Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.t2: § 52. Scavenging castes
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.t2
- Language
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Contents
- c48.s2.t2.1 — 4 parts
§ 52. Scavenging castes
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This group includes the lowest of at all events the village castes of India, whatever may be their position relatively to the immoral and foul-feeding nomad. Yet even here there are gradations of rank duly recognised within the community though not affecting its intercourse with the outside public. For this reason, perhaps, the Bhangī or Mihtar caste of the upper Gangetic region is subdivided to an unusual extent, and the main endogamous sub-castes are strict in regard to the limitation of their respective functions. Judging from the nomenclature of the subdivisions it may be inferred that the caste was originally formed out of a number of local tribes, reduced or compelled to have recourse to occupations repudiated by the community to whom they were subject. Some of these sub-castes draw the line at carrying loads and playing pipes and drums; others have become watchmen, cane-workers, domestic servants, sweepers of roads, and plasterers of walls with cowdung. A section which keeps pigs, again, ranks below all but those who remove night-soil, and amongst these last, those who serve private houses hold no intercourse with those employed on public latrines. It may be borne in mind that these latter functions are confined to towns, except where the women of the household are strictly secluded. Elsewhere, the custom of the country renders their offices unnecessary.
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The great differences in the physical appearance of sections of the caste do not indicate a different origin of the respective communities, but a varied recruitment from higher castes of "broken men"; and, also, the impregnation of the sections undertaking domestic service with the blood of their employers through illegitimate connections, the Mihtarani sharing the reputation of the Camārī for good looks. She is also called in, like the wives of several of the low castes, to perform duties connected with childbirth which no higher class will undertake. In the west, where there is no question of a lower caste, the Bhangī will handle a corpse, kill a stray dog, and act as hangman. Further east, he finds that these functions can be thrust upon the Dōm, a tribe of probably quite as early origin, but later enslavement to Brāhmanic supremacy. In the Central Panjāb the Cūhṛā does much the same work that the Camār does where the latter is in full strength, and resents the title of Bhangī. In the west of the province the Muslim sweeper known as Kuṭānāh or Musallī, digs graves but will not touch night-soil. Further to the south, the Cūhṛa is called Jaṭ like many other menial castes. In the east, the caste is a recognised member of the village staff and belongs to the Bhangī community of the Gangetic region. Amongst other duties may be mentioned one of great importance in a land where fuel is scarce, that is, the collection, drying and storing of cowdung for burning.
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The sweeper, too, is the only caste which will convey the tidings of a death to those whom it may concern. In the Sikh tracts many Cūhṛā have joined that faith and after conversion continue to perform only the less offensive parts of their traditional duties. One of their subdivisions, the Rangrēta, has risen in position by taking to leather work exclusively. The Mazhabī, or Mazbī, as the Sikh Cūhṛā is called, makes a capital soldier, but has to be brigaded in separate regiments, as the other Sikhs, with their eye on the traditional calling, refuse to associate with the convert, even in religious ceremonies. Occasionally the Sikh intermarries with the Lāl Bēgī, or Brāhmanic Bhangī. In north Gujarāt, the Bhaṅgīō is one of the principal village menials, and does most of the unskilled labour. In spite of the Rājput titles of the subcastes, this community is one of long settlement on the land there. It is the Bhangiō, for instance who points out the boundaries; the sight of one of this caste carrying his basket brings luck for the day, and before crossing the Mahī river in a flood, the blessing of a Bhangiō tends to a safe passage. In this part of the country, as on the Ganges, the Bhangi is strict in his religious observances, but is only allowed, of course, to worship from the outside court of the temples. As in the north, too, this caste has the provision and control of the village music at times of festival.
