Latest revision as of 08:00, 17 May 2015

[edit] Fishermen castes: sholapur

[edit] Fishers

Fishers include two castes with a strength of 8705 or 1.6 per cent of the Hindu population. Of these 1001 (males 494, females 507) were Bhois; and 7704 (males 3939, females 3765) were Kolis.

[edit] Bhois

Bhois, or Fishers, are returned as numbering 1001 and as found in towns and large villages. They are divided into Maratha Bhois [Details of the Maratha Bhoi customs are given in the Poona Statistical Account.] who speak Marathi and Pardeshi Bhois who speak Hindustani. The following particulars apply to Pardeshi Bhois. They live in mud or stone houses with thatched roofs, and have metal and earthen vessels in store. They are said not to eat fowls, but they eat fish and the flesh of goats and sheep. Their staple food is jvari and vegetables. The men dress in a loincloth, waistcloth, a coarse cotton jacket, and a Maratha turban; and the women wear the bodice and robe without drawing the end of the robe back between the feet. They are a lazy and dirty people, earning their living as fishers and day-labourers, the women helping the men in selling the fish. Their chief god is Vyankoba. They keep all Hindu holidays, and their priests are ordinary village Brahmans. After childbirth the mother is impure for seven days. In the evening of the fifth day the goddess Satvai is worshipped, and the child is named on the thirteenth. When it is a year old the child's head is shaved, whether it is a boy or a girl, and in the evening the caste are feasted. On the marriage day Pardeshi Bhois fix a post in the ground in the middle of the booth, and place near the post a new earthen jar filled with cold water. When the boy comes to the girl's house, he and the girl are bathed in the booth with the cold water from the jar, and they are seated near the post. The Kulkarni or any other Brahman repeats marriage verses, throws grains of rice over their heads, and they walk five times round the post and are husband and wife. Marriage brow-horns or bashings of date palm or shindi leaves are tied to their brows, and the boy goes walking with the bride to his house with kinsfolk friends and music. Their marriage guardian or devak is the sun god or Surya. They allow widow marriage and either bury or burn the dead. Their chief deities are Ambabai, Bahiroba, and Khandoba; and their great holiday is Shivratra in February. Their headman, who is called chaduhari, settles social disputes and levies fines varying from 2s. to £5 (Rs. 1 - 50). When a fine of £5 (Rs. 50) is recovered the headman is presented with a turban, and the rest is spent in a feast. They do not send their boys to school. Fish is in little demand and they are a poor people.

