Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.t1.6
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.t1.6
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c48.s2.t1.6.1
§ 51. **Watchmen** (3,639,900). There are few countries, possibly none, in which the old counsel to set a thief to catch a thief has been more widely and conscientiously put into practice than in India. In the case of more than one of the castes already passed under review it has been pointed out that a portion of the community in question was avowedly detached for night work of one sort in order to counteract the enterprise of its comrades in simultaneous operations of another. In several of the older lists of the castes of a locality, too, there may be found opposite a title, the terse description, "Thieves and watchmen". The combination is obviously appropriate in tracts interspersed with hills and forests, or containing the broken ground, frequent in India, in which the facilities of both functionaries for evading observation are united: or, again, where tribes of hunting and fowling propensities have settled down to village life. But even in the open and well-cultivated plains the need of a night-watch over cattle, grain and other movable property is generally recognised, although the underlying notion of blackmail may be absent. In the latter case, however, the duty is performed by a local caste in which it is not the traditional or even the principal mode of getting a living.
c48.s2.t1.6.2
It tends, however, like all else in India, to become hereditary in the families which take to it, and, if associated with a recognised dole out of the harvest, to be ultimately crystallised into a sub-caste. This seems to have been the case with the Dhānuk of the Ganges valley, though the branch of the caste which has found its way into the eastern Panjāb is treated as criminal without the saving grace of occasional watchmanship. The Mahār of the Dekkan, again, has recognised subdivisions of watchmen and the guardians of the village gate. There are also castes which are traditionally watchmen without any association with the predatory classes. Among these are the Barvālā and Batvāl, of the lower Himālayan valleys of the Panjāb, who, though chiefly watchmen and messengers, also perform many of the menial offices which in the plains are left to the Camār, but draw the line at dealing with skins and leather. They are not allowed however, to reside within the village site, and in this respect are on the level of the Mahār. The exercises its traditional functions of guarding the villages, it considers itself higher in rank than the other sub-division, the Zamīndārī, which has settled down to cultivation, and it used to take its brides from the latter without returning them. Now, however, the cultivator has advanced in prosperity and refuses to recognise the older section either as its superior or even as its equal.
c48.s2.t1.6.3
In this it was supported by a former Chief of Alvar, who did his best to sever the more reputable of his subjects from the contaminating influence of their turbulent fellow-tribesmen. In the south of Rājputāna the Mīnā hold a lower position than up north, and in Mārwāḍ some rank as village menials of the impure grade. In the neighbourhood of the hill tracts they are also hunters and fowlers, and everywhere their reputation is the basis of their employment on the village staff. Almost the same can be said of the Bhīl, who, in Gujarāt, serves as watchman, under the sub-title of Vasāvō, a name applied to his tribe in the western Sātpura. In Bihār and along the Ganges as far up as Mirzāpur, the large caste of the Dōsādh undertakes the duties of watchman. This community is very mixed. It has undoubtedly a strong strain of Mongoloidic blood, but it is peculiar in the extent of its formal recognition of members of higher castes who seek admission to its ranks. It employs degraded Brāhmans for ordinary purposes, but at the chief festival of the caste, that in honour of Rāhu, the demon of eclipse, one of its own number officiates. The Dōsādh used to furnish many recruits to the Muslim armies of Bengal, and it is said that a considerable proportion of Clive's army at Plassey was composed of this caste. Now, however, the Dōsādh has but a poor reputation for industry, whilst it is much addicted to crimes against property, entailing its employment as watchmen.
c48.s2.t1.6.4
The rest of the caste get their living by porterage and day labour. The Māl of western Bengal is largely engaged to watch crops and villages, as many of its sections are thieves and wandering pilferers. It belongs to a large and widely-spread Dravidian tribe now divided into numerous separate castes.