_Mowar._--A small caste of cultivators found in the Chhattisgarh
country, in the Raipur and Bilaspur Districts and the Raigarh
State. They numbered 2500 persons in 1901. The derivation of the name
is obscure, but they themselves say that it is derived from Mow or
Mowagarh, a town in the Jhansi District of the United Provinces, and
they also call themselves Mahuwar or the inhabitants of Mow. They
say that the Raja of Mowagarh, under whom they were serving,
desired to marry the daughter of one of their Sirdars (headmen),
because she was extremely beautiful, but her father refused, and
when the Raja persisted in his desire they left the place in a body
and came to Ratanpur in the time of Raja Bimbaji, in A.D. 1770. A
Bilaspur writer states that the Mowars are an offshoot from the
Rajwar Rajputs of Sarguja State. Colonel Dalton writes [282] of the
Rajwar Rajputs of Sarguja and other adjoining States that they are
peaceably disposed cultivators, who declare themselves to be fallen
Kshatriyas; but he remarks later that they are probably aborigines,
as they do not conform to Hindu customs, and they are skilled in a
dance called Chailo, which he considers to be of Dravidian origin. In
another place he remarks that the Rajwars of Bengal admit that they
are derived from the miscegenation of Kurmis and Kols. The fact that
the Mowars of Sarangarh make a representation of a bow and arrow on
their documents, instead of signing their names, affords some support
to the theory that they are probably a branch of one of the aboriginal
tribes. The name may be derived from _mowa_, a radish, as the Mowars
of Bilaspur are engaged principally in garden cultivation.
The Mowars have no subcastes, but are divided into a number of
exogamous groups, principally of a totemistic nature. Those of the
Surajha or sun sept throw away their earthen pots on the occasion of an
eclipse, and those of the Hataia or elephant sept will not ride on an
elephant and worship that animal at the Dasahra festival. Members of
other septs named after the cobra, the crow, the monkey and the tiger
will not kill their totem animal, and when they see the dead body of
one of its species they throw away their earthen cooking-pots as a
sign of mourning. The marriage of persons belonging to the same sept
and also that of first cousins is prohibited. If an unmarried girl is
seduced by a man of the caste she becomes his wife and is not expelled,
but the caste will not eat food cooked by her. But a girl going wrong
with an outsider is finally cast out. The marriage and other social
customs resemble those of the Kurmis. The caste employ Brahmans at
their ceremonies and have a great regard for them. Their _gurus_ or
spiritual preceptors are Bairagis and Gosains. They eat the flesh
of clean animals and a few drink liquor, but most of them abstain
from it. Their women are tattooed on the arms and hands with figures
intended to represent deer, flies and other animals and insects. The
caste say that they were formerly employed as soldiers under the
native chiefs, but they are now all cultivators. They grow all kinds
of grain and vegetables, except turmeric and onions. A few of them
are landowners, and the majority tenants. Very few are constrained
to labour for hire. In appearance the men are generally strong and
healthy, and of a dark complexion.