Ghasia, Sais. [23]--A low Dravidian caste of Orissa and Central
India who cut grass, tend horses and act as village musicians at
festivals. In the Central Provinces they numbered 43,000 in 1911,
residing principally in the Chhattisgarh Division and the adjoining
Feudatory States. The word Ghasia is derived from ghas (grass) and
means a grass-cutter. Sir H. Risley states that they are a fishing
and cultivating caste of Chota Nagpur and Central India, who attend as
musicians at weddings and festivals and also perform menial offices of
all kinds. [24] In Bastar they are described as an inferior caste who
serve as horse-keepers and also make and mend brass vessels. They dress
like the Maria Gonds and subsist partly by cultivation and partly by
labour. [25] Dr. Ball describes them in Singhbhum as gold-washers and
musicians. 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 Chandals of the Puranas, though descended
from the union of a Brahmini and a Sudra, are the lowest of the low,
the Ghasias are Chandals and the people further south who are called
Pariahs are no doubt of the same distinguished lineage." [26]