==============+==========+==============
Districts. | Hindus. | Muhammadans.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dehra Dûn | 1 | ...
Sahâranpur | 8 | ...
Muzaffarnagar | 5 | ...
Meerut | 13 | ...
Bulandshahr | 73 | 2
Aligarh | 26 | ...
Mathura | 3 | ...
Agra | 30 | ...
Farrukhâbâd | 75 | ...
Mainpuri | 217 | 5
Etâwah | 16 | ...
Etah | 57 | ...
Bareilly | 755 | 4
Budâun | 7,730 | 2
Morâdâbâd | 1,377 | 12
Shâhjahânpur | 843 | ...
Pilibhît | 178 | 43
Cawnpur | 4,964 | 1
Fatehpur | 11,513 | 1,833
Bânda | 2,880 | 45
Hamîrpur | 2,129 | ...
Allahâbâd | 854 | ...
Jhânsi | 21 | 1
Jâlaun | 110 | ...
Lalitpur | 4 | ...
Benares | 2,293 | 92
Mirzapur | 2,772 | ...
Jaunpur | 3,694 | 19
Ghâzipur | 7,777 | 238
Ballia | 8,467 | ...
Gorakhpur | 2,610 | 411
Basti | 5,204 | 778
Azamgarh | 6,248 | 223
Tarâi | 3 | ...
Lucknow | 1,785 | 8
Unâo | 2,691 | 7
Râê Bareli | 3,348 | 23
Sîtapur | 151 | 361
Hardoi | 235 | ...
Kheri | 534 | 714
Faizâbâd | 849 | ...
Gonda | 530 | 129
Bahrâich | 240 | 20
Sultânpur | 1,192 | 84
Partâbgarh | 990 | 10
Bârabanki | 430 | 5
+~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~
Total | 85,925 | 5,070
| \~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~/
GRAND TOTAL | 90,995
==============+====================
Gharûk.—A sub-caste of Kahârs, but they have now so completely
separated from the parent stock that they may be most conveniently
treated as an absolutely distinct group. Their only vague tradition is
that they are the descendants of the Pândavas, and they allege that
there is a temple at Hastinapur dedicated to Kâli Durga, at which they
worship. They have a tribal council (Panchâyat) presided over by a
chairman (mahant) who is elected by the members of the caste. They do
not marry in the families of their maternal uncle, father’s sister, and
mother’s sister. They can marry two sisters, but not at the same time.
Polygamy is permitted to an unlimited extent. Incontinence before
marriage is seriously dealt with, and the girl’s parents have to pay a
fine to the tribal council, and so has the man who subsequently marries
her. Divorce is allowed, and divorced women may remarry by the lower
form: such wives are called urhari. Widows can marry again, and the
levirate is allowed under the usual restrictions.
2. Their domestic ceremonies are of the normal type. They live much in
fear of ghosts, demons, and the Evil Eye, the effects of which are
removed by the sorcerer. Their oath is by the Ganges. Their chief
object of worship is Kâli Durga. They drink spirits, but will not eat
pork, beef, fowls, or vermin. They abstain from meat and wine during
the fortnight in the month of Kuâr sacred to the sainted dead. They
will not eat from the hands of low castes, like the Chamâr, Bhangi, or
Pâsi; but they can eat from the hands of Brâhmans, Râjputs, and
Bhurjis. Their chief occupation is fishing; some do a little
cultivation; and they supply many of the bearers in the service of
Europeans.
