The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 3. Robert Vane Russell
began the Gonds to do. They devoured raw and ripe things;
They did not bathe for six months together;
They did not wash their faces properly, even on dunghills they would fall down and remain.
Such were the Gonds born in the beginning. A smell was spread over the jungle
When the Gonds were thus disorderly behaved; they became disagreeable to Mahādeva,
Who said: “The caste of the Gonds is very bad;
I will not preserve them; they will ruin my hill Dhawalgiri.”
Mahādeo then determined to get rid of the Gonds. With this view he invited them all to a meeting. When they sat down Mahādeo made a squirrel from the rubbings of his body and let it loose in the middle of the Gonds. All the Gonds at once got up and began to chase it, hoping for a meal. They seized sticks and stones and clods of earth, and their unkempt hair flew in the wind. The squirrel dodged about and ran away, and finally, directed by Mahādeo, ran into a large cave with all the Gonds after it. Mahādeo then rolled a large stone to the mouth of the cave and shut up all the Gonds in it. Only four remained outside, and they fled away to Kachikopa Lohāgarh, or the Iron Cave in the Red Hill, and lived there. Meanwhile Pārvati perceived that the smell of the Gonds, which had pleased her, had vanished from Dhawalgiri. She desired it to be restored and commenced a devotion. For six months she fasted and practised austerities. Bhagwān (God) was swinging in a swing. He was disturbed by Pārvati’s devotion. He sent Nārāyan (the sun) to see who was fasting. Nārāyan came and found Pārvati and asked her what she wanted. She said that she missed her Gonds and wanted them back. Nārāyan told Bhagwān, who promised that they should be given back.
8. The birth and history of Lingo
The yellow flowers of the tree Pahindi were growing on Dhawalgiri. Bhagwān sent thunder and lightning, and the flower conceived. First fell from it a heap of turmeric or saffron. In the morning the sun came out, the flower burst open, and Lingo was born. Lingo was a perfect child. He had a diamond on his navel and a sandalwood mark on his forehead. He fell from the flower into the heap of turmeric. He played in the turmeric and slept in a swing. He became nine years old. He said there was no one there like him, and he would go where he could find his fellows. He climbed a needle-like hill,49 and from afar off he saw Kachikopa Lohāgarh and the four Gonds. He came to them. They saw he was like them, and asked him to be their brother. They ate only animals. Lingo asked them to find for him an animal without a liver, and they searched all through the forest and could not. Then Lingo told them to cut down trees and make a field. They tried to cut down the anjan50 trees, but their hands were blistered and they could not go on. Lingo had been asleep. He woke up and saw they had only cut down one or two trees. He took the axe and cut down many trees, and fenced a field and made a gate to it. Black soil appeared. It began to rain, and rained without ceasing for three days. All the rivers and streams were filled. The field became green with rice, and it grew up. There were sixteen score of nīlgai or blue-bull. They had two leaders, an old bull and his nephew. The young bull saw the rice of Lingo’s field and wished to eat it. The uncle told him not to eat of the field of Lingo or all the nīlgai would be killed. But the young bull did not heed, and took off all the nīlgai to eat the rice. When they got to the field they could find no entrance, so they jumped the fence, which was five cubits high. They ate all the rice from off the field and ran away. The young bull told them as they ran to put their feet on leaves and stones and boughs and grass, and not on the ground, so that they might not be tracked. Lingo woke up and went to see his field, and found all the rice eaten. He knew the nīlgai had done it, and showed the brothers how to track them by the few marks which they had by accident made on the ground. They did so, and surrounded the nīlgai and killed them all with their bows and arrows except the old uncle, from whom Lingo’s arrow rebounded harmlessly on account of his innocence, and one young doe. From these two the nīlgai race was preserved. Then Lingo told the Gonds to make fire and roast the deer as follows:
He said, I will show you something; see if anywhere in your
Waistbands there is a flint; if so, take it out and make fire.
But the matches did not ignite. As they were doing this, a watch of the night passed.
They threw down the matches, and said to Lingo, Thou art a Saint;
Show us where our fire is, and why it does not come out.
Lingo said: Three koss (six miles) hence is Rikad Gawādi the giant.
There is fire in his field; where smoke shall appear, go there,
Come not back without bringing fire. Thus said Lingo.
They said, We have never seen the place, where shall we go?
Ye have never seen where this fire is? Lingo said;
I will discharge an arrow thither.
Go in the direction of the arrow; there you will get fire.
He applied the arrow, and having pulled the bow, he discharged one:
It crashed on, breaking twigs and making its passage clear.
Having cut through the high grass, it made its way and reached the old man’s place (above mentioned).
The arrow dropped close to the fire of the old man, who had daughters.
The arrow was near the door. As soon as they saw it, the daughters came and took it up,
And kept it. They asked their father: When will you give us in marriage?
Thus said the seven sisters, the daughters of the old man.
I will marry you as I think best for you;
Remain as you are. So said the old man, the Rikad Gawādi.
Lingo said, Hear, O brethren! I shot an arrow, it made its way.
Go there, and you will see fire; bring thence the fire.
Each said to the other, I will not go; but (at last) the youngest went.
He descried the fire, and went to it; then beheld he an old man looking like the trunk of a tree.
He saw from afar the old man’s field, around which a hedge was made.
The old man kept only one way to it, and fastened a screen to the entrance, and had a fire in the centre of the field.
He placed logs of the Mahua and Anjun and Sāj trees on the fire,
Teak faggots he gathered, and enkindled flame.
The fire blazed up, and warmed by the heat of it, in deep sleep lay the Rikad Gawādi.
Thus the old man like a giant did appear. When the young Gond beheld him, he shivered;
His heart leaped; and he was much afraid in his mind, and said:
If the old man were to rise he will see me, and I shall be eaten up;
I will steal away the fire and carry it off, then my life will be safe.
He went near the fire secretly, and took a brand of tendu wood tree.
When he was lifting it up a spark flew and fell on the hip of the old man.
That spark was as large as a pot; the giant was blistered; he awoke alarmed.
And said: I am hungry, and I cannot get food to eat anywhere; I feel a desire for flesh;
Like a tender cucumber hast thou come to me. So said the old man to the Gond,
Who began to fly. The old man followed him. The Gond then threw away the brand which he had stolen.
He ran onward, and was not caught. Then the old man, being tired, turned back.
Thence he returned to his field, and came near the fire and sat, and said, What nonsense is this?
A tender prey had come within my reach;
I said I will cut it up as soon as I can, but it escaped from
Dhūpgarh in Pachmarhi might be indicated, which has a steep summit.