman saint they remain Hindus. The Haris or bone-gatherers, as already stated, are the sweepers of Bengal. The Helas may either be those who carry baskets of sweepings, or may derive their name from _hela_, a cry; and in that case they are so called as performing the office of town-criers, a function which the Bhangi usually still discharges in northern India [230]. The other subcastes in his list are the Dhanuks or bowmen and the Bansphors or cleavers of bamboos. In the Central Provinces the Shaikh Mehtars belong principally to Nagpur, and another subcaste, the Makhia, is also found in the Maratha Districts and in Berar; those branches of the Ghasia and Dom castes who consent to do scavengers' work now form separate subcastes of Mehtars in the same locality, and another group are called Narnolia, being said to take their name from a place called Narnol in the Punjab. The Lalbegis are often considered here as Muhammadans rather than Hindus, and bury their dead. In Saugor the sweepers are said to be divided into Lalbegis or Muhammadans and Doms or Hindus. The Lalbegi, Dom or Dumar and the Hela are the principal subcastes of the north of the Province, and Chuhra Mehtars are found in Chhattisgarh. Each subcaste is divided into a number of exogamous sections named after plants and animals.



Social organisation

In Benares each subdivision, Mr. Greeven states, has an elaborate and quasi-military organisation. Thus the Lalbegi sweepers have eight companies or _berhas_, consisting of the sweepers working in different localities; these are the Sadar, or those employed by private residents in cantonments; the Kali Paltan, who serve the Bengal Infantry; the Lal Kurti, or Red-coats, who are employed by the British Infantry; the Teshan (station), or those engaged at the three railway stations of the town; the Shahar, or those of the city; the Ramnagar, taking their name from the residence of the Maharaja of Benares, whom they serve; the Kothiwal, or Bungalow men, who belong to residents in the civil lines; and lastly the Genereli, who are the descendants of sweepers employed at the military headquarters when Benares was commanded by a General of Division. This special organisation is obviously copied from that of the garrison and is not found in other localities, but deserves mention for its own interest. All the eight companies are commanded by a Brigadier, the local head of the caste, whose office is now almost hereditary; his principal duty is to give two dinners to the whole caste on election, with sweetmeats to the value of fourteen rupees. Each company has four officers - a Jamadar or president, a Munsif or spokesman, a Chaudhari or treasurer and a Naib or summoner. These offices are also practically hereditary, if the candidate entitled by birth can afford to give a dinner to the whole subcaste and a turban to each President of a company. All the other members of the company are designated as Sipahis or soldiers. A caste dispute is first considered by the inferior officers of each company, who report their view to the President; he confers with the other Presidents, and when an agreement has been reached the sentence is formally confirmed by the Brigadier. When any dispute arises, the aggrieved party, depositing a process-fee of a rupee and a quarter, addresses the officers of his company. Unless the question is so trivial that it can be settled without caste punishments, the President fixes a time and place, of which notice is given to the messengers of the other companies; each of these receives a fee of one and a quarter annas and informs all the Sipahis in his company.



Caste punishments

Only worthy members of the caste, Mr. Greeven continues, are allowed to sit on the tribal matting and smoke the tribal pipe (huqqa). The proceedings begin with the outspreading (usually symbolic) of a carpet and the smoking of a water-pipe handed in turn to each clansman. For this purpose the members sit on the carpet in three lines, the officers in front and the private soldiers behind. The parties and their witnesses are heard and examined, and a decision is pronounced. The punishments imposed consist of fines, compulsory dinners and expulsion from the caste; expulsion being inflicted for failure to comply with an order of fine or entertainment. The formal method of outcasting consists in seating the culprit on the ground and drawing the tribal mat over his head, from which the turban is removed; after this the messengers of the eight companies inflict a few taps with slippers and birch brooms. It is alleged that unfaithful women were formerly tied naked to trees and flogged with birch brooms, but that owing to the fatal results that occasionally followed such punishment, as in the case of the five kicks among Chamars (tanners) and the scourging with the clothes line which used to prevail among Dhobis (washer men), the caste has now found it expedient to abandon these practices. When an outcaste is readmitted on submission, whether by paying a fine or giving a dinner, he is seated apart from the tribal mat and does penance by holding his ears with his hands and confessing his offence. A new huqqa, which he supplies, is carried round by the messenger, and a few whiffs are taken by all the officers and Sipahis in turn. The messenger repeats to the culprit the council's order, and informs him that should he again offend his punishment will be doubled. With this warning he hands him the water-pipe, and after smoking this the offender is admitted to the carpet and all is forgotten in a banquet at his expense.



