Halba, Halbi. [138]--A caste of cultivators and farmservants whose
home is the south of the Raipur District and the Kanker and Bastar
States; from here small numbers of them have spread to Bhandara and
parts of Berar. In 1911 they numbered 100,000 persons in the combined
Provinces. The Halbas have several stories relating to their own
origin. One of these, reported by Mr. Gokul Prasad, is as follows:
One of the Uriya Rajas had erected four scarecrows in his field to
keep off the birds. One night Mahadeo and Parvati were walking on the
earth and happened to pass that way, and Parvati saw them and asked
what they were. When it was explained to her she thought that as they
had excited her interest something should be done for them, and at
her request Mahadeo gave them life and they became two men and two
women. Next morning they presented themselves before the Raja and told
him what had happened. The Raja said, "Since you have come on earth,
you must have a caste. Run after Mahadeo and find out what caste you
should belong to." So they ran after the god and inquired of him,
and he said that as they had excited his and Parvati's attention
by waving in the wind they should be called Halba, from halna, to
wave. This story is clearly based on one of those fanciful punning
derivations so dear to the Brahmanical mind, but the legend about being
created from scarecrows is found among other agricultural castes of
non-Aryan origin, as the Lodhis. The story continues that the reason
why the Halbas came to settle in Bastar and Kanker was that they had
accompanied one of the Rajas of Jagannath in Orissa, who was afflicted
with leprosy, to the Sihawa jungles, where he proposed to pass the
rest of his life in retirement. On a certain day the Raja went out
hunting with his dogs, one of which was quite white. This dog jumped
into a spring of water and came out with his white skin changed to
copper red. The Raja, observing this miracle, bathed in the spring
himself and was cured of his leprosy. He then wished to return to
Orissa, but the Halbas induced him to remain in his adopted country,
and he became the ancestor of the Rajas of Kanker. The Halbas are
still the household servants of the Kanker family, and when a fresh
chief succeeds, one of them, who has the title of Kapardar, takes
him to the temple and invests him with the Durbar ki poshak or royal
robes, affixing also the tika or badge of office on his forehead with
turmeric, rice and sandalwood, and rubbing his body over with ottar of
roses. Until lately the Kapardar's family had a considerable grant of
rent-free land, but this has now been taken away. A Halba is or was
also the priest of the temple at Sihawa, which is said to have been
built by the first Raja over the spring where he was healed of his
leprosy. The Halbas are also connected with the Rajas of Bastar, and
a suggestion has been made [139] that they originally belonged to the
Telugu country and came with the Rajas of Bastar from Warangal in the
Deccan. Mr. Gilder derives the name from an old Canarese word Halbar or
Halbaru, meaning 'old ones or ancients' or 'primitive inhabitants.' The
Halba dialect, however, contains no traces of Canarese, and on the
question of their entering Bastar with the Rajas, Rai Bahadur Panda
Baijnath, Diwan of Bastar, writes as follows: In the following saying
relating to the coming of the Bastar Rajas, which is often repeated,
the Halba's name does not occur:
Chalkibans Raja Dibdibi baja.
Kosaria Rawat Pita Bhatra.
Peng Parja Raja Muria.
Tendukhuti Pania lava.
Which may be rendered: "The Raja was of the Chalki race. [140] The drum
was called Dibdibi. Kosaria Rawat, Pita Bhatra, Peng Parja and Raja
Muria, [141] these four castes came with the Raja. The tribute paid
(to the Raja) was a comb of tendu wood and a lava quail." This doggerel
rhyme is believed to recall the circumstances of the immigration of
the Bastar Rajas. So the Halbas did not perhaps come with the Raja,
but they were his guards for a long time. In the Dasahra ceremony a
Halba carried the royal Chhatra or Umbrella, and the Raja walked under
the protection of another Halba's naked sword. A Halba's widows were
not sold and his intestate property was not taken over by the Raja.