Before treating of ear-ornaments it will be convenient to mention
briefly the custom of ear-piercing. This is universal among Hindus and
Muhammadans, both male and female, and the operation is often performed
by the Sunar. The lower Hindu castes and the Gonds consider piercing
the ears to be the mark of admission to the caste community. It
is done when the child is four or five years old, and till then
he or she is not considered to be a member of the caste and may
consequently take food from anybody. The Raj-Gonds will not have the
ears of their children pierced by any one but a Sunar; and for this
they give him _sidha_ or a seer [651] of wheat, a seer of rice and
an anna. Hindus employ a Sunar when one is available, but if not,
an old man of the family may act. After the piercing a peacock's
feather or some stalks of grass or straw are put in to keep the hole
open and enlarge it. A Hindu girl has her ear pierced in five places,
three being in the upper ear, one in the lobe and one in the small
flap over the orifice. Muhammadans make a large number of holes all
down the ear and in each of these they place a gold or silver ring,
so that the ears are dragged down by the weight. Similarly their women
will have ten or fifteen bangles on the legs. The Hindus also have
this custom in Bhopal, but if they do it in the Central Provinces
they are chaffed with having become Muhammadans. In the upper ear
Hindu women have an ornament in the shape of the _genda_ or marigold,
a sacred flower which is offered to all the deities. The holes in the
upper and middle ear are only large enough to contain a small ring,
but that in the lobe is greatly distended among the lower castes. The
_tarkhi_ or Gond ear-ornament consists of a glass plate fixed on to
a stem of _ambari_ fibre nearly an inch thick, which passes through
the lobe. As a consequence the lower rim is a thin pendulous strip
of flesh, very liable to get torn. But to have the hole torn open is
one of the worst social mishaps which can happen to a woman. She is
immediately put out of caste for a long period, and only readmitted
after severe penalties, equivalent to those inflicted for getting
vermin in a wound. When a woman gets her ear torn she sits weeping in
her house and refuses to be comforted. At the ceremony of readmission
a Sunar is sometimes called in who stitches up the ear with silver
thread. [652] Low-caste Hindu and Gond women often wear a large
circular embossed silver ornament over the ear which is known as
_dhara_ or shield and is in the shape of an Indian shield. This is
secured by chains to the hair and apparently affords some support to
the lower part of the ear, which it also covers. Its object seems to
be to shield and protect the lobe, which is so vulnerable in a woman,
and hence the name. A similar ornament worn in Bengal is known as
_dhenri_ and consists of a shield-shaped disk of gold, worn on the
lobe of the ear, sometimes with and sometimes without a pendant. [653]