________________
JULY, 1874.)
NOTES ON CASTES IN THE DEKHAN.
189
their great implement for ráb, or cutting of plunderers as the other hill-races. I never saw branches, which, being burnt, serve to manure them in Government service in any capacity, their fields, to the great grief of the Forest but they sometimes work on roads, or for other officers. The axe is not so common, and is natives as labourers and herdsmen. used only for felling large timber. Their dress The Bhills are very scarce in these parts. is that of the Marathis, only not so good, and In 1870 I took a census of all the Bhills in less of it. The Raja of the little State of Jowâr the Jurnar Taluka-as much as to say, of all is a Koli; and so, I think, were by rights in the Paņa District. There were 59 able-bodied the Râjas of Peint, though they made believe males, of whom 12 were convicted offenders-a very much indeed to be Rajpats, until their fraction over 20 per cent. Their southern limit conversion to Islâm.
here and therefore I believe in the peninsula) The shâkurs are a still wilder race than is the Kakadi river. This race were the terror the Kolis. I believe the term is applied of the districts in old days. Men now living in further north to a breed supposed to be of mixed Otûr and other villages near the HarlchandraKoli and Rajput blood; but here the Thakur gadh or Brahmaņvad range remember their stands below the Koli, and is as distinct from annual incursions, and the hasty gatherings of him as chalk from cheese. They are very dark, villagers and property into the mud forts. The with broad flat faces and wide mouths, unmis- neck of their power, however, was broken takeably non-Aryan, and having names for many when Mandhargir Gosâvî threw 7,000 Bhills plants and animals different from the Marathả
into the wells of Kopargim, having got them words, and, even, the Kolis say from theirs. | into his hands by treachery. Some of them The likest people to them that I have seen
are losing their wild character, and settling are the Gonds. They are great hunters, using down as respectable cultivators. It is remarkoften firearms, but chiefly a broad-bladed pike, able that the Bhills of the Sahyadri are nets and snares. Their idea of cultivation
much superior in stature, appearance, and inis confined to dhali or kúmri, a process which
telligence to those of the Sathpura, a fact first is similar to the essartage of parts of France and
pointed out to me by an officer of the Khân. Belgium, and consists in cutting down the
desh Bh'll Corps. Those here don't eat beef, forest, burning trees and branches where they lie, but some of the wilder Bhills of Western Khânand sowing in the ashes, with the merest
desh do. preliminary scratch of a stick or koita, or The Kath karîs are not often met with often without it. They are plucky enough in above ghat; and for most of the following I am pursuit of game, and, as a rule, not such great indebted to observation in Khandesh and Külába,
"Thakur-in Gujarit, the N. Konkan, and in the Wadalis and Kathkaris extending south ward in the MAwals of Mid-Dekhan, on the connecting Ghåt range, Konkan Dhang, re to be regarded as of Bh.ll or Koli the appellation of an offset of the Kolis, who claim to be origin. In this locality the Bhills displace the Kolis ; but of part R&jpût descent. In Gujarat Thákar chiefs are
they have not like them, an aptitude for maritime service. still not uncommon; and others are cultivators: in the From the Vindhya hills the tribe has extended some way Konkan the tribe is degraded, being rude, ignorant, and into Gujariit, the Dekhan, and Central India, and there often very indigent; the Ma and Ka Thakur are here
has shown some disposition to settled habits, though inrecognized : in the Dekhan their condition is often the ferior in this respect to the Kolis. In former ages same; but it is better in the Western Mewal, where Thá- Bhills probubly owned the whole country, having been kurs are rather numerous. A connection with Rejpats is not
displaced and driven back to their fastnesses, whence they seldorn claimed by these people, who present almost all the
made raids on all sides, and they still retain some marks of features of an aboriginal race, who are intensely preiudiced.
anthority even amongst the Rijpûts, who were formerly and sometimes reputed thieves. There is corresponding
often their guests and allies. Some Bhills have become mixed race of Bhills in Central India, where too are
Musalmans, but most preserve primitive worship : and found the Gonds, whose resemblance to Th&kurs has
as to occupation the settled families are petty tariners, been remarked." --Trans. Med. and Phys. Soc. ut sup. sellers of jungle produce, kath-preparers, fishermen, &c., p. 242.
while a turbulent section remains who still are given to + Vide ante, vol. II. pp. 148, 201, 217, 251. "Bhill:
steal and plunder. The tribe is subdivided into numerous Bhilla- tribe of dark-skinned people who inhabit the
families or classes : it has no peculiar language. Bhills Vindhys and scthpura ranges, branching inland from and Kolis are not the same people, though in general the N. termination of the Western Ghats. In their fast
charcter alike: the two do not intermarry: and the fornesses the Bhills are still almost savages, and by intuition
mer have shown less aptitude and ability, and greater robbers; but those much or long in contact with civilized
tenacity for primitive and rude habita : their physique, too, races have acquired improved habits. Their physique
is inferior : in consequence the Bhills have not yet made varies according to locality, and so customs : towards the
much progress towards & settled or civilized state, but ses-coast, which the tribe reaches about the mouths of the exceptional instances are known, and occasionally in village Tłpti and Narmada, whose course is parallel to the above- establishments in N. Dekban the Bhill is found occupy. named ranges, their physical characters are said to deteri
ing the same position as servant as the Koli and R. orate, and there the people, known comprehensively as the mos i further south."-Dr. Carter ut sup. p. 188. Kala praje, with, most probably it would seem, the
cultivatorshies are
digent, the meded, being
recognized