Ghasiya.—A Dravidian tribe found in the hill country of Mirzapur. They
do not appear in the returns of the last Census, and it is now
impossible to say among which of the allied Dravidian castes they were
included. Under the name of Ghâsi they are found in the adjoining
Bengal districts. [430] In Mandla one of their septs, Markâm, is the
title of a sept of Gonds. [431] They extend as far as Bastar, where
they are described as an inferior caste who serve as horsekeepers and
also make and mend brass vessels. They dress like the Mariya Gonds, and
subsist partly by cultivation and partly by labour. [432] Dr. Ball
describes them in Singhbhûm as gold-washers and musicians. [433]
Colonel Dalton speaks of them as “an extraordinary tribe, foul
parasites of the Central Indian hill tribes, and submitting to be
degraded even by them. If the Chandâlas of the Purânas, though
descended from the union of a Brâhmani and a Sûdra are “the lowest of
the low,” the Ghâsis are Chandâlas, and the people further south, who
are called Pariahs, are no doubt of the same distinguished lineage. If,
as I surmise, they were Aryan helots, their offices in the household or
communities must have been of the lowest and most degrading kinds. It
is to be observed that the institution of caste necessitated the
organisation of a class to whom such offices could be assigned, and,
when formed, stringent measures would be requisite to keep the
servitors in their position. We might thence expect that they would
avail themselves of every opportunity to escape, and no safer asylums
could be found than the retreats of the forest tribes. [434]” In the
uncertainty that still prevails as to the connection between the forest
tribes and the menial castes of Hindu society, it is premature to deny
the possibility of this theory; but their totemistic system of septs
and their appearance generally, which approximates closely to that of
the tribes which surround them, point to the supposition that they are
of local Dravidian origin and not refugees driven into the jungles
before the advancing Aryans. The legend recorded by Colonel Tickell
makes them of common origin with Kols, Bhuiyas, and Santâls. [435] The
word Ghasiya appears to mean a grass-cutter. (Hindi ghâs, grass:
Sanskrit ghâsa).
[Tribal organization.] 2. There seems to be little doubt that the clear
distinction which now prevails between the Ghasiya and the neighbouring
tribes is of comparatively modern growth. A case recently occurred in
which a Ghasiya adopted a Chero boy, and he has been readily received
and married among them. Unlike many of the kindred tribes, the Ghasiyas
in Mirzapur have retained a complete set of totemistic septs. These are
seven in number. The first sept is the Khatangiya, which is said to
mean “a man who fires a gun.” This sept worship the matchlock. Then
comes the Sunwân or Sonwân, who are the highest in rank. When any
Ghasiya becomes impure, one of the Sunwân sept is said to take a little
bit of gold (sona) and put it in a vessel of water, which he sprinkles
on the impure person with a mango leaf. From this practice of using
gold it is said that the tribe takes its name. It may more probably be
connected with their business of gold-washing. [436] The Janta is said
to take their name from the quern or flour-mill (janta). They have a
story that a woman of the sept was delivered of a child while sitting
at the mill, from which her descendants gained their name. The Bhainsa
say they are descended from the godling (deota) Bhainsâsur, [437] whom
they worship with the sacrifice of a young pig on the second of the
light half of Kârttik. Of the Simariya or Simarlokwa sept there is a
curious legend which explains their abhorrence of Kâyasths, and is told
in an imperfect form by Mr. Risley. The Mirzapur version runs that once
upon a time a Ghasiya was groom (sais) to a Kâyasth. One day he went
with his master’s son for a ride in the jungle. They came to a very
large and deep well: the boy dismounted and looked into it. The Ghasiya
said,—“Let us both look down and see whose reflection looks best in the
water.” Then the Ghasiya pitched the boy into the water. The boy was
hurt, but managed to hold on to the side of the well. He called out to
the Ghasiya,—“You have played a vile trick on me, but as we are old
friends I will give you something which will ensure your prosperity.”
So he took a piece of tile which lay in the well, and having scratched
on it an account of what had happened, he gave it to the Ghasiya
saying,—“Take this to my father, and he will give you a great reward.”
The foolish Ghasiya did as he was told, and when the Kâyasth read the
message, he sent men to the well without the Ghasiya’s knowledge. They
found the boy dead. So the Kâyasth planned his revenge. One day he said
to the Ghasiya, “As you have been my old and faithful servant, I intend
to give a feast to your tribe.” On the day of the Holi all the
Ghasiyas—men, women, and children—collected. Then the Kâyasth
said:—“There is a great cotton tree (semal) in the forest which I wish
to cut in order to burn the old year (Sambat), [438] but not a bit of
the wood or leaves must touch the ground, otherwise there will be no
merit in the sacrifice, and you must bring the tree as it stands.” So
all the Ghasiyas stood under the tree and tried to hold it up as it was
being cut, but it fell down and crushed them all. Only one pregnant
woman escaped, who took refuge with a Panika. The Kâyasth tried to
seize and kill her; but the Panika passed her off as his wife, and her
descendants were called Simarlokwa, or “the people of the cotton tree,”
and to this day this sept eat with Panikas, and on each Holi festival
throw out all their earthen vessels in memory of this tragedy and
cherish a hereditary hatred of Kâyasths. [439] The Koiya sept have a
legend that a Ghasiya was servant of a Gond Râja, and went out hunting
with him. One day the Râja killed a wild dog (Koiya, Cuon rutilans) and
persuaded the Ghasiya to eat it; whence this contemptuous title clung
to his descendants. The Markâm sept take their name from the tortoise.
