Thus the Halbas occupy a comparatively honourable position in
Bastar. They are the highest local caste with the exception of the
Brahmans, the Dhakars or illegitimate descendants of Brahmans, and
a few Rajput families. The reason for this is no doubt that they
have become landholders in the State, a position which it would
not be difficult for them to acquire when their only rivals were
the Gonds. They are moderately good cultivators, and in Dhamtari
can hold their own with Hindus, so that they could well surpass
the Gond. Traditions also remain in Bastar of a Halba revolt. It
is said that during Raja Daryao Deo's reign, about 125 years back,
the Halbas rebelled and many were thrown down a waterfall ninety feet
high, one only of these escaping with his life. The eyes of some were
also put out as a punishment for the oppression they had exercised,
and a stone inscription at Donger records the oath of fealty taken
by the Halbas before the image of Danteshwari, the tutelary deity
of Bastar, after their insurrection was put down in Samvat 1836 or
A.D. 1779. The Halbas were thus a caste of considerable influence,
since they could attempt to subvert the ruling dynasty. In Bhandara
again the caste have quite a different story, and say that they came
from the United Provinces or, according to another version, the Makrai
State, where they were of the status of Rajputs and wore the sacred
thread. There a girl of their family, of great beauty, was asked in
marriage by a Muhammadan king. The father could not refuse the king,
but would not give his daughter in marriage to one not of his own
caste. So he fled south and took asylum with the Gond Raja of Chanda,
from whom the Halba zamindars subsequently received their estates. It
seems unnecessary to attach any importance to this story; the tale of
the beautiful daughter is most hackneyed, and the whole has probably
been devised by the Brahmans to give the Halba zamindars of Bhandara a
more respectable ancestry than they could claim if they admitted having
come from Bastar, certainly no home of Rajputs. But if this supposition
is correct it is interesting to note how a legend may show a caste
as originating in some place with which it never had any connection
whatever; and it seems a necessary conclusion that no importance can
be attached to such traditions without corroborating evidence.