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In Bengal and Assam the chief castes of sweepers are the Bhūinmālī and the Hāṛī, or Haḍḍi. Probably both are of the same stock, a Kōl or Deltaic tribe of early settlement. The Bhūinmālī is found in the north and east of the province, the Hāṛī in the west and centre, and the Haḍḍi in south Orissa. Both are subdivided into functional sub-castes which do not intermarry. Musicians and porters stand highest, and often take to cultivation. The Mihtar, borrowing its name from upper India, is the lowest section, and the only one which touches night-soil. Between these come sections working in cane, tapping palms and carrying torches at weddings. One section has taken to private service. The smearing of wet cowdung upon walls is a frequent occupation of the Bhūinmālī, but they can only touch the outer walls, and except this caste none will touch the wall of another owner, though each householder does the steps and inner walls of his own dwelling. The Hāṛī has preserved much of the non-Āryan customs of his original tribe in regard to marriage, and is singular amongst the widow-marrying classes of India in prohibiting instead of encouraging, the marriage of the widow to the younger brother of her late husband. The caste does not, as a rule, call in Brāhmans, but the practice of making use of them is spreading round Calcutta, though the Brāhmans in question are put out of communion by their fellows.
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As the Dravidian country is approached the village scavenging is more and more done by some of the menial castes mentioned in a preceding paragraph, such as the Paṛaiyan or Māla. It will probably be found that as elsewhere endogamous sub-castes are being formed, separating the sweeping and labouring families from those employed in municipal or private conservancy.
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§ 53. **The Ḍōm and Ghāsiyā.** It was remarked above that in the Gangetic region there were functions which even the scavenger caste would not undertake, there being the Ḍōm at hand to perform them. Here, then, is found a caste which, if not at the bottom of the social scale, is, at least, not far from it. It is not, however, a scavenging caste by tradition, nor is it homogeneous. There are Ḍōms and Ḍōms. In the Kumāon and Garhvāl Himālaya, the Ḍōm lives by agriculture and village handicrafts. Further west, the Panjāb Ḍūmnā is often, it is true, the village sweeper, but his ordinary trade is that of cane-work. This last is, in fact, the occupation most widely spread, on the whole, throughout the caste. The Ḍōm is at his lowest in the Bengal Delta, whither the caste is said to have been imported from upper India, to do what no local caste would do. In Bihār and its neighbourhood to the west, the Ḍōm seem to fall into two sections. One settled down to village life, mat-weaving, basket-making, and labour, with a little scavenging thrown in, the other more or less nomad, and containing gangs said to be expert and artistic burglars and thieves. Some stray tribes seem to have penetrated across the Central Belt into the north Telugu country and the Karnatic. In the former they
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are coarse weavers, and in the Dekkan, acrobats, dancers and bad characters generally. Both these bodies have the appearance of belonging to the Kōl-Dravidian race, possibly through the admixture of local blood. In the same way, the Ḍōm of Dacca, long separated from their native country up the Ganges, have acquired characteristics different from those of the Ḍōm of Bihār. It is now generally believed that the Ḍōm were settled in force along the southern Himālaya at a very early period, and judging by the forts and strongholds called after them, they were in a dominant position, like the Dasyu encountered by the first Vedic immigrants. The Ḍōm still on the hills were enslaved by later comers, such as the Khasya and refugee Rājputs and Brāhmans. The community is divided into four groups, field-labourers, weavers, and metal-workers; cane-workers and the lower artisans; exorcists, porters and leather-workers, and, finally, musicians, mendicants, and — tailors. The Ḍōm of the plains, when settled, tend to establish separate castes of cane-workers (Bansphōṛā, Basōr), and labourers. In spite of efforts to get them to work themselves into a better position they seem to have no aspirations beyond their traditional occupations or a little petty cultivation. But in social intercourse they disown the nomads. It must be noted that the Ḍūm of the Panjab, whatever their nominal connection with the Ḍōm, are now an entirely separate community, both in occupation and social position.
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There is a small community called the Ghāsiyā, which, though probably not connected with the Ḍōm by origin, may be taken with it in view of its kindred position and occupation. It has been held, in Bengal, to be a sub-caste of the Hāṛi, but it appears to be an independent offshoot of some Kōl tribe of the Central Belt, and to have been severed from its parent stock at a comparatively recent date. The Ghāsiyā is still divided into its totemistic exogamous sections, and keeps up the worship of the field goddesses and other genii of its native haunts. In the neighbourhood of the larger Kōl tribes the Ghāsiyā occupy but a low position, and perform on drums and trumpets at festivals with other menial functions. In the plains, however, the Ghāsiyā have entered private service as grooms and elephant-drivers. The caste keeps much to itself, and, low as it is, it eschews the menial offices imposed upon it in the hills, and especially avoids the leather-worker and contact with dogs.