The Gond rules of exogamy appear to preserve traces of the system found
in Australia, by which the whole tribe is split into two or four main
divisions, and every man in one or two of them must marry a woman in
the other one or two. This is considered by Sir J. G. Frazer to be
the beginning of exogamy, by which marriage was prohibited, first,
between brothers and sisters, and then between parents and children,
by the arrangement of these main divisions. [55]
Among the Gonds, however, the subdivision into small exogamous septs
has been also carried out, and the class system, if the surmise that
it once existed be correct, remains only in the form of a survival,
prohibiting marriage between agnates, like an ordinary sept. In one
part of Bastar all the septs of the Maria Gonds are divided into two
great classes. There are ninety septs in A Class and sixty-nine in
B Class, though the list may be incomplete. All the septs of A Class
say that they are Bhaiband or Dadabhai to each other, that is in the
relation of brothers, or cousins being the sons of brothers. No man
of Class A can marry a woman of any sept in Class A. The septs of
Class A stand in relation of Mamabhai or Akomama to those of Class
B. Mamabhai means a maternal uncle's son, and Akomama apparently
signifies having the same maternal grandfather. Any man of a sept
in Class A can marry any woman of a sept in Class B. It will thus be
seen that the smaller septs seem to serve no purpose for regulating
marriage, and are no more than family names. The tribe might just
as well be divided into two great exogamous clans only. Marriage is
prohibited between persons related only through males; but according
to the exogamous arrangement there is no other prohibition, and
a man could marry any maternal relative. Separate rules, however,
prohibit his marriage with certain female relatives, and these will
be given subsequently. [56] It is possible that the small septs may
serve some purpose which has not been elicited, though the inquiry
made by Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath was most careful and painstaking.
In another part of Bastar there were found to be five classes, and
each class had a small number of septs in it. The people who supplied
this information could not give the names of many septs. Thus Class A
had six septs, Class B five, Classes C and D one each, Class E four,
and Class F two. A man could not marry a woman of any sept belonging
to his own class.
The Muria Gonds of Bastar have a few large exogamous septs or clans
named in Hindi after animals, and each of these clans contains several
subsepts with Gondi names. Thus the Bakaravans or Goat race contains
the Garde, Kunjami, Karrami and Vadde septs. The Kachhimvans or
Tortoise race has the Netami, Kawachi, Usendi and Tekami septs; the
Nagvans or Cobra race includes the Maravi, Potari, Karanga, Nurethi,
Dhurwa and others. Other exogamous races are the Sodi (or tiger),
Behainsa (buffalo), Netam (dog in Gondi), Chamchidai (bat) and one
or two more. In this case the exogamous clans with Hindi names would
appear to be a late division, and have perhaps been adopted because
the meaning of the old Gondi names had been forgotten, or the septs
were too numerous to be remembered.
In Chanda a classification according to the number of gods worshipped
is found. There are four main groups worshipping seven, six, five
and four gods respectively, and each group contains ten to fifteen
septs. A man cannot marry a woman of any sept which worships the same
number of gods as himself. Each group has a sacred animal which the
members revere, that of the seven-god worshippers being a porcupine,
of the six-god worshippers a tiger, of the five-god worshippers the
saras crane, and of the four-god worshippers a tortoise. As a rule the
members of the different groups do not know the names of their gods,
and in practice it is doubtful whether they restrict themselves to the
proper number of gods of their own group. Formerly there were three-,
two- and one-god worshippers, but in each of these classes it is
said that there were only one or two septs, and they found that they
were much inconvenienced by the paucity of their numbers, perhaps
for purposes of communal worship and feasting, and hence they got
themselves enrolled in the larger groups. In reality it would appear
that the classification according to the number of gods worshipped is
being forgotten, and the three lowest groups have disappeared. This
conjecture is borne out by the fact that in Chhindwara and other
localities only two large classes remain who worship six and seven
gods respectively, and marry with each other, the union of a man
with a woman worshipping the same number of gods as himself being
prohibited. Here, again, the small septs included in the groups appear
to serve no purpose for regulating marriages. In Mandla the division
according to the number of gods worshipped exists as in Chanda; but
many Gonds have forgotten all particulars as to the gods, and say only
that those septs which worship the same number of gods are bhaiband,
or related to each other, and therefore cannot intermarry. In Betul
the division by numbers of gods appears to be wholly in abeyance. Here
certain large septs, especially the Uika and Dhurwa, are subdivided
into a number of subsepts, within each of which marriage is prohibited.