==============+=======
Districts. |Number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Sahâranpur | 25
Muzaffarnagar | 124
Meerut | 300
Farrukhâbâd | 3
Etâwah | 2
Etah | 1
Bijnor | 8
Morâdâbâd | 56
Shâhjahânpur | 42
Cawnpur | 1
Fatehpur | 2
Jaunpur | 2
Ghâzipur | 27
Ballia | 11
Gorakhpur | 29
Azamgarh | 33
Tarâi | 1
Lucknow | 8
Unâo | 2
Bahrâich | 22
Bârabanki | 79
+~~~~~~~
Total | 778
==============+=======
1. Gandhîla (Sanskrit gandha, “smell,” in the sense of “fetid,”
“mal-odorous”).—A vagrant tribe which was at the last Census found in
small numbers in the Meerut and Muzaffarnagar Districts. Their home
appears to be in the Panjâb. They are said by Sir H. M. Elliot [400] to
be a few degrees more respectable than the Bâwariyas; but in this
assertion he was certainly mistaken. According to Mr. Ibbetson, [401]
“they wander about bare-headed and bare-footed, beg, work in grass and
straw, catch quails, clean and sharpen knives and swords, cut wood, and
generally do odd jobs. They are said to eat tortoises and vermin. They
also keep donkeys (whence their other name Gadahla), and even engage in
trade in a small way. It is said that in some parts they lead about
performing bears, but this I doubt. They have curious traditions which
are reported to me from distant parts of the Province, regarding a
kingdom which the tribe once possessed, and which they seem inclined to
place beyond the Indus. They say they are under a vow not to wear shoes
or turbans till their possessions are restored to them.” Of the same
people Major Temple [402] writes:—“They are usually described in the
courts as “homeless sweepers.” They are Musalmâns of a very low order
of intelligence, and in appearance more like beasts than men. They come
principally from the Montgomery District, and are inveterate thieves,
especially of dogs, which they eat. They will also eat animals which
have died a natural death, and putrid flesh.”
2. In these Provinces [403] they are all Hindus. Some of them pretend
to have gotras within which a man cannot marry, but of these they can
give no list, and it would seem that they have no law of exogamy except
a vague injunction that they should not marry near relations. In the
detailed Census Returns four gotras are recorded—Abri, Chauhân,
Gandena, and Gohal. They wander about with little huts made of reed
(sirki), and seldom stay more than a few days in the same place. They
call themselves indigenous to the Upper Ganges-Jumna Duâb. They freely
admit outsiders into their community, and the only ceremony of
initiation is that the new comer has to drink with the members of the
tribe. Marriage takes place both in infancy and when they become
adults. As a rule they prostitute their girls, and infidelity is little
regarded. They allow the marriage of widows and divorced women by the
karâo form. They do not employ Brâhmans in any of their domestic
ceremonies, and the duty at marriages is performed by the
brother-in-law or son-in-law of the bridegroom known as dhiyâna.
3. They call themselves Hindus; but they worship none of the ordinary
Hindu gods, except Parameswar, who is worshipped by the women and
children in times of sickness or trouble. All their other ceremonies
are performed by the Dhiyâna above described. They do not perform the
srâddha; but they lay out a little food for the ghosts of the dead and
then eat it themselves. They eat any kind of carrion and vermin of all
kinds which they catch. They live by begging and prostituting their
women, and have only the most elementary industries, such as plaiting
straw into baskets, sieves, and the like; but of this they do little.
No other caste will eat with them; but it is said that some of them eat
food from the hands of Kanjars, Sânsiyas, and similar vagrants.