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Nov. 1, 1872.]
THE PALIS OF DINAJPUR.
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dress. They profess to be Hindus, but while they follow the Hindu religion in the main, they also practise some ceremonies borrowed from Musalmans and others, which are apparently remnants of an older superstition. Their own tradition of their origin, as communicated to me by an old Pali of this district, is as follows: “The whole country of Behar, from whence the Palis and Koch are supposed to have come, was once governed by a celebrated king named Jarasindhu ; his subjects used to fight for him with sticks as they had no weapons of iron. He claimed tc be a Khetriya, and the descendants of his subjects, believing themselves to be of the same family, call themselves Rajvansi to this day.
“Now there was a poor old man living in the country (his name I learn from other sources was Haja) who had two daughters, in married virgins; the name of the eldest was Hira and of the second Jirk. The god Siva used to visit them, and at last Hirà became pregnant by him, their old father discovered it, and became very angry with them, and used to reproach them continually; but still they used to meet Siva every day in secret, till it happened that their father had gone away on some business, and they ventured to bring him into the house, and began to talk with him, and Hirả said, I have become pregnant by you and my father is angry with me; all his caste are my enemies, and my time of delivery is approaching.' Siva replied,
Tako courage, the son which shall be born to you must be concealed and brought up socretly, you must call him Kagendra and by my favour he shall become king, and thirty-six of his descendants shall reign after him. While they were talking thus Hira's father appeared at the door with a stick in his hand : they were all three frightened and the old man lifted up his stick to strike Siva, and he seeing no other means of escape, began to retreat underground. As he was disappearing the old man attacked him with his stick, but by that time at his body had disnppeared except his feet which the old man struck, and from that circumstance Siva is still known and worshipped by the name of Jalpeswarnath. Sometime after this Hira, although she was still a virgin, bore a beautiful boy, and as she was afraid of her father and kins
folk, she made a ring (koch t ) of kusa grass and concealed him in it, and brought him up secretly and gave him the name of Kagendra.
"In course of time this child became king of Bchar, and although king Jarasindhu was a Khetriya, yet becauso Kagendra was brought up in a koch, his tribe is still known by the name of Koch, and because the five cereinoniest were not used at his birth, the Koch do not use them to this day.
"Some time after this Parasuram, son of Jamidagni, cleared India of Khetriyas twenty-one times, for he fought with them as hereditary enemies. In the course of his travels he came to Behar, and the king and his Rajvansis took sticks in their hands, and went forth to meet him, but he was no ordinary warrior, and moreover used a battle-axe. The Râjvansis could not withstand him, and some by fording, some by swimining, crossed over to the west bank of the Tista. The king saved himself by telling Parasuram that he was a Koch. From that time forth those who escaped by fleeing into this country have been called Pallais (from TT), and as the Khetriyas boast that they have never been defeated, and these men were routed by Parasuram, they are also called Bhangakhetryas, and the fow men of the Koch caste who inhabited the country before the battle are called Dosis." This tradition must be taken for what it is worth, but there can be no doubt that the Palis and Koch are a people of Mongolian race who migrato into this district from the Northeast. The story they tell of their ancestors being conquered by Parasurim probably refers to their conquest by the Aryans, and that they came from the east side of the T'ista seems alınost certain.
They live under an almost pure patriarchal system, each family has its head and each village has its mandal; while again four or five villages are placed jointly under a patwari, the mandal and patwari are generally appointed by the zanindar, of whom they are the local represon tatives. The greatest respect is paid to the elder members of the family in every household; there is a hcauman who is called, if the elder brother-darbâriya bhai(C CT WIT), or if he is any other relative-dewaạiya ( T ); the other members of the family are absolutay
+ Probably connected with the Sk. root F or to copatruct.
arati, FTAT, EITT, 778, WAT
• Worshipped at Changrabande in Jalpaigun: the image is enclosed in a pucka well, a large mola is held there every year.
