THE PEOPLE

AMUSEMENTS

In the towns, the people have plays at the theatres off and on, but more regularly the cinema shows. In the rural areas too travelling cinemas and films have penetrated. But so far as the great majority of the cultivating classes are concerned, their life does not contain much recreation. Since he has never experienced it and he spends all his time among people who live precisely in the same fashion as himself, there is no reason for supposing that the cultivator finds his existence to be dull or empty. Amusements of a kind, all the same, he has. Many villages have a small akhada or wrestling-house, the floor of which is spread over with soft loose earth in which young men and boys wrestle in the evenings, usually discontinuing the pastime after they are thirty years old. The cattle-races on the Pola day have already been mentioned. On festivals, the villagers have a dance, the performers taking arms and moving backwards and forwards while one sings a song and others follow him beating small sticks called Tiprya as accompaniment and adopting their movements to the rhythm. Another comic dance is performed for women. A man dresses in a woman's clothes and pretends to be a young girl dancing and at the same time giving a humorous narration of a girl's life, marriage and motherhood. In the evening, the men sometimes collect at the Maroti's, Mahadeva's or Ganapati's temple and sing bhajans or sacred songs to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals. Some of them are so stirred by the singing that they get up and dance and jump about. Kirtan is a sort of discourse or sermon which is delivered in a temple on festival days. Everybody attends it and the haridas or preacher delivers a discourse which may be instructive or humorous, interspersing it with quotations and verses. This sort of discourse may go on for hours at the end of which a lamp is waved before the god and the people clap their hands and depart. Occasionally, the villagers act a piece which may be written by a local schoolmaster and is sometimes satirical, taking off the local officials. Clay marks are sometimes used. Travelling dramatic companies visit Wardha and people go there from the villages to see their performances. Cheap hand organs and harmoniums are purchased by those who are well-to-do and accompaniments to songs are sang on them. The radio has now not only gone to the towns but also to the villages. The newspaper reading habit too is widely spreading even in villages, and monthly periodicals in Marathi are read with taste and alacrity. In the villages in the far interior, a school-master keeps himself in touch with the outsideworld through newspapers and regales gatherings of villagers with news and stories therefrom.

A favourite game of the boys is chendu. The boy who is hitting at a ball of rag with a stick while others stand round has to go and field if the ball is caught and he is put out. Girls have a game called bahuli which is played in the month of Shravan. Two cloth dolls are made, male and female, and their marriage is celebrated, a feast being afterwards given.

Education, particularly, primary education has now made much progress in the district and people have seen the benefit of sending not only boys but also girls to school. All the three tahsils of Wardha, Arvi and Hinganghat have libraries, reading-rooms, secondary schools and in Wardha even colleges. English games like cricket, football and tennis are played in towns. Cycling has advanced very much and motoring too is making progress.

Swimming is a favourite pastime among the young. So is kite-flying in the open season among the old and the young. The game of patang ladhne consists in trying to cut the strings of each other's kites. When the string of a kite is cut and it falls to the ground, it becomes the property of the first person who can pick it up. For this purpose, special kite-thread rubbed with paste mixed with glass dust is used to make it hard and sharp. Pilgrimages.

Pilgrimages.

A pilgrimage to some holy shrine is a common event in the life of a Hindu. The Wardha people either go to Ramtek in the month of Kartik (November) or to Mahadeva's hill at Panchmadhi in Paush (January). Some people go to the tomb of Baba Farid at Girar in the month of Chaitra (April). An auspicious day for starting is fixed by the Brahman and it is usually a Monday, Wednesday or Saturday. Certain events are considered unlucky for the start on a pilgrimage or any other important journey. If a cat crosses the way, the journey must be given up for that day. To see a widow or a one-eyed man is considered very unlucky. On the other hand to see a corpse being carried past, as one has started or is about to start is auspicious as it should insure complete success. It is similarly lucky to see a woman bringing pots full of water or a sweeper. The reason for the sight of a sweeper being lucky is believed to lie in an old story of some king of Delhi who was importunated by many claimants for some important post and at last he resolved in despair that he would give it to the first person he saw after waking the next morning. The first person he saw naturally was the sweeper who was cleaning the room and who therefore got the appointment. Aged persons generally go on pilgrimages as it is believed that this will obtain the remission of their past sins and widows also frequently go, being induced to go probably by the hard life they lead at home. Younger members of the family frequently accompany the elders to take care of them, should they fall ill or die. To die on a pilgrimage to a holy place, is, however, considered very meritorious. Not a few go on pilgrimage to Shegaon, Kashi, Prayag, Gaya or Pandharpur with this avowed intent.

When the pilgrims return, they halt near the temple of Maroti outside the village and cook their food, offering a coconut to Maroti as a thanks giving for their safe return. Their relations, on hearing of their arrival go out to meet them with music and the party then return to the village singing songs in praise of the God whose shrine they had visited. A pilgrimage in the pre-railroad days was a very hazardous and arduous task than it now is. Sometimes a party would never return at all or if it returned not without the loss of some of its members, the routes of the sacred places being strewn with the bodies of pilgrims who had succumbed to cholera or to the dangers of the road. After the return of the pilgrims, a day is fixed for the distribution of the tirth or holy water brought in a sealed copper vessel from the place of pilgrimage. The friends of the family are assembled and a Brahman makes offerings of water and repeats sacred verses. The water is then distributed, a few drops going to each guest, who sips the water with great reverence holding it in his right palm. All these events are very inspiring and spiritually entertaining to the village people.

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