The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 3. Robert Vane Russell
purification ceremony
The following detailed process of purification had to be undergone by a well-to-do Gond widow in Mandla who had been detected with a man of the Panka caste, lying drunk and naked in a liquor-shop. The Gonds here consider the Pankas socially beneath themselves. The ritual clearly belongs to Hinduism, as shown by the purifying virtue attached to contact with cows and bullocks and cowdung, and was directed by the Panda or priest of Devi’s shrine, who, however, would probably be a Gond. First, the offending woman was taken right out of the village across a stream; here her head was shaved with the urine of an all-black bullock and her body washed with his dung, and she then bathed in the stream, and a feast was given on its bank to the caste. She slept here, and next day was yoked to the same bullock and taken thus to the Kharkha or standing-place for the village cattle. She was rolled over the surface of the Kharkha about four times, again rubbed with cowdung, another feast was given, and she slept the night on the spot, without being washed. Next day, covered with the dust and cowdung of the Kharkha, she crouched underneath the black bullock’s belly and in this manner proceeded to the gate of her own yard. Here a bottle of liquor and fifteen chickens were waved round her and afterwards offered at Devi’s shrine, where they became the property of the Panda who was conducting the ceremony. Another feast was given in her yard and the woman slept there. Next day the woman, after bathing, was placed standing with one foot outside her threshold and the other inside; a feast was given, called the feast of the threshold, and she again slept in her yard. On the following day came the final feast of purification in the house. The woman was bathed eleven times, and a hen, a chicken and five eggs were offered by the Panda to each of her household gods. Then she drank a little liquor from a cup of which the Panda had drunk, and ate some of the leavings of food of which he had eaten. The black bullock and a piece of cloth sufficient to cover it were presented to the Panda for his services. Then the woman took a dish of rice and pulse and placed a little in the leaf-cup of each of the caste-fellows present, and they all ate it and she was readmitted to caste. Twelve cow-buffaloes were sold to pay for the ceremony, which perhaps cost Rs. 600 or more.
Māria Gonds in dancing costume
76. Dancing
Dancing and singing to the dance constitute the social amusement and recreation of the Gonds, and they are passionately fond of it. The principal dance is the Karma, danced in celebration of the bringing of the leafy branch of a tree from the forest in the rains. They continue to dance it as a recreation during the nights of the cold and hot weather, whenever they have leisure and a supply of liquor, which is almost indispensable, is forthcoming. The Mārias dance, men and women together, in a great circle, each man holding the girl next him on one side round the neck and on the other round the waist. They keep perfect time, moving each foot alternately in unison throughout the line, and moving round in a slow circle. Only unmarried girls may join in a Māria dance, and once a woman is married she can never dance again. This is no doubt a salutary provision for household happiness, as sometimes couples, excited by the dance and wine, run away from it into the jungle and stay there for a day or two till their relatives bring them home and consider them as married. At the Māria dances the men wear the skins of tigers, panthers, deer and other animals, and sometimes head-dresses of peacock’s feathers. They may also have a girdle of cowries round the waist, and a bell tied to their back to ring as they move. The musicians sit in the centre and play various kinds of drums and tom-toms. At a large Māria dance there may be as many as thirty musicians, and the provision of rice or kodon and liquor may cost as much as Rs. 50. In other localities the dance is less picturesque. Men and women form two long lines opposite each other, with the musicians in the centre, and advance and retreat alternately, bringing one foot forward and the other up behind it, with a similar movement in retiring. Married women may dance, and the men do not hold the women at any time. At intervals they break off and liquor is distributed in small leaf-cups, or if these are not available, it is poured into the hands of the dancers held together like a cup. In either case a considerable proportion of the liquor is usually spilt on to the ground.
77. Songs
All the time they are dancing they also sing in unison, the men sometimes singing one line and the women the next, or both together. The songs are with few exceptions of an erotic character, and a few specimens are subjoined.
a. Be not proud of your body, your body must go away above (to death).
Your mother, brother and all your kinsmen, you must leave them and go.
You may have lakhs of treasure in your house, but you must leave it all and go.
b. The musicians play and the feet beat on the earth.
A pice (¼d.) for a divorced woman, two pice for a kept woman, for a virgin many sounding rupees.
The musicians play and the earth sounds with the trampling of feet.
c. Rāja Darwa is dead, he died in his youth.
Who is he that has taken the small gun, who has taken the big bow?
Who is aiming through the harra and bahera trees, who is aiming on the plain?
Who has killed the quail and partridge, who has killed the peacock?
Rāja Darwa has died in the prime of his youth.
The big brother says, ‘I killed him, I killed him’; the little brother shot the arrow.
Rāja Darwa has died in the bloom of his youth.
d. Rāwan92 is coming disguised as a Bairāgi; by what road will Rāwan come?
The houses and castles fell before him, the ruler of Bhānwargarh rose up in fear.
He set the match to his powder, he stooped and crept along the ground and fired.
e. Little pleasure is got from a kept woman; she gives her lord pej (gruel) of kutki to drink.
She gives it him in a leaf-cup of laburnum;93 the cup is too small for him to drink.
She put two gourds full of water in it, and the gruel is so thin that it gives him no sustenance.
f. Man speaks:
The wife is asleep and her Rāja (husband) is asleep in her lap.
She has taken a piece of bread in her lap and water in her vessel.
See from her eyes will she come or not?
Woman:
I have left my cow in her shed, my buffalo in her stall.
I have left my baby at the breast and am come alone to follow you.
g. The father said to his son, ‘Do not go out to service with any master, neither go to any strange woman.
I will sell my sickle and axe, and make you two marriages.’
He made a marriage feast for his son, and in one plate he put rice, and over it meat, and poured soup over it till it flowed out of the plate.
Then he said to the men and women, young and old, ‘Come and eat your fill.’
78. Language
In 1911 Gondi was spoken by 1,500,000 persons, or more than half the total number of Gonds in India. The other Gonds of the Central Provinces speak a broken Hindi. Gondi is a Dravidian language, having a common ancestor with Tamil and Canarese, but little immediate connection with its neighbour Telugu; the specimens given by Sir G. Grierson show that a large number of Hindi words have been adopted into the vocabulary of Gondi, and this tendency is no doubt on the increase. There are probably few Gonds outside the Feudatory States, and possibly a few of the wildest tracts in British Districts, who could not understand Hindi to some extent. And with the extension of primary education in British Districts Gondi is likely to decline still more rapidly. Gondi has no literature and no character of its own; but the Gospels
Rāwan was the demon king of Ceylon who fought against Rāma, and from whom the Gonds are supposed to be descended. Hence this song may perhaps refer to a Gond revolt against the Hindus.
The