This is also a sept among the Gonds. [440] One day a Ghasiya crossed a
river in a boat. The floods arose and he was unable to return, when a
tortoise took him on his back and carried him across. Hence the sept
worship the tortoise. The Bengal Ghâsis have a Kachhua (tortoise) and a
Simarloka or cotton tree sept. [441] These septs are exogamous, and
hypergamy is so far practised that the Sunwân is the most respectable
of all, and marriage alliances with that sept are much desired. The
Mirzapur Ghasiyas are very vague in their traditions: some fix their
head-quarters at a place called Koriya in Sarguja, others say they come
from Nâgpur, others from Singrauli, in Mirzapur. In Sarguja there is
said to be a mountain called Didûnkûra, in which there resides a deity
called Janta Deo, whose only representative is a stone in the form of a
flour-mill (janta). He is said to have some connection with the sept of
that name, and many Ghasiyas worship him through a Baiga.
[The tribal council.] 3. The Ghasiyas have a very powerful tribal
council (panchâyat). The president (mahto) is always a member of the
Sunwân sept. The post is hereditary; but if there is any dispute about
it, a reference is made to the Râja of Sarguja. The council deals with
three classes of cases—Kankati, Phûlpari, and Zinakâri. Kankati or “ear
cutting” is when any woman in a squabble gets the lobe of her ear, in
which thick palm-leaf ornaments (tarki) are worn, torn. It is believed
that any woman who gets into a mêlée of this kind is a shrew, and if it
is proved before the council that her ear was torn, she is put out of
caste. She is not restored till her friends give a three days’ feast of
goat’s meat and rice and a fourth of butter cakes (pûri) and liquor.
Phûlpari is when any one gets on his body any white mark or scab of the
nature of leprosy, or has a wound or sore which breeds maggots. Such
persons are put out of caste, because it is believed that such diseases
are a punishment for serious crimes committed in a previous life. In
such cases the fine is five goats and two days’ rice for the clansmen.
After this the Sonwân Mahto purifies the offender as already described.
Zinakâri embraces all offences against morality. In adultery or incest
cases the fine consists of a certain number of goats and rations of
rice according to the means of the offender; and, in addition, he has
to give, as a special fee, to the Mahto, a water vessel (lota), tray
(thâli), turban (pagri), jacket (kurta), and loin cloth (dhoti).
[Exogamy.] 4. As already stated, the septs are exogamous, but the only
additional provision is that the children of a sister are barred, while
marriage with the children of the mother’s brother (mâmu), and father’s
sister are allowed.
[Marriage rules.] 5. If a man takes to shoe-making, no one will marry
in his family, and the making of drums (mândar) is also thought a low
occupation. Polygamy is allowed, and the number of wives depends on a
man’s means. Few have more than one. Polyandry is unknown. If a girl is
caught in an intrigue with a stranger, the father has to give two
dinners: one pakki (or food cooked in butter) and one kachchi (or
plain) with five goats and a still of liquor. They practise adult
marriage, men being married at eighteen or twenty and girls at fifteen
or sixteen. The marriage is arranged by the Mahto, who gets as his fee
a turban and Re. 1–4 in cash. All marriages are supposed to take place
with the consent of the parents; but as a matter-of-fact the parties
often arrange their matches, and if a girl fancies a young man, all she
has to do is to give him a kick on the leg at the tribal dance of the
Karama, and then the parents think it as well to hasten on the wedding.
[442] In fact, it seems often to be the case that the man is allowed to
try the girl first and if she suits him, and seems likely to be
fertile, he marries her. [443] The bride-price is twelve rupees in
cash, two cloths, one for the bride and one for her mother, and ten
bottles of liquor. This is an invariable rule. If after marriage the
husband becomes insane, impotent, blind, or leprous, his wife may leave
him; but no fault of this kind in the wife will justify the husband in
discarding her. Mistakes of this kind are provided against by the
careful examination of each by the friends of the other previous to
marriage.
