THE PEOPLE

CASTES

Brahman.— As elsewhere, Brahmans form a very small proportion of the total population. Most of them belong to the Deshastha sub-caste. There are a number of Pardeshi or North Indian Brahmans who are generally not well-educated, but are physically strongly built. They are very strict in the observance of caste rules and will not touch the plough with their own hands. They are, however, willing to serve as constables, water-bearers and cooks. Maratha Brahmans are given to indulge in inordinate expenses at marriages and such other ceremonial occasions. They are fond of tasty food and eat all kinds of chutnis and salads. If a Brahman is imprisoned, he has to make a pilgrimage to Banaras and he has to go through a fresh thread ceremony all over. Similar procedure used to be adopted in the case of those who went abroad. But now all such practices are becoming scarce. Their strict observance of changing into sacred silk dhotis has also disappeared during recent years.

Ponvars.—The Ponvars originally belonged to Malva. The Ponvar dynasty ruled in Malva from the 9th to the 18th Century. In the twelfth Century Nagpur was included in the Malva kingdom and the first settlement of the Ponvars may probably be attributed to this period. They themselves say that they originally came to Nagardhan near Ramtek and then spread over the surrounding country. Some of the most influential members of the caste accompanied Chimnaji Bhosle on his Cuttack expedition and on their return were rewarded with grants of land in Lanji and other tracts to the west of the Wainganga river which were largely covered with forests. Mr. Low describes the Ponvars as follows: —

' The Ponvar is to Balaghat what the Kunbi is to Berar or the Gujar to Hoshangabad; but at the same time he is less entirely attached to the soil and its cultivation and much more intelligent and cosmopolitan than either. One of the most intelligent officers of the Agricultural Department is a Ponvar and several members of the caste have made large sums as forest and railway contractors in this District. Ponvar shikaris also are not uncommon. They are generally averse to sedentary occupations and though quite ready to avail themselves of the advantages of primary education, they do not as a rule care to carry their studies to a point that would ensure their admission to higher ranks of Government service. Very few of them are to be found as patvaris, constables, or peons. They are a handsome race with intelligent faces usually fair with high foreheads and often grey eyes. They are not as a rule above middle height but they are active and hardworking and by no means deficient in courage and animal spirits or a sense of humour. They are clannish in the extreme and to elucidate, a criminal case in which no one but Ponvars are concerned and in a Ponvar village is usually a harder task than an average police officer can tackle. At times, they are apt to affect, especially in conversation with Government officials, a whining and unpleasant tone, especially when pleading their claim to some concession or other, and they are by no means lacking in astuteness and are good hands at a bargain. But they are a pleasant, intelligent and plucky race, not easily cast down by misfortune and always ready to attempt new enterprises in almost any direction except those indicated by the Department of Agriculture. Their caste customs do not differ in any marked way from those of the other Hindus of the district. They used to allow polygamy. They bitterly resent and if able, heavily revenge any attempt on the virtue of their women by an outsider. '

It is customary among the Ponvars for the parents to supply clothes to a married daughter, so long as they live and during this period, a wife will not accept any clothes from her husband. At her marriage, a girl is given a dowry called khamora and she retains this for her own use, her husband having no control over it. The wife is a very important person among the Ponvars and the husband will not give anything to eat or drink out of the house, without her concurrence. The Ponvar women are very good cooks and appreciate variety in food. They also make pretty grass screens and mats for the house. The Ponvars will not eat off the ground but place their dishes on little iron stands. At a funeral, the Ponvars eat fried rice and sugar at the grave, which is peculiar is being contrary to the practice of other castes.

