_Mahli, Mahili_. [140]--A small caste of labourers, palanquin-bearers
and workers in bamboo belonging to Chota Nagpur. In 1911 about 300
Mahlis were returned from the Feudatory States in this tract. They
are divided into five subcastes: the Bansphor-Mahli, who make baskets
and do all kinds of bamboo-work; the Pahar-Mahli, basket-makers and
cultivators; the Sulunkhi, cultivators and labourers; the Tanti who
carry litters; and the Mahli-Munda, who belong to Lohardaga. Sir
H. Risley states that a comparison of the totemistic sections of the
Mahlis given in the Appendix to his _Tribes and Castes_ with those
of the Santals seems to warrant the conjecture that the main body of
the caste are merely a branch of the Santals. Four or five septs,
Hansda a wild goose, Hemron, Murmu the nilgai, Saren or Sarihin,
and perhaps Tudu or Turu are common to the two tribes. The Mahlis are
also closely connected with the Mundas. Seven septs of the main body
of the Mahlis, Dumriar the wild fig, Gundli a kind of grain, Kerketa
a bird, Mahukal a bird (long-tail), Tirki, Tunduar and Turu are also
Munda septs; and the three septs given of the Mahli-Munda subcaste,
Bhuktuar, Lang Chenre, and Sanga are all found among the Mundas;
while four septs, Hansda a wild goose, Induar a kind of eel, as well
as Kerketa and Tirki, already mentioned, are common to the Mahlis
and Turis who are also recognised by Sir H. Risley as an offshoot of
the Munda tribe with the same occupation as the Mahlis, of making
baskets. [141] The Santals and Mundas were no doubt originally one
tribe, and it seems that the Mahlis are derived from both of them,
and have become a separate caste owing to their having settled in
villages more or less of the open country, and worked as labourers,
palanquin-bearers and bamboo-workers much in the same manner as the
Turis. Probably they work for hire for Hindus, and hence their status
may have fallen lower than that of the parent tribe, who remained
in their own villages in the jungles. Colonel Dalton notes [142]
that the gipsy Berias use Manjhi and Mahali as titles, and it is
possible that some of the Mahlis may have joined the Beria community.