_Dhanwar, Dhanuhar._ [530]--A primitive tribe living in the wild hilly
country of the Bilaspur zamindari estates, adjoining Chota Nagpur. They
numbered only 19,000 persons in 1911. The name Dhanuhar means a bowman,
and the bulk of the tribe have until recently been accustomed to
obtain their livelihood by hunting with bow and arrows. The name is
thus merely a functional term and is analogous to those of Dhangar,
or labourer, and Kisan, or cultivator, which are applied to the
Oraons, and perhaps Halba or farmservant, by which another tribe
is known. The Dhanwars are almost certainly not connected with the
Dhanuks of northern India, though the names have the same meaning. They
are probably an offshoot of either the Gond or the Kawar tribe or a
mixture of both. Their own legend of their origin is nearly the same
as that of the Gonds, while the bulk of their sept or family names are
identical with those of the Kawars. Like the Kawars, the Dhanwars have
no language of their own and speak a corrupt form of Chhattisgarhi
Hindi. Mr. Jeorakhan Lal writes of them:--"The word Dhanuhar is a
corrupt form of Dhanusdhar or a holder of a bow. The bow consists of
a cleft piece of bamboo and the arrow is made of wood of the _dhaman_
tree. [531] The pointed end is furnished with a piece or a nail of
iron called _phani_, while to the other end are attached feathers
of the vulture or peacock with a string of tasar silk. Dhanuhar boys
learn the use of the bow at five years of age, and kill birds with it
when they are seven or eight years old. At their marriage ceremony
the bridegroom carries an arrow with him in place of a dagger as
among the Hindus, and each household has a bow which is worshipped at
every festival." According to their own legend the ancestors of the
Dhanuhars were two babies whom a tigress unearthed from the ground when
scratching a hole in her den, and brought up with her own young. They
were named Naga Lodha and Nagi Lodhi, _Naga_ meaning naked and _Lodha_
being the Chhattisgarhi word for a wild dog. Growing up they lived
for some time as brother and sister, until the deity enjoined them
to marry. But they had no children until Naga Lodha, in obedience to
the god's instructions, gave his wife the fruit of eleven trees to
eat. From these she had eleven sons at a birth, and as she observed
a fortnight's impurity for each of them the total period was five and
a half months. In memory of this, Dhanuhar women still remain impure
for five months after delivery, and do not worship the gods for that
period. Afterwards the couple had a twelfth son, who was born with
a bow and arrows in his hand, and is now the ancestral hero of the
tribe, being named Karankot. One day in the forest when Karankot was
not with them, the eleven brothers came upon a wooden palisade, inside
which were many deer and antelope tended by twelve Gaoli (herdsmen)
brothers with their twelve sisters. The Lodha brothers attacked the
place, but were taken prisoners by the Gaolis and forced to remove
dung and other refuse from the enclosure. After a time Karankot
went in search of his brothers and, coming to the place, defeated
the Gaolis and rescued them and carried off the twelve sisters. The
twelve brothers subsequently married the twelve Gaoli girls, Karankot
himself being wedded to the youngest and most beautiful, whose name
was Maswasi. From each couple is supposed to be descended one of the
tribes who live in this country, as the Binjhwar, Bhumia, Korwa,
Majhi, Kol, Kawar and others, the Dhanuhars themselves being the
progeny of Karankot and Maswasi. The bones of the animals killed by
Karankot were thrown into ditches dug round the village and form the
pits of _chhui mithi_ or white clay now existing in this tract.