Kunbi.— Kunbis in this district are the most numerous caste with the exception of the Mehras. The Jhare Kunbis or those who belong to the Zadi or forest are the oldest settlers and have no doubt an admixture of Gond blood. Among them a father goes and asks for a bride for his son, in opposition to the usual practice of the caste. The Khedules, the next most numerous sub-division are said to derive their name from khede or village while the Khaires take it from the khair or catechu tree, no doubt because they formerly prepared catechu. The Kunbis, Mr. Napier says ' are a dull, heavy race with little thought beyond their wheat and their bullocks'. The caste eat fowl. They have a great religious veneration for cattle and the pola day on which these are worshipped is their chief festival. On that day all the cattle of the village pass under the toran or arch of mango-leaves in order of the social position of their owners and the Kunbi feels it bitterly if he does not receive the precedence to which he considers himself entitled. The Lonaris appear to be a sub-caste of Kunbis who have come from the north, probably from Betul. In Bhandara, they have the customs of a Hindustani caste, performing their marriages by walking round the sacred post and speaking Hindi indoors.

Kohli— Members of the Kohli caste were the builders of the great tanks of the Sakoli tahsil. Mr. Napier says, 'the Kohli sacrifices all to his sugarcane, his one ambition and one extravagance being to build a huge reservoir which will contain water for the irrigation of his sugarcane through the long, hot months. They have a remarkable faculty for selecting the best sites for tanks and each rates the other according to the size of his tank and the strength of its embankment. The origin and the affinities of the Kohlis are obscure. According to one tradition they were brought by a Gond king of Chanda from Banaras on his return from a visit to that place. Colonel Lucie Smith, Settlement Officer of Chanda, states that they thought that their forefather came from the south. The only fact that some of the Bhandara Kohlis can state about themselves is that their first settlement in the Central Provinces was at Lanji in Balaghat, from where they migrated to Bhandara. This rather points to the theory of a Northern origin which is further supported by the similarity of the name to that of the Koiri caste of market gardeners in North India. Kohiri and Kohli are used there as variations of the caste name Koiri. On the other hand, neither in their speech nor in their family names can any trace of Hindustani affinities be detected. Their dress used to be peculiar as they wear a short bandi or coat and a small head-cloth only about three feet long. Those who have pagris tie them in a similar fashion to the Gandlis who are oilmen from the Telugu country. Mr. Napier says: "The Kohlis have a splendid caste discipline and their quarrels are settled expeditiously by their panchayat without recourse to courts of law. In their relations with people of other castes, they are not always so amiable ". But they are generally considered to be distinctly amenable in character and have the reputation of being very respectful to Government officers. If a guest comes to Kohli, the host himself offers to wash his feet and if the guest be a Brahman, insists on doing it. Like other castes engaged in cultivation, the Kohlis married two or three wives when they could afford it, a wife being a more willing labourer than a hired servant, apart from the other advantages. For the sake of economy, all marriages in a village are generally celebrated on the same day, once a year. The officiating Brahman ascends the roof of a house and after beating a brass dish to warn the parties, repeats the marriage texts as the Sun goes down. At this moment the couples place garlands of flowers on each other, the bridegroom ties the mangalsutram or neckless of black beads round the bride's neck and the marriage is completed. The bride's brother ties a thread round their marriage crowns and is given two rupees for untying it. At their weddings, they make models in wood of a Chamar's ranpi or knife, or khurpa, this custom perhaps indicating some connection with the Chamars; or it may have arisen simply on account of the prominent part played by the mot or leather bag in the irrigation of sugarcane. Widow-marriage is current among Kohlis, but the widow is first married to a sword, representing her second husband who never attends in person. Divorce is very seldom resorted to and involves severe penalties to both parties. The Kohlis eat fish but abstain from liquor.