Admission of outsiders

The sweepers will freely admit outsiders into their community, and the caste forms a refuge for persons expelled from their own societies for sexual or moral offences. Various methods are employed for the initiation of a neophyte; in some places he, or more frequently she, is beaten with a broom made of wood taken from a bier, and has to give a feast to the caste; in others a slight wound is made in his body and the blood of another sweeper is allowed to flow on to it so that they mix; and a glass of sherbet and sugar, known as the cup of nectar, is prepared by the priest and all the members of the committee put their fingers into it, after which it is given to the candidate to drink; or he has to drink water mixed with cowdung into which the caste-people have dipped their little fingers, and a lock of his hair is cut off. Or he fasts all day at the shrine of Lalbeg and in the evening drinks sherbet after burning incense at the shrine; and gives three feasts, the first on the bank of a tank, the second in his courtyard and the third in his house, representing his gradual purification for membership; at this last he puts a little water into every man's cup and receives from him a piece of bread, and so becomes a fully qualified caste-man. Owing to this reinforcement from higher castes, and perhaps also to their flesh diet, the sweepers are not infrequently taller and stronger as well as lighter in colour than the average Hindu.



Marriage customs

The marriage ceremony in the Central Provinces follows the ordinary Hindu ritual. The _lagan_ or paper fixing the date of the wedding is written by a Brahman, who seats himself at some distance from the sweeper's house and composes the letter. This paper must not be seen by the bride or bridegroom, nor may its contents be read to them, as it is believed that to do so would cause them to fall ill during the ceremony. Before the bridegroom starts for the wedding his mother waves a wooden pestle five times over his head, passing it between his legs and shoulders. After this the bridegroom breaks two lamp-saucers with his right foot, steps over the rice-pounder and departs for the bride's house without looking behind him. The _sawasas_ or relatives of the parties usually officiate at the ceremony, but the well-to-do sometimes engage a Brahman, who sits at a distance from the house and calls out his instructions. When a man wishes to marry a widow he must pay six rupees to the caste committee and give a feast to the community. Divorce is permitted for incompatibility of temper, or immorality on the part of the wife, or if the husband suffers from leprosy or impotence. Among the Lalbegis, when a man wishes to get rid of his wife he assembles the brethren and in their presence says to her, 'You are as my sister,' and she answers, 'You are as my father and brother.' [231]



Disposal of the dead

The dead are usually buried, but the well-to-do sometimes cremate them. In Benares the face or hand of the corpse is scorched with fire to symbolise cremation and it is then buried. In the Punjab the ghosts of sweepers are considered to be malevolent and are much dreaded; and their bodies are therefore always buried or burnt face downwards to prevent the spirit escaping; and riots have taken place and the magistrates have been appealed to to prevent a Chuhra from being buried face upwards. [232] In Benares as the body is lowered into the grave the sheet is withdrawn for a moment from the features of the departed to afford him one last glimpse of the heavens, while with Muhammadans the face is turned towards Mecca. Each clansman flings a handful of dust over the corpse, and after the earth is filled in crumbles a little bread and sugar-cake and sprinkles water upon the grave. A provision of bread, sweetmeats and water is also left upon it for the soul of the departed. [233] In the Central Provinces the body of a man is covered with a white winding-sheet and that of a woman with a red one. If the death occurs during the lunar conjunction known as Panchak, four human images of flour are made and buried with the dead man, as they think that if this is not done four more deaths will occur in the family.



Devices for procuring children

If a woman greatly desires a child she will go to a shrine and lay a stone on it which she calls the _dharna_ or deposit or pledge. Then she thinks that she has put the god under an obligation to give her a child. She vows that if she becomes pregnant within a certain period, six or nine months, she will make an offering of a certain value. If the pregnancy comes she goes to the temple, makes the offering and removes the stone. If the desired result does not happen, however, she considers that the god has broken his obligation and ceases to worship him. If a barren woman desires a child she should steal on a Sunday or a Wednesday a strip from the body-cloth of a fertile woman when it is hung out to dry; or she may steal a piece of rope from the bed in which a woman has been delivered of a child, or a piece of the baby's soiled swaddling clothes or a piece of cloth stained with the blood of a fertile woman. This last she will take and bury in a cemetery and the others wear round her waist; then she will become fertile and the fertile woman will become barren. Another device is to obtain from the midwife a piece of the navel-string of a newborn child and swallow it. For this reason the navel-string is always carefully guarded and its disposal seen to.



