Goala
Contents |
Goala
This section has been extracted from THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Tradition of origin
Gotir, Ahir (Sanskr, Abhira), the great pastoral caste of Of Inaia. According to Manu, an Xbhira is the Off spring of a Brahman by an Ambastha girl. Lassenl describes the Xbhira as a non-Aryan pastoral race, dwelling near the mouth of the Indus, and remarks that the modern word Ahir means cowherd. At the present day the designation Ahir seems to be confined to Behar and parts of Upper India, Goala being more commonly used in Bengal. The traditions of the caste bear a highly imaginative character, and profess to trace their descent from the god Krishna, whose relations with the milkmaids of Brindaban playa prominent part in Hindu mythology, Krishna himself is supposed to have belonged to the tribe of Yidavas, or descendants of Yadu, a nomadic race, who graze cattle and make butter, and are believed to have effected an early settlement in the neighbourhood of Mathura. In memory of this tradition, one of the sub-castes of Goalas in the North• Western Provinces is called Yadu or Jadu-bansi at the present time. Another story quoted by Buchanan makes out the Goalas to be Vaisyas, who were degraded in consequence of having introduced castration among their herds, aDd members of the caste who are disposed to claim this distinguished ancestor may lay stress upon the fact that the tending of flocks and herds is mentioned by the authorities among the duties of the Vaisya order.
'I'aken as a whole, the Goala traditions can hardly be said to do more than render it probable that one of their earliest settlements was in the neighbourhood of M athura, and that this part of the country was the centre of distribution of the caste. The large func-tional group known by the name Goala seems to have been recruited Dot merely by the diffusion aloDg the Ganges Valley of the semi¬Aryan Goalas of the N orth-Western Provinces, but also by the inclusion in the caste of pastoral tribes who were not Aryans at all. These of course would form distinct sub• castes, and would not be admitted to the ius connubii with the original nucleus of the caste. The great differences of make and feature which may be observed among Go,Uas seem to bear out this view, and to show that whatever may have been the original constituents of the caste, it now comprises several heterogeneous elements. Thus even in a district so far from the original home of the caste as Singbhum, we find Colonel Dalton remarking that the features of the .Mathurabasi Goa.las are high, sbarp, and delicate, and they are of light-brown complexion. Those of the Magadha sub-caste, on the other hand, are undefined and coarse. They are dark-complexioned, and have large hands and feet.
"Seeing the latter standing in a group with some Sing¬bhum Kols, there is no diRtinguishing one from the other. There has doubtless been much mixture of blood." These remarks illustrate both the processes to which the growth of the caste is due. They show how representatives of the original type have spread to districts very remota from their original centre, and how at the same time people of alien race, who followed pastoral occupations, have become attached to the caste and are recognised by a sort of fiotion as having belonged to it all along.
Internal structure
Owing to the wide range of the caste, and to the double process by which its members have been recruited, The internal structure.i s extremely complicated and the number of sub-castes and sections unusually large. 'raking the Goalas of the N orth-Western Provinoes as the type, we find the following seven divisions recognised :-DE I, NANDBANSI, J ADU¬RANSI, SURAJBANSI, GOALBANSI, AHIR, and KATHA. These again are subdivided into a very large number of sections, the names of which appear for the most part to have reference to locality rather than to descent. According to Sir Henry Elliot traoes of hypergamy may be found among these groups, but his information on this point seems to be incomplete.