[Divorce.] 6. Divorces, or rather the putting away of wives, are
uncommon, because intertribal immorality is thought little of, and the
punishment on the relations of a woman for liaison with a stranger are
so severe that women are looked after. Besides this nothing but the
evidence of eye witnesses to the act of adultery is accepted. But it
appears to be good tribal law that a woman may leave her husband if he
intrigues with another woman. [444] In such case her parents can give
her in sagâi to another man; but if they do so they must return the
bride-price.
[Widow-marriage and the levirate.] 7. Women married in the regular way
and those taken in sagâi rank equally, and both are known as Suâsin.
Though there is a rule against concubinage, the children of a concubine
are recognised as children of the father, and admitted to caste. When a
man wants to take a widow, he goes to her father with a set of glass
bangles (chûri), some red lead, a sheet, a boddice (jhula), and a set
of ear-ornaments (tarki). The father says:—“All right! Put on the
things.” Then she touches them all, and takes them inside the house,
where the other women decorate her with them. Next morning the father
makes a pretence of pushing her out of the house as a disgrace to her
family, and then she goes off with her husband. When he comes home, he
feasts a few clansmen, and returns to her younger brother-in-law the
bride-price. A widow can marry an outsider only if the levir refuse to
have her. She leaves behind her all the children by her first husband
save a child at the breast. If she takes a young child away with her,
her first husband’s brother gives her a cloth every year for her
trouble in taking care of it. There is no pretence of attributing the
children of the levir to his elder brother.
[Adoption.] 8. They have some vague adoption rules in imitation of
their Hindu neighbours. There is no religious sentiment in the matter,
and when a man does adopt, he takes his brother’s son, the son of the
elder brother being preferred. An adopted son does not lose his rights
in the estate of his natural father.
[Beena marriage.] 9. Beena marriage known as gharjaiyân is common; in
this case the period of probation is one year, during which the
son-in-law works for his father-in-law, and is entitled to maintenance;
but has no right to inherit from his estate.
[Succession.] 10. Tribal offices are hereditary. When an old Baiga is
giving up office he goes with his son to the village shrine (deohâr)
with two fowls, which he makes his son sacrifice. Then he is considered
to have abdicated his functions. The sons are a man’s heirs, and
primogeniture so far prevails that the eldest son gets a tenth more
than the others. In a joint family the sons can claim partition inter
vivos: the sons get each the same share as their father, and his share
is divided at his death. A widow, if she remain unmarried, which is
unusual, is entitled to maintenance; but can be expelled for
unchastity. A daughter has no rights; but if she becomes a widow or
leaves her husband she is entitled to maintenance in her father’s house
until she remarries and as long as she remains chaste. A sonless
mother, too, has a life interest in her husband’s estate. She may spend
something in charity, but not waste the inheritance. If there are no
sons, the associated brothers succeed; a sister or her sons never
succeed.
[Relationship.] 11. The system of relationship is the same as among the
Kols. They remember the names of male and female ancestors for three or
four generations.
[Birth ceremonies.] 12. When a woman is ascertained to be pregnant,
they invoke the marriage god Dulha Deo in the words—“If you cause the
woman’s child to be born without trouble, we will give you an
offering.” The offering to him is a goat and a red cock. The woman is
delivered on the ground facing east. When the child is born the Chamâin
midwife is called in, and she cuts the cord and buries it in the place
the child was born, over which she lights a fire into which she puts a
bit of iron and copper to keep off evil spirits. While the cord is
being cut, the women of the clan sing the Sohar or song of rejoicing.
For three days the mother gets nothing but a decoction of herbs. [445]
On the third day she is given a decoction of the root of the Khajûr
palm (Phœnix dactylifera) and of the sarpat grass (Saccharum procerum)
mixed up in a ball with some of the mangrail seed (nigella indica),
ginger (sonth), coarse sugar, and the long pepper (pipal). Part of this
dose is drunk by the husband, probably a survival of the couvade. On
the sixth day (chhathi) the midwife bathes the mother and child, and
the barber’s wife cuts the nails of all the women in the family, and
colours their feet with lac dye (mahâwar). The Dhobi takes all the
clothes to the wash, and the barber shaves all the men. On that day the
husband’s sister (nanad) cleans the delivery room (saur) and receives a
present, generally a calf, for her trouble. On the twelfth day is the
barahi: the child’s head is shaved, the mother is bathed by her
sister-in-law, and the barber’s wife cuts her nails and colours her
feet with lac dye. She puts on clean clothes and she cooks for the
household and a few clansmen.