Divination of sex [gender]

If a pregnant woman is thin and ailing they think a boy will be born; but if fat and well that it will be a girl. In order to divine the sex of a coming child they pour a little oil on the stomach of the woman; if the oil flows straight down it is thought that a boy will be born and if crooked a girl. Similarly if the hair on the front of her body grows straight they think the child will be a boy, but if crooked a girl; and if the swelling of pregnancy is more apparent on the right side a boy is portended, but if on the left side a girl. If delivery is retarded they go to a gunmaker and obtain from him a gun which has been discharged and the soiling of the barrel left uncleaned; some water is put into the barrel and shaken up and then poured into a vessel and given to the woman to drink, and it is thought that the quality of swift movement appertaining to the bullet which soiled the barrel will be communicated to the woman and cause the swift expulsion of the child from her womb.



Childbirth

When a woman is in labour she squats down with her legs apart holding to the bed in front of her, while the midwife rubs her back. If delivery is retarded the midwife gets a broom and sitting behind the woman presses it on her stomach, at the same time drawing back the upper part of her body. By this means they think the child will be forced from the womb. Or the mother of the woman in labour will take a grinding-stone and stand holding it on her head so long as the child is not born. She says to her daughter, 'Take my name,' and the daughter repeats her mother's name aloud. Here the idea is apparently that the mother takes on herself some of the pain which has to be endured by the daughter, and the repetition of her name by the daughter will cause the goddess of childbirth to hasten the period of delivery in order to terminate the unjust sufferings of the mother for which the goddess has become responsible. The mother's name exerts pressure or influence on the goddess who is at the time occupied with the daughter or perhaps sojourning in her body.



Treatment of the mother

If a child is born in the morning they will give the mother a little sugar and cocoanut to eat in the evening, but if it is born in the evening they will give her nothing till next morning. Milk is given only sparingly as it is supposed to produce coughing. The main idea of treatment in childbirth is to prevent either the mother or child from taking cold or chill, this being the principal danger to which they are thought to be exposed. The door of the birth chamber is therefore kept shut and a fire is continually burning in it night and day. The woman is not bathed for several days, and the atmosphere and general insanitary conditions can better be imagined than described. With the same end of preventing cold they feed the mother on a hot liquid produced by cooking thirty-six ingredients together. Most of these are considered to have the quality of producing heat or warmth in the body, and the following are a few of them: Pepper, ginger, _azgan_ (a condiment), turmeric, nutmeg, _ajwain_ (aniseed), dates, almonds, raisins, cocoanut, wild _singara_ or water-nut, cumin, _chironji_, [234] the gum of the _babul_ [235] or _khair_, [236] asafoetida, borax, saffron, clarified butter and sugar. The mixture cannot be prepared for less than two rupees and the woman is fed on it for five days beginning from the second day after birth, if the family can afford the expense.



Protecting the lives of children

If the mother's milk runs dry, they use the dried bodies of the little fish caught in the shallow water of fields and tanks, and sometimes supposed to have fallen down with the rain. They are boiled in a little water and the fish and water are given to the woman to consume. Here the idea is apparently that as the fish has the quality of liquidness because it lives in water, so by eating it this will be communicated to the breasts and the milk will flow again. If a woman's children die, then the next time she is in labour they bring a goat all of one colour. When the birth of the child takes place and it falls from the womb on to the ground no one must touch it, but the goat, which should if possible be of the same sex as the child, is taken and passed over the child twenty-one times. Then they take the goat and the after-birth to a cemetery and here cut the goat's throat by the _halal_ rite and bury it with the after-birth. The idea is thus that the goat's life is a substitute for that of the child. By being passed over the child it takes the child's evil destiny upon itself, and the burial in a cemetery causes the goat to resemble a human being, while the after-birth communicates to it some part of the life of the child. If a mother is afraid her child will die, she sells it for a few cowries to another woman. Of course the sale is only nominal, but the woman who has purchased the child takes a special interest in it, and at the naming or other ceremony she will give it a jewel or such other present as she can afford. Thus she considers that the fictitious sale has had some effect and that she has acquired a certain interest in the child.