Gowari.— The grazier caste or Gowaris form a low branch of Ahirs, closely connected with the forest tribes. One of their subdivisions is called Gond-Gowari and these are no doubt simply Gond herdsmen. The Govaris themselves say that the Gond-Govaris are the descendants of one of two brothers who accidentally ate the flesh of a cow. The Gowaris take food from proper Gaolis, but the latter will not accept it at their hands. They do not employ Brahmans at their weddings, an elder member of the caste officiating as priest. They permit widows to marry and if the husband is a bachelor, he is wedded to an acra or swallow-wort plant or a copper ring before espousing the widow. This is his real marriage, as a union with a widow is not viewed in that light. When a death occurs, the family of the deceased may not have social intercourse, until the elders of the caste have taken its principle member to the bazar where they purchase rice, vegetables and other food and returning, feed him at his house. If he is a cultivator, he must also be taken to his field where, he is, as it were, inducted into it by the caste committee. If the cow of a Gowari dies with a rope round its neck, a great sin is held to have been committed and the offender must shave his moustaches and give a substantial meal to his caste. The caste eat fowls. Both men and women tattoo their bodies, men usually having a dot between the eyebrows and the women two lines of dots with a longer one below them. The women wear metal bracelets on the right arm and glass bangles on the left arm and in contradistinction to other Maratha women who use red powder, have spangles on the forehead. The Gowaris spend much of their time in the forests with their cattle and lead a simple life. A saying about them is: The Gond and Gowari drink only rice-water from leaf cups and eat only boiled jovari off leaf-plates.

Another grazier caste who are found in small numbers are the Golars or Telugu graziers. They are a migratory race and were formerly addicted to dacoity and cattle theft. The Golars are closely connected with the Holias, or Telugu leather workers and have the same family or section names. When a Golar dies, a plate of cooked rice is laid on his body and then carried to the burning ghat. The Holias belonging to the same section go with it and before arrival, the plate of rice is laid on the ground and the Holias eat it.

Marars.— The Malis or Marars grow vegetables and flowers. They allow a custom of what is called lamjhana or serving for a bride,' which is purely Dravidian and shows their connection with the forest tribes. A young hard-working wife is never divorced, however bad her character may be, but an old woman is abandoned for a very little cause. The Marar women generally have a large glass spangle as an ornament for the forehead. The caste are as a rule poor. They are quiet and industrious, but their habit of polygamy often gave rise to family quarrels and also led to excessive sub-division of their holdings.

Telis and Gandlis.— Telis today have given up their traditional occupation of oil-pressing and have taken to agriculture and petty trading. The chief sub-divisions are Do-baile. and Ek-baile, that is those who used to yoke two bullocks and one bullock, respectively to the oil mill. There are also the Andeles or growers of castor-oil plants. But these are now ordinary cultivators. The Telis are chiefly concentrated in Pauni area. They consult a Mahar who is called Mohturya, to fix the date of their marriages. The Gandlis were originally the Telugu caste of oilmen but they have now abandoned their profession and taken to agriculture thereby obtaining a rise in social status. They belong to' the sect of Lingayats and wear the lingam in a little silver casket round the neck or the waist. It is presented to them by a Brahman who comes from Madras at intervals and gives them a rudraksha bead which serves as the emblem of Mahadeva. They employ the Jangams or the priests of the Lingayats but some of them also avail of the services of Maratha Brahmans, probably considering it more respectable. They arrange their marriages in Chandrapur district where the caste is very numerous. Those in Bhandara district, mostly live around Adyal.

Dhimars.— Dhimars as a class are generally poor. Besides their callings of fishing and acting as boatmen they follow various other avocations such as growing singaras or water-nuts for which the tanks in Bhandara district afford much scope. They also cultivate tasar silk cocoons on Saj trees; sell fried rice and gram: breed pigs for sacrifice and act as household servants. At a Dhimar marriage, a net is given to the bridegroom and Shidori or cooked food tied in a piece of cloth is given to the bride and they walk out together as if going to a river to fish, but the bride's brother comes up and stops them. A Dhimar will not touch or wear a shoe sewn with thread, because his net is made of thread and he thinks that the sacred article is debased by being sewn into leather. It is a great degradation to a Dhimar to be struck with a shoe. The Injhvars are another boating caste. The name is simply a corruption of Binjhvar and they are an offshoot of this, the comparatively civilised section of the Baiga tribe, formed into a caste, through the adoption of their special calling. The women of one of their sub-castes act as midwives. They are connected with the Gowaris and sometimes call themselves Dudh-Govaris. This is not surprising as the Govaris themselves were probably originally Gonds.

