Beldār
List of Paragraphs
2. Beldārs of the northern Districts.
4. Other Chhattīsgarhi Beldārs.
1. General Notice
Beldār,1 Od, Sonkar, Rāj, Larhia, Kārīgar, Matkūda, Chunkar, Munurwār, Thapatkari, Vaddar, Pāthrot, Takāri.—The term Beldār is generically applied to a number of occupational groups of more or less diverse origin, who work as masons or navvies, build the earthen embankments of tanks or fields, carry lime and bricks and in former times refined salt. Beldār means one who carries a bel, a hoe or mattock. In 1911 a total of 25,000 Beldārs were returned from the Central Provinces, being most numerous in the Nimār, Wardha, Nāgpur, Chānda and Raipur districts. The Nunia, Murha and Sānsia (Uriya) castes, which have been treated in separate articles, are also frequently known as Beldār, and cannot be clearly distinguished from the main caste. If they are all classed together the total of the earth- and stone-working castes comes to 35,000 persons.
It is probable that the bulk of the Beldārs and allied castes are derived from the non-Aryan tribes. The Murhas or navvies of the northern Districts appear to be an offshoot of the Bind tribe; the people known as Matkūda (earth-digger) are usually Gonds or Pardhāns; the Sānsias and Larhias or Uriyas of Chhattīsgarh and the Uriya country seem to have originated from the Kol, Bhuiya and Oraon tribes, the Kols especially making excellent diggers and masons; the Oddes or Vaddars of Madras are a very low caste, and some of their customs point to a similar origin, though the Munurwār masons of Chānda appear to have belonged originally to the Kāpu caste of cultivators.
The term Rāj, which is also used for the Beldārs in the northern Districts, has the distinctive meaning of a mason, while Chūnkar signifies a lime-burner. The Sonkars were formerly occupied in Saugor in carrying lime, bricks and earth on donkeys, but they have now abandoned this calling in Chhattīsgarh and taken to growing vegetables, and have been given a short separate notice. In Hoshangābād some Muhammadan Beldārs are now also found.
2. Beldārs of the Northern Districts
The Beldārs of Saugor say that their ancestors were engaged in refining salt from earth. A divine saint named Nona Rīshi (non, salt) came down on earth, and while cooking his food mixed some saline soil with it. The bread tasted much better in consequence, and he made the earth into a ball or goli and taught his followers to extract the salt from it, whence their descendants are known as Goli Beldārs. The customs of these Beldārs are of the ordinary low-caste type. The wedding procession is accompanied by drums, fireworks and, if means permit, a nautch-girl. If a man puts away his wife without adequate cause the caste panchāyat may compel him to support her so long as she remains of good conduct. The party seeking a divorce, whether husband or wife, has to pay Rs. 7 to the caste committee and the other partner Rs. 3, irrespective of where the blame rests, and each remains out of caste until he or she pays.
These Beldārs will not take food from any caste but their own, and will not take water from a Brāhman, though they will accept it from Kurmis, Gūjars and similar castes. Sir H. Risley notes that their women always remove earth in baskets on the head. “The Beldārs regard this mode of carrying earth as distinctive of themselves, and will on no account transport it in baskets slung from the shoulders. They work very hard when paid by the piece, and are notorious for their skill in manipulating the pillars (sākhi, witness) left to mark work done, so as to exaggerate the measurement. On one occasion while working for me on a large lake at Govindpur, in the north of the Mānbhum District, a number of Beldārs transplanted an entire pillar during the night and claimed payment for several thousand feet of imaginary earthwork. The fraud was most skilfully carried out, and was only detected by accident.”2 The Beldārs are often dishonest in their dealings, and will take large advances for a tank or embankment, and then abscond with the money without doing the work. During the open season parties of the caste travel about in camp looking for work, their furniture being loaded on donkeys. They carry grain in earthen pots encased in bags of netting, neatly and closely woven, and grind their wheat daily in a small mill set on a goat-skin. Butter is made in one of their pots with a churning-stick, consisting of a cogged wheel fixed on to the end of a wooden rod.
3. Odias of Chhattīsgarh
The Beldārs of Chhattīsgarh are divided into the Odia or Uriya, Larhia, Kūchbandhia, Matkūda and Kārīgar groups. Uriya and Larhia are local names, applied to residents of the Uriya country and Chhattīsgarh respectively. Odia is the name of a low Madras caste of masons, but whether it is a corruption of Uriya is not clear. Kārīgar means a workman, and Kūchbandhia is the name of a separate caste, who make loom-combs for weavers. The Odias pretend to be fallen Rājpūts. They say that when Indra stole the sacrificial horse of Rāja Sāgar and kept it in the underworld, the Rāja’s thousand sons dug great holes through the earth to get it. Finally they arrived at the underworld and were all reduced to ashes by the Rīshi Kapil Muni, who dwelt there. Their ghosts besought him for life, and he said that their descendants should always continue to dig holes in the earth, which would be used as tanks; and that whenever a tank was dug by them, and its marriage celebrated with a sacrifice, the savour of the sacrifice would descend to the ghosts and would afford them sustenance. The Odias say that they are the descendants of the Rāja’s sons, and unless a tank is dug and its marriage celebrated by them it remains impure. These Odias have their tutelary deity in Rewah State, and at his shrine is a flag which none but an Odia of genuine descent from Rāja Sāgar’s sons can touch without some injury befalling him. If any Beldāar therefore claims to belong to their caste they call on him to touch the flag, and if he does so with impunity they acknowledge him as a brother.
