Some characteristics of the Maratha people are noticed by Sir
R. Jenkins as follows [41]: "The most remarkable feature perhaps in the
character of the Marathas of all descriptions is the little regard they
pay to show or ceremony in the common intercourse of life. A peasant
or mechanic of the lowest order, appearing before his superiors,
will sit down of his own accord, tell his story without ceremony,
and converse more like an equal than an inferior; and if he has a
petition he talks in a loud and boisterous tone and fearlessly sets
forth his claims. Both the peasantry and the better classes are often
coarse and indelicate in their language, and many of the proverbs,
which they are fond of introducing into conversation, are extremely
gross. In general the Marathas, and particularly the cultivators,
are not possessed of much activity or energy of character, but they
have quick perception of their own interest, though their ignorance
of writing and accounts often renders them the dupes of the artful
Brahmans." "The Kunbi," Mr. Forbes remarks, [42] "though frequently all
submission and prostration when he makes his appearance in a revenue
office, is sturdy and bold enough among his own people. He is fond
of asserting his independence and the helplessness of others without
his aid, on which subject he has several proverbs, as: 'Wherever it
thunders there the Kunbi is a landholder,' and 'Tens of millions are
dependent on the Kunbi, but the Kunbi depends on no man.'" This sense
of his own importance, which has also been noticed among the Jats,
may perhaps be ascribed to the Kunbi's ancient status as a free and
full member of the village community. "The Kunbi and his bullocks are
inseparable, and in speaking of the one it is difficult to dissociate
the other. His pride in these animals is excusable, for they are most
admirably suited to the circumstances in which nature has placed them,
and possess a very wide-extended fame. But the Kunbi frequently
exhibits his fondness for them in the somewhat peculiar form of
unmeasured abuse. 'May the Kathis [43] seize you!' is his objurgation
if in the peninsula of Surat; if in the Idar district or among the
mountains it is there 'May the tiger kill you!' and all over Gujarat,
'May your master die!' However, he means by this the animal's former
owner, not himself; and when more than usually cautious he will word
his chiding thus--'May the fellow that sold you to me perish.'" But now
the Kathis raid no more and the tiger, though still taking good toll
of cattle in the Central Provinces, is not the ever-present terror
that once he was. But the bullock himself is no longer so sacrosanct
in the Kunbi's eyes, and cannot look forward with the same certainty
to an old age of idleness, threatened only by starvation in the hot
weather or death by surfeit of the new moist grass in the rains; and
when therefore the Kunbi's patience is exhausted by these aggravating
animals, his favourite threat at present is, 'I will sell you to the
Kasais' (butchers); and not so very infrequently he ends by doing
so. It may be noted that with the development of the cotton industry
the Kunbi of Wardha is becoming much sharper and more capable of
protecting his own interests, while with the assistance and teaching
which he now receives from the Agricultural Department, a rapid and
decided improvement is taking place in his skill as a cultivator.