Bhakat
This article is an extract from
THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Bhakat
Bhagat. This term properly denotes a worshipper, and particularly Vaishnavas of the middle and lower castes, who from religious motives abstain from meat, fish, and spirituous liquors. It is used as a title of Vaishnavas generally, of the Jaiswar and Biyahut sub-castes of Kalwars, and of Tambulis in Behar, of Kasarwani Baniyas, and of those members of the Kasodhan sub-caste of Baniyas who refrain from eating fish. In Manbhum and Hazaribagh Bhakats are very numerous, and have in their hands most of the business of the chattis or halting places along the Grand Trunk Road.
Bhakat Oraon
The word Bhakat also denotes a sub-tribe of the Oraons, which has been formed on the same basis of religious asceticism as the Kharwar or Safa-hor division of the SantaIs. These Bhakats acknowledge themselves to be Oraons, and admit disciples from the tribe, which indeed forms their only source of recruits, but they will not intermarry with their unconverted brethren, nor take cooked food or water from their hands. They abstain from all flesh except that of goats which have been sacrificed to one of the Hindu gods, nor do they drink spirits. Fish, however, is not prohibited, and sweetmeats may be eaten with Oraons, Mundas, and Telis. Tobacco they will only smoke among themselves or out of the hukka of their own gurtt or spiritual guide.
Religion
The favourite deities of the Bhakat-Oraons, as of most recently Hinduised aborigines. are Mahadeva and Kali, to whom goats, ghi, sweetmeats, etc., are offered on Wednesdays and Sundays, the offerings being eaten by the worshippers and their families. They employ Brahmans as gurus, but these Brahmans do not officiate as their priests, and the sacri ficial victims are slain by any influential person among themselves who happens to be acquainted with the ritual. In marriages again, while the attempt is to imitate the Hindu ceremony, the purohit who officiates is not a Brahman, but a Bhakat, and .the binding portion of the ceremony is the payment of the bride-price, which oonsists of a pair of bullocks, or Rs. 5 to Rs. lOin cash.
Marriages
Along with this striving after conformity with the externa1s of Hinduism, we find the Bhakats retaining in their entirety the totemistic exogamous sections characteristic of the Oraons, and observing the same prohibited degrees. They show at present no signs of carrying their asceticism into the domain of marriage. Like the Oraons, they marry their girls as adults, usually between the ages of twelve and sixteen. Unrestricted courtship is permitted before marriage, and sexual intercourse is tolerated, it being understood that if a girl becomes pregnant she will name the father of her child, and the two will get married. Polygamy is permitted, but is not usually resorted to unless the first wife is barren. Widows are allowed to marry again, but no ceremony is performed on such occasions, and the transaction is deemed to be complete when a few mannds of grain have been paid to the relatives of the woman. Divorce is easy and very common; a woman runs away from her husband with any man who suits her fancy, a man turns out his wife and takes up with another woman. In either case the parties may marry again and thus render the divorce final, but this may also be effected without remarriage by refunding to the husband the bride¬price which he paid in the first instance for his wife.
Disposal of dead
In the disposal of the dead the usages of the Bhakats do not differ materially from those of the Oraons.
The rule is to burn the body, preserving some of the ashes and bones for burial, at the time of the haddiphor festival, in the bhuinhari village of the deceased, that is to say in the village from the first founders of which he believes him¬self to be descended. At this festival pigs and great quantities of rice are offered for the benefit of departed ancestors, who are also held in continual remembrance by fragments of rice or dal cast on the ground 'at every meal, and by a pinch of tobacco sprinkled whenever a man prepares his pipe. The bodies of women who die within fifteen days after child-birth are buried, and fowls offered over the grave. People who die during the rainy season are also buried, but the remains are exhumed and burned when the dry season sets in.