Koshtis.— The Koshtis enjoy a higher social position than other weaver communities as they weave finer kinds of cloth, which the highest castes wear and they generally live in towns. The Nagpur Koshtis are on occasions turbulent. One sub-division, the Salewar Koshtis who are of Telugu origin, wear the sacred thread. The bulk of the caste eat flesh and fowls. Women are very useful to them in their work. The Koshtis have their family god installed in their weaving loom and they must not touch it with the foot as they think it would break on account of the insult to the god.

Gonds.— Gonds are probably the third caste in point of members. The local sub-divisions are the Raj Gonds, Dhur Gonds and grouped under the head "Others". The proportion of other zamindari families but the bulk of them are ordinary labourers. The Pardhans are considered as inferior to the Gonds and will take food from their hands, though the Gonds will not accept it from them. They celebrate their marriages in the open outside the village and sometimes the couple stand on a heap of refuse. The couple are carried on the shoulders of their relatives five times round the officiating priest who sits in the middle. Two spears are tied together to make an arch and water is poured over it while the couple stand beneath; they then run out and the bridegroom hits the bride a blow on the back which should be given if possible before she runs from under the spears. The bridegroom must force an iron ring on to the bride's finger though she clenches her fist and tries to prevent him. The blood of a chicken is sprinkled over the hands of the pair and sometimes a chicken is slaughtered for each god worshipped by the bridegroom's sept. When a Gond girl wishes to show her preference for a man, she takes a pot of water mixed with turmeric and throws it over him in the presence of three or four witnesses and after this their marriage is celebrated. The Gonds are not considered as impure, though they eat pork and beef and the Ponvars, Govaris and others will take water from them. The Pardhans are, however, held to be impure and are not touched. The Gonds are readily employed as farm-servants as they are honest and hardworking. At the time of Divali, the Gonds and other castes do the dhandhar or stick dance in which every man dances separately hitting two sticks together. It is said that the Gonds dance less than they used to and that the famines have taken a good deal of their cheerfulness out of their lives. This statement was made in 1903 and during the last 70 years they have again improved much and become cheerful again.

Halbas.— The Halbas are originally a Dravidian tribe of labourers and their name has probably derived from hal which means a plough. Some, however, maintain that it comes from the Kannada word halbar which means the old ones or ancients and that they came from the south with the Raja of Warangal, who fled to Bastar on being defeated by the Muhammedans. Leading families in Bhandara say they came from the north and migrated to Bhandara from the Makrai State. In their marriage ceremony, these families place crowns of palas leaves on the couple which is a practice of the northern castes. In other respects, however, they have adopted Maratha customs and celebrate the marriage by throwing coloured rice over the pair. Their principal god is Dulha Dev whom they call Motha Dev or the great god but they also revere Mahadev and Hanuman. They have two divisions, the bari or great and the lahan or small. The latter are the offspring of irregular unions. The caste eat fowls and pork but not beef. Many of them are employed in the preparation and sale of poha, that is rice which is first, boiled to take off the husks and then fried.

HINDUS

Except for the small body of Jains who follow Jainism, the Hindus of the district belong to two main classes. One is Brahmanic Hindus including Brahmans and other small castes who worship Brahmanic gods and employ Brahmans as their priests. The other is low caste and backward Hindus who mainly worship non-Brahmanic and animistic deities.

Beliefs.—The religion of the Brahmans is Hinduism of which they are the priests and exponents. Most Brahmans are worshippers of Shiva or Vishnu and also Rama and Krishna, incarnations of Vishnu and Shakti, the female principle of energy of Shiva.

To describe the religious beliefs of Hindus of the lower castes, the term Animism is often used. Technically, it denotes the collection of beliefs possessed by the Dravidian tribes who have not even nominally been admitted to the caste system or become Hindus. The general nature of Animism may perhaps be explained as the belief that everything which has life or motion has also a soul or spirit and all natural phenomena are caused by direct personal agency. Instances of animistic beliefs may be found in the daily practices of the Hindus. Before climbing a tree, it is customary to pray for its pardon for the rough usage to which it is subjected. Stones and" rocks of a peculiar or extraordinary shape suggesting the intervention of personal agency in their construction are considered the abodes of spirits and are consequently feared and revered. When women go out to the field they take a little sugar and place it on an anthill to feed the ants; the veneration of the cow is proverbial. The custom of worshipping the implements of the caste trade should presumably be classified as animism. Such practices belong as much to the Brahmanical Hindus as to those of the Dravidian tribes.

