Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.18
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.18
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c48.s2.18.1
§ 38. **Cattle-breeders** (11,965,500). These are taken next to the agriculturists because they occupy a very similar social position, and also because, with the expansion of tillage, the grazing area is getting restricted and a good many of the formerly roving castes have settled down to cultivation. The prominent place assigned to cattle in the Sūktas and the universal veneration of the Brāhmanic community for the cow bear testimony to the antiquity as to the honourable character of the calling, and in upper India the cattle-breeder ranks almost as high as the cultivator. This is not invariably the case, however. The wandering life arouses suspicions of unorthodox feeding and intercourse generally. Then, too, the use of the ox in agriculture now vies in importance with that of the cow in domestic life; but the supply of the indispensable bullock cannot be kept up without surgical operations repugnant to the conventional notions of purity and respect for animal life. Furthermore, the supply of milk for the home is, by all Vedic tradition, commendable, but the sale of dairy produce as a trade entails relegation to a lower position. In old times, however, the Abhīra, or cowherding tribes, were powerful in the Sātpura, the south Ganges valley and even the lower portions of Nepāl, and founded dynasties which were overthrown by the Gōṇḍ in the first-named tract and by the Kirāta in the last.
c48.s2.18.2
The leading tribes seem to have been of western origin, and are supposed to have entered India long after the Vedic Ārya. In upper India they go by the name of Ahīr, derived from the Abhīra just mentioned, a term which was applied by some Sanskrit authors to all tribes of the lower classes throughout the north-west. Under this name they are spread in considerable numbers all over Rājputāna, Mālvā, the south-eastern Panjāb, the upper Gangetic valley and Bihār. To the east, the lack of wide stretches of open pasture has prevented the formation and maintenance of a strong and well-organised pastoral community, so a number of distinct and generally not very large subdivisions are grouped under the general title of Gōālā, recruited from many local castes of lower origin than the pastoral bodies of the north. Many of them, too, are as much agriculturists as cattle-breeders. The same may be said, also, of the Ahīr themselves, in the Panjāb, where they are amongst the most successful and enterprising cultivators of the Province. They have never, it is true, achieved a dominant position anywhere in modern times, but the Jāṭ and Gūjar treat them as equals, except, of course, in regard to intermarriage. According to the Census, about half the total number of Ahīr are found in Agra, Oudh and Bihār. They are said to have migrated to these regions from the plains of Kach, west Rājputāna and Kāṭhiāvāḍ.
c48.s2.18.3
Assuming their connection with these parts, especially the last named, a basis will be found for their invariable assertion in the Gangetic region that the cradle of the Ahīr is Mathura. Few legends are more wide spread in India than that of the dalliance of the most popular of Purānic deities, Kṛṣṇa, with the Gōpī, or milkmaids, of the Vraj district; and the Jāduvansī line, headed by Kṛṣṇa himself, found its second home, after its expulsion from Mathura, at Dvārka and in the north of Mārvāḍ, the very tracts inhabited by the Ahīr before they entered Hindustān. Traditional descent from the Mathura Jāduvansī is not, however, confined to the Ahīr of the north, but is claimed by the Gaura and other cowherds of Orissa, and even by some far to the south of the Ārya pale. Except in the Panjāb, the Ahīr enjoys but a poor reputation as a husbandman, though everywhere he is admitted to be company for the higher peasantry. This, however, may be, as in the case of the Gūjar in those parts, a question of policy, with a side-glance towards the village cattle, which are too apt to stray into the Ahīr's herd without their rightful owners' knowledge or consent. The Gaulī of the west Central Provinces and north Dekkan, is the descendant of the tribes which, as just mentioned, once ruled the Sātpura from Khandesh and the Sahyadri, to near Saugor, and were only expelled by the Goṇḍ in the 16th century.
c48.s2.18.4
As they are mentioned in the Nāsik cave inscriptions, they must have been long established in their dominion. Alongside of them is the Gōvārī caste, which has no trace of immigration either in nomenclature or tradition. In the Chattīsgarh country, to the east, comes the Rāvāt, another cattle-breeding caste of long standing in that region. The two last mentioned castes which in 1891 numbered about 350,000 persons, do not appear at all in the returns for 1901, so they have probably been compiled under Ahīr or some other general title. Two other cattle-breeding castes of upper India may be mentioned, the Ghōsī, an offshoot of the Ahīr, or as some think, of the Gūjar, which has been converted to Islām. They occupy a comparatively low position, and near the large towns confine their attention to the dairy side of their occupation. The other caste is the Rabārī of Rājputāna and the Gujarāt peninsulas. They are of Mārvāḍ origin, but wandered to the coast, and now breed both cattle and camels, and some of them even become shepherds. In the north they confine their trade to camels. In the Dekkan, the Gaulī, and further south, the Golla, represent this industry. In the Tamil country, the cultivator generally breeds his own cattle, and only one caste devoted to this occupation appears in the return. This is the Kannaḍiyan, a small body, of apparently upland origin.
c48.s2.18.5
The Golla of the Telugu and Kanarese tracts, are thoroughly local castes, but, having become Brāhmanised, cast back to Mathura and the Gōpi. Most of them are settled in villages, but one section, in Mysore, is still nomadic during the open season, and does not intermarry with the others. In Mysore it used to be the duty or privilege of the Golla to guard State treasure in transit, and the official now responsible for sending off the remittances is still occasionally called by that name, albeit he may be a Brāhman or Muslim.