[edit] Kolis

Kolis are returned as numbering 7704 and as found all over the district. According to a book called the Malutarangranth, Shalivahan, with his minister Ramchandra Udavant Sonar, sent four Koli chiefs from Paithan to Sholapur, to punish a rebel in the Dindirvan forest. After the rising was put down the Koli chiefs were placed in charge of the forest and the country round, and were ordered to maintain themselves by carrying on the work of boatmen and by acting as priests in all Mahadev temples. Afterwards two more chiefs with their families and the parents of the four original chiefs came and settled in the district. The names of the four original chiefs were Abhangrav, Adhatrav, Nehetrav, and Parchande, and these with a few others have become Koli surnames. The Kolis are divided into Maratha and Panbhari or Pan Kolis who eat together and intermarry. [Besides these two classes of Kolia some Kamathis from the Balaghat hills in the Nizam's country call themselves Mahadev Kolis. Most speak Marathi out of doors, but in many families the home speech is Telugu. This class is interesting as they apparently are the origin of the Mahadev Kolis of the Ahmadnagar hills. Details are given in the Ahmadnagar Statistical Account.] The names in common use among men are Babaji, Hari, Keru, Kondi, Limba, Mukund, Nathaji, Pandu, and Rakhma; and among women Bhagu, Gita, Kondu, Kasha, Krishna, Rakhma, Rangu, and Tulsi. They look like Marathas, and are strong, dark, and hardy, the men wearing the top-knot moustache and whiskers, but not the beard. They speak an incorrect Marathi mixed with peculiar expressions, some for shortness sake and others without any apparent reason. [Thus for do not want nako, they say nag; for yonder palikade, palyad; for take this he ghe, hinga; for plenty pushkal, lai, or mayndal; for little thode, ulis; for there tikade, takad; for here ikade,hakad ; for soon lavhar, begi; and for beat mar, han.] They live in middle class houses one storey high with walls of mud and stone and flat roofs. They are not neat or clean, and their house goods include a cot, a cradle, and a couple of boxes, blankets, carpets, and metal and earthen cooking vessels. They keep cows, buffaloes, goats, and domestic fowls, but not servants. Their staple food includes millet, pulse, and vegetables, and they are very fond of chillies and hot spices. They give caste dinners on marriages and the anniversaries of deaths. They eat fish and the flesh of goats, sheep, hares, deer, and domestic fowls and eggs. They hold themselves impure when they eat flesh and on that day do not visit the temple. Such of them as have turned Varkaris or season-keepers to the Pandharpur Vithoba and wear necklaces of basil or tulsi leaves, have given up eating flesh. They sometimes get over the difficulty by hanging their tulsi necklaces to a peg in the house before tasting flesh and putting them on again next morning after bathing. They use spirituous and other intoxicating drinks, eat opium, and smoke hemp flowers and tobacco but not to excess. Both men and women dress like Marathas. The men dress in the loin and waistcloth, coat, waistcoat, Maratha turban, and sandals or Brahman shoes, and rub their brows with sandal. The women wear a robe and bodice, but do not pass the end of the robe back between the feet. They tie their hair in a knot behind the head, rub their brows with redpowder, but do not wear false hair or deck their heads with flowers. Neither men nor women are neat or clean in their dress. Their only special rule regarding clothes is that the women never wear black robes and that the men never wear black turbans. They have special clothes for great occasions and their gold, silver, and pearl ornaments are the same as those worn by Marathas. They are a hardworking, even-tempered, thrifty, hospitable, and orderly people. They are boatmen, carrying passengers across rivers and streams during the rainy season, charging ¾d. (½ a.) for each fare, except people of their own village or town who give them a grain allowance at the end of the year. They are hereditary ministrants in Mahadev's shrines and take to themselves the offerings laid before the god. The Pan Kolis or watermen carry water in bags on the backs of buffaloes, supply the villagers, and receive a yearly allowance in grain, hay, or money. The Kolis are also husbandmen and are helped in their work by their wives and children. They are a poor class sunk in debt which they have undergone to meet special expenses on marriages and deaths and on boat building. They claim the same rank as Maratha Kunbis with whom they dine. A Koli rises at dawn and goes to his boat. About eight he eats a bit of bread either in the boat or on the river bank with onions and powdered chillies, and washes it down by a draught of water. He returns home between eleven and twelve, bathes, takes his midday meal, and, after an hour's nap, goes to the shrine of which he is ministrant or to the place where his caste meet to get his share of the day's earnings. If he has nothing else to do, unless he is an old man, he joins his companions in playing cards or other games, or he goes to a house where the sacred books or Purans are read and sits hearing them. During the dry months, when there is no ferrying, unless he has a shrine to look after, a Koli generally moves about the country in search of work. The Kolis' busy season is during the rains, and in large towns such as Pandharpur they are hard worked during the fairs or jatras. Pan Kolis have no busy or slack time, as they have to work all the year round. They are a religious people and worship the usual Hindu gods and goddesses. Their family gods are Vithoba of Pandharpur, Bhavani of Tuljapur, and Khandoba of Jejuri. Their priests are Deshasth Brahmans to whom they pay great respect. They keep the usual Hindu fasts and festivals. Their spiritual guides or gurus are the slit-eared or Kanphata Gosavis. When a member of a family wishes to become the disciple of a teacher, the teacher is asked to the house and is seated on a stool. The candidate bathes and sits in front of the teacher, washes his feet, and worships him by rubbing sweet scented oil on his brow, throwing garlands of flowers round his neck, and flowers and rice over his head. He presents the teacher with 6d, to 2s. (Re. ¼ -1) in cash and bows before him. Theguru fastens a rosary of one hundred and eight basil beads round the candidate's neck and whispers something in his right ear. A feast to the guru and a few near relations or friends ends the ceremony. The Gosavi becomes the family guide and the members of the family take advice from no one else. Kolis believe in sorcery, witchcraft," soothsaying, omens, and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. They marry their boys before they are twenty, and their girls before they are twelve. The father of the boy has to look out for a suitable girl as a wife for his son. When he has found a girl he goes to her house with the family priest and a few near kinsmen and fixes the marriage day. He presents the girl with a robe and bodice, serves betel, and returns home. This is called the magni or asking. Five days before the marriage day, five married women bathe the boy and rub him with oil and turmeric. Some of the women of the boy's house put the rest of the turmeric in a leaf cup, take it to the girl's with a robe and