Village Gods.— The statistics of religion show that 84.75 per cent of the population are Hindus; 13.01 per cent have been returned as Buddhists who were formerly Hindus. Muslims are 1.86 per cent. There is nothing notable about the local Muham-medans except that they are on quite friendly terms with the Hindus. Members of both religions alike join in celebrating the Holi and Muharram. The rest are negligible. The Gonds and Halbas who are the principal forest tribes of Bhandara, are comparatively civilised and inclined to return themselves as Hindus. As usual, the villagers have a set of minor deities or godlings of their own who in many cases impersonate animals or are spirits attached to various localities. Maruti or Hanuman is found in every village. Muthia is the god of the cattle-stand and is represented by a stone or a heap of stones where the cattle meet outside the village. At the time of Divali, the Govaris dance and sing before him with drums. Sewarya is the god of field boundaries and is represented by a stone placed where three fields meet. He must be propitiated to secure the success of the crops and a goat or cock is offered to him before the winnowing of the rice harvest. Bhimsen is a Gondi god, but is also worshipped by Hindus. Pigs and other animals and liquor are offered to him with the object of averting disease and other calamities. Dulha Deo is a household god and is supposed to reside in an earthen pot suspended by a string to the main beam of the house. The god is represented by a piece of metal or stone. He is worshipped once a year with great ceremony, only the male members of the family being present. The god is taken out and placed on a betel-leaf and offerings are made to him and afterwards eaten by those present, the refuse being buried. One Malguzar is reported to have related that on one occasion when a woman was present at the worship of the Dulha Dev in his house, the god vanished but returned on being propitiated with an offering. Belsamundar Raja dwells at the crossings of rivers and streams. He is believed to be a young Dhimar who was drowned while fishing and the Dhimars make offerings to him when they go fishing and when the rivers are in flood.

Village Priests.— Joshi: The village priests are the Joshi, the Garpagari, and the Bhumak. The Joshi is a priestly, astrologer who points out lucky and unlucky days for commencing ploughing and sowing operations and for all agricultural business of importance. He also officiates at births, deaths and marriages and at religious ceremonies of all kinds. He is usually a Brahman and has a panchanga or almanac, the repository of all his knowledge. Formerly he held rent-free land, but now he is usually remunerated only by small presents of cash or grain in return for his services. When a man intends to sink a well,, he goes to the joshi who names an auspicious day and directs that the first clod is to be dug by some elderly person of the family who must stand facing the east. When the well is completed, its marriage is celebrated by making an imitation of the Mandava or marriage-booth over it and tying torans or strings of mango-leaves round the sides. Relatives and friends of the family then have a feast sitting round the well and after that its water may be drunk. A similar procedure is observed in case of fruit trees before the first fruit is eaten. Every Hindu has plant of tulam. or basil in his yard and a few plants of avia (Phyllanthus Emblica) and the umbar (Ficus Glomerata) trees. The umbar tree is held to be sacred' because Dattatreya, an incarnation of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma dwelt under it. The avia is worshipped twice a year on the 14th days of Ashadha and Kartlika as it is sacred to Vishnu. During the four months between these days, the gods are supposed to be asleep and no marriages may be celebrated during this period. Many Hindus, particularly abstain, from sugarcane, brinjals, onions, garlic, radishes and wild plums. On the 12th day of Karttika the marriage of tulasi with the Shaligrama or sacred stone representing Vishnu is celebrated and all these things are offered to her and afterwards consumed by the people.

