The caste have few traditions of origin. Their usual story is that
during Siva's absence the goddess Parvati felt nervous because she
had no doorkeeper to her palace, and therefore she made the god
Ganesh from the sweat of her body and set him to guard the southern
gate. But when Siva returned Ganesh did not know him and refused to
let him enter; on which Siva was so enraged that he cut off the head
of Ganesh with a stroke of his sword. He then entered the palace,
and Parvati, observing the blood on his sword, asked him what had
happened, and reproached him bitterly for having slain her son. Siva
was distressed, but said that he could not replace the head as it
was already reduced to ashes. But he said that if any animal could
be found looking towards the south he could put its head on Ganesh
and bring him to life. As it happened a trader was then resting
outside the palace and had with him an elephant, which was seated
with its head to the south. So Siva quickly struck off the head of
the elephant and placed it on the body of Ganesh and brought him to
life again, and thus Ganesh got his elephant's head. But the trader
made loud lamentation about the loss of his elephant, so to pacify
him Siva made a pestle and mortar, utensils till then unknown, and
showed him how to pound oil-seeds in them and express the oil, and
enjoined him to earn a livelihood in future by this calling, and his
descendants after him; and so the merchant became the first Teli. And
the pestle was considered to be Siva and the mortar Parvati. This
last statement affords some support to Mr. Marten's suggestion [665]
that a certain veneration attaching to the pestle and mortar and their
use in marriage ceremonies may be due to the idea of their typifying
the male and female organs. The fact that Ganesh was set to guard the
southern gate, and that the animal whose head could be placed on his
body must be looking to the south, probably hinges in some way on the
south being the abode of Yama, the god of death, but the connection has
been forgotten by the teller of the story; it may also be noted that if
the palace was in the Himalayas, the site of Kailas or Siva's heaven,
the whole of India would be to the south. Another story related by
Mr. Crooke [666] from Mirzapur is that a certain man had three sons
and owned fifty-two mahua [667] trees. When he became aged and infirm
he told his sons to divide the trees, but after some discussion they
decided to divide not the trees themselves but their produce. One of
them fell to picking up the leaves, and he was the ancestor of the
Bharbhunjas or grain-parchers, who still use leaves in their ovens;
the second collected the flowers and corollas, and having distilled
liquor from them became a Kalar; while the third took the kernels
or fruit and crushed the oil out of them, and was the founder of the
Teli caste. The country spirit generally drunk is distilled from the
flowers of the mahua tree, and a cheap vegetable oil in common use
is obtained from its seeds. The Telis and Kalars are also castes of
about the same status and have other points of resemblance; and the
legend connecting them is therefore of some interest Some groups
of Telis who have become landed proprietors or prospered in trade
have stories giving them a more exalted origin. Thus the landholding
Rathor Telis of Mandla say that they were Rathor Rajputs who fled from
the Muhammadans and threw away their swords and sacred threads; and
the Telis of Nimar, several of whom are wealthy merchants, give out
that their ancestors were Modh Banias from Gujarat who had to take to
oil-pressing for a livelihood under Muhammadan rule. But these legends
may perhaps be considered a natural result of their rise in the world.