Infantile diseases

If a baby, especially a girl, has much hair on its body, they make a cake of gram-flour and rub it with sesamum oil all over the body, and this is supposed to remove the hair.

If a child's skin dries up and it pines away, they think that an owl has taken away a cloth stained by the child when it was hung out to dry. The remedy is to obtain the liver of an owl and hang it round the child's neck.

For jaundice they get the flesh of a yellow snake which appears in the rains, and of the _rohu_ fish which has yellowish scales, and hang them to its neck; or they get a verse of the Koran written out by a Maulvi or Muhammadan priest and use this as an amulet; or they catch a small frog alive, tie it up in a yellow cloth and hang it to the child's neck by a blue thread until it dies. For tetanus the jaws are branded outside and a little musk is placed on the mother's breast so that the child may drink it with the milk. When the child begins to cut its teeth they put honey on the gums and think that this will make the teeth slip out early as the honey is smooth and slippery. But as the child licks the gums when the honey is on them they fear that this may cause the teeth to grow broad and crooked like the tongue. Another device is to pass a piece of gold round the child's gums. If they want the child to have pretty teeth its maternal uncle threads a number of grains of rice on a piece of string and hangs them round its neck, so that the teeth may grow like the rice. If the child's navel is swollen, the maternal uncle will go out for a walk and on his return place his turban over the navel. For averting the evil eye the liver of the Indian badger is worn in an amulet, this badger being supposed to haunt cemeteries and feed on corpses; some hairs of a bear also form a very favourite amulet, or a tiger's claws set in silver, or the tail of a lizard enclosed in lac and made into a ring.



Religion. Valmiki

The religion of the sweepers has been described at length by Mr. Greeven and Mr. Crooke. It centres round the worship of two saints, Lalbeg or Bale Shah and Balnek or Balmik, who is really the huntsman Valmiki, the reputed author of the Ramayana. Balmik was originally a low-caste hunter called Ratnakar, and when he could not get game he was accustomed to rob and kill travellers. But one day he met Brahma and wished to kill him; but he could not raise his club against Brahma, and the god spoke and convinced him of his sins, directing him to repeat the name of Rama until he should be purified of them. But the hunter's heart was so evil that he could not pronounce the divine name, and instead he repeated '_Mara, Mara_' (_struck, struck_), but in the end by repetition this came to the same thing. Mr. Greeven's account continues: "As a small spark of fire burneth up a heap of cotton, so the word Rama cleaneth a man of all his sins. So the words 'Ram, Ram,' were taught unto Ratnakar who ever repeated them for sixty thousand years at the self-same spot with a heart sincere. All his skin was eaten up by the white ants. Only the skeleton remained. Mud had been heaped over the body and grass had grown up, yet within the mound of mud the saint was still repeating the name of Rama. After sixty thousand years Brahma returned. No man could he see, yet he heard the voice of Ram, Ram, rising from the mound of mud. Then Brahma bethought him that the saint was beneath. He besought Indra to pour down rain and to wash away the mud. Indra complied with his request and the rain washed away the mud. The saint came forth. Nought save bones remained. Brahma called aloud to the saint. When the saint beheld him he prostrated himself and spake: 'Thou hast taught me the words "Ram, Ram," which have cleansed away all my sins.' Then spake Brahma: 'Hitherto thou wast Ratnakar. From to-day thy name shall be Valmiki (from _valmik_, an ant-hill). Now do thou compose a Ramayana in seven parts, containing the deeds and exploits of Rama.'" Valmiki had been or afterwards became a sweeper and was known as 'cooker of dog's food' (Swapach), a name applied to sweepers [237], who have adopted him as their eponymous ancestor and patron saint.