Garpagari: The Garpagari's business is to avert hailstorms and other calamities from the crops, for which he receives a contribution from every cultivator in the form of grain. He also drives away locusts and other insects and cures rust. When locusts come, he catches two of them and takes them to Maruti's shrine, placing them before the god. Then he says ' Fly away and I shall make you an offering' and with that the whole flight of locusts is believed to vanish. Similarly he offers a rust-laden blade or two to Maruti. Another method of curing an attack of rust is for a woman in her menstrual period to sprinkle ashes over the crop. It is perhaps held that the rust in the crop resembles the menstrual period in a woman, and that this action would cause it similarly to disappear. To avert hailstorms, the Garpagari plaqes a stone on the ground and calls on Maruti to come and sit on it. He then draws a large circle round the stone to represent the sky and runs round the circle brandishing a sword and calling on the hail to disappear. He then supposes that the. clouds will leave the sky. Occasionally, the Garpagari steals a sheaf of corn from the field and the owner dare not complain of him as he is afraid that the Garpagari will retaliate by calling down hail on the crop.

Bhumak: The Bhumak or Pujari is usually a Gond or a Dhimar. He receives the same dues from the cultivator as the Garpagari. His business is to perform the customary worship of the village deities at the principal festivals and to attend on and provide for the wants of Government officials who visit the villages. On a Sunday or Wednesday in May, the Bhumak performs the Bidri Puja, at which offerings subscribed for by the cultivators are made to all village gods for the success of the crop. He offers some seed rice to gods, placing it on a mango-leaf and then takes it all round the village giving a few grains to each cultivator who mixes them with his seed-grain and thereafter commences sowing. Again, when the rice-plants are a foot high the Bhumak goes to the field, cuts a handful of blades and distributes them to the cultivators after which they may begin transplantation. When the cultivator has finished transplantation, he proceeds to the field, accompanied by his farm servants and makes five little heaps of earth, placing on each heap five bundles of rice plants. He makes an offering to them of vermilion and boiled wheat and gram and then throwing up the plants, towards the sun, cries, " Oh Sun, fill the fields so that the axles of the carts may break under their loads". Then he takes his farm servants home and gives them a good meal of wheat and gram chapatis with liquor. When the crop is ripe for cutting, the Bhumak goes to the field and cuts a sheaf and places one or two ears on the roof of each tenants' house and after this, the harvest may begin. When the crop is on the threshing floor, he offers a cock or goat to the field-gods so that the quantity of grain may be increased. On this occassion, the cultivators invite their friends and go out and take their food in the fields. When the mahua comes into flower, the Bhumak picks some flowers and worships them, offering a coconut and vermilion and then fixes a flower on the house of each tenant. Until this has been done, nobody picks mahua.

Bhagat : Many villagers have also a Bhagat or priest of Devi who is generally a Govari or a Dhimar. The qualification for being a Bhagat is to be possessed by the deity, in which case the gifts of divination and prophecy are held to accrue. When a Bhagat goes to a village, people gather round him and he makes prophecies, telling those whose relatives are sick whether they will recover, or whether they will obtain property which has been lost or stolen and so on. Bhagats make a little hut in front of the Devi's shrine and place a flag on it and from here they give oracles to those who come to consult them. The method of divination by swinging a lamp is also much practised, the answer being in the affirmative or negative according to the direction in which the lamp swings. The lamp is suspended from a stick by a sling made of human hair or of somebody's cast off sacred thread. If a man wishes to make inquiry about some other person from the Bhagat, he takes a handful of rice and carries it round him and then takes and places it before the Bhagat, to represent the other persons. If a man is bitten by a snake, the Bhagat comes and draws water from a well, and, muttering some charm, gives it to the patient to drink; he will then recover and the symptoms of snake poisoning will appear in the Bhagat for an hour or two. People bitten by snakes are taken to the villages of Nag ki Parsori in Tirora tahsil or Bhendala in Bhandara tahsil, as it is thought that nobody can die of snake bite within the limits of these villages. If a man is bitten by a scorpion, the Bhagat comes and asks how far up his leg or arm the poison has gone. He then makes the mark of the double triangle on the spot pointed out and puts his finger lower down, asking if the poison has gone back to there and so on. Thus he eventually brings it down to the tip of the leg or arm and expels it from the body. If a person has jaundice, the Bhagat takes two needles and a pot of water and keeps holding them up before his eyes and dipping them in water, when it is supposed that the water gradually becomes yellow and at the same time, the colour leaves the sufferer's skin. Or he rubs lime on the patient's hands repeating charms and when the lime is rubbed off, it is found to have become yellow, while the skin is clear. If a man has tooth-ache, the Bhagat takes a nail and a piece of wood and keeps on twisting the nail and pressing it into the wood, saying as he does so 'Tera dant baith gaya' or ' Has your tooth sat down', the belief apparently being that when the tooth aches, it rises in the socket.