[Puberty ceremonies.] 13. As usual among these tribes the ear-boring
(kanchhedan), which is done for boys and girls at the age of eight or
nine on a lucky day fixed by the Mahto, represents their introduction
into caste and their abstention from food cooked by a stranger.
[Marriage ceremonies.] 14. The father of the boy inspects the girl, and
when he is satisfied, he sends the Mahto, who completes the
negotiations. The girl is produced before him and her father says:—“I
intend giving you to the son of so-and-so. Are you satisfied?”
Generally the girl agrees, but sometimes she refuses. In the latter
case the affair ends. If she agrees a date is fixed for the betrothal
(sukhdan), when the boy’s father, accompanied by the Mahto, makes over
to the girl’s father seven rupees in cash, ten bottles of liquor, a set
of glass bangles (chûri), some red lead, a set of ear ornaments
(tarki), some oil, and five sers of butter cakes (pûri). Then the
fathers exchange platters of liquor as described among Bhuiyas (para.
13). A marriage shed is erected at both houses containing nine bamboos
on the sides and a pole of siddh wood (Hardwickia binata) in the
centre. Near this is placed a jar (kalsa) full of water covered with a
lamp saucer with a burning wick surrounded with some urad pulse. Then
follows the matmangara ceremony as described among Bhuiyas (para. 14).
The mother of the bride or bridegroom, as the case may be, stands near
the Baiga and throws the border of her sheet over him as he digs the
earth. He passes five handfuls to her over his shoulder, and some
maiden of the tribe brings it in the corner of her sheet and places it
in the marriage shed, and lays the sacred water jar over it. On that
day the anointing begins (hardi uthna). It is begun by the Brâhman, who
takes up a little turmeric and oil with a bunch of the holy dûb grass
and sprinkles it over the bride and bridegroom. Then the women
relatives anoint them vigorously, and this is done five times a day for
three days. On the day the procession starts, the mother does the imli
ghotna or “mixing of the tamarind,” as described among Bhuiyas (para.
14). Then she warns her son to behave nicely to the relatives of the
bride, not to take it ill if they play jokes on him. “If you lose your
temper your marriage will not come off.” After this she kisses him on
the head and sends him off accompanied by music. As they approach the
bride’s village, her friends come out to meet them (agwâni), and at the
bride’s door her mother waves over his head for good luck a rice
pounder (mûsar), some cowdung and seed of the cotton tree (semal).
After this they retire to the place arranged for them (janwânsa), and
the bride’s father goes there and washes their feet and invites them to
dinner with the words aiyas! aiyas! Then the marriage is done. The
bridegroom comes, and, in the form of marriage by capture, drags out
the faintly resisting bride into the courtyard. They walk seven times
round the branch of the siddh tree, and each time as they pass, her
brother pours a handful of parched rice into the fold (khoinchha) of
the bride’s sheet, then the Brâhman puts five pinches of red lead
(sendur) into the hand of the boy, who rubs it on the parting of the
bride’s hair. After this her sister-in-law (bhaujai) comes and wipes
off as much of the dust as she can into her own sheet, and gets a
present of four annas. They then go into the retiring room (kohabar),
and there each of them fills with rice a little earthen pot. If after
filling it once the rice overflows the second time, it is an omen of
good luck. The rice, it is needless to say, is pressed down the first
time and then filled in loosely. After this, in direct opposition to
the customs of the kindred tribes, the bridegroom at once carries off
the bride to the janwânsa, where his clansmen are staying, and passes
the night with her in a shed arranged for the purpose. Next day he
takes her home. The day after they arrive, they go through the ceremony
of drowning the water jar (kalsa dubâna) as already described among the
Bhuiyas (para. 16). The binding part of this marriage ceremony
(charhauwa) is the payment of the bride-price and the marking of the
parting of the bride’s hair with red lead.
[Marriage by exchange.] 15. They have also the form of marriage by
exchange (gurâwat), when two persons agree to exchange sisters. Mr.
