The Gandas are generally employed either in weaving coarse cloth or as
village musicians. They sing and dance to the accompaniment of their
instruments, the dancers generally being two young boys dressed as
women. They have long hair and put on skirts and half-sleeved jackets,
with hollow anklets round their feet filled with stones to make them
tinkle. On their right shoulders are attached some peacocks' feathers,
and coloured cloths hang from their back and arms and wave about
when they dance. Among their musical instruments is the sing-baja,
a single drum made of iron with ox-hide leather stretched over it;
two horns project from the sides for purposes of decoration and
give the instrument its name, and it is beaten with thick leather
thongs. The dafla is a wooden drum open on one side and covered with
a goat-skin on the other, beaten with a cane and a bamboo stick. The
timki is a single hemispherical drum of earthenware; and the sahnai
is a sort of bamboo flute. The Gandas of Sambalpur have strong
criminal tendencies which have recently called for special measures of
repression. Nevertheless they are usually employed as village watchmen
in accordance with long-standing custom. They are considered as impure
and, though not compelled actually to live apart from the village,
have usually a separate quarter and are not permitted to draw water
from the village well or to enter Hindu temples. Their touch defiles,
and a Hindu will not give anything into the hands of one of the caste
while holding it himself, but will throw it down in front of the Ganda,
and will take anything from him in the same manner. They will admit
outsiders of higher rank into the caste, taking from them one or two
feasts. And it is reported that in Raipur a Brahman recently entered
the caste for love of a Ganda girl.