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NOTES ON CASTES IN THE DEKHAN.
MAY, 1874.]
can be no doubt that the M â wali swordsmen who laid the foundations of Raja Sivaji's power were mostly of this race; but they are certainly of a different blood (probably non-Aryan), and the dislike for distant service, which they share with most Indian hill and forest tribes, prevented them from having any part in the subsequent extension of the empire, which was effected chiefly by the horsemen of the plains.
b. The Dhanagars and some other castes occasionally affect the style of Marâthâs; but these will not eat or intermarry with them.
c. Of the Agrais of the Konkan I know little; but they appear to be on terms of equality as to bed and board with the Marathas of the Dekhan, and at any rate do not come within the local scope of these notes.
d. The term Haitkari, which frequently occurs in the earlier pages of Grant Duff, signifies "one from a distance," and is properly applied to the inhabitants of Mâlwân and neighbouring districts, who leave their own country in search of employment. These men are distinguished from all other natives of their rank in Western India by their comparatively high intelligence and education. There is scarcely one in ten that cannot read and write.
After the crops have been got in, large numbers of the able-bodied men of the Punâ district go down to Bombay to work for wages, and are known there as Ghatis, which term signifies simply one from the Ghâts, or above them, and is applied indifferently to men of several castes, mostly Marâthâs indeed, but many of them Kolis, Dhanagars, Mâlis, &c. I have heard a Brâhman speak of himself as a Ghâți.
In the Punâ district the words Kûnabî and Marath â are synonymous in careless conversation, because the land is mainly in possession of this caste; but in Solâpûr and Khandesh the presence of other cultivating races necessitates the use of more accurate language, and therefore in the former district they always call themselves Marathas; in the latter De k hanî s-being mostly immigrants from the Dekhan. No Indian race has shown a greater adaptability to circumstances, or more readiness to enter upon any career where profit or distinction is to be earned. They are not, it is true, favourites with the recruiting officer, with whom the superior intelligence and hardi
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ness of the Marâthâ does not compensate for his inferior stature and appearance, his indifference to neatness in dress, and his strong disposition to intrigue and insolence; and, in consequence, the showy but stupid Hindustânî or the more obedient Mahår finds a readier welcome in N. I. regiments. But for police service, which requires an indifference to reliefs and a power of independent action very rare with Hindustânîs, and a personal prestige unattainable by the Mahâr, the Marâțhâ is, to my mind, better suited than any other race in Western India; and in the Punâ Horse there are about 80 Mânakari Silledårs, who are found, I believe, by their own officers, inferior in no respect to their other recruits. I have known one or two instances of their steadiness and presence of mind, which seem worth recording. One day a large party (including the writer) were put to ignominious flight by a swarm of bees, sent, public opinion said, by the god Bhima Sankar to resist our sacrilegious entrance into a Buddhist cave, now held sacred to him, in the Mân-modi hill near Junnar. The approach to this cave was up a wall of rock as straight as that of a house, with some rude steps and holes cut in it; and when we had all tumbled down this at the risk of our necks, nor stopped till we fairly outran the enraged insects, my Marâthâ police-orderly was seen coming down as quietly as if he was in court, with a water-skin in one hand and a small cane chair in the other. Being asked whether he was tired of life, he only said that he would not leave his master's kit behind, for gods or bees. In another case, two Pathân sawârs, quarrelling, drew swords, and the one ran the other through the body, then rushed out into the centre of the lines, brandishing the bloody weapon, and swearing to cut down any man who should come near him. He kept the whole post at bay till a Maratha silledâr, half his size, availing himself of the picketed troophorses as a means of approach, rushed within his guard, threw him down, and disarmed him, without drawing his own sword.
The Maratha cultivators of the Dekhan have taken the whole carrying trade of all roads passable to carts out of the hands of the Wanjârîs and Lambânîs who thirty years ago monopolized the transport of all merchandize, and they have even competed successfully with