Lalbeg

Lalbeg, who is still more widely venerated, is considered to have been Ghazi Miyan, the nephew of Sultan Muhammad of Ghazni, and a saint much worshipped in the Punjab. Many legends are told of Lalbeg, and his worship is described by Mr. Greeven as follows: [238] "The ritual of Lalbeg is conducted in the presence of the whole brotherhood, as a rule at the festival of the Diwali and on other occasions when special business arises. The time for worship is after sunset and if possible at midnight. His shrine consists of a mud platform surrounded by steps, with four little turrets at the corners and a spire in the centre, in which is placed a lamp filled with clarified butter and containing a wick of twisted tow. Incense is thrown into the flame and offerings of cakes and sweetmeats are made. A lighted huqqa is placed before the altar and as soon as the smoke rises it is understood that a whiff has been drawn by the hero." A cock is offered to Lalbeg at the Dasahra festival. When a man is believed to have been affected by the evil eye they wave a broom in front of the sufferer muttering the name of the saint. In the Damoh District the _guru_ or priest who is the successor of Lalbeg comes from the Punjab every year or two. He is richly clad and is followed by a sweeper carrying an umbrella. Other Hindus say that his teaching is that no one who is not a Lalbegi can go to heaven, but those on whom the dust raised by a Lalbegi sweeping settles acquire some modicum of virtue. Similarly Mr. Greeven remarks: [239] "Sweepers by no means endorse the humble opinion entertained with respect to them; for they allude to castes such as Kunbis and Chamars as petty (_chhota_), while a common anecdote is related to the effect that a Lalbegi, when asked whether Muhammadans could obtain salvation, replied: 'I never heard of it, but perhaps they might slip in behind Lalbeg.'"



Adoption of foreign religions

On the whole the religion of the Lalbegis appears to be monotheistic and of a sufficiently elevated character, resembling that of the Kabirpanthis and other reforming sects. Its claim to the exclusive possession of the way of salvation is a method of revolt against the menial and debased position of the caste. Similarly many sweepers have become Muhammadans and Sikhs with the same end in view, as stated by Mr. Greeven: [240] "As may be readily imagined, the scavengers are merely in name the disciples of Nanak Shah, professing in fact to be his followers just as they are prepared at a moment's notice to become Christians or Muhammadans. Their object is, of course, merely to acquire a status which may elevate them above the utter degradation of their caste. The acquaintance of most of them with the doctrines of Nanak Shah is at zero. They know little and care less about his rules of life, habitually disregarding, for instance, the prohibitions against smoking and hair-cutting. In fact, a scavenger at Benares no more becomes a Sikh by taking Nanak Shah's motto than he becomes a Christian by wearing a round hat and a pair of trousers." It was probably with a similar leaning towards the more liberal religion that the Lalbegis, though themselves Hindus, adopted a Muhammadan for their tutelary saint. In the Punjab Muhammadan sweepers who have given up eating carrion and refuse to remove night-soil rank higher than the others, and are known as Musalli. [241] And in Saugor the Muhammadans allow the sweepers to come into a mosque and to stand at the back, whereas, of course, they cannot approach a Hindu temple. Again in Bengal it is stated, "The Dom is regarded with both disgust and fear by all classes of Hindus, not only on account of his habits being abhorrent and abominable, but also because he is believed to have no humane or kindly feelings"; and further, "It is universally believed that Doms do not bury or burn their dead, but dismember the corpse at night like the inhabitants of Thibet, placing the fragments in a pot and sinking them in the nearest river or reservoir. This horrid idea probably originated from the old Hindu law, which compelled the Doms to bury their dead at night." [242] It is not astonishing that the sweepers prefer a religion whose followers will treat them somewhat more kindly. Another Muhammadan saint revered by the sweepers of Saugor is one Zahir Pir. At the fasts in Chait and Kunwar (March and September) they tie cocoanuts wrapped in cloth to the top of a long bamboo, and marching to the tomb of Zahir Pir make offerings of cakes and sweetmeats. Before starting for his day's work the sweeper does obeisance to his basket and broom.



