Mal Paharia
Contents |
Mal Paharia
This section has been extracted from THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Origin
A Dravidian tribe inhabiting the Ramgarh Hills in the Santal Parganas, who until recently lived by hunting and jhum or karao cultivation, Their tribal affinities are extremely obscure, and have formed the subject of some discussion. Buchanan1 gives the following account of them The northern tribe2 consider their southern neighbours as brethren, and call them Maler,3 the name which they give themselves; but the southern tribe, shocked at the impurity of the others, deny this consanguinity, and most usually call the northern tribe Chet, while they assume to themselves the denomination of Mal or Mar, which, however, is probably a word of the same derivation with Maler. The Mal, however, divide themselves into three tribes Kumarpali, Dangrpali, and Marpal and they often call the northern mountaineers Sumarpali, thus, as it were, acknowledging a common origin, which I have little doubt is the fact. The manners and language of the three southern Pali are the same, and they speak a very impure dialect of the Bengalese. The three Pali were originally local distinctions, but now all live intermixed, have exactly the same customs and language, and intermarry but there are five real hereditary distinctions, which descend in the male line. The highest Tank consists of the Rajas or chiefs and their descendants, all of whom are called Singhas or lions.
Next to these are certain families that were at one time rich, and are called Grihi. They assisted their poorer brethren with loans, and seem to have been a kind of bankers, like the Vaisyas of the Hindus. They never seem to have held any office in the State. The third in rank were the Manjhis or chiefs of villages, and none but persons of this Tank were ever permitted to hold this office. The persons of the Ahriti or fourth class were by birth hunters, and at first in all probability were the lower and labouring class, like the Sudras of the Hindus; for what is now considered as the lowest and fifth class is composed of the Naiyas, who are allowed to have originally been the priests, but have been totally discarded from that office." Against Dr. Buchanan's description of the Mal Paharias as a Hinduised branch of the Maler, we have to set Colonel Dalton's opinions4 that the former tribe" appear to be altogether unconnected with the Rajmahal hillmen, 'J and Mr. Ball' statement, based upon personal observation, that the Mal Paharias "are altogether di tin~t in appearance, customs, and language trom the Asal Paharias, who occupy the Rajmahal hills proper." It should be observed, however , that even in Dr. Buchanan's time (1807-1814) a wide breach had been established between .the two groups, and the southern Paharias at least strenuously disowned all kinship with the northern.
Sixty years later the breach must have been greatly widened by the Mal Paharias continually adopting Hindu customs, while the Males seem to have stubbornly resisted all impulses in that direction, and this movement may possibly account for the impression formed by Mr. Ball. On the question of language the evidence seems to be inconclusive. Colonel Dalton gives a very meagre list of words obtained by Dr. Coates from a Mal Paharia prisoner in the Hazari bagh Central Jail. On this he observes: -" I cannot say I have I Eastem India, ii, 126. 3 Maler is the plural of Male. : The Males of Rajmabal. 4 Etlmology of Bengal, p. 274. 5 Jungle Life in India, p. ~29. e 2 found in it analogues sufficient to justify its association with the Dravidian dialects, but it is equally unlike Kol." 1 A comparison of the list with Mr. Droese's Malto Vocabulary shows, however, that some slight Correspondence may be traced between the language of the Male and the mongrel dialect spoken by the Mel! Paharias. 'rhus, chapta, 'the foot'i Malto, sole of the foot: ek01'e, 'to go'i Malto, eke,' tindiana, 'to eat,' seems to be a causal formed in Hindi fashion from the Malto tinde, 'to feed:' mal81', 'a man,' is the nominative plural of male,' bdtkm', 'a woman,' and batke'F, 'a daughter,' are curiously like the Malto bat?l, 'virginal,' and bcitgni, 'a maiden ': chichtt is the Malto word for fire: amma is not far removed from amtt, the Malto for water: chiore, 'to give,' appears to be from the same root as chiye: mala.ga, 'no,' merely adds a syllable to the Malto mala,' and A:ukra, 'a cock,' may perhaps be connected with the Malto kUHn:, 'to cry out.' These slight resem¬blances of course fall far short of establishing the identity of the two tribes, but they tend on the whole to show that Buchauan's opinion is not so clearly untenable as has been sometimes supposed to be the case. Mr. Droese, with whom I discussed the subject some years ago, considered the two tribes to be of common origin. This view is borne out by the fact that they understand one another's language readily, though they assert that the dialects are different; as well as by the identity of their ancestral worship, a point in which all races display a remarkably conservative spirit. As for the anta¬gonism whioh at present prevails between the north and south Pabarias, it is only another instance of what has been commonly observed in Chota Nagpur, that two sections of the same tribe which in any way happen to become separated are often far more strongly opposed to one another than if they had been originally distinct tribes.
