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NOTES ON CASTES IN THE DEKHAN.
JULY, 1874.]
that they are personally brave, though none have ever risen to military command, and but few enter the native army, where I do not think the other sepoys would tolerate them, or they refrain from plundering their com rades. They are good trackers and hunters (and no good shikári can be classed as a thorough blackguard), and not only are they faithful to their employers, but if you retain one Râ mosi watchman you have enlisted the whole caste in your favour, at least they say so, and' we like to believe it; whereas the Arab, Makrâni, Pardesi, and Panjâbî swashbucklers, who are often entertained for protection of property, regard their honesty as purchased only by their own master, and will employ any leisure he allows them in robbing his next neighbour, without hesitating to murder their own brethren on guard at the door. The unenviable notoriety of the Råmosis for peculiar skill in the most despicable trade that a human being can follow is chiefly due to the fact that the so-called Râmosis, or house-watchmen, of our towns and stations do not always belong to this race at all, but are often Parwâris or the scum of other castes; but they can't be entirely acquitted of the charge, and their own women have no great reputation for chastity; nor are the men much more jealous than the Parwârîs. The Beruds of the South Maratha Country* are identical with the Râmośîs (and are not to be confounded with the Burûḍst or basketmakers). In the Karmâlâ Tâlukâ of Solâpur, which is the north-western limit of the use of the term Berud, they eat together and intermarry. Their chief ostensible employment is that of village watchman; in which capacity they have usually some little inám land, generally sublet to a cultivator; and they live partly upon the produce or rent of this, eked out with the produce of the chase; but their main subsistence is the Buluta Penda, or contribution in kind, of the cultivators; and woe to the Kunabi who refuses the R & mô sî his dues!
"Berad or Bedar-a low caste found in the S. Marath& Country, &c., who now serve as watchmen, &c., like Ramosis in the Dekhan to the N. of their limits; formerly known as marauders and still sometimes addicted to robbery; present habits and customs resemble those of the lower castes of Hindus. The Baydaru' of S. India were described by Buchanar as soldiers, hunters, and cultivators; often robbers: holding caste restrictions and retaining several rude customs: they had hereditary chiefs and a race of nobles, and, like Kolis, were sub
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They are skilful in the use of nets to catch hares and partridges; and, though nominally disarmed, there is generally one in a watan (official family) of R â mosis who knows where to lay his hand upon a rusty matchlock, and more than one who know how to use it. They also use the sword, and sometimes the pike, but never the bow, and, being seldom horsemen, know nothing of the lance. The Kolîst of the Sahyadri are a very different race. They are confined entirely to the Mâ wâl ('sunset'), the term applied throughout the Dekhan to the highlands which form the western horizon of so much of it. As I have already said, they claim the name of Marâṭhãs, and formed, no doubt, the greater part of the force of Mâ wali swordsmen by whose means the Marâthâ power first gathered head in the fastnesses of the Ghâts; but, being averse to distant or mounted service, they had little hand in the extension of his predatory power; and I do not know that any of them ever attained to higher command in the Marâthâ service than that of some of the small hill-forts, called here durgs, as distinguished from the more important fortresses called kilás, and the village citadels called garhis. They are, no doubt, of non-Aryan race; they have a few words unknown to the Marâthâs proper; bury their dead, except in the case of cholera and some other causes of death, which they seem to regard as implying a curse, and in which they accord to the deceased no better sepulture than heaving him over the nearest cliff. They are physically a fine race, active and well formed, though seldom of great power; often rather fair, which they probably owe to the damp and cool climate of their mountains. Their features are usually flat and broad; I never saw a man among them who could be called handsome, though some of the younger women have pleasing faces, the effect of which is much enhanced by their graceful figure and action. They are freer than the women of the plains in manner, and salute a saheb just as the men do, but have a high, and
divided into a number of families which might not intermarry. They are probably an aboriginal tribe... their former capital was Padshahpur, in the Belgâm district."Trans. Med. and Phys. Soc. ut sup. p. 197.
+ Vide ante, p. 77." An inferior caste widely scattered in the Dekhan: they are makers of cages and baskets of wickerwork; also mats, &c. of bamboo and the rattan cane."-Trans. Med. and Phys. Soc. ut sup. p. 202.
Vide Ind. Ant. vol. II. p. 154.-ED.
