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DECEMBER, 1894.] SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
3
Mális, rules about dévaks, or guardian badges, are strictly observed. Among their dévaks are such trees, or tree-leaves, as the shami (Mimosa suma), mango, jambul (Calyptranthes jambolana), bor (Zizyphus jujuba), and vad (Ficus Indica). Some have wheat-bread for their or an axe, or kurhad. Among dévak, and some have a conch-shell, an earthen pot, Ratnagiri Kunbis the vad (Ficus Indica) is the badge of those who have the surname of Kadam, and an elephant of those whose surname is Savant. A mango twig is the Sholapur Burad's dévuk, or guardian, and the dévak, or guardian, of the Shôlâpnr Telt, or oil-maker, is an iron bar, or pahár, and a mill, or ghana. The dévak of the Sholapur Agarvals, or scent-makers, is five piles, each of five earthen pots, with a lighted lamp in the middle. The Pâtradavarus, or dancing girls, of Dharwar, when a girl is in her seventh year, worship the musical instruments, which are their guardians. In North Kanara the important cultivating class of Halvakki Vakkals, an early and wide-spread tribe, is divided into eight clans, each of which has a separate badge, which, when it is an animal, they do not eat. Thus the Kadanballis do not eat the kadavé, or stag, the Bargalballis do not eat the bárgá, or deer, the Kuntiballis do not eat the woodcock. The Dhurvê Prabhas of Poona, before the threadgirding ceremony, set up a guardian, or dévak. They take an earthen pot, which they white-wash and mark with yellow, green and red. In it are laid grains of wheat and rice, a betelnut, a piece of turmeric root, and a halfpenny. The lid of the pot is closed, and thread is wound round it. A lighted stone lamp is set before it, and fed with oil.10 The déval of the Poona Rauls consists of leaves of the mango, rut, and saundad trees.11 The dévak, or guardian, of the Bangars of Poona is a conch-shell, and the dévale of the Pardêshi Rajputs is an earthen pot filled with wheat.12 The dévaks, or guardians, of the Alimadnagar Sonars, at their weddings, are their sandás, or pincers, and their blowpipe, or phunkani,13 The dévak, or guardian, of the Jain Shimpis of Ahmadnagar is a pot with a flat lid, white-washed and marked with red and green.14 The Ghisâdis of Ahmadnagar have as a guardian the leaves of the mango, umbar (Ficus glomerata), ru (Calotropis gigantea), and jambul trees.15 The Ahmadnagar Khatris' family guardians at a thread-girding and a marriage are white-washed earthen pots.16 The Chambhars of Ahmadnagar worship an axe as their décak, or guardian, and the Pahadis, a small class of Nagar market gardeners, worship a pair of scales, or taraju, as their dévak.17
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Several of the early tribes of Bengal shew traces of the worship of clan guardians, or badges. The Hôs and Mundas are divided into clans or kilis. A man is not allowed to marry a girl of his own clan. The Mundaris adopt the name of an animal as the clan badge, and its flesh may not be eaten. Among the animals chosen are the eel and tortoise. The badges of the Larkas and Hôs are not generally animals, 18 The Mânbhûm Kharriâs neither eat mutton, nor use wool. Dalton suggests they may be a sheep tribe, and the flesh of the badge, according to Kolarian rules be forbidden. Several of the Khond clans are named after animals-Muningâ or Fish Tribe, Janinga or Crab Tribe, Pochangia or Owl Tribe, Syalongâ or Spotted Deer, and Orangô or Blue Bull. 19 The Orâons of Chutia Nagpur and the Kasiâs of the North-East frontier are called after
From MS. notes.
From MS. notes. Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XX. pp. 98, 143...
8 Op. cit Vol. XXII. p. 191.
10 From MS. notes.
5 From verbal information given by a peon. Op. cit. Vol. XX. p. 49.
Op. cit. Vol. XV. p. 203. See ante, note 6.
380.
11 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 13 Op. cit. Vol. XVII. p. 136.
12 Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. pp. 265, 403.
15 Op. cit. Vol. XVII. p 98.
16 Op. cit. Vol. XVII. p. 111. 18 Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 189.
14 Op. cit. Vol. XVII. p. 101. 17 Op. cit. Vol. XVII. pp. 167, 91. 19 Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 161. Macpherson's Khonds, p. 34. Other tribal names seem to have an animal origin. The Kods are perhaps the horse tribe, as Koda Pen is the horse god of the Central Province Gonds (Hislop's Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, p. 18). Lamani is a peacock in Naikadu Gondi (op. cit. p. 27). Konda is a bullock in some Gond dialects (op. cit. p. 7). Koi is a cock or erow in Kaikadi (op. cit. p. 9), and a crow in Muda (op. cit. p. 10). The Marathi Solars do not eat goat's flesh, and seem to take their name from the Telugu sel for a goat. It seems probable that Selar has been, Sanskritized into Silahara, the dynasty who ruled in the Konkan from A.D. 850 to 1300. Similarly it may be suggested that the well-known dynasty of Chalukyas, whose chief capital was Kalyân near Haidari.bâd, are the Chalkis, or goat-herds, of the Deccan, who appear as Chherkyas among the Gonds (op. cit. p. 6).
