_Parja._--A small tribe, [418] originally an offshoot of the Gonds,
who reside in the centre and east of the Bastar State and the adjoining
Jaipur zamindari of Madras. They number about 13,000 persons in the
Central Provinces and 92,000 in Madras, where they are also known as
Poroja. The name Parja appears to be derived from the Sanskrit Parja,
a subject. The following notice of it is taken from the _Madras
Census Report_ [419] of 1871: "The term Parja is, as Mr. Carmichael
has pointed out, merely a corruption of a Sanskrit term signifying
a subject; and it is understood as such by the people themselves,
who use it in contradistinction to a free hillman. Formerly, says a
tradition that runs through the whole tribe, Rajas and Parjas were
brothers, but the Rajas took to riding horses or, as the Barenja
Parjas put it, sitting still, and we became carriers of burdens and
Parjas. It is quite certain in fact that the term Parja is not a tribal
denomination, but a class denomination; and it may be fitly rendered
by the familiar epithet of ryot. There is no doubt, however, that by
far the greater number of these Parjas are akin to the Khonds of the
Ganjam Maliahs. They are thrifty, hardworking cultivators, undisturbed
by the intestinal broils which their cousins in the north engage in,
and they bear in their breasts an inalienable reverence for their soil,
the value of which they are rapidly becoming acquainted with. Their
ancient rights to these lands are acknowledged by colonists from among
the Aryans, and when a dispute arises about the boundaries of a field
possessed by recent arrivals a Parja is usually called in to point out
the ancient landmarks. Gadbas are also represented as indigenous from
the long lapse of years that they have been in the country, but they
are by no means of the patriarchal type that characterises the Parjas."
In Bastar the caste are also known as Dhurwa, which may be derived
from Dhur, the name applied to the body of Gonds as opposed to the
Raj-Gonds. In Bastar, Dhurwa now conveys the sense of a headman of a
village. The tribe have three divisions, Thakara or Tagara, Peng and
Mudara, of which only the first is found in Bastar. Thakara appears
to be a corruption of Thakur, a lord, and the two names point to the
conclusion that the Parjas were formerly dominant in this tract. They
themselves have a story, somewhat resembling the one quoted above
from Madras, to the effect that their ancestor was the elder brother
of the first Raja of Bastar when he lived in Madras, to the south
of Warangal. From there he had to flee on account of an invasion of
the Muhammadans, and was accompanied by the goddess Danteshwari,
the tutelary deity of the Rajas of Bastar. In accordance with the
command of the goddess the younger brother was considered as the
Raja and rode on a horse, while the elder went before him carrying
their baggage. At Bhadrachallam they met the Bhatras, and further
on the Halbas. The goddess followed them, guiding their steps, but
she strictly enjoined on the Raja not to look behind him so as to
see her. But when they came to the sands of the rivers Sankani and
Dankani, the tinkle of the anklets of the goddess could not be heard
for the sand. The Raja therefore looked behind him to see if she was
following, on which she said that she could go no more with him,
but he was to march as far as he could and then settle down. The
two brothers settled in Bastar, where the descendants of the younger
became the ruling clan, and those of the elder were their servants, the
Parjas. The story indicates, perhaps, that the Parjas were the original
Gond inhabitants and rulers of the country, and were supplanted by a
later immigration of the same tribe, who reduced them to subjection,
and became Raj-Gonds. Possibly the first transfer of power was effected
by the marriage of an immigrant into a Parja Raja's family, as so often
happened with these old dynasties. The Parjas still talk about the Rani
of Bastar as their _Bohu_ or 'younger brother's wife,' and the custom
is probably based on some such legend. The Madras account of them
as the arbiters of boundary disputes points to the same conclusion,
as this function is invariably assigned to the oldest residents in
any locality. The Parjas appear to be Gonds and not Khonds. Their
sept names are Gondi words, and their language is a form of Gondi,
called after them Parji. Parji has hitherto been considered a form
of Bhatri, but Sir G. Grierson [420] has now classified the latter
as a dialect of the Uriya language, while Parji remains 'A local
and very corrupt variation of Gondi, considerably mixed with Hindi
forms.' While then the Parjas, in Bastar at any rate, must be held
to be a branch of the Gonds, they may have a considerable admixture
of the Khonds, or other tribes in different localities, as the rules
of marriage are very loose in this part of the country. [421]