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Districts. |Number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Sahâranpur | 71
Muzaffarnagar | 63
+~~~~~~~
Total | 134
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1. Gangâputra, “son of the Ganges.”—A class of Brâhmans who preside
over the bathing, srâddha, and other ceremonies which are performed on
the banks of the Ganges at Benares and elsewhere along its course. They
say themselves that when Bhagîratha brought the Ganges from heaven, he
worshipped certain Brâhmans, and gave them the right in future to
receive all offerings made to the sacred river. They are also known as
Ghatiya, because they occupy ghâts or bathing-places along the Ganges
bank. The right to seats at such places is very valuable, and disputes
about them often come before the Courts. The Gangâputras belong to no
special tribe of Brâhman. They may be Gaur, Sarwariya, or Kanaujiya,
and though their profession is very lucrative, they have an evil
reputation for roguery and rapacity, and not finding it easy to
intermarry with respectable Brâhmans, there is a tendency among them
towards endogamy.
2. His principal business is to act as the cicerone of pilgrims who
come to bathe. He keeps a book in which he records the name and address
of pilgrims who have accepted his ministrations, and about the time of
bathing festivals, he and his emissaries beset the roads leading to the
holy places and endeavour to attract visitors, whom he entertains for a
consideration, and personally conducts round the various shrines and
sacred bathing places. At his ghât he keeps a cow which the pilgrim
touches as he goes to bathe, and he provides the worshipper with a
little kusa grass and the materials for the pinda, which he usually
offers up to his deceased relations. In his occupation the Gangâputra
closely resembles the Gayawâl who acts as an emissary for the owners of
the shrines at Gaya, and wanders about the country inducing villagers
to undertake the pilgrimage, and personally conducting his
constituents. A similar functionary is the Prayâgwâl, who officiates at
the bathing festivals at Prayâgji or Allahâbâd and the Mathuriya Chaubê
of Mathura.
3. Another class of these mendicant Brâhmans is known as Sarvanriya
Gangâputra. There is some doubt whether they are really Brâhmans at
all, and some connect them with other mendicant singers like the
Khapariyas. They claim, however, to be Brâhmans and wear the
Brâhmanical cord. They carry about a pair of sticks called kadalkâth,
which they rattle together very much in the same way as the “bones”
used by negro minstrels. Some have an iron rattle called charua, with
bells (ghunghru) which ring as they walk along. Most of them wear an
iron bangle on the right wrist, which is used to keep off the evil
spirits who surround them, attracted by their singing. They derive
their name from their custom of going about and singing songs in
commemoration of the tragic legend of Sravana, who is sometimes known
as Sravana Rishi. He is by one account said to be the sister’s son of
Râja Dasaratha, of the solar race and King of Ajudhya. His father and
mother were blind, and prayed to the gods for a son, which was granted;
but it was decreed at the same time that their son’s wife should be
faithless. So when he came of age Sravana refused to marry; but his
parents insisted on his taking a wife. When he brought her home she
turned out to be an evil woman, faithless to her husband and harsh in
conduct to his parents. She had a dish made with two compartments, one
of which she filled with good food for her husband, and the other with
foul scraps for his father and mother. One day the food was changed by
accident, and Sravana discovered her deception. So, as the old people
were near their end, their dutiful son resolved to take them in a
basket (kanwari) slung across his shoulder to the Ganges. On the way he
came to the village of Sarwan, in the Unâo District, where the legend
is now localised, and laid his burden by the banks of a tank while he
went into the jungle to rest. It so chanced that Râja Dasaratha was
hunting in the forest, and hearing something move in the brushwood, he
discharged an arrow, which killed Sravana. His parents, in their
despair, cursed the Râja, and to their curse is said to be due the
trouble which afterwards fell on the royal house. “From that day to
this no Kshatriya has lived in the town which is founded on the spot
and is called Sarwan. Many Râjputs have tried it, but evil has
overtaken them in one way or another. The tank remains to this day, and
by it lies under a tree the body of Sravana, a figure of stone; and as
he died with his thirst unquenched, so, if water is poured into the
navel of the stone figure, the hole can never be filled up, but is
inexhaustible in its demand.” [404]
Sravanriya Gangâputras used formerly to go about begging and singing
from about 2 o’clock in the morning. They acquired an evil reputation
for snatching nose-rings and other jewelry from pious women who got up
to minister to their wants: they now usually defer their visits to a
later hour. It is considered meritorious among Hindus to listen to the
songs of the dutiful Sravana early in the morning, and on such
occasions, the singers are given alms, which usually consist of
uncooked grain, but seldom of money. Formerly they were, it is said, in
the habit of sitting dharna at the doors of people who refused to give
them alms. They find it dangerous to carry on such practices at
present. It is needless to say that they bear a most indifferent
reputation.