Social status

The sweeper stands at the very bottom of the social ladder of Hinduism. He is considered to be the representative of the Chandala of Manu, [243] who was said to be descended of a Sudra father and a Brahman woman. "It was ordained that the Chandala should live without the town; his sole wealth should be dogs and asses; his clothes should consist of the cerecloths of the dead; his dishes should be broken pots and his ornaments rusty iron. No one who regarded his duties should hold intercourse with the Chandalas and they should marry only among themselves. By day they might roam about for the purposes of work, but should be distinguished by the badges of the Raja, and should carry out the corpse of any one who died without kindred. They should always be employed to slay those who by the law were sentenced to be put to death, and they might take the clothes of the slain, their beds and their ornaments." Elsewhere the Chandala is said to rank in impurity with the town boar, the dog, a woman during her monthly illness and a eunuch, none of whom must a Brahman allow to see him when eating. [244] Like the Chandala, the sweeper cannot be touched, and he himself acquiesces in this and walks apart. In large towns he sometimes carries a kite's wing in his turban to show his caste, or goes aloof saying _pois_, which is equivalent to a warning. When the sweeper is in company he will efface himself as far as possible behind other people. He is known by his basket and broom, and men of other castes will not carry these articles lest they should be mistaken for a sweeper. The sweeper's broom is made of bamboo, whereas the ordinary house-broom is made of date-palm leaves. The house-broom is considered sacred as the implement of Lakshmi used in cleaning the house. No one should tread upon or touch it with his foot. The sweeper's broom is a powerful agent for curing the evil eye, and mothers get him to come and wave it up and down in front of a sick child for this purpose. Nevertheless it is lucky to see a sweeper in the morning, especially if he has his basket with him. In Gujarat Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam writes of him: "Though he is held to be lower and more unclean, the Bhangia is viewed with kindlier feelings than the Dhed (Mahar). To meet the basket-bearing Bhangia is lucky, and the Bhangia's blessing is valued. Even now if a Government officer goes into a Bhangia hamlet the men with hands raised in blessing say: 'May your rule last for ever.'" A sweeper will eat the leavings of other people, but he will not eat in their houses; he will take the food away to his own house. It is related that on one occasion a sweeper accompanied a marriage party of Lodhis (cultivators), and the Lodhi who was the host was anxious that all should share his hospitality and asked the sweeper to eat in his house; [245] but he repeatedly refused, until finally the Lodhi gave him a she-buffalo to induce him to eat, so that it might not be said that any one had declined to share in his feast. No other caste, of course, will accept food or water from a sweeper, and only a Chamar (tanner) will take a _chilam_ or clay pipe-bowl from his hand. The sweeper will eat carrion and the flesh of almost all animals, including snakes, lizards, crocodiles and tigers, and also the leavings of food of almost any caste. Mr. Greeven remarks: [246] "Only Lalbegis and Rawats eat food left by Europeans, but all eat food left either by Hindus or Muhammadans; the Sheikh Mehtars as Muhammadans alone are circumcised and reject pig's flesh. Each subcaste eats uncooked food with all the others, but cooked food alone." From Betul it is reported that the Mehtars there will not accept food, water or tobacco from a Kayasth, and will not allow one to enter their houses.