4. Other Chhattīsgarhi Beldārs
The other group of Chattīsgarhi Beldārs are of lower status, and clearly derived from the non-Aryan tribes. They eat pigs, and at intervals of two or three years they celebrate the worship of Gosain Deo with a sacrifice of pigs, the deity being apparently a deified ascetic or mendicant. On this occasion the Dhīmars, Gonds, and all other castes which eat pig’s flesh join in the sacrifice, and consume the meat together after the fashion of the rice at Jagannāth’s temple, which all castes may eat together without becoming impure. These Beldārs use asses for the transport of their bricks and stones, and on the Diwāli day they place a lamp before the ass and pay reverence to it. They say that at their marriages a bride-price of Rs. 100 or Rs. 200 must always be paid, but they are allowed to give one or two donkeys and value them at Rs. 50 apiece. They make grindstones (chakki), combs for straightening the threads on the loom, and frames for stretching the threads. These frames are called dongi, and are made either wholly or partly from the horns of animals, a fact which no doubt renders them impure.
5. Munurwār and Telenga
In Chānda the principal castes of stone-workers are the Telengas (Telugus), who are also known as Thāpatkari (tapper or chiseller), Telenga Kunbi and Munurwār. They occupy a higher position than the ordinary Beldār, and Kunbis will take water from them and sometimes food. They say that they came into Chānda from the Telugu country along the Godāvari and Prānhita rivers to build the great wall of Chanda and the palaces and tombs of the Gond kings. There is no reason to doubt that the Munurwārs are a branch of the Kāpu cultivating caste of the Telugu country. Mr. A. K. Smith states that they refuse to eat the flesh of an animal which has been skinned by a Mahār, a Chamār, or a Gond; the Kunbis and Marāthas also consider flesh touched by a Mahār or Chamār to be impure, but do not object to a Gond. Like the Berār Kunbis, the Telengas prefer that an animal should be killed by the rite of halāl as practised by Muhammadan butchers. The reason no doubt is that the halāl is a method of sacrificial slaughter, and the killing of the animal is legitimised even though by the ritual of a foreign religion. The Thāpatkaris appear to be a separate group, and their original profession was to collect and retail jungle fruits and roots having medicinal properties. Though the majority have become stone- and earth-workers some of them still do this.
6. Vaddar
The Vaddars or Wadewārs are a branch of the Odde caste of Madras. They are almost an impure caste, and a section of them are professional criminals. Their women wear glass bangles only on the left arm, those on the right arm being made of brass or other metal. This rule has no doubt been introduced because glass bangles would get broken when they were supporting loads on the head. The men often wear an iron bangle on the left wrist, which they say keeps off the lightning. Mr. Thurston states that “Women who have had seven husbands are much respected among the Oddes, and their blessing on a bridal pair is greatly prized. They work in gangs on contract, and every one, except very old and very young, shares in the labour. The women carry the earth in baskets, while the men use the pick and spade. The babies are usually tied up in cloths, which are suspended, hammock-fashion, from the boughs of trees. A woman found guilty of immorality is said to have to carry a basketful of earth from house to house before she is readmitted to the caste. The stone-cutting Vaddars are the principal criminals, and by going about under the pretence of mending grindstones they obtain much useful information as to the houses to be looted or parties of travellers to be attacked. In committing a highway robbery or dacoity they are always armed with stout sticks.”3
7. Pāthrot
In Berār besides the regular Beldārs two castes of stone-workers are found, the Pathrāwats or Pāthrots (stone-breakers) and the Takāris, who should perhaps be classed as separate castes. Both make and sharpen millstones and grindstones, and they are probably only occupational groups of recent formation. The Takāris are connected with the Pārdhi caste of professional hunters and fowlers and may be a branch of them. The social customs of the Pāthrots resemble those of the Kunbis. “They will take cooked food from a Sutār or a Kumbhār. Imprisonment, the killing of a cow or criminal intimacy of a man with a woman of another caste is punished by temporary outcasting, readmission involving a fine of Rs. 4 or Rs. 5. Their chief deity is the Devi of Tuljāpur and their chief festival Dasahra; the implements of the caste are worshipped twice a year, on Gudhi Pādwa and Diwāli. Women are tattooed with a crescent between the eyebrows and dots on the right side of the nose, the right cheek, and the chin, and a basil plant or peacock is drawn on their wrists.”4
8. Takāri
“The Takāris take their name from the verb tākne, to reset or rechisel. They mend the handmills (chakkis) used for grinding corn, an occupation which is sometimes shared with them by the Langoti Pārdhis. The Takāri’s avocation of chiselling grindstones gives him excellent opportunities for examining the interior economy of houses, and the position of boxes and cupboards, and for gauging the wealth of the inmates. They are the most inveterate house-breakers and dangerous criminals. A form of crime favoured by the Takāri, in common with many other criminal classes, is that of decoying into a secluded spot outside the village the would-be receiver of stolen property and robbing him of his cash—a trick which carries a wholesome lesson with it.”5 The chisel with which they chip the grindstones furnishes, as stated by Mr. D. A. Smyth, D.S.P., an excellent implement for breaking a hole through the mud wall of a house.
Notes
1 This article is based on papers by Mr. A. K. Smith, C.S., Mr. Khande Rāo, Superintendent of Land Records, Raipur, and Munshi Kanhiya Lāl, of the Gazetteer office.
2 Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Beldār.
3 The Castes and Tribes of Southern India, art. Odde.
4 Akola District Gazetteer (Mr. C. Brown), pp. 132, 133.
5 Amraoti District Gazetteer (Messrs. Nelson and Fitzgerald), p. 146.