Manbhao
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From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India
By R. V. Russell
Of The Indian Civil Service
Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces
Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner
Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.
NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.
NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from the original book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot these footnotes gone astray might like to shift them to their correct place.
Manbhao
A religious sect or order, which has now and nature ^gcome a caste, belonging to the Maratha Districts of the of the sect. Central Provinces and to Berar. Their total strength in India in 191 1 was 10,000 persons, of whom the Central Provinces and Berar contained 4000. The name would appear to have some such meaning as ' The reverend brothers.' The Manbhaos are stated to be a Vaishnavite 1 Tliis article is compiled from notes burgh ; Captain Mackintosh's Accotmt on the caste drawn up by Colonel ^Me j)/i2«(^//rt^j' (India Office Tracts)
Mackenzie and contributed to the and a paper by Pyare Lai Misra, Pioneer newspaper by Mrs. Ilors- Ethnographic clerk. II HISTORY AND NATURE OF THE SECT 177 order founded in Berar some two centuries ago.^ They themselves say that their order is a thousand years old and that it was founded by one Arjun Bhat, who lived at Domegaon, near Ahmadnagar.
He was a great Sanskrit scholar and a devotee of Krishna, and preached his doctrines to all except the impure castes. Ridhpur, in Berar, is the present headquarters of the order, and contains a monastery and three temples, dedicated to Krishna and Dattatreya,^ the only deities recognised by the Manbhaos. Each temple is named after a village, and is presided over by a Mahant elected from the celibate Manbhaos.
There are other Mahants, also known after the names of villages or towns in which the monasteries over which they preside are located. Among these are Sheone, from the village near Chandur in Amraoti District ; Akulne, a village near Ahmadnagar ; Lasorkar, from Lasor, near Aurangabad ; Mehkarkar, from Mehkar in Buldana ; and others. The order thus belongs to Berar and the adjoining parts of India. Colonel Mackenzie describes Ridhpur as follows : " The name is said to be derived from rzdh, meaning blood, a Rakshas or demon having been killed there by Parasurama, and it owes its sanctity to the fact that the god lived there.
Black stones innumerable scattered about the town show where the god's footsteps became visible. At Ridhpur Krishna is represented by an ever-open, sleeplessly watching eye, and some Manbhaos carry about a small black stone disk with an eye painted on it as an amulet." Frequently their shrines contain no images, but are simply chabiitras or platforms built over the place where Krishna or Dattatreya left marks of their footprints.
Over the platform is a small veranda, which the Manbhaos kiss, calling upon the name of the god. Sukli, in Bhandara, is also a headquarters of the caste, and contains many Manbhao tombs. Here they burn camphor in honour of Dattatreya and make offerings of cocoanuts.
They make pilgrimages to the different shrines at the full moons of Chait (IMarch) and Kartik (October). They pay reverence to no deities except Krishna and Dattatreya, and observe 1 Berar Census Report
the festivals of Gokul Ashtami in August and Datta- Jayantri in December. They consider the month of Aghan (November) as holy, because Krishna called it so in the Bhagavat-Glta. This is their sacred book, and they reject the other Hindu scriptures.
Their conception of Krishna is based on his description of himself to Arjun in the Bhagavat- Gita as follows : " ' Behold things wonderful, never seen before, behold in this my body the whole world, animate and inanimate. But as thou art unable to see with these thy natural eyes, I will give thee a heavenly eye, with which behold my divine connection.' " The son of Pandu then beheld within the body of the god of gods standing together the whole universe divided forth into its vast variety. He was overwhelmed with wonder and every hair was raised on end.
' But I am not to be seen as thou hast seen me even by the assistance of the Vedas, by mortification, by sacrifices, by charitable gifts : but I am to be seen, to be known in truth, and to be obtained by that worship which is offered up to me alone : and he goeth unto me whose works are done for me : who esteemeth me supreme : who is my servant only : who hath abandoned all consequences, and who liveth amongst all men without hatred.' " Again : " He my servant is dear to me who is free from enmity, the friend of all nature, merciful, exempt from all pride and selfishness, the same in pain and in pleasure, patient of wrong, contented, constantly devout, of subdued passions and firm resolves, and whose mind and understanding are fixed on me alone."