Westermarck calls this “the simplest way of purchasing a wife.” [446]
[Death ceremonies.] 16. Like all these tribes the Ghasiyas are very lax
in the disposal of the dead. Many simply singe the face and throw the
corpse into the jungle, where it is eaten by wild animals. Those who
are more exposed to Hindu influence cremate the adult dead. The corpse
is cremated on a pyre arranged near the bank of a stream: it is laid
with the feet pointing south. The chief mourner walks five times round
the pyre, and after throwing a small piece of gold on it sets it
alight. After bathing he plants on the edge of the stream or tank a few
stalks of the jhurai grass. [447] Returning home all the mourners wash
their feet and then touch some oil in which a flower of any variety has
been placed. After this they sit silent round the chief mourner for an
hour. On the tenth day they go to the place where the grass has been
planted and shave. On returning home the chief mourner presents a
turban, jacket, and loin-cloth to the chief mourner, by whom the whole
death ceremony is carried out. In the evening the clansmen are fed and
the death impurity ceases.
[Ancestor worship.] 17. On the last day of the fortnight of the dead
(pitrapaksha) in the month of Kuâr, they plaster a place under the
eaves of the house, sprinkle some flowers there, and lay out five leaf
platters (dauna) containing all the usual food, boiled rice, meat, etc.
Then they call out, “O ancestors, take this and be kind to our children
and cattle.” [448]
[Religion.] 18. They call themselves Hindus, but their religion is of a
very irregular type. They sometimes worship Mahâdeva with a burnt
offering (hom). At marriages they worship Dulha Deo. When they are
cutting the rice, they leave a little uncut in each field, and when
harvest is done cut this, clean it, and boil it, and then offer it to
the field goddess Hariyâri Devi, with a sacrifice of red coloured hens
and cock. [449] This offering is consumed by the family of the
worshipper. They also worship the village boundary deity Siwâna
(Terminus) with a goat, some liquor and a thick cake (rot), the head of
the goat and the cake being the perquisite of the Mahto, who performs
the worship. Curiously enough in this worship they do not employ the
Baiga. On the sixth of the month Mâgh, they worship an obscure tribal
god Chhat Bâba—“The lord of the sixth,” of whom no information can be
obtained except that he appears to be some deified worthy of the tribe.
In Bhâdon they have the tribal dance of the Karama. Unmarried girls
fast that day, and in the evening drink liquor, dance, and indulge in
rude debauchery. As already remarked (para. 5) this is the time when
young couples arrange their matches. In the month of Mâgh or Pûs they
have the Khichari festival [450] when they eat coarse sugar, a
sweetmeat (chûra), made of rice and sesamum, and drink liquor. They do
the Phagua in the ordinary way, but do not light the Holi fire unless
any of their Hindu neighbours do so, when they join in the ceremony.
[Various superstitions.] 19. They are greatly in fear of evil spirits,
which particularly infest rivers, wells, or tanks, where a person has
been drowned, or trees, by a fall from which a man has been accidently
killed. They are propitiated by a burnt offering (hom) and by pouring
liquor on the ground. They have the usual omens and lucky days. They
commence sowing on a Friday, when the Baiga sets the example to the
village. They swear by the Ganges, and by placing their hands on their
sons’ heads. If they forswear themselves, they believe they die and
contract leprosy. They do not practice sorcery or witchcraft
themselves, but they believe in the evil influence of witches. This is
relieved by passes (jhârna) done by the Baiga.
[Social Customs.] 20. They do not eat beef or the flesh of the monkey,
alligator, lizard, rat, jackal, or snake. They eat fowls, goats, and
pork, which last is not allowed to women. They use liquor, smoking and
chewing tobacco freely. They will not touch a Kâyasth or Dhobi, or the
younger brother’s wife; nor will a male connection by marriage (samdhi)
touch the mother of his son’s wife or daughter’s husband. Juniors
salute seniors in the form known as pâêlagi, and an old woman replies,
jiyo putra lâkh baras! “Live child ten thousand years!” They treat aged
relations and women well, and respect the latter for their powers of
work. They dread strangers and are very clannish among themselves. They
work generally as grooms and keepers of elephants. Their social status
is decidedly low, though as compared with the Bengal tribe, they are
somewhat higher, as they do not eat beef. [451] They will not do
degrading occupations, among which they consider shoe-making
disrespectable, and one who practises this trade is debarred from
marriage in the caste. Dr. Ball notes that one of them refused to carry
his dog in a basket. [452] No Hindu except a Dom will eat food touched
by them.
Ghasiyâra, Ghasyâra—(Sanskrit ghâsa, “grass,” kâraka “occupied
with”).—Grass-cutters, merely an occupation. But a few Muhammadans so
entered themselves at the last Census as a separate caste. They have,
of course, no connection with the Dravidian Ghasiyas.