The Gazetteers Department

"The most remarkable feature, perhaps, in the character of the Marathas of all descriptions is the little regard they pay or show to ceremony in the common intercourse of life. A peasant or mechanic, of the lowest order will sit down of his own accord, tell his story without ceremony and converse more like an equal than an inferior; and if he has a petition to present, he talks in a loud and boisterous tone and fearlessly sets forth his claims. Both the peasantry and the better classes are often coarse and indelicate in their language and many of the proverbs they are fond of introducing into conversation are extremely gross. In general, the Marathas and particularly the cultivators are not possessed of much activity or energy of character but they have a quick perception of their own interest, though their ignorance of writing and accounts often renders them the dupes of the artful Brahmans."

In 1870, Sir Alfred Lyall thus described the people of Berar: " In manners and customs the Hindus as a body are the same (with very insignificant differences) all over the districts. The sustic population in generally rough and rude. They are shy of strangers and when in this mood their peculiar disposition is seen in its worst shape; but to those they know and who can speak their language, they relax in their manners and become quiet, inoffensive and fond of ease. Their devotion to their homesteads and familiy is so great that they look upon a separation from them as a calamity of the worst kind. As a rule they are in their ways affectionate fathers and husbands, but hard task-masters so far that they in fact, expect their wives to lead a life of toil and labour; and though her labour does not extend to handling the plough, but to sowing, weeding, reaping and picking still, what with in-door and out-door toil, the woman's strength is overtaxed. Hard, dark-featured and bulky in appearance the Kunbi woman is more delicate than her sister of other castes. In this respect, the Gond, the Banjaras and other women entirely beat the Kunbin out of the field. The vital energy, the capacity for endurance and the strength to lift heavy loads, in the females of the caste last referred to is really wonderful. Though shrewd in the business transactions of life such as buying and selling, their ignorance reaches its climax on matters of religion. Quiet and implicit is their faith in the village idols, in witchcraft, in Brahmans. Besotted, priest-ridden and sunk in the grossest of superstition, they are incapable of refinement or improvement and sink into their graves none the wiser by past experience, which if anything, fans their idolatry, superstition and ignorance." Though most of the remarks still hold good in the case of remote villages, elsewhere the spread of education and political freedom have had their solvent effect on the mode of life of the people in general.

TOP