2. Divi- The Manbhaos are now divided into three classes : the
the"order
Brahmachari ; the Gharbari ; and the Bhope. The Brahmachari
are the ascetic members of the sect who subsist by
begging and devote their lives to meditation, prayer and
spiritual instruction. The Gharbari are those who, while
leading a mendicant life, wearing the distinctive black dress
of the order and having their heads shaved, are permitted
to get married with the permission of their Mahant or guru.
The ceremony is performed in strict privacy inside a temple.
A man sometimes signifies his choice of a spouse by putting
his77/<?/^ or beggar's wallet upon hers; if she lets it remain
there, the betrothal is complete. A woman may show her preference for a man by bringing a pair of garlands and placing one on his head and the other on that of the image of Krishna. The marriage is celebrated according to the custom of the Kunbis, but without feasting or music. Widows are permitted to marry again.
Married women do not wear bangles nor toe-rings nor the customary necklace of beads ; they put on no jewellery, and have no cJioli or bodice. The Bhope or Bhoall, the third division of the caste, are wholly secular and wear no distinctive dress, except sometimes a black head-cloth. They may engage in any occupation that pleases them, and sometimes act as servants in the temples of the caste.
In Berar they are divided into thirteen bas or orders, named after the disciples of Arjun Bhat, who founded the various shrines. The Manbhaos are recruited by initiation of both men and women from any except the impure castes. Young children who have been vowed by their parents to a religious life or are left without relations, are taken into the order. Women usually join it either as children or late in life. The celibate members, male or female, live separately in companies like monks and nuns.
They do not travel together, and hold services in their temples at different times. A woman admitted into the order is henceforward the disciple of the woman who initiated her by whispering the guru mantra or sacred verse into her ear. She addresses her preceptress as mother and the other women as sisters. The Manbhaos are intelligent and generally literate, and they lead a simple and pure life.
They are respectable and are respected by the people, and a guru or spiritual teacher is often taken from them in place of a Brahman or Gosain. They often act as priests or gurus to the Mahars, for whom Brahmans will not perform these services. Their honesty and humility are proverbial among the Kunbis, and are in pleasing contrast to the character of many of the Hindu mendicant orders.
They consider it essential that all their converts should be able to read the Bhagavat-Glta or a commentary on it, and for this purpose teach them to read and write during the rainy season when they are assembled at one of their monasteries.
3. Reiigi- One of the leading tenets of the Manbhaos is a respect
vances^^'^
for all forms of animal and even vegetable life, much on a
and par with that of the Jains. They strain water through a
cus oms.
f~.\Q<^ before drinking it, and then delicately wipe the cloth to preserve any insects that may be upon it. They should not drink water in, and hence cannot reside in, any village where animal sacrifices are offered to a deity. They will not cut down a tree nor break off a branch, or even a blade of grass, nor pluck a fruit or an ear of corn. Some, it is said, will not even bathe in tanks for fear of destroying insect-life. For this reason also they readily accept cooked food as alms, so that they may avoid the risk of the destruction of life involved in cooking.
The Manbhaos dislike the din and noise of towns, and live generally in secluded places, coming into the towns only to beg. Except in the rains they wander about from place to place. They beg in the morning, and then return home and, after bathing and taking their food, read their religious books. They must always worship Krishna before taking food, and for this purpose when travelling they carry an image of the deity about with them.
They will take food and water from the higher castes, but they must not do so from persons of low caste on pain of temporary excommunication. They neither smoke nor chew tobacco. Both men and women shave the head clean, and men also the face. This is first done on initiation by the village barber. But the sendJii or scalplock and moustaches of the novice must be cut off by his guru, this being the special mark of his renunciation of the world.
The scalp-locks of the various candidates are preserved until a sufficient quantity of hair has been collected, when ropes are made of it, which they fasten round their loins. This may be because Hindus attach a special efficacy to the scalp-lock, perhaps as being the seat of a man's strength or power. The nuns also shave their heads, and generally eschew every kind of personal adornment. Both monks and nuns usually dress in black or ashen-grey clothes as a mark of humility, though some have discarded black in favour of the usual Hindu mendicant colour of red ochre.
The black colour is in keeping with the complexion of
Krishna, their chief god. They dye their cloths with
II HOSTILITY BETWEEN MANBHAOS i'^ BRAHMANS i8i
lamp-black mixed with a little water and oil. They usually
sleep on the ground, with the exception of those who are
Mahants, and they sometimes have no metal vessels, but use
bags made of strong cloth for holding food and water.
