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Districts. | Number.
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Faizâbâd | 40
Gonda | 5
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Total | 45
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Dhângar.—A Dravidian tribe found in some of the eastern districts of
the Province. [285] They are only shown in Gorakhpur, but there are
certainly a few in the south of Mirzapur, who are, however, possibly
not regular residents. According to Colonel Dalton “the Khurnkh or
Orâons of Chutia Nâgpur are the people best known in many parts of
India as Dhângar, a word that from its apparent derivation (dâng or
dhâng, “a hill”) may mean any hill-man, but amongst several tribes of
the southern tributary Mahâls the terms Dhângar and Dhângarin mean the
youth of the two sexes both in highland and lowland villages, and it
cannot be considered the national designation of any peculiar tribe.”
[286] According to Mr. Risley, Mr. Oldham says in a note on some
historical and ethnical aspects of the Bardwân district that the Mâlê
Pahariyas call their men of fighting age Dhângar or Dhângariya. The
Mâlê are cognates of the Orâons, the typical Dhângar labourers of Chota
Nâgpur, so that on this showing the word may well be nothing more than
the Orâon for an adult. According to another interpretation the name
has reference to the fact that persons working as Dhângars receive the
bulk of their wages in unhusked rice (dhân). [287] In Bilâspur, in the
Central Provinces, they are regarded as a sub-division of the Kanwar,
who are the largest sections of the aboriginal population next to the
Gonds, and have there taken to wearing the Brâhmanical thread. [288] In
Sambalpur they are said to be emigrants from Chota Nâgpur, [289] and in
Sâranggarh they act as weavers and village watchmen. [290] M. St.
Martin very doubtfully connects them with the Tânk Râjputs, the Tangana
of the Mahâbhârata, and the Tanganoi or Ganganoi of Ptolemy. [291] The
people known as Dhângar, in the Dakkhin, [292] whose name is derived by
Dr. J. Wilson from the Sanskrit dhenukâra, “dealer in cows,” are
described as a quiet and innocent race of people who wander about with
their flocks and herds. Their religion, manners, and language are to a
great extent like those of the Kunbi, but the temples at which they
worship are mere piles of large unhewn stones. The founder of the
Holkar family of Mâlwa sprang from this race. [293]
[Tribal organisation.] 2. The Mirzapur Dhângars say that the Munda
Kols, the Khariyas [294] of Chota Nâgpur, the Guriyas, Dhângars and
Urâin or Orâon are all endogamous divisions of the same race. They name
eight exogamous septs, most or all of which are certainly of totemistic
origin. Thus Ilha is said to mean a kind of fish which this sept does
not eat: Kajur is the name of a jungle herb which members of this
sub-division do not use: Tirik, which is possibly the same as the Tirki
or bull sept of the Orâons. In Chota Nâgpur members of this sept cannot
touch any cattle after their eyes open. [295] On the other hand,
Colonel Dalton describes the Tirki sub-division as prohibited from
eating young mice (tirki). [296]
The Lakara sub-division, which is apparently identical with that called
Lakrar among the Orâons, who must not eat tiger’s flesh, [297] derive
their name in Mirzapur from the hyæna (lakar bagha), which they will
not hunt or kill. The Bara sept, who are evidently the same as the
Barar of the Orâons, who will not eat from the leaves of the Bar tree
(Ficus Indica), in Mirzapur will not cut this tree. The Ekka sept in
Mirzapur say that the name means “leopard,” which they will not kill.
In Chota Nâgpur the same word is said to mean “tortoise,” and to be a
totemistic sept of Orâons. This is the Ekhar sept in Colonel Dalton’s
list. [298] The Tiga sept, in Mirzapur, say they take their name from a
jungle root of that name which they will not eat: but the Orâon
Dhângars of Bhâgalpur have a Tig sept which they say means “monkey.”
[299] The last of the Mirzapur septs is Khâha, which they say means
“crow,” a bird which they respect and will not injure. This is
evidently the same as the Khakhar sept of Orâons, who will not eat the
crow. [300] From all this the identity of the Mirzapur Dhângars with
the Bengal Orâons is conclusively established. At the same time the
diverging significance of these totemistic titles within a limited area
is interesting. The Census lists supply a much more Hinduised set of
sections including the Beldâr, Belwâr, Benbansi, Janwâr, Jhuar, Panwâr,
and Sribâstam.
