4. Religious and social customs.
The caste worship the goddess Parmeshwari, the wife of Vishnu, and Jagannāth, the Uriya incarnation of Vishnu. Parmeshwari is worshipped by Brāhmans, who offer bread and khīr or rice and milk to her; goats are also offered by the Dehri or Mahākul, the caste priest, who receives the heads of the goats as his remuneration. They believe in witches, who they think drink the blood of children, and employ sorcerers to exorcise them. They worship a stick on Dasahra day in remembrance of their old profession of herding cattle, and they worship cows and buffaloes at the full moon of Shrāwan (July-August). During Kunwār, on the eighth day of each fortnight, two festivals are held. At the first each girl in the family wears a thread containing eighteen knots twisted three times round her neck. All the girls fast and receive presents of cloths and grain from their brothers. This is called Bhaijiuntia, or the ceremony for the welfare of the brothers. On the second day the mother of the family does the same, and receives presents from her sons, this being Puājiuntia, or the ceremony for the welfare of sons. The Dumāls believe that in the beginning water covered the earth. They think that the sun and moon are the eyes of God, and that the stars are the souls of virtuous men, who enjoy felicity in heaven for the period measured by the sum of their virtuous actions, and when this has expired have to descend again to earth to suffer the agonies of human life. When a shooting star is seen they think it is the soul of one of these descending to be born again on earth. They both burn and bury their dead according to their means. After a body is buried they make a fire over the grave and place an empty pot on it. Mourning is observed for twelve days in the case of a married and for seven in the case of an unmarried person. Children dying when less than six days old are not mourned at all. During mourning the persons of the household do not cook for themselves. On the third day after the death three leaf-plates, each containing a little rice, sugar and butter, are offered to the spirit of the deceased. On the fourth day four such plates are offered, and on the fifth day five, and so on up to the ninth day when the Pindas or sacrificial cakes are offered, and nine persons belonging to the caste are invited, food and a new piece of cloth being given to each. Should only one attend, nine plates of food would be served to him, and he would be given nine pieces of cloth. If two or more persons in a family are killed by a tiger, a Sulia or magician is called in, and he pretends to be the tiger and to bite some one in the family, who is then carried as a corpse to the burial-place, buried for a short time and taken out again. All the ceremonies of mourning are observed for him for one day. This proceeding is believed to secure immunity for the family from further attacks. In return for his services the Sulia gets a share of everything in the house corresponding to what he would receive, supposing he were a member of the family, on a partition. Thus if the family consisted of only two persons he would get a third part of the whole property.
The Dumāls eat meat, including wild boar’s flesh, but not beef, fowls or tame pigs. They do not drink liquor. They will take food cooked with water from Brāhmans and Sudhs, and even the leavings of food from Brāhmans. This is probably because they were formerly the household servants of Brāhmans, though they have now risen somewhat in position and rank, together with the Koltas and Sudhs, as a good cultivating caste. Their women and girls can easily be distinguished, the girls because the hair is shaved until they are married, and the women because they wear bangles of glass on one arm and of lac on the other. They never wear nose-rings or the ornament called pairi on the feet, and no ornaments are worn on the arm above the elbow. They do not wear black clothing. The women are tattooed on the hands, feet and breast. Morality within the caste is lax. A woman going wrong with a man of her own caste is not