Among the Goalas of Behar a diiIerent series of sub• castes has been developed, and none of the names current in the N orth• Western Prov¬inces are met with. As a rule, too, the names of the groups are in Behar of a different type, and instead of being based, as in the N orth-WeEt, upon desoent from a particular stock or from some mythioal progenitor, have reference either to the number of ?nuls or sections with which intermarriage is prohibited, or to some departure from traditional usage on the part of its members. Naomulia and Satmulia are instances of the former type, the peouliarities of which are explained more fully in the paragraphs on marriage below. Satmulia has the alternative title Kishnaut, and seems to arrogate descent from the god Krishna. Naomulia is also called Majraut, a name which I am unable to interpret. In Bhagalpur members of the Kishnaut and Majraut groups will not make butter-an occupation which they oonsider degrading-and confine themselves to dealing in milk. The Goria or Dah iara sub-caste is said to have been degraded beoause its members make butter without first scalding the milk-a practice enjoined by the Hindu soriptures and recognised as a crucial test of purity by all GoaltLs. Dr. Wise spells the name Daira, and ays it is generally believed to be merely a corrup¬tion of the Bengali d6ri, a beard, adding as a reason that many Dahiara Goalas have become Mahomedans and wear beards. This seems to be a little far-fetched: a more probable etymology is from dahi, curds. The Kantitftha derive their name from their custom of branding cows with a kanti, 01' hook, a practice confined to Ahirs and never resorted to by the higher grades of Goahis, except at sI'llddks, when the Dharm-Sanr is branded and let go. Tho Kanauj ia and Bargowar sub-castes believe their ancestoJ's to have migrated to Behar from the N orth-Western Provinces, and on this ground claim to be superior to, and hold themselves aloof from, the other sub-castes. rrhe Separi are a writer sub-caste, largely employed as patwaris in some parts of Behar. They are looked down upon by the other sub-castes, because they do not call in the Ohamai, the barber, or the Dhobi at the birth of a child, but cut the navel string and perform all necessary offices themselves.
Turning now to Bengal, we find the Pallab or Ballabh sub¬caste tracing their descent from one GMm Ghosh, who is said to have sprung from the sweat of Krishna; . the Bagre or Ujainia sub¬caste affect to have come from Ujain; while the Gaura Ghosh or Gop-Goala, also known as Lathials, pretend to be pure Sudras, and resent the suggestion that they should intermarry with any other sort of Goala. The Rarh i or Bhoga Goalas, like the Kantitflba in Behar, are cut off from intermarriage with the rest and generally looked down upon, because they brand their cows with red-hot iron and castrate bull calves. 'I'wo curious groups are found in Dacca-the Sada or white Goalas and the Lalor red Goaliis, the names being derived from the colour of the clothes worn by the bride and the members of the bridal procession. With the Sada Goalas all of these are dressed in white, while the Lal Goalcis wear red. 'I'he Sada are reokoned the higher of the two, and a lJalZ or bride-price is given when a girl of this group marries a L eU Goala. In all cases of intermarriage between Sad a and LeU Goa1<1.S tho colour of the clothes to be worn by the bridal party follows that of the group to which the bridegroom belongs.
Goalas are very strong in Orissa, and a large proportion of tho Uriyas employed as personal servants by Europeans belong to that caste. It is a question whether the Gaura or Gopopuria sub-caste or the Math urabas i rank higher. Both are very particular in all matters touching their ceremonial purity, and the Mathurahasi lay stress on the duty of making ocoasional pilgrimages to the original home of the caste at Brindaban. The Dumalft or Jadupuria Goara seem to be a group of local formation. They cherish the tradition that their ancestors came to Orissa from Jadupur, but this appears to be nothing more than the name of the Jadavas, the mythical progenitors of the GOli.la caste transformed into the name of an imaginary town.
In Chota Nagpur the distribution of sub•castes is very much what might be expected. In parts of Singbhum and the adjoining Tributary States a large Goala population exists, holding rather a subordinate po ition in relation to the dominant Hos and Bhuiyas, but on the whole the most flourishing of the peasantry in that part of the country. These people belong to the sub-castes known in Orissa, and appear to have entered Chota Nagpur from the south. According to Oolonel Dalton, the Magadha Goalas are suspiciously like Hos, and in most Ho villages a few of them will be found receiving pay for looking after the Hos' cattle. The Mathura-basi Go{daQ, who are of a much more Aryan type and claim to be pUTe Gopas, willllot condescend to take service with Dravidians. Without forsaking their hereditary calling, they frequently mall age to gaiu possession of sub tantial farms, where they keep large herds of cows and buffaloes, and deal in milk and ghi. In the north aod west of the division numerous representatives of the Behar sub¬castes are met with, who come in from the crowded and over¬cultivated districts of Behar to feed their cattle on the forest-clad table lands of Hazaribagh, Lohardaga, and Sarguja. Here they lead a nomadic life dUTing the dry season, living in tents of bamboo matting and moving from place to place as the supply of forage requires.
