The Pankas worship only Kabir. They prepare a _chauka_ and, sitting in
it, sing songs in his praise, and a cocoanut is afterwards broken and
distributed to those who are present. The assembly is presided over
by a Mahant or priest and the _chauka_ is prepared by his subordinate
called the Diwan. The offices of Mahant and Diwan are hereditary, and
they officiate for a collection of ten or fifteen villages. Otherwise
the caste perform no special worship, but observe the full moon days
of Magh (January), Phagun (February) and Kartik (October) as fasts
in honour of Kabir. Some of the Kabirhas observe the Hindu festivals,
and the Saktahas, as already stated, have the same religious practices
as other Hindus. They admit into the community members of most castes
except the impure ones. In Chhattisgarh a new convert is shaved and
the other Pankas wash their feet over him in order to purify him. He
then breaks a stick in token of having given up his former caste
and is invested with a necklace of _tulsi_ [367] beads. A woman
of any such caste who has gone wrong with a man of the Panka caste
may be admitted after she has lived with him for a certain period on
probation, during which her conduct must be satisfactory, her paramour
also being put out of caste for the same time. Both are then shaved and
invested with the necklaces of _tulsi_ beads. In Mandla a new convert
must clean and whitewash his house and then vacate it with his family
while the Panch or caste committee come and stay there for some time
in order to purify it. While they are there neither the owner nor any
member of his family may enter the house. The Panch then proceed to
the riverside and cook food, after driving the new convert across the
river by pelting him with cowdung. Here he changes his clothes and
puts on new ones, and coming back again across the stream is made to
stand in the _chauk_ and sip the urine of a calf. The _chauk_ is then
washed out and a fresh one made with lines of flour, and standing in
this the convert receives to drink the _dal_, that is, water in which
a little betel, raw sugar and black pepper have been mixed and a piece
of gold dipped. In the evening the Panch again take their food in
the convert's house, while he eats outside it at a distance. Then he
again sips the _dal_, and the Mahant or priest takes him on his lap
and a cloth is put over them both; the Mahant whispers the _mantra_
or sacred verse into his ear, and he is finally considered to have
become a full Kabirha Panka and admitted to eat with the Panch.