The Bhainas are also closely connected with the Kawars, who still own
many large estates in the hills north of Bilaspur. It is said that
formerly the Bhainas and Kawars both ate in common and intermarried,
but at present, though the Bhainas still eat rice boiled in water from
the Kawars, the latter do not reciprocate. But still, when a Kawar
is celebrating a birth, marriage or death in his family, or when he
takes in hand to make a tank, he will first give food to a Bhaina
before his own caste-men eat. And it may safely be assumed that this
is a recognition of the Bhaina's position as having once been lord of
the land. A Kawar may still be admitted into the Bhaina community,
and it is said that the reason of the rupture of the former equal
relations between the two tribes was the disgust felt by the Kawars
for the rude and uncouth behaviour of the Bhainas. For on one occasion
a Kawar went to ask for a Bhaina girl in marriage, and, as the men of
the family were away, the women undertook to entertain him. And as
the Bhainas had no axes, the daughter proceeded to crack the sticks
on her head for kindling a fire, and for grass she pulled out a wisp
of thatch from the roof and broke it over her thigh, being unable to
chop it. This so offended the delicate susceptibilities of the Kawar
that he went away without waiting for his meal, and from that time the
Kawars ceased to marry with the Bhainas. It seems possible that the
story points to the period when the primitive Bhainas and Baigas did
not know the use of iron and to the introduction of this metal by the
later-coming Kawars and Gonds. It is further related that when a Kawar
is going to make a ceremonial visit he likes always to take with him
two or three Bhainas, who are considered as his retainers, though not
being so in fact. This enhances his importance, and it is also said
that the stupidity of the Bhainas acts as a foil, through which the
superior intelligence of the Kawar is made more apparent. All these
details point to the same conclusion that the primitive Bhainas first
held the country and were supplanted by the more civilised Kawars,
and bears out the theory that the settlement of the Munda tribes was
prior to those of the Dravidian family.