[Appearance.] 3. Colonel Dalton’s description of the Orâons applies
very closely to their cognates the Mirzapur Dhângars. “Although the
Orâons when young are pleasant to look upon from their good humoured
and guileless expression, they are on the whole to be regarded as a
dark complexioned and by no means well-favoured race. When we see
numbers of them massed together in a market, the features we find to
predominate are excess of jaws and mouth, thick lips pushed out by the
projection of the jaws, a defect which age increases, the teeth
becoming more and more porrect till they appear to radiate outwards
from the upper jaw. The forehead is low and narrow, but not as a rule
receding; and the eyes have nothing very peculiar about them, often
bright and full, with long lashes and straight set, sometimes small and
dim, but not oblique. These upper features give them a human and
intelligent expression notwithstanding the Simian characteristic of the
lower. There is the indentation usual in the Turanian races between the
frontal and nasal bones, but the latter are more pronounced than we
find them in the Lohitic tribes. The colour of the majority is darkest
brown approaching to black. [301]” Mr. Risley adds that no signs of
Mongolian affinities can be detected in the relative positions of the
nasal and malar bones; the average naso-malar index for a hundred
Orâons, measured on the system recommended by Mr. Oldfield Thomas,
comes to 113·6. [302]
[Traditions.] 4. The Mirzapur Dhângars say they emigrated from a place
named Barwai somewhere to the south about nine or ten generations ago.
They say that they occupied a narrow valley called Sathorwa, where they
used to beset and rob travellers. At last a General of the Emperor made
terms with their leaders, Jura Mahto and Buddhu Bhagat, and on promise
of giving them a rent-free estate (jâgîr) induced the tribe to lay down
their arms, and then ordered a general massacre. The few survivors
escaped to Mirzapur. These two leaders, Jura and Buddhu, are the
deified heroes of the tribe. It is said that their heads spoke seven
days after they were decapitated, and advised them to emigrate.
[Tribal council.] 5. They have a tribal council (panchâyat) presided
over by a hereditary president, the Chaudhari, which meets for caste
business on occasions of marriages and deaths. For caste offences the
punishment is usually the providing of a feast including rice, one or
two goats and ten bottles of liquor. If a girl intrigues with a
clansman, her father has to provide two dinners to the clansmen, and
she is then restored to caste. Her lover has to provide the same feast
if he seduces an unmarried girl in the tribe. The pair are then
married. If a girl is detected in an intrigue with an outsider she is
permanently expelled, and so with a man who intrigues with a strange
woman.
[Marriage rules.] 6. The totemistic septs are exogamous, and in
addition the children of the mother’s brother, the sister and father’s
sister are barred. Polygamy is permitted only when the first wife is
barren, and then the consent of the Chaudhari and clansmen is required.
The marriage age is ten or twelve for boys and girls. The bride-price
is two rupees, and is invariably fixed by caste custom. No physical
defect subsequently ascertained can annul a marriage; but both parties
are carefully examined by the relatives before the engagement is made.
A man may divorce his wife if he discovers that she is a witch, and
habitual adultery on the part of husband and wife justifies divorce
with the leave of the council. Women who have been divorced can marry
again, but the general feeling is against the practice, and it is not
allowed in respectable families. The institution of the Bachelor Hall,
described by Colonel Dalton among the Orâons, [303] does not prevail
among the Mirzapur Dhângars.
[Widow-marriage and the levirate.] 7. The levirate prevails, and a
widow can marry an outsider by sagâi only when her younger
brother-in-law gives up his claim to her. The only ceremony is that the
lover comes with a yellow sheet to the widow’s house. She puts it on
and comes home with him, when he gives a feast to his clansmen, and it
is essential that the cooking should be done by the new-made wife. By
remarriage a widow loses all right to the property of her first
husband.
In the case of the levirate the property of the first husband passes to
the levir, and when they grow up, the sons by the first marriage are
entitled to a share in all the property of their step-father on the
same scale as his sons. There is no fiction of attributing the sons of
the levir to his deceased elder brother.
[Succession.] 8. Adoption is unknown. The heirs of a man are his sons:
but the eldest son gets something more than the others. When the father
and sons live jointly and distribution takes place after the father’s
death, all the sons share equally, no matter whether any part of the
property may have been acquired by any particular son.
Grandsons get their proportion of the share that would have fallen to
their fathers. The widow has a sort of life interest in her husband’s
estate, but is liable to expulsion for unchastity. Daughters have no
right of succession. But a girl who is ill-treated by her husband is
entitled to return to her own home and be maintained by her brothers.
[Domestic ceremonies. Birth.] 9. The birth ceremonies resemble those
among Bhuiyârs (q.v.). On the sixth day the chhathi ceremony is
performed, and after this the mother is pure. The husband does not
cohabit with his wife for two months after her confinement.
[Marriage.] 10. The betrothal is solemnized as among the Bhuiyas by the
exchange of platters of liquor between the parents of the parties.
