________________
AUUUST, 1928 1
THE GAYDANR FESTIVAL IN SHAHABAD
197
THE GÂYDAXR FESTIVAL IN THE SHAHABAD DISTRICT, BIHAR
BY C. E. A. W. OLDHAM, C.S.I. A FESTIVAL held in the month of Kartik in which cattle play a leading part is widely prevalent in Northern India; the rites observed vary in different parts. A striking foature of the observances, at all events in Bihar and in parts of Bengal, is that the cattle are incited to gore or worry to death a pig, or else they are made to chase a mock pig, made by stuffing a bag or blanket with chaff or straw. In these provinces it is essentially a festival of the Ahîrs, or cowherding folk, a caste which is now practically confined to Northern and North Central India. The Abhîras, or Abhîras, from whom they take their name, were in very early times settled in the West, particularly in the area extending from Gujarat to the Panjab. According to Sir A. Baines, "The leading tribes seem to have been of western origin, and are supposed to have entered India long after the Vedic Arya." The author of the Periplus places Aberia inland from Suråştra and the Gulf of Kacch. Ptolemy places it above Patalênê (i.e., the delta of the Indus). Varahamihira locates the Abhiras in the south-western and southern divisions. They were powerful in the very early days in the west, about Gujarât, and in the Satpura region; and later on, it would seem, in the mid-Gangetic basin as far north as the lower tracts of what is now Nepal. One of the most peculiar features of the festival as observed in Shahâbâd, and as described in the sequel below, is the eating of the pig after it has been killed. It is not a case of the wild boar, the flesh of which is relished by so many tribes and castes that are accustomed to the chase (among whom the Ahírs, more. over cannot be classed): the pig in question is a village pig, the flesh of which is only eaten ordinarily by the most despised castes, regarded by all orthodox Hindus as quite outside the pale, and between whom and the Ahîrs there is a wide gap. Is this feature of the observances, then, a relic from the distant past? The wide area over which this, or a closely related, festival is held seems also to point to a remote origin. Can any suggestion be made as to its provenance ? Is it an offshoot of the widely-spread primitive belief in the fertilizing power of blood? Why has the pig been chosen as the sacrificial ?) victim? Does it merely re. present the wild animal that was once a serious danger to man and his crops! Why, further, are cattle selected to be the agents in the killing? These, and other, questions may be asked.
I have not been able so far to trace many published references to this festival. A few are quoted in the paragraphe below, as well as some of the most authoritative views on the status of the Ahirs.
Francis Buchanan, in his statistical survey of the Gorakhpur district, compiled in 1813-14, makes the following reference to the Ahirs, in that district? -" They are reckoned a pure tribe ; but even Kayasthas will not drink water from their house, although any Brahman will employ them to carry his vessels filled with water. On the day of the Dewali, they eat tame pork ; and on all occasions, such as are not of the sect of Vishnu, eat the wild liog. Their purohits are pure Brahmans".
Sherring writeg 3: _" Commonly the Ahirs are regarded as Sudras." On the other hand, he classes them among the 'Mixed Castes and Tribes.' Crooke 4, in his description of the Ahirs in the (now) United Provinces says they are all Hindus, but are seldom initiated into any of the regular sects ... They are served by Brahmans of all the ordinary
priestly classes."
Mr. R. V. Russell, in his very interesting account of the Ahîrs in the Central Provinces, notes:- Though the Ahîr caste takes its name and is perhaps partly descended from the
1 Baines, Ethnography (Grundriss Sorios), p. 56. • Martin's Eastern India, II, 467. 3 Tribes and Castes, I, 334. + Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P. &0., I, 63. 5 Tribcs und Castes of the C.P., II, 23.
