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NOVEMBER, 1875.]
NOTES ON KHANDESH.
ROUGH NOTES ON KHANDESH. BY W. F. SINCLAIR, Bo. C. S. (Continued from p. 110.)
The Kathkaris are found in the forests of the west or north. They are all of the Dhor division and eat beef.
The Parwaris of Khândesh are identical in all respects with those of the Dekhan.
The Wandering Tribes are much the same as in the Dekhan.
The most peculiar are a set of people called the Magar Shikaris, who spend their lives wandering up and down the large rivers fishing, especially for crocodiles. Their procedure is to get the crocodile into some pool having narrow outlets, which they stop with large and strong nets. If they mark one in at night, they light fires and watch the pool till daylight.
The Man Bhawâs are a religious sect who wear black garments and beg about, but have now generally settled down to trade and agriculture. I am not aware of their special tenets, but they seem to be unpopular amongst orthodox Hindus. A garû of this sect, named Ajîbâ, exercised considerable influence at the court of Indor during the corrupt period of the regency of Tulasi Bâi, after Yeshwantrao Holkar had become insane.
A peculiar race of drovers called Kânades sometimes visit the western forests of Khândesh, though their proper pastures are in the northwest corner of the Dekhan. They appear to be descended from Drâvidian immigrants, but have no tradition to that effect and no special language. They are more civilized and respectable than most wandering herdsmen, and resemble more the Marâțhâ cultivators. In parts of the Nasik district they have taken entirely to agriculture. They have a peculiar breed of black and white cattle called Hatkar, much prized in the Konkan for their strength and spirit, though not large. They worship Krishna as the divine herdsman, and take good care of their cattle, and are altogether a good sort of folk.
Under the head of Hill or Forest Tribes, however, we find much that is new and interesting in this district.
There are very few Râ musis, the Bhisti Kolist taking their intermediate place between
See Ind. Ant. vol. III. p. 189. + Vide ante, vol. II. p. 76.
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the settled races and the "pucka junglies," in addition to their own position as water-bearers, fishers, and ferrymen. They are particularly numerous in the east and south, where they generally hold the inferior offices of village police, those of the Jâglia or general watchman, Tarai or gate-ward, and Talabde, or sentry of the village chauri; and also that of the village Havildar who answers to the Chougule of the Dekhan, being the head of the village police under the pútils, in whose absence he is responsible for order. These Kolis are often great shikáris, as skilful in woodcraft as the Bhills, and far cooler and steadier. They are also tolerable cultivators, less given to crime than most castes of this sort, and withal a fine manly set of fellows, physically and morally. They do not, however (on account of their inferior numbers and less troublesome character), attract nearly so much attention as the next race on the list, the Bhills.
I have not seen the results of the last census of Khandesh, but I hope some officer now serving there will correct, if necessary, the rough estimate which was current when I was in that district, viz. that the B hills numbered 150,000 souls, or about ten per cent. of the whole population of Khândesh, including the three southwestern tâlukâs, since transferred to Nâsik. This estimate, however, allowed for several races who are not true Bhills, or, as they call themselves, "Bhill Naiks" or "Naik lok." Sir John Malcolm, in his work on Central India, quotes a legend by which the descent of the Bhills of those parts is traced to the union of Mahadeva with a wood-nymph who relieved and comforted him when alone and weary in the forest. She bore him a large family, of whom one turned out a scamp, and was accordingly kicked out into the jungles, which have ever since been the patrimony of his descendants, the Bhills. In Khândesh, however, I have never met with this or any similar legend; and, as far as I could discover, the Bhills there look upon themselves as Autochthones. I believe they are several times mentioned in
Vide ante, vol. II. pp. 148, 201, 217, 251; vol. III. pp. 110, 178, 180, 186, 189, 222, 224, 228, 339.
