The principal deity of the Koshtis is Gajanand or Ganpati, whom they
revere on the festival of Ganesh Chathurthi or the fourth day of the
month of Bhadon (August). They clean all their weaving implements and
worship them and make an image of Ganpati in cowdung to which they
make offerings of flowers, rice and turmeric. On this day they do not
work and fast till evening, when the image of Ganpati is thrown into
a tank and they return home and eat delicacies. Some of them observe
the Tij or third day of every month as a fast for Ganpati, and when
the moon of the fourth day rises they eat cakes of dough roasted on
a cowdung fire and mixed with butter and sugar, and offer these to
Ganpati. Some of the Salewars are Vaishnavas and others Lingayats: the
former employ Ayawars for their gurus or spiritual preceptors and are
sometimes known as Tirmendar; while the Lingayats, who are also called
Woheda, have Jangams as their priests. In Balaghat and Chhattisgarh
many of the Koshtis belong to the Kabirpanthi sect, and these revere
the special priests of the sect and abstain from the use of flesh and
liquor. They are also known as Ghatibandhia, from the ghat or string
of beads of basil-wool (tulsi) which they tie round their necks. In
Mandla the Kabirpanthi Koshtis eat flesh and will intermarry with
the others, who are known distinctively as Saktaha. The Gurmukhis
are a special sect of the Nagpur country and are the followers of a
saint named Koliba Baba, who lived at Dhapewara near Kalmeshwar. He is
said to have fed five hundred persons with food which was sufficient
for ten and to have raised a Brahman from the dead in Umrer. Some
Brahmans wished to test him and told him to perform a miracle, so he
had a lot of brass pots filled with water and put a cloth over them,
and when he withdrew it the water had changed into curded milk. The
Gurmukhis have a descendant of Koliba Baba for their preceptor,
and each of them keeps a cocoanut in his house, which may represent
Koliba Baba or else the unseen deity. To this he makes offerings of
sandalwood, rice and flowers. The Gurmukhis are forbidden to venerate
any of the ordinary Hindu deities, but they cannot refrain from making
offerings to Mata Mai when smallpox breaks out, and if any person has
the disease in his house they refrain from worshipping the cocoanut
so long as it lasts, because they think that this would be to offer a
slight to the smallpox goddess who is sojourning with them. Another
sect is that of the Matwales who worship Vishnu as Narayan, as well
as Siva and Sakti. They are so called because they drink liquor at
their religious feasts. They have a small platform on which fresh
cowdung is spread every day, and they bow to this before taking their
food. Once in four or five years after a wedding offerings are made
to Narayan Deo on the bank of a tank outside the village; chickens
and goats are killed and the more extreme of them sacrifice a pig,
but the majority will not join with these. Offerings of liquor are
also made and must be drunk by the worshippers. Mehras and other
low castes also belong to this sect, but the Koshtis will not eat
with them. But in Chhindwara it is said that on the day after the
Pola festival in August, when insects are prevalent and the season of
disease begins, the Koshtis and Mangs go out together to look for the
narbod shrub, [619] and here they break a small piece of bread and
eat it together. In Bhandara the Koshtis worship the spirit of one
Kadu, patel or headman of the village of Mohali, who was imprisoned in
the fort of Ambagarh under an accusation of sorcery in Maratha times
and died there. He is known as Ambagarhia Deo, and the people offer
goats and fowls to him in order to be cured of diseases. The above
notice indicates that the caste are somewhat especially inclined
to religious feeling and readily welcome reformers striving against
Hindu polytheism and Brahman supremacy. This is probably due in part
to the social stigma which attaches to the weaving industry among the
Hindus and is resented as an injustice by the Koshtis, and in part
also to the nature of their calling, which leaves the mind free for
thought during long hours while the fingers are playing on the loom;
and with the uneducated serious reflection must almost necessarily be
of a religious character. In this respect the Koshti may be said to
resemble his fellow-weavers of Thrums. In Nagpur District the Koshtis
observe the Muharram festival, and many of them go out begging on the
first day with a green thread tied round their body and a beggar's
wallet. They cook the grain which is given to them on the tenth day
of the festival, giving a little to the Muhammadan priest and eating
the rest. This observance of a Muhammadan rite is no doubt due to
their long association with followers of that religion in Berar.