The tribe has two subdivisions of a territorial nature, Laria or
Chhattisgarhi, and Uriya. The Uriya Bhainas will accept food cooked
without water from the Sawaras or Saonrs, and these also from them;
so that they have probably intermarried. Two other subdivisions
recorded are the Jhalyara and Ghantyara or Ghatyara; the former
being so called because they live in _jhalas_ or leaf huts in the
forest, and the latter, it is said, because they tie a _ghanta_ or
bell to their doors. This, however, seems very improbable. Another
theory is that the word is derived from _ghat_, a slope or descent,
and refers to a method which the tribe have of tattooing themselves
with a pattern of lines known as _ghat_. Or it is said to mean a low
or despised section. The Jhalyara and Ghatyara divisions comprise the
less civilised portion of the tribe, who still live in the forests;
and they are looked down on by the Uriya and Laria sections, who belong
to the open country. The exogamous divisions of the tribe show clearly
enough that the Bhainas, like other subject races, have quite failed
to preserve any purity of blood. Among the names of their _gots_
or septs are Dhobia (a washerman), Ahera (cowherd), Gond, Mallin
(gardener), Panika (from a Panka or Ganda) and others. The members of
such septs pay respect to any man belonging to the caste after which
they are named and avoid picking a quarrel with him. They also worship
the family gods of this caste. The tribe have also a number of totem
septs, named after animals or plants. Such are Nag the cobra, Bagh
the tiger, Chitwa the leopard, Gidha the vulture, Besra the hawk,
Bendra the monkey, Kok or Lodha the wild dog, Bataria the quail,
Durgachhia the black ant, and so on. Members of a sept will not injure
the animal after which it is named, and if they see the corpse of the
animal or hear of its death, they throw away an earthen cooking-pot
and bathe and shave themselves as for one of the family. Members of
the Baghchhal or tiger sept will, however, join in a beat for tiger
though they are reluctant to do so. At weddings the Bhainas have a
ceremony known as the _gotra_ worship. The bride's father makes an
image in clay of the bird or animal of the groom's sept and places
it beside the marriage-post. The bridegroom worships the image,
lighting a sacrificial fire before it, and offers to it the vermilion
which he afterwards smears upon the forehead of the bride. At the
bridegroom's house a similar image is made of the bride's totem,
and on returning there after the wedding she worships this. Women
are often tattooed with representations of their totem animal, and
men swear by it as their most sacred oath. A similar respect is paid
to the inanimate objects after which certain septs are named. Thus
members of the Gawad or cowdung sept will not burn cowdung cakes for
fuel; and those of the Mircha sept do not use chillies. One sept is
named after the sun, and when an eclipse occurs these perform the
same formal rites of mourning as the others do on the death of their
totem animal. Some of the groups have two divisions, male and female,
which practically rank as separate septs. Instances of these are the
Nagbans Andura and the Nagbans Mai or male and female cobra septs;
the Karsayal Singhara and Karsayal Mundi or stag and doe deer septs;
and the Baghchhal Andura and Baghchhal Mai or tiger and tigress
septs. These may simply be instances of subdivisions arising owing
to the boundaries of the sept having become too large for convenience.