Occupation

Sweeping and scavenging in the streets and in private houses are the traditional occupations of the caste, but they have others. In Bombay they serve as night watchmen, town-criers, drummers, trumpeters and hangmen. Formerly the office of hangman was confined to sweepers, but now many low-caste prisoners are willing to undertake it for the sake of the privilege of smoking tobacco in jail which it confers. In Mirzapur when a Dom hangman is tying a rope round the neck of a criminal he shouts out, '_Dohai Maharani, Dohai Sarkar, Dohai Judge Sahib_,' or 'Hail Great Queen! Hail Government! Hail Judge Sahib!' in order to shelter himself under their authority and escape any guilt attaching to the death. [247] In the Central Provinces the hangman was accompanied by four or five other sweepers of the caste _panchayat_ the idea being perhaps that his act should be condoned by their presence and approval and he should escape guilt. In order to free the executioner from blame the prisoner would also say: "_Dohai Sarkar ke, Dohai Kampani ke; jaisa maine khun kiya waisa apne khun ko pahunchha_" or "Hail to the Government and the Company; since I caused the death of another, now I am come to my own death"; and all the _Panches_ said, '_Ram, Ram_.' The hangman received ten rupees as his fee, and of this five rupees were given to the caste for a feast and an offering to Lalbeg to expiate his sin. In Bundelkhand sweepers are employed as grooms by the Lodhis, and may put everything on to the horse except a saddle-cloth. They are also the village musicians, and some of them play on the rustic flute called _shahnai_ at weddings, and receive their food all the time that the ceremony lasts. Sweepers are, as a rule, to be found only in large villages, as in small ones there is no work for them. The caste is none too numerous in the Central Provinces, and in villages the sweeper is often not available when wanted for cleaning the streets. The Chamars of Bundelkhand will not remove the corpses of a cat or a dog or a squirrel, and a sweeper must be obtained for the purpose. These three animals are in a manner holy, and it is considered a sin to kill any one of them. But their corpses are unclean. A Chamar also refuses to touch the corpse of a donkey, but a Kumhar (potter) will sometimes do this; if he declines a sweeper must be fetched. When a sweeper has to enter a house in order to take out the body of an animal, it is cleaned and whitewashed after he has been in. In Hoshangabad an objection appears to be felt to the entry of a sweeper by the door, as it is stated that a ladder is placed for him, so that he presumably climbs through a window. Or where there are no windows it is possible that the ladder may protect the sacred threshold from contact with his feet. The sweeper also attends at funerals and assists to prepare the pyre; he receives the winding-sheet when this is not burnt or buried with the corpse, and the copper coins which are left on the ground as purchase-money for the site of the grave. In Bombay in rich families the winding-sheet is often a worked shawl costing from fifty to a hundred rupees. [248] When a Hindu widow breaks her bangles after her husband's death, she gives them, including one or two whole ones, to a Bhangia woman. [249] A letter announcing a death is always carried by a sweeper. [250] In Bengal a funeral could not be held without the presence of a Dom, whose functions are described by Mr. Sherring [251] as follows: "On the arrival of the dead body at the place of cremation, which in Benares is at the basis of one of the steep stairs or _ghats_, called the Burning-Ghat, leading down from the streets above to the bed of the river Ganges, the Dom supplies five logs of wood, which he lays in order upon the ground, the rest of the wood being given by the family of the deceased. When the pile is ready for burning a handful of lighted straw is brought by the Dom, and is taken from him and applied by one of the chief members of the family to the wood. The Dom is the only person who can furnish the light for the purpose; and if for any reason no Dom is available, great delay and inconvenience are apt to arise. The Dom exacts his fee for three things, namely, first for the five logs, secondly for the bunch of straw, and thirdly for the light."



Occupation (continued)

During an eclipse the sweepers reap a good harvest; for it is believed that Rahu, the demon who devours the sun and moon and thus causes an eclipse, was either a sweeper or the deity of the sweepers, and alms given to them at this time will appease him and cause him to let the luminaries go. Or, according to another account, the sun and moon are in Rahu's debt, and he comes and duns them, and this is the eclipse; and the alms given to sweepers are a means of paying the debt. In Gujarat as soon as the darkening sets in the Bhangis go about shouting, '_Garhandan, Vastradan, Rupadan_,' or 'Gifts for the eclipse, gifts of clothes, gifts of silver.' [252] The sweepers are no doubt derived from the primitive or Dravidian tribes, and, as has been seen, they also practise the art of making bamboo mats and baskets, being known as Bansphor in Bombay on this account. In the Punjab the Chuhras are a very numerous caste, being exceeded only by the Jats, Rajputs and Brahmans. Only a small proportion of them naturally find employment as scavengers, and the remainder are agricultural labourers, and together with the vagrants and gipsies are the hereditary workers in grass and reeds. [253] They are closely connected with the Dhanuks, a caste of hunters, fowlers and village watchmen, being of nearly the same status. [254] And Dhanuk, again, is in some localities a complimentary term for a Basor or bamboo-worker. It has been seen that Valmiki, the patron saint of the sweepers, was a low-caste hunter, and this gives some reason for the supposition that the primary occupations of the Chuhras and Bhangis were hunting and working in grass and bamboo. In one of the legends of the sweeper saint Balmik or Valmiki given by Mr. Greeven, [255] Balmik was the youngest of the five Pandava brothers, and was persuaded by the others to remove the body of a calf which had died in their courtyard. But after he had done so they refused to touch him, so he went into the wilderness with the body; and when he did not know how to feed himself the carcase started into life and gave him milk until he was full grown, when it died again of its own accord. Balmik burst into tears, not knowing how he was to live henceforward, but a voice cried from heaven saying, "Of the sinews (of the calf's body) do thou tie winnows (_sup_), and of the caul do thou plait sieves (_chalni_)." Balmik obeyed, and by his handiwork gained the name of Supaj or the maker of winnowing-fans. These are natural occupations of the non-Aryan forest tribes, and are now practised by the Gonds.

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