Samipya 1991 Vol 08 Ank 01 02

Author(s): Pravinchandra C Parikh, Bhartiben Shelat
Publisher: Bholabhai Jeshingbhai Adhyayan Sanshodhan Vidyabhavan

Page 64

The Gazetteer informs that the Bhils were "very loose" in their marital relations. A man married a number of times. A Bhil widow married again. If a married woman fell in love with another person, she could divorse her husband and marry her lover. In that case her next husband had to pay the marriage expenses borne by her previous husband.5
The Bhils, although Hindus, did not hold Brahmins in reverence. Instead of approaching a Brahman, they took the services of their own bhagat to perform the birth, marriage, and death ceremonies, or for driving away the evil spirits. In short, the Bhils did not share the socio-cultural ethos of the High Caste Hindus.
The life style of the Gujarat-Rajasthan border Bhils is expressed in their folksongs. A book published in 1915 sheds significant light on their social and cultural life as also on their criminal tendencies. Nathji Maheshwar Pathak, teacher in the Pratapgadh town, noted down verbatim the songs as they were actually sung by the Bhils, and he published a book Bhilonān Gito in 1915. We reproduce the songs to understand the various facets of their cultural life. In the first song a married woman has a paramour. How to meet him ? She has an idea, and she asks Waghji, her lover, to sneak gently to her home. She argues, "My mother-in-law and father-inlaw are inside in the parsal, and my husband is as dull as a shepherd of donkies... Waghji, cross the bamboo fence, climb the gate baving jingling bells, and come along silently". In another, song, a shepherd boy desires to elope with his beloved, but has no money. He asks his beloved : "If we elope, what shall we eat ? We will go towards the Godhra town. But what, if the officials ask for the road cess or the transit-duty ? We could go there at night, but in that case, we might be suspected as thieves. My pocket is empty, Ratan, and with that my illusion has also disappeared”. Thus, in the case of Ratan and her lover, there are many slips between a cup and a lip". One of the songs describes a Vohra peddler who visits village with ornaments. This delights the girl and she buys anklets, bindi, and other things. She then gracefully walks through the streets.
The vobras, however, did not have a smooth sailing. They operated as the principal money-lenders to the Bhils of the Gujarat-Rajasthan border.7 Nathji Pathak, in the preface of his book referred to above, has categorically stated that the Bhils did not know how to calculate and how much to pay to buy the commodities. They payed whatever price the shop-keeper demanded with the words : "You and your Baba Rama know better". Pathak also states that the Vohra and the Vania moneylenders and shop-keepers cheated them. On one occasion the Bhils led by Waghji, looted the cart-load of goods which was on its way to the Galiakot village fare. Another folk song provides a graphic picture of this incident. The poor Mulla (Vohra merchants) prayed to his pir as the Bhils looted the carts. But in an encounter which followed between the escorts of the Vohras and the Bhil robbers, Waghji lost his life. Thus the two songs depicting Vohras have two different themes. The words and the emotive expressions are transparent and natural. The songs do not exhibit the Bhils
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[Samipya : April, '91-March, 1992