After this both salute in the form known as Râmrahâi. [304] Notice is
given of the day of the ceremony. This is called din dharna. The pair
revolve round a branch of the siddh tree (Hardwickia binata), and a
water jar (kalsa) fixed in the marriage shed (mânro). Before the
procession starts, the bridegroom’s mother sprinkles some water over
him with a branch of rice stalks, and waves the water jar over his head
to keep off evil spirits. The binding part of the ceremony is the
rubbing of red lead by the bridegroom on the head of the bride. After
marriage the bridegroom has to eat rice and pulse (khichari) with the
bride, and refuses to do so until he gets a calf or eight annas from
his father-in-law. The bride walks behind the bridegroom on her way to
his house, and is supposed to weep bitterly all the time. When she and
her husband reach the door, they have to walk in over a series of
baskets arranged in a double line, while the women sing the song of
rejoicing (sohar). Then the bridegroom salutes his male relations
outside the house. Inside, the bride, shading her breast with the
corner of her sheet, touches the feet of the senior women, and they
reply with the blessing tuhâr ahibât barhê—“May your husband live
long.”
[Death ceremonies.] 11. The dead are cremated exactly as is done by the
Bhuiyas; after the mourners return from the cremation they come to the
house of the deceased and there some butter is thrown on a fire lighted
in the courtyard, and the mourners pass their hands through the smoke
and rub their bodies. The ashes of the dead are thrown into a
neighbouring stream. They have no idea of the careful preservation of
the bones as described by Colonel Dalton among the Orâons. [305] On the
day of the cremation all the women walk in a line to the river or tank
close by. They are very careful not to touch each other with their
toes, as they walk one after the other. The woman thus struck is
believed to lose her son or husband during the year. When they arrive
at the water the red powder is washed off the parting of the widow’s
hair. The chief mourner is impure for ten days, during which he places
a leaf platter (dauna) full of food daily on the road by which the
deceased was removed for cremation. On the tenth day the male relatives
shave and return to the house of the deceased, where the chief mourner
sacrifices a pig in the name of the deceased, and cutting off its feet
and snout buries them in the courtyard and covers them with a stone.
Then striking this stone with another stone he says,—“I have buried you
here, never to come out; you are to rest here no matter how hard an
exorciser (Ojha) or anyone else tries to wake you.” Then he pours some
liquor over the stone. There is no priest employed in the funeral
ceremony, and no formulæ of any kind are recited.
[Religion.] 12. The Dhângars in Mirzapur are nominally Hindus, but
worship none of the regular Hindu deities. Their deities are Barna
Bhawâni, a female, who may be the same as Barhona, a deity of the Kurs,
identified with Varuna, the spirit of the waters, [306] and Goraiya
Deva. Barna Bhawâni is worshipped by some once a year, by others four
times a year with the sacrifice of a he-goat, a she-goat, and a pig.
Goraiya is the god of cattle, and is worshipped every year on 15th
Kârttik. A pig and a white and black cock are sacrificed to him in the
cattle pen, and some liquor is poured on the ground. They carry on the
usual worship of the village gods (dih) through the Baiga. When
small-pox prevails the women worship Sîtala Bhawâni. Her offering,
which is conditional on the recovery of the child from the disease,
consists of bread and a sort of sweetmeat (halwa). If the child
recovers he wears all his life a silver image (sirjana) of the goddess,
with her figure gilt, round his neck. All the worship, except that of
the village gods, is done by the head of the household, and the
worshippers consume the flesh of the victim.
[Festivals.] 13. In Bhâdon they observe the Nâgpanchami by eating
better food than usual, but they do not make any special worship of the
snake as Hindus do. In Mâgh they have the Khichari, when they eat
pulse, parched grain, and sesamum. They do not light the Holi fire, but
they celebrate the Phagua by drunken revelry and foul abuse of women,
particularly of the brother’s wife (bhaujâi).
[Demonology and ancestor worship.] 14. Old wells and tanks are the
special abode of malevolent ghosts. These are propitiated through the
Ojha, who is believed to have special control over them. They have no
special ancestor worship, because they consider the spirits finally
disposed of by the pig-sacrifice already described.
[Social customs.] 15. The women tattoo themselves only on the arms. In
this they differ from the Orâons, who are tattooed in childhood with
the three marks on the brow and two on each temple that distinguish the
majority of the Munda women. [307] There is no special pattern and
nothing resembling a tribal tattoo. The women wear bracelets (mathiya),
pewter anklets (pairi), necklets (hansli), ear ornaments (utarna), bead
necklaces (guriya). They eat beef and pork, and almost any meat except
that of the lizard, jackal, alligator, and monkey. They use liquor and
smoking and chewing tobacco. The use of liquor they believe keeps off
malaria. They will not touch or name the wife of the elder brother.
They treat their women fairly well, consult them in family affairs, and
follow their advice. Their business is generally to work as ploughmen.
Their wages are four sers of grain for each working day, a rupee
and-a-half at the end of the agricultural year, one blanket and half a
bîgha of rent-free land. They also get food on the Panchaiyân,
Khichari, and Phagua festivals. They have no regular communal
organization, but they are very clannish and afraid of strangers. In
Mirzapur they are little better than a miserable, depressed tribe of
field serfs.