Men's names have the suffix Boa, as Datto Boa, Kesho Boa,
while those of boys end in da, as Manoda, Raojida, and
those of women in Bai, as Gopa Bai, Som Bai. The dead
are buried, not in the common burial-grounds, but in some
waste place.
The corpse is laid on its side, facing the east, with head to the north and feet to the south. A piece of silk or other valuable cloth is placed on it, on which salt is sprinkled, and the earth is then filled in and the ground levelled so as to leave no trace of the grave. No memorial is erected over a Manbhao tomb, and no mourning nor ceremony of purification is observed, nor are oblations offered to the spirits of the dead.
If the dead man leaves any property, it is expended on feeding the brotherhood for ten days ; and if not, the Mahant of his order usually does this in his name. The Manbhaos are dissenters from orthodox Hinduism, 4. Hostility and have thus naturally incurred the hostility of the Brah- Msnbhaos mans. Mr. Kitts remarks of them : ^ " The Brahmans hate and the Manbhaos, who have not only thrown off the Brahmanical ^^ '"^"^' yoke themselves, but do much to oppose the influence of Brahmans among the agriculturists. The Brahmans represent them as descended from one Krishna Bhat, a Brahman who was outcasted for keeping a beautiful Mang woman as his mistress.
His four sons were called the Mdug-bhaos or Mang brothers." This is an excellent instance of the Brahman talent for pressing etymology into their service as an argument, in which respect they resemble the Jesuits.
By asserting that the Manbhaos are descended from a Mang
woman, one of the most despised castes, they attempt to
dispose of these enemies of a Brahman hegemony without
further ado.
Another story about their wearing black or ashencoloured
clothes related by Colonel Mackenzie is that
Krishna Bhat's followers, refusing to believe the aspersions
cast on their leader by the Brahmans, but knowing that
' Berar Census Report (iSSi), p. 62.
1 82 MANBHAO i'Art
some one among them had been guilty of the sin imputed
to him, determined to decide the matter by the ordeal of
fire.
Having made a fire, they cast into it their own clothes and those of their guru, each man having previously written his name on his garments. The sacred fire made short work of all the clothes except those of Krishna Bhat, which it rejected and refused to burn, thereby forcing the unwilling disciples to believe that the finger of God pointed to their revered guru as the sinner.
In spite of the shock of thus discovering that their idol had feet of very human clay, they still continued to regard Krishna Bhat's precepts as good and worthy of being followed, only stipulating that for all time Manbhaos should wear clothes the colour of ashes, in memory of the sacred fire which had disclosed to them their guru's sin.
Captain Mackintosh also relates that "About A.D. 1780,
a Brahman named Anand Rishi, an inhabitant of Paithan on
the Godavari, maltreated a Manbhao, who came to ask for
alms at his door. This Manbhao, after being beaten, proceeded
to his friends in the vicinity, and they collected a
large number of brethren and went to the Brahman to
demand satisfaction ; Anand Rishi assembled a number
of Gosains and his friends, and pursued and attacked the
Manbhaos, who fled and asked Ahalya Bai, Rani of Indore,
to protect them ; she endeavoured to pacify Anand Rishi
by telling him that the Manbhaos were her gurus ; he said
that they were Mangs, but declared that if they agreed to
his proposals he would forgive them ; one of them was that
they were not to go to a Brahman's house to ask for alms,
and another that if any Brahman repeated Anand Rishi's
name and drew a line across the road when a Manbhao was
advancing, the Manbhao, without saying a word, must return
the road he came.
Notwithstanding this attempt to prevent their approaching a Brahman's house, they continue to ask alms of the Brahmans, and some Brahmans make a point of supplying them with provisions." This story endeavours to explain a superstition still observed by the caste.
This is that when a Manbhao is proceeding along a road, if any one draws a line across the road with a stick in front of him the Manbhao will wait
without passing the line until some one else comes up and crosses it before him. In reality this is probably a primitive superstition similar to that which makes a man stop when a snake has crossed the road in front of him and efface its track before proceeding. It is said that the members of the order also carry their sticks upside down, and a saying is repeated about them : MCmbJiao Jiokar kale kaprc dCirhi DtiicJii micndhata Jiai^ Ulti lakri hath men pakri ivoh kya Sahib iiiilta hai j or, " The Manbhao wears black clothes, shaves his face and holds his stick upside down, and thinks he will find God that way." This saying is attributed to Kablr.
