17. Character.
In Chhattīsgarh the Chamārs are the most criminal class of the population, and have made a regular practice of poisoning cattle with arsenic in order to obtain the hides and flesh. They either mix the poison with mahua flowers strewn on the grazing-ground, or make it into a ball with butter and insert it into the anus of the animal when the herdsman is absent. They also commit cattle-theft and frequently appear at the whipping-post before the court-house. The estimation in which they are held by their neighbours is reflected in the proverb, ‘Hemp, rice and a Chamār; the more they are pounded the better they are.’ “The caste,” Mr. Trench writes, “are illiterate to a man, and their intellectual development is reflected in their style of living. A visit to a hamlet of tanning Chamārs induces doubt as to whence the appalling smells of the place proceed—from the hides or from the tanners. Were this squalor invariably, as it is occasionally, accompanied by a sufficiency of the necessaries of life, victuals and clothing, the Chamār would not be badly off, but the truth is that in the northern Districts at all events the Chamār, except in years of good harvest, does not get enough to eat. This fact is sufficiently indicated by a glance at the perquisites of the village Chamār, who is almost invariably the shoemaker and leather-worker for his little community. In one District the undigested grain left by the gorged bullocks on the threshing-floor is his portion, and a portion for which he will sometimes fight. Everywhere he is a carrion-eater, paying little or no regard to the disease from which the animal may have died.” The custom above mentioned of washing grain from the dung of cattle is not so repugnant to the Hindus, owing to the sacred character of the cow, as it is to us. It is even sometimes considered holy food:—“The zamīndār of Idar, who is named Naron Dās, lives with such austerity that his only food is grain which has passed through oxen and has been separated from their dung; and this kind of aliment the Brāhmans consider pure in the highest degree.”[29] Old-fashioned cultivators do not muzzle the bullocks treading out the corn, and the animals eat it the whole time, so that much passes through their bodies undigested. The Chamār will make several maunds (80 lbs.) of grain in this way, and to a cultivator who does not muzzle his bullocks he will give a pair of shoes and a plough-rein and yoke-string. Another duty of the Chamār is to look after the banda or large underground masonry chamber in which grain is kept. After the grain has been stored, a conical roof is built and plastered over with mud to keep out water. The Chamār looks after the repairs of the mud plaster and in return receives a small quantity of grain, which usually goes bad on the floor of the store-chamber. They prepare the threshing-floors for the cultivators, making the surface of the soil level and beating it down to a smooth and hard surface. In return for this they receive the grain mixed with earth which remains on the threshing-floor after the crop is removed.
Like all other village artisans the Chamār is considered by the cultivators to be faithless and dilatory in his dealings with them; and they vent their spleen in sayings such as the following:—“The Kori, the Chamār and the Ahīr, these are the three biggest liars that ever were known. For if you ask the Chamār whether he has mended your shoes he says, ‘I am at the last stitch,’ when he has not begun them; if you ask the Ahīr whether he has brought back your cow from the jungle he says, ‘It has come, it has come,’ without knowing or caring whether it has come or not; and if you ask the Kori whether he has made your cloth he says, ‘It is on the loom,’ when he has not so much as bought the thread.” Another proverb conveying the same sense is, ‘The Mochi’s to-morrow never comes.’ But no doubt the uncertainty and delay in payment account for much of this conduct.
[1] This article is based on the Rev. E. M. Gordon’s Indian Folk-Tales (London, Elliott & Stock, 1908), and the Central Provinces Monograph on the Leather Industry, by Mr. C. G. Chenevix Trench, C.S.; with extracts from Sir H. H. Risley’s and Mr. Crooke’s descriptions of the caste, and from the Berār Census Report (1881); on information collected for the District Gazetteers; and papers by Messrs. Durga Prasād Pānde, Tahsīldār, Raipur; Rām Lāl, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Saugor; Govind Vithal Kāne, Naib-Tahsīldār, Wardha; Bālkrishna Rāmchandra Bakhle, Tahsīldār, Mandla; Sitārām, schoolmaster, Bālāghāt; and Kanhya Lāl of the Gazetteer office. Some of the material found in Mr. Gordon’s book was obtained independently by the writer in Bilāspur before its publication and is therefore not specially acknowledged.
[2] There are other genealogies showing the Chamār as the offspring of various mixed unions.
[3] Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xv. Kanara, p. 355.
[4] The Hindus say that there are five classes of women, Padmini, Hastini, Chitrani and Shunkhini being the first four, and of these Padmini is the most perfect. No details of the other classes are given. Rāsmāla, i. p. 160.
[5] Punjab Census Report (1881), p. 320.
[6] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Chamār.
[7] Loc. cit.
[8] From Mr. Gordon’s paper.
[9] Monograph on Leather Industries, p. 9.
[10] Ibidem.
[11] See articles on these castes.
[12] Monograph on Leather Industries, p. 3.
[13] Berār Census Report (1881), p. 149.
[14] From māngna, to beg.
[15] Tribes and Castes, art. Chamār.
[16] Indian Folk-Tales.
[17] Indian Folk-Tales, pp. 49, 50.
[18] Shells which were formerly used as money.
[19] Indian Folk-Tales, pp. 49, 50.
[20] Monograph, p. 3.
[21] Monograph on Leather Industries, p. 5.
[22] Zizyphus xylopera.
[23] Butea frondosa.
[24] Anogeissus latifolia.
[25] The above is an abridgment of the description in Mr. Trench’s Monograph, to which reference may be made for further details.
[26] Monograph on the Leather Industries, pp. 10, 11.
[27] Melia indica.
[28] Berār Census Report (1881), p. 149.
[29] Rāsmāla, i. 395, quoting from the Ain-i-Akbari.