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AUGUST, 1918 ]
RELIGION IN SIND
203
Mahomedans do not go to Nasarpur, they never eat with Hindus either at Nasarpur or Uderolâl.
In this religion there is no place for Brahmins though a few Brahmin mendicants may be found at Uderolal. The controlling persons are Thakurs, who maintain their position by the most unusual custom of exogamy.
It has already been noted that the two principal sections of the Thakurs are the Somki and the Budhis. The latter centre upon Sehwan and are the more respected persons. There is a third sub-division known as the Ghosis, who centre around Mehar and have their own followers. The story runs that they are the descendants and disciples of a poor man who lived with some Budhais (who are known also as Vardharis) as a temple servant. One day when the Thakur arose early in the morning and ordered his horse to be prepared as he wished to go to the river, this man came and knelt before him like a horse saying that he was the horse and that the Thakur Sahib should ride him to the river. The Thakur rejoiced and told him that he might now leave the temple and obtain his own disciples who should henceforth be known as Ghoráis. When Ghorâis approach a village where other Ghorsis live they neigh like a horse before entering it.
The custom of marriage among Thakurs is this. No Thakur may marry from a Thakur family; more especially a Budhại may not marry from a Som i Thakur family for all Thakurs are brothers. A Thakur may not even marry from a Daryapanthi family which is reckoned among his own disciples. A Thakur may marry from any PunjabiHindu family, e.g., Arora, Lanjára (Inai), Supareja (L ), Khir aya ( 1 ), Rabar (de); Kukareja (ly, SS), Chanwala (gl). They do not marry from among Sindhi Lohanas nor from among the Thakurs of Punjab. Conversely, too. Thakur daughters must be given to Punjabi families. Among the rank and file of the Daryapanthi religion marriage is a question of social position. Daughters may be given to castes or sub-sections of equal standing but not to those of lower esteem though daughters may be taken from such (hypergamy) or from within the same section (endogany). Socially Budhâis will have no intercourse with Somais, as Pugar, their ancestor, was the honoured disciple of Uderolal.
Thakurs are, ordinarily speaking, a priestly class and when personally they have a sufficient number of followers they are absolved from the necessity of working for their living. Otherwise they enter Government or private service or engage in trade.
The story of Uderolal, LAI Wadero, the holy chieftain, is remarkable from many points of view. The incarnation of the God of Nature, the God of Sind, the River God, is assigned a definite and comparatively recent date. It may be that the Hindu revival spring from the persecution of a petty Sumro prince during the latter part of the 10th century just previous to the inroads of Mahomed of Ghazni; it may be, however, rather later and represented a reaction against the strength of the agents of Ghazni kings. Probably the latter is a better explanation in view of the close connection of the Thakur family with the Punjab. One may picture to oneself the break up of Brahmanical rule in the Punjab, the flight of large classes to Sind, the "capture” of local Hinduism in the 11th century, just as in the 17th and 18th centuries a new swarm of Uttaradis came, partly to avoid local persecution and partly to avail themselves of trading facilities under the Mogul régime.
