Gopal, Borekar.--Bibliography: Major Gunthorpe's Criminal Tribes;
Mr. Kitt's Berar Census Report, 1881.
A small vagrant and criminal caste of Berar, where they numbered about
2000 persons in 1901. In the Central Provinces they were included
among the Nats in 1901, but in 1891 a total of 681 were returned. Here
they belong principally to the Nimar District, and Major Gunthorpe
considers that they entered Berar from Nimar and Indore.
They are divided into five classes, the Marathi, Vir, Pangul, Pahalwan,
or Kham, and Gujarati Gopals. The ostensible occupation of all the
groups is the buying and selling of buffaloes. The word Gopal means a
cowherd and is a name of Krishna. The Marathi Gopals rank higher than
the rest, and all other classes will take food from them, while the
Vir Gopals eat the flesh of dead cattle and are looked down upon by the
others. The ostensible occupation of the Vir Gopals is that of making
mats from the leaves of the date-palm tree. They build their huts of
date-leaves outside a village and remain there for one or two years
or more until the headman tells them to move on. The name Borekar is
stated to have the meaning of mat-maker. The Pangul Gopals also make
mats, but in addition to this they are mendicants, begging from off
trees, and must be the same as the Harbola mendicants of the Central
Provinces. The Pangul spreads a cloth below a tree and climbing it
sits on some high branch in the early morning. Here he sings and
chants the praises of charitable persons until somebody throws a
small present on to the cloth. This he does only between cock-crow
and sunrise and not after sunrise. Others walk through the streets,
ejaculating dam! [100] dam! and begging from door to door. With the
exception of shaving after a death they never cut the hair either of
their head or face. Their principal deity is Dawal Malik, but they also
worship Khandoba; and they bury the bodies of their dead. The corpse is
carried to the grave in a jholi or wallet and is buried in a sitting
posture. In order to discover whether a dead ancestor has been reborn
in a child they have recourse to magic. A lamp is suspended from a
thread, and the upper stone of the grinding-mill is placed standing
upon the lower one. If either of them moves when the name of the dead
ancestor is pronounced they consider that he has been reborn. One
section of the Panguls has taken to agriculture, and these refuse to
marry with the mendicants, though eating and drinking with them. The
Pahalwan Gopals live in small tents and travel about, carrying their
belongings on buffaloes. They are wrestlers and gymnasts, and belong
mainly to Hyderabad. [101] The Kham Gopals are a similar group also
belonging to Hyderabad; and are so named because they carry about a
long pole (kham) on which they perform acrobatic feats. They also have
thick canvas bags, striped blue and white, in which they carry their
property. The Gujarati Gopals are lower than the other divisions,
who will not take food from them. They are tumblers and do feats of
strength and also perform on the tight-rope. All five groups, Major
Gunthorpe states, are inveterate cattle-thieves; and have colonies of
their people settled on the Indore and Hyderabad borders and between
them along the foot of the Satpura Hills. Buffaloes or other animals
which they steal are passed along from post to post and taken to
foreign territory in an incredibly short space of time. A considerable
proportion of them, however, have now taken to agriculture, and their
proper traditional calling is to sell milk and butter, for which
they keep buffaloes. Gopal is a name of Krishna, and they consider
themselves to be descended from the herdsmen of Brindaban.