Marriage
The character of the exogamous subdivisions of the GoaJas and of the rules by which intermarriage is regulated differs markedly in clillerent parts of the country. In Bengal the caste recognises six g9tl'aS, borrowed from the Brahmauical system, and forbids a man to marry a girl who belougs to the same got1"lt as himself. the .qotl'a of the mother, or, to speak precisely, of the materual grandfather, is not excluded. The intermarriage of sapindas is
also prohibited, though the rules on this point observed by the Goalas are hardly so elaborate as those followed by the higher castes. In Behar the Brahmanical gotras are unknown, and marriage among the Goalas is regulated by a very large number of ?nuls or exogamous groups of the territorial type, the names of which are given in the appendix. In some places where the existing 1Il~tl8 have been found illconveniontly large, and marriage has been rendered unduly difficult, ce:'tain 1II~tl8 have broken up into pUl'ukhs or sub-sections. \\There this has taken place, a man may marry within the ?nul, but not Wlthin the pUl'ukh, the smaller and more oonvenient group taking the place of the larger one. Some difference of opinion prevails concerning the precise manner in which the rule of oxogamy is worked, and the subject is one of such extreme intricacy that it would be unreasouaule to .look for uniformity of practioe everywhere. The Satmulia or Kisbnaut Goalas in Bhagalpur forbid a man to marry a woman belonging to the following sections or '/nuls :¬
(a) Bis own ?nttl.
(b) His mother's mul.
(0) His maternal grandmother's mul.
(d) HIS maternal great-grandmother's mul.
(e) His paternal grandmother's nlul.
(f) Bis paternal gl'eat-grandmother's 7nltl.
(g) His paternal great-great-grandmother's mul. '1'0 those the Naomulia add¬
(A) The mul of his paternal grandmother's mother. (il The lIwl of his paternal great-grandmother's moteer.
In some ca es a further complioation is introduced by takiu f'f into aocount not only the bride's mul, but also that 01 some of her
female ancestors, so that ii, for example, the mut of the proposed bride's maternal grandmother should happen to have been the same as that of the proposed bridegroom's paternal grandmother, no marriage could take place between the parties, although the ?nul of the bride herself might not correspond with any of those prohibited to the bridegroom.
Elaborate as the system is, an examination of the annexed table will show that the prohibitions of intermarriage based on the 7mtl or section require to be supplemented by the standard formula: Ohachel'a, mmnel'a, phuphera, maseni, :lJe clul,r nata bachake sluidi hola hai (" The line of paternal uncle, maternal unole, paternal aunt, maternal aunt,-these four relationships are to be avoided in marriage ") . To a certain extent this rule overlaps the rule of exogamy reokoned from the mul. Thus in the first gen¬eration the whole of the paternal unole's descendants, both male and female, would be excluded by the rule prohibiting marriage within the section. In the second and subsequent generations agnates would be barred, but descendants through females would not, for the paternal uncle's daughters having necessarily married out of the section, their ohildren would belong to some other section, and their second cousins would be able to marry. On the other hand, the rule of exogamy, if it stood alone, would permit the marriage of first cousins in three out of four possible cases. A reference to the table will show how this conclusion is arrived at; for Pro¬positus belonging himself to section A might, so far as the rule of exogamy is ooncerned, marry the daughters of his paternal and maternal aunts, who would not belong to any of the !nuts barred for him. The rule defining the prohibited degrees is usually calculated to foul' generations in the descending line.
Table illustmting exogamy as p"actised by Satmulia and Naomulia Godlas.
