In Berar and Bombay the Mahars have some curious forms of belief. "Of
the confusion which obtains in the Mahar theogony the names of six
of their gods will afford a striking example. While some Mahars
worship Vithoba, the god of Pandharpur, others revere Varuna's twin
sons, Meghoni and Deghoni, and his four messengers, Gabriel, Azrael,
Michael and Anadin, all of whom they say hail from Pandharpur." [124]
The names of archangels thus mixed up with Hindu deities may most
probably have been obtained from the Muhammadans, as they include
Azrael; but in Gujarat their religion appears to have been borrowed
from Christianity. "The Karia Dhedas have some rather remarkable
beliefs. In the Satya Yug the Dhedas say they were called Satyas;
in the Dvapar Yug they were called Meghas; in the Treta Yug, Elias;
and in the Kali Yug, Dhedas. The name Elias came, they say, from
a prophet Elia, and of him their religious men have vague stories;
some of them especially about a famine that lasted for three years
and a half, easily fitting into the accounts of Elijah in the Jewish
Scriptures. They have also prophecies of a high future in store for
their tribe. The king or leader of the new era, Kuyam Rai by name,
will marry a Dheda woman and will raise the caste to the position of
Brahmans. They hold religious meetings or _ochhavas_, and at these
with great excitement sing songs full of hope of the good things in
store for them. When a man wishes to hold an _ochhava_ he invites
the whole caste, and beginning about eight in the evening they often
spend the night in singing. Except perhaps for a few sweetmeats
there is no eating or drinking, and the excitement is altogether
religious and musical. The singers are chiefly religious Dhedas or
Bhagats, and the people join in a refrain '_Avore Kuyam Rai Raja_',
'Oh! come Kuyam Rai, our king.'" [125] It seems that the attraction
which outside faiths exercise on the Mahars is the hope held out of
ameliorating the social degradation under which they labour, itself
an outcome of the Hindu theory of caste. Hence they turn to Islam,
or to what is possibly a degraded version of the Christian story,
because these religions do not recognise caste, and hold out a promise
to the Mahar of equality with his co-religionists, and in the case of
Christianity of a recompense in the world to come for the sufferings
which he has to endure in this one. Similarly, the Mahars are the
warmest adherents of the Muhammadan saint Sheikh Farid, and flock
to the fairs held in his honour at Girar in Wardha and Partapgarh in
Bhandara, where he is supposed to have slain a couple of giants. [126]
In Berar [127] also they revere Muhammadan tombs. The remains of the
Muhammadan fort and tank on Pimpardol hill in Jalgaon taluk are now
one of the sacred places of the Mahars, though to the Muhammadans they
have no religious associations. Even at present Mahars are inclined to
adopt Islam, and a case was recently reported when a body of twenty
of them set out to do so, but turned back on being told that they
would not be admitted to the mosque. [128] A large proportion of the
Mahars are also adherents of the Kabirpanthi sect, one of the main
tenets of whose founder was the abolition of caste. And it is from
the same point of view that Christianity appeals to them, enabling
European missionaries to draw a large number of converts from this
caste. But even the Hindu attitude towards the Mahars is not one of
unmixed intolerance. Once in three or four years in the southern
Districts, the Panwars, Mahars, Pankas and other castes celebrate
the worship of Narayan Deo or Vishnu, the officiating priest being a
Mahar. Members of all castes come to the Panwar's house at night for
the ceremony, and a vessel of water is placed at the door in which they
wash their feet and hands as they enter; and when inside they are all
considered to be equal, and they sit in a line and eat the same food,
and bind wreaths of flowers round their heads. After the cock crows the
equality of status is ended, and no one who goes out of the house can
enter again. At present also many educated Brahmans recognise fully
the social evils resulting from the degraded position of the Mahars,
and are doing their best to remove the caste prejudices against them.