During an eclipse the sweepers reap a good harvest; for it is believed
that Rahu, the demon who devours the sun and moon and thus causes
an eclipse, was either a sweeper or the deity of the sweepers,
and alms given to them at this time will appease him and cause
him to let the luminaries go. Or, according to another account,
the sun and moon are in Rahu's debt, and he comes and duns them,
and this is the eclipse; and the alms given to sweepers are a means
of paying the debt. In Gujarat as soon as the darkening sets in the
Bhangis go about shouting, '_Garhandan, Vastradan, Rupadan_,' or
'Gifts for the eclipse, gifts of clothes, gifts of silver.' [252]
The sweepers are no doubt derived from the primitive or Dravidian
tribes, and, as has been seen, they also practise the art of making
bamboo mats and baskets, being known as Bansphor in Bombay on
this account. In the Punjab the Chuhras are a very numerous caste,
being exceeded only by the Jats, Rajputs and Brahmans. Only a small
proportion of them naturally find employment as scavengers, and the
remainder are agricultural labourers, and together with the vagrants
and gipsies are the hereditary workers in grass and reeds. [253]
They are closely connected with the Dhanuks, a caste of hunters,
fowlers and village watchmen, being of nearly the same status. [254]
And Dhanuk, again, is in some localities a complimentary term for a
Basor or bamboo-worker. It has been seen that Valmiki, the patron saint
of the sweepers, was a low-caste hunter, and this gives some reason
for the supposition that the primary occupations of the Chuhras and
Bhangis were hunting and working in grass and bamboo. In one of the
legends of the sweeper saint Balmik or Valmiki given by Mr. Greeven,
[255] Balmik was the youngest of the five Pandava brothers, and was
persuaded by the others to remove the body of a calf which had died in
their courtyard. But after he had done so they refused to touch him,
so he went into the wilderness with the body; and when he did not know
how to feed himself the carcase started into life and gave him milk
until he was full grown, when it died again of its own accord. Balmik
burst into tears, not knowing how he was to live henceforward, but a
voice cried from heaven saying, "Of the sinews (of the calf's body)
do thou tie winnows (_sup_), and of the caul do thou plait sieves
(_chalni_)." Balmik obeyed, and by his handiwork gained the name of
Supaj or the maker of winnowing-fans. These are natural occupations
of the non-Aryan forest tribes, and are now practised by the Gonds.