_Bhatra._ [308]--A primitive tribe of the Bastar State and the south
of Raipur District, akin to the Gonds. They numbered 33,000 persons
in 1891, and in subsequent enumerations have been amalgamated with
the Gonds. Nothing is known of their origin except a legend that they
came with the Rajas of Bastar from Warangal twenty-three generations
ago. The word Bhatra is said to mean a servant, and the tribe are
employed as village watchmen and household and domestic servants. They
have three divisions, the Pit, Amnait and San Bhatras, who rank one
below the other, the Pit being the highest and the San the lowest. The
Pit Bhatras base their superiority on the fact that they decline to
make grass mats, which the Amnait Bhatras will do, while the San
Bhatras are considered to be practically identical with the Muria
Gonds. Members of the three groups will eat with each other before
marriage, but afterwards they will take only food cooked without water
from a person belonging to another group. They have the usual set of
exogamous septs named after plants and animals. Formerly, it is said,
they were tattooed with representations of the totem plant and animal,
and the septs named after the tiger and snake ate the flesh of these
animals at a sacrificial meal. These customs have fallen into abeyance,
but still if they kill their totem animal they will make apologies to
it, and break their cooking-pots, and bury or burn the body. A man of
substance will distribute alms in the name of the deceased animal. In
some localities members of the Kachhun or tortoise sept will not eat a
pumpkin which drops from a tree because it is considered to resemble a
tortoise. But if they can break it immediately on touching the ground
they may partake of the fruit, the assumption being apparently that
it has not had time to become like a tortoise.