Internal structure
The Mal PaMrias are divided into two sub-tribes-Mal Paharia proper and Kumar or Komar-Bhag. The latter group, which corresponds with Buchanan's Kumarpali, is the more Hinduised of the two. The septs are given in Appendix I. They appear to be identical with Buchanan's " hereditary distinctions." lie would doubtless have discovered the fact that they are exogamous had the subject of exogamy attracted any attention at the time when he wrote. Their names are apparently titular, and throw no light upon the affinities of the tribe. 1'he Mal Paharias also observe a table of prohibited degrees, which differR little from that defined by the standard formula referred to in the article on Bais. They have no traditions worth mentioning, except a vague legend that their first parents were born from a oow. The same story is told of the ancestor of the Pachete family in Manbhum, whose estate borders on the country where the Mal Pabal'ias are now found. It is possible, indeed, that the Puchete Raj mlly in early times have extended further to the east, and that the head of that house may have been the Raja of whOIl) Buchanan speaks as having formerly appointed from among the Mal Paharias a dewan, a faujdar ' to command in predatory expeditions, and the manjhis or headmen of villages. This, however, is the purest conjecture. The tendency to borrow a myth current in a landholding family may be frequently observed in Chota Nagpur.
Marriage
Marriage is either infant or adult. Girls are rarely married before the age of ten or eleven, and usually not until they are fully grown up. In the latter case sexual intercourse before marriage is tacitly recognized, it being understood that if an unmarried girl becomes pregnant her lover will come forward and many her. A professional match¬maker (sithu) is usually employed by the bride groom's people to search for a suitable wife. When his selection has been made, a visit of inspection is paid by the parents; and if the proposed bride is approved of, the price to be paid for her is settled by personal discussion. Custom ordains that the amount shall be an odd number of rupees, not less than five, Dor more than twenty-five. rt must be paid either in a lump sum or by instalments before the marriage can be celebrated. On the occasion of the final payment the bridegroom's parents send by the sitlm some baira beer and a sari for the bride, which is made over to her maternal uncle to be kept till the day of the wedding. Particular inquiries were made regarding the reason for thus selecting the maternal uncle as a sort of trustee for the bride's perculium, but no definite result was arrived at; and this usage, undoubtedly one of great antiquity, seems only to be explicable as a survival of female kinship, a system of which no other traces are met with in the tribe. Shortly after the bride-price have been paid, the sithu is again sent to the bride's house, this time bearing an arrow wound round with yellow thread tied in as many knots as there are days to the date proposed for the wedding. The bride's people make their preparations accordingly, undoing a knot as each day passes. On the day before the bridegroom arrives and is lodged near the bride's house. Early next morning a big feast is given, after which the bridegroom takes his seat facing the east in a sort of arbour of .~at branches built for the purpose. H ere he is joined by the bride, dressed, like him, in a new cotton wrapper dyed yellow with turmeric, who sits besides him while the maidens of his company comb out her hair.
