17. Admission of outsiders: kidnapped children and slaves.
The Banjāra caste is not closed to outsiders, but the general rule is to admit only women who have been married to Banjāra men. Women of the lowest and impure castes are excluded, and for some unknown reason the Patwas[44] and Nunias are bracketed with these. In Nimār it is stated that formerly Gonds, Korkus and even Balāhis[45] might become Banjāras, but this does not happen now, because the caste has lost its occupation of carrying goods, and there is therefore no inducement to enter it. In former times they were much addicted to kidnapping children—these were whipped up or enticed away whenever an opportunity presented itself during their expeditions. The children were first put into the gonis or grain bags of the bullocks and so carried for a few days, being made over at each halt to the care of a woman, who would pop the child back into its bag if any stranger passed by the encampment. The tongues of boys were sometimes slit or branded with hot gold, this last being the ceremony of initiation into the caste still used in Nimār. Girls, if they were as old as seven, were sometimes disfigured for fear of recognition, and for this purpose the juice of the marking-nut[46] tree would be smeared on one side of the face, which burned into the skin and entirely altered the appearance. Such children were known as Jāngar. Girls would be used as concubines and servants of the married wife, and boys would also be employed as servants. Jāngar boys would be married to Jāngar girls, both remaining in their condition of servitude. But sometimes the more enterprising of them would abscond and settle down in a village. The rule was that for seven generations the children of Jāngars or slaves continued in that condition, after which they were recognised as proper Banjāras. The Jāngar could not draw in smoke through the stem of the huqqa when it was passed round in the assembly, but must take off the stem and inhale from the bowl. The Jāngar also could not eat off the bell-metal plates of his master, because these were liable to pollution, but must use brass plates. At one time the Banjāras conducted a regular traffic in female slaves between Gujarāt and Central India, selling in each country the girls whom they had kidnapped in the other.[47]
Banjāra women with the singh or horn.