15. Social customs.
A woman divorced for adultery is not again admitted to caste intercourse. Her parents take her to their village, where she has to live in a separate hut and earn her own livelihood. If any Bhuiya steals from a Kol, Gānda or Ghasia he is permanently put out of caste, while for killing a cow the period of expulsion is twelve years. The emblem of the Bhuiyas is a sword, in reference to their employment as soldiers, and this they affix to documents in place of their signature.
[1] This article is compiled partly from Colonel Dalton’s Ethnology of Bengal and Sir H. Risley’s Tribes and Castes of Bengal; a monograph has also been furnished by Mr. B. C. Mazumdār, pleader, Sambalpur, and papers by Mr. A. B. Napier, Deputy Commissioner, Raipur, and Mr. Hīra Lāl.
[2] Ethnology of Bengal, p. 140.
[3] Linguistic Survey, vol. xiv. Munda and Dravidian Languages, p. 217.
[4] Page 142.
[5] Ibidem, p. 141.
[6] In the article on Binjhwār, it was supposed that the Baigas migrated east from the Satpūra hills into Chhattīsgarh. But the evidence adduced above appears to show that this view is incorrect.
[7] Tribes and Castes, art. Binjhia.
[8] Crooke, Tribes and Castes, art. Bhuiya, para. 4.
[9] Ibidem, para. 3.
[10] Ibidem, art. Bhuiyār, para. 1.
[11] Ibidem, para. 16.
[12] Dalton, p. 147.
[13] Page 142.
[14] The question of the relation of the Baiga tribe to Mr. Crooke’s Bhuiyārs was first raised by Mr. E. A. H. Blunt, Census Superintendent, United Provinces.
[15] Mr. Mazumdār’s monograph.
[16] From Mr. Mazumdār’s monograph.