bodice, bathe her, rub her with oil and turmeric, dress her in the robe and bodice, and return to the boy's. On the second or third day after the turmeric-rubbing, at both houses, they call seven married women with their husbands, and, going to waste lands, bring branches of five trees or panchpalvis, and, together with the hatchet with which they chopped the branches and some cooked food, tie them to one of the posts of the booth, and this they call the marriage god or devak. At night a dinner is given. On the wedding day an earthen altar is built in the girl's house. In the afternoon the boy, dressed in his best clothes, with a marriage ornament or bashing tied to his brow with kinsfolk and friends, goes riding on horseback to the village temple, and thence to the girl's house. Here a woman waves a cake round his head, and, dividing the cake in two, throws one part to the right and the other to the left. He dismounts and takes his seat in the booth on a carpet. The Brahman priest rubs his brow with sandal and hands him a new turban which he folds round his head. Two baskets plaited with acacia or babhul twigs are set opposite each other, and in one of them is laid a grindstone and in the other a coil of rope. The girl stands in the grindstone basket and the boy in the rope basket and the priest ties round the girl's neck a necklace of black glass beads. Between them two Brahmans, who repeat marriage verses, hold a new waistcloth, and, at the end, they throw grains of rice over the couple's head and seat them in the baskets. The priest five times winds cotton thread round the couple's necks and the girl's father presents the boy with a brass plate and a waterpot and pours water over the girl's hands who lets it fall on the boy's hands. This forms the girl-giving orkanyadan. The priest takes the thread off their necks, cuts it in two equal parts, dyes it yellow with turmeric powder, and tying a piece of turmeric root to each half, binds one to the left wrist of the girl and the other to the right wrist of the boy. This is called tying the marriage wristlets or kankans. The boy and the girl take their seats on the altar near each other and in front of them is set a dish with a lighted lamp in it. Kinspeople draw near, wave a copper coin round the couple's heads, and throw the coin into the dish. The money thown into the dish is equally divided between a Bhat and a Gurav. The hems of the boy's and girl's robes are knotted together and the priest takes them to bow before the house gods. They seat themselves as before on the altar and the priest unties the hems of their garments. Betel is served and the guests' withdraw. The girl's mother offers the boy and the girl sweetmeats which they eat. For about a couple of days the boy stays at the girl's, during which the boy and girl bathe together, and splash one another with water and blow water from their mouths over each other. Caste dinners are interchanged, and, on the evening of the third day, the boy's father with kinspeople and a plate containing a new bodice and robe, grains of rice, red and turmeric powder, and betel packets comes to the bride's. The priest takes a waterpot, puts water and a betelnut and turmeric root into it, and sets it on a heap of rice. Over the pot are placed a couple of cocoa-kernels and round the pot a thread is wound. A betelnut is set near the pot and the boy and girl, sitting in front of them, worship the betelnut and the waterpot by throwing over them red and turmeric powder and flowers. After waving a lighted lamp before them and throwing grains of rice, the priest lifts the waterpot, and with it touches the brows of the boy and girl, and again sets it down on the spot where it was. He does this thrice, and at the end asks the boy and girl separately, ' Has the burden been removed. [The Marathi runs: Oze utarle kay ? Hoy utarle.] Each of them answers ' It has been taken away.' The priest takes the robe and bodice and presents them to the girl and she puts them on and sits as before. The priest unties the marriage wristlets orkankans, and seating the boy and the girl on horseback takes them in procession to the boy's accompanied by kinsfolk and music. Next day at the houses both of the boy and the girl, the married couple who previous to the marriage had installed the marriage guardians or devaks,that is the hatchet and five tree leaves or panchpalvis, bathe, and, with their garments knotted together, throw rice grains on the hatchet and five tree leaves, bow before them and ask the guardians to depart and the wedding is over. Except that they hold a girl unclean for three days, the Kolis do not perform any ceremony when a girl comes of age. For her first confinement a Koli girl goes to her mother's. As soon as the child is born, cold water is sprinkled over it to make it hardy and fearless. The midwife, who is generally a Maratha, cuts the navel cord and buries it in the lying-in room. On the fifth day the mother worships the goddess Satvai and the members of the family keep awake the whole night. The mother is held impure for ten days and on the eleventh she and her child are bathed, their clothes are washed, the house is cowdunged, and the mother and child are pure. On the twelfth day the mother sets five pebbles outside of the house and lays sandal, flowers, vermilion, and sweetmeats before them. They name their girl on the thirteenth day after birth. When a child is between one and three years old it is laid on its mother's lap and its hair is clipped by a barber. They either bury or burn their dead. On the way to the burning ground they halt, and leaving a cake and cooked rice folded in an old piece of cloth go to the burning ground. The body is either buried or burnt and the chief mourner, taking the firepot and filling it with water, goes round the grave or the pyre, and picking a pebble makes a hole in the jar, dashes the pebble and the jar on the ground, and beats his mouth with the palm of his open hand. He marks the spot by a big stone, bathes in the river or stream, and goes home. Except the four bearers the mourners do not enter the house but stand outside. The four bearers are given packets of betelnut and leaves which they bite, and, coming out, spit the betel in front of the other mourners. Then the chief mourner walks into the house and the rest go to their homes. The chief mourner remains impure for ten days. On the third day with a few near kinsmen he goes to the burning ground, removes the ashes, sprinkles-flowers over the spot, lays two earthen saucers one with bread and the other with water, bathes, and goes home. Either on the tenth or the twelfth day the chief mourner goes to the burning ground and has his moustache shaved. He then takes a nimb branch, dips it in oil, and with it touches the shoulders of the four corpse-bearers, asking them at the same time 'Are the shoulders rested,' [The Marathi is, Khande utarle kay ? Hoy utarle.] and they answer 'They are rested' When they go home a mutton feast is held. A Bhat who is called in, sings songs, and leaves with uncooked food and money. His nearest relations present the chief mourner with a turban and he is free to go out. The Kolis have a caste council and settle social disputes at caste meetings. They send their boys to school but do not keep them for more than a couple of years. They take to no new pursuits and are a poor class.