THE PEOPLE

BHILS

The Bhils formerly lived in hive-like huts cresting the tops of, isolated hills to be crept into for a few weeks and then left. Most of them still live in thatched huts, but leave them at once if disease breaks out or if the hamlet is found to be inauspicious, unlucky or haunted. Such of them as have settled down on the plains have stoned buildings, having walls of unburnt bricks and a roof of mud with a small verandah in front and divided inside into two or three rooms. Each household has some metal and a good many earthen vessels, a stone slab with a roller, a hand mill and a large knife for Cutting vegetables, a charpoy or two with a bedding, a blanket and a quilt made of pieces of clothes stitched together. Their possessions are a cow or a buffalo, a few fowls, a small fishing net, a bow and a good stock of arrows and sometimes a sword. Bhils living in the hills have scarcely any clothing except a piece of loin cloth and their women wear coarse tattered saris. The peasant Bhil wears a turban, a waist cloth and a coat and their women have sadi with or without a bodice.

The more civilised bhils of the plains have complete birth. marriage and death ceremonies not differing much in detail from those practised by higher class Hindus. A marriage proposal has to he made by the bridgroom's side through some intermediary. If the father of the girl agrees, the girl is brought out and seated among the guests from the bridegroom's side and a packet of sweetmeats is given to her. This done, they dine together and with the help of an astrologer a betrothal day is fixed. On the betrothal day. an astrologer, the boy. his father and other relations take a sadi, a bodice piece and sweetmeats and go to the girl's house. A final announcement is made in the presence of pancas. The presents are given to the girl. The guests are entertained by the girl's father. There is no fixed interval between betrothal and marriage. It may be a month or years. When in a position to meet marriage expenses, the boy's father sends word to the girl's father that he would shortly firing dowry or dahej called ghun in Bhili language. The dowry is settled in a meeting of all and placed in a plate. An unmarried girl of the bride's family puts red powder on it and on the brows of the bride and the groom. The bride is asked to sit on the boy's father's lap and he gives the ghun to her. After a feast the evening is spent in dance and music. Next day. the boy's father fixes the marriage day in consultation with a family priest. What follows is very much akin to what obtains among other Hindu castes.

Bhils have so far allowed and practised polygamy hut nowadays, there are only monogamous marriages. Widow marriage is also customarily allowed. When a man wishes to marry a widow, he sends some friend to urge his suit with the woman or her parents and relatives. If the proposal is accepted, the suitor takes to the woman's house a sadi and a piece of bodice cloth, a head necklace and some boiled gram and sugar. The match is then settled. The man takes with him a few friends and materials for a feast and they share the food with a party of the woman s relations. The woman dresses herself in the clothes brought to her and after the guests leave, she and her husband pass the night together. Next day, they start for some distant place, before daybreak and spend the whole day in the field, in some lonely place where friends send them food. These widow marriages are often preceded by an elopement which after the payment of a fee to the head of the community, are condoned by the parents and relations. A married woman can get a divorce and remarry the man of her choice provided the proposed husband is ready to pay to the first the money which he had spent at the time of the first marriage of the woman. This divorce system is called jhagda. No particular disgrace seems to attach to the woman who has divorced more than one husband.

When a Bhil is about to die, his relatives distribute money among the poor in his name. After death his body is laid on a blanket or on a piece of cloth spread over a blanket. An earthen pot full of cold water is placed near the door of the house and the body is brought out. held in a sitting position outside the door and water is poured on it. Old clothes are taken off and a new piece of cloth is tied round loins. The body is laid on a bier' and covered with a now sheet of white cloth. The face is left bare and the head is covered with a turban. Gulal is sprinkled over the face and some bread and cooked rice are tied together in a piece of cloth and laid on the bier. The dead body is neatly tied and taken to the burial place over the shoulders of four nearest relatives. In front of them the sons of the deceased walk, one of the chief mourners carrying fire in an earthen jar and one of the others carrying an earthen jug ful of water. Half way to the grave, the bier is lowered and some of the cooked food is laid near a bush. The bearers change places and without any further halt, the body is carried to the burial ground. The bier is lowered and all the mourners help in digging a grave long enough for the body and to prevent its being opened by wild animals five or six feet deep. The body is laid in the grave. The head to the south and the arms stretched along either side. Cooked rice and bread are placed in the mouth and the body is sprinkled with water. Then the whole party sit round the grave so far off that they cannot see the body and the chief mourner throws a handful of earth on the corpse and then all joining cover the corpse with earth. A small trench is cut round the grave and water is poured in it. The bier is broken into piece's and burnt. The funeral party then goes to the nearest water place, bathes and accompanies the chief mourner to his house. In front of his house a fire is lit and into it some woman's hair is burnt and each of the mourners takes some neem leaves, throws them on the fire and passing his open palms through the smoke rubs them over his face. The mourners are now pure and return to their home's. On the third day, one of the women of the mourning household rubs the right shoulders of the bier-bearers with oil, milk and cow-dung and washes them with neem twigs steeped in cow's urine. Then the four men bathe and are treated to a dinner. On the eleventh day the chief mourner goes to a river and gets his beard, head and face shaved. After taking a bath he makes a dough cow, sprinkles red powder on it and setting it in a banana leaf, bows to it and throws it into water. After one more bath he goes home. Either on the twelfth or the forty-fifth day a Kumbhar (potter) is called and seven step hemp ladder called codhvan is set against the wall of the house, the belief being that the soul of a head person may climb by the ladder to heaven. The family priest sits at the foot of the ladder and chants some verses from the puranas and the string by which the ladder is fastened to the ground is burnt, the ladder is pulled down and thrown away. The spot where the ladder was tied is then spread over with flour and a small plate with a piece of bread and cooked rice is laid over it. In the plate is placed a small water pot and by its side a lighted lamp covered by an empty bamboo basket with a cloth drawn over. On this day a big feast is given to relatives and friends, but before beginning it. five mouthfuls are burnt near the basket. The burial rites for a woman are the same as those for a man. In the case of a child, its father carries the body in his arms and buries it. The seventh day is celebrated by a feast. In rare cases Bhils are also known to burn their dead bodies.

Bhils, from place to place, differ in their religious beliefs and practices. Some of the wildest tribes worship only the tiger god or Vaghdev. Most are devotees of the Mata and Mahadev. Others worship local deities like Khandoba, Kanhoba, Bahiroba and Sitalamata, the small-pox goddess. Almost all worship the spirits of their ancestors and believe in sorcery, witchcraft and omens.

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