A sat leaf cup is offered to the bridegroom, containing red lead, which he daubs on the bride's forehead and the parting of her hair. The girls who combed the bride's hair take her hand, dip a finger into the red lead, and make seven spots on the bridegroom's forehead. This final and binding rite is received with a shout of applause, which is the signal for the Dom musicians in attendance to beat the drums for a dance. Towards evening the wedded pair go of!' to the bridegroom's house, where the whole party spend the night in dancing and drinking. Poly¬gamy is permitted, and, in theory at least, there are no restrictions on the number of wives a man may have. Practically, however, the poverty of the tribe and their hand-to-mouth fashion of living set strict limits to the exercise of this right, and few Paharias indulge themselves with the luxury of a second wife, except when the first happens to be barren. A man may marry two sisters, but he must follow the order of age, and if already married to a younger sister, may not take an elder sister to wife. A widow may marry again. She is expected to marry her late husband's younger brother if there is one; but if he does not wish to marry her, any member of the caste not barred by the prohibited degrees may have her on paying a bride-price of Rs. 2 to her. late husband's relatives. No ceremony is required, nor is sindu1' used. The husband merely gives the woman a new cloth and takes her to his house. A wife may be divorced with the sanction of the caste councilor panchayat for adultery or persistent and incurable ill-temper. As a rule anangements of this sort are effected by mutual consent, the parties tearing a sal leaf in two before the panchayat as a symbol of separation. The seducer of a married woman is required to repay to her husband the sum which she cost him as a virgin. Divorced wives may marry again in the same manner as widows, and for the same bride¬ price, which is paid to their own, not to their late husband's relations.
Religion
At the head of the Paharia religion stands the sun, to whom reverential obeisance is made morning and evening. On occasional Sundays a special worship is performed by the head of the family, who must prepare himself for the rite by eating no salt on the previous Friday and fasting all Saturday, with the exception of a light meal of molasses and milk, taken at sunset after bathing. Before sunrise on Sunday morning a new earthen vessel, a new basket, some rice, oil, areca nuts, and vermilion, and a brass lota of water with a mango branch stuck in it, are laid out on a clean space of ground in front of the house. The worshipper shows these offerings to the rising sun and prays, adchessing the luminary as 'Gosain,' that he and his family may be saved from any specific danger or trouble that is supposed to threaten them. The rice is then given to a goat, which is decapitated while eating by a single blow from behind. The body of the animal is then cooked and served up at a feast, of which the neigh¬bours partake; the head alone, which is deemed prasad, or sacred, being carefully reserved for the members of the family. Next in honour to the sun are Dharti Mai, mother earth; her servant, or as some say sister, Garami i and Singhbahini, who bears rule over tigers, snakes, scorpions, and all manner of noxious beasts. To the earth goats, pigs, fowls, etc., are offered in Ashar and Magh, and buffaloes or goats are sacrificed about the time of the Hindu Durga Puja to the goddess Singhbah ini, who is represented for sacrifioial purposes by a lump of clay daubed with vermilion and oil and set up in front of the worshipper's house. The village Manjhi offioiates as priest. The Magh worship of Dharti Mai is clearly the festival described by Colonel Dalton under the name Bhuindeb, the earth god.!
"The Mals plant in their danoing place two branohes of the sal tree, and for three days they danoe round these branohes, after which they are removed and thrown into a river, which reminds one of the Karma festivals as solemnised by the Omons and Kols in Chota Nagpur. On this occasion the men and women dance vis-a-vis to each other, the musicians keeping between. The men dance holding each other above their elbows, the left hand of one holding the right elbow of the other, whose right hand again holds the left elbow of the arm that has seized him. The fore-arms touching are held stiffly out and swayed up and down. They move sideways, advance, and retire, sometimes bending low, sometimes ereot. The women hold each other by the palms, interlaoing the fingers, left palm upon right palm, and left and right fore-arms touching. They move like the men."
Two curious points mfty be added. The man at whose instance or for whose benefit the ceremony is performed must sleep the night before on a bed of straw; and the danoing party, who are greatly excited with drink, shout continually M,iJl•, bur (p/ldendum mulieb•/•e) , a mode of invocation believed to be especially acceptable to the goddess. In this somewhat indelioate ory we may perhaps see a blU'barous and undraped reference to the vis genet1•ix natul'CE so prominent in many early forms of belief. Besides these greater elemental deities, the Mal Paharias recog¬nize and propitiate a number of vaguely-defined animistic powers, chief among whom is Chordanu, a malevolent spirit, needing to be appeased at certain intervals with sacrifices and the first fruits of whatever crop is on the ground. To the same class belongs Maha¬dana, for whom eggs are the appropriate offering'. Among the standard Hindu deities Kali and Lakhi Mai (Lakshmi) are honoured with sparing and infrequent worship, the offerings in this case being the perquisite of the village headmen. Ancestor worship is in full force, and the sacm privata of a Mal Paharia household correspond precisely with those observed by the MaltS tribe. '1'he Lares are known to both by the familiar term Gumo Gosain or Deota., the gods of the wooden pillar (GltIllO) ,1 which supports the main rafters of the house. Around this centre are grouped a number of balls of hardened olay, representing tile ancestors of the family, to whom the first fruits of the earth are offered, and the blood of goats or fowls poured forth at the foot of the pillar that the souls may not hunger in the world of the dead. As every household is guarded by its ancestral gods, so every village has a tutelary deity of its own-Larem agn custodem, who lives in a sal tree within the village. This tree is daubed with red lead and worshipped on certain occasions, and may on no account be cut down. The tribe have no priests, and the head of the household or village, as the case may be, performs all rel1gious and ceremonial observances. Brahmans, however, are to some extent held in honour, and presents are given to them on festal occasions.
Disposal of the dead
The dead are usually burned, and a piece of bone is saved from the flames to be thrown into a river or a deep tank the waters of which do not run dry. 'The relatives are deemed impure, and may not eat salt for five days. At the end of that time they are shaved, and partake or a feast provided by the eldest son. The funeral expenses are a first charge on the estate, and after these have been paid the balance is equally divided among the sons, daughters getting no sbare. Very poor persons, who cannot afford to give a feast, bury their dead in a recumbent position with the head towards the south, and give nothing but a little salt and meal (sattu) to the friends who attend t,he funeral. In Buchanan's time it was the universal custom tf) bury the dead on the day ()f death. No 81'1iclrlh is performed by the Mal Pahrias proper, but some of the wealthier members of the Kumar Bhag sub¬tribe are beginning to adopt a meagre form of this ceremony in imitation of their Hindu neighbours.
Occupation
The tribe believe jhum tillage and hunting to be their original occupations, and a large proportion of the tribe still adhere to these primitive modes of livelihood. Their system of J'hum cultivation is thus described by Buchanan :-" On the hills the br'wi is neither ploughed nor hoed. The men cut the treees and bum them, and the women sow the seed. In the first year they scatter over the surface seed of the kinds of millet called khel'i and kangni, and with a stick pointed with iron (khanta) form small holes, in which they drop seed of maize, janiJ'{l, and a pulse called bOl'(i or kalai. In the second year they plant only maize andjani1"lz." By the third year the land is worked out, and the cultivator must seek a fresh patch of jungle for his operations. A large tract of hill land is therefore required to keep a Paharia village going. Buchanan observed that although their progress in agriculture was greater than that of their northern neighbours, their huts were much more wretched and dirty, their clothing more scanty, and their women less cleanly and worse provided with ornaments. In bad seasons they supplement their scanty food-supply with jungle roots and herbs, of which, like the Sikkim Lepchas, they have a minute empirical knowledge. Of late years many have taken to plough cultivation at the foot of the hills, where they hold land as occupancy raiyats at the rents fixed in the current settlement. Standing as they do wholly outside the regular caste system, they can hardly be said to have any social status in the ordinary sense of that phrase. From the Hindu point 0:£ view their diet is certainly unclean, for pork, fowls, and all kinds of fish are deemed lawful food; but the fact of their abstaining from beef, snakes, lizards, and field-rats would probably lead the average Hindu to regard them as a shade purer than the Males and their congeners the Oraons.