RITUALS AND CEREMONIES.

Hindus.— For the Hindu, religion plays an important part in the context of his family life as also at every stage of the individual's life. Life for him is a round of rituals and ceremonies and most of the Hindu customs and traditions consist of ritualistic practices related to various religious observances known as sanskaras or sacraments. According to the Hindu Dharmashastra, the individual has to pass through many sanskaras which are in fact sharira sanskaras for these are intended to sanctify the body beginning from the moment the foetus is laid (garbhadhana) to the death (antyeshti) of a person. The number of sanskaras differs according to different authorities and some say there are sixteen which are compulsory and 24 which are optional. These are usually conducted by Brahman priests who on their part say that they use Vedic texts for Brahmans and Pauranic texts for others. Of late even the sixteen of these sacraments are reduced to half a dozen in most of the Hindu communities and are observed in respect of birth, thread-girding, marriage, pregnancy and death. It is only among the Brahmans that these are now current according to Vedic rites and among the other Hindus according to their traditional customs.

Child birth and Medical Beliefs.— When a woman is in her menstrual period, she stays apart and may not cook for herself nor touch anybody nor sleep on a bed made of cotton thread. The Gonds have a separate house outside the village to which women have to retire at this time. When a woman is with a child for the first time, her women friends come and give her green clothes and bangles; they then put her into a swing and sing songs. While she is pregnant, she is made to work in the house so as not to be inactive. If the birth is delayed, they put a few grains of gram into the woman's hand and then some one takes and feeds them to a mare, as it is though that the woman's pregnancy has been prolonged by her having walked behind the tethering ropes of a mare which is 12 months in a foal. Or she is given water to drink in which a Sulaimani bead or a rupee of Akbar's time has been washed. A pregnant woman must not took on a dead body or her child may be still born and she must not see an eclipse or the child may be born maimed. Women of the Mang, Mahar, Gond and Dhimar castes act as midwives. Sometimes when delivery is delayed, they take a folded flower and place it in a pot of water and believe that as its petals unfold, so the womb will be opened and the child born or they seat her on a wooden bench and pour oil on her head, her forehead being afterwards rubbed with it, in the belief that as the oil falls so the child will be born. If a child is a long time before learning to speak, they give it leaves of the pipal tree to eat, because the leaves of this tree make a noise by rustling in the wind; or a root which is very light in weight, because they think that the tongue is heavy and the quality of lightness will thus be communicated to it. A child is given grain to eat for the first time six months after birth. The first teeth of a child are thrown on to the roof of house, because the rats who have especially good and sharp teeth, live there and it is hoped that the child's second teeth may grow like theirs or they are placed under a water pot in the hope that the child's second teeth may grow as fast as the grass does under water-pots. If a child is lean, some people take it to a place where asses have lain down and rolled in ashes; they roll the child in the ashes similarly and believe that it will get fat like the asses are. Or they may lay the child in a pig-sty with the same idea. People who want to injure a child get hold of its coat and lay it out in the sun to dry, in the belief that the child's body will dry up in a similar manner.

On the fifth and sixth day of child-birth pujas are held and the child is given a name on the 12th day when women rejoice and presents are made to the mother and child. Sweets are distributed to friends and relatives. Among higher class Hindus a ceremony called annaprashana is held when the child is fed for the first time with khir, the maternal uncle usually officiating as the feeder. Boys have to go through the upanayana ceremony when the gayatri is taught and the sacred thread given to him. It is followed by samavartana better known as sodmunj when he is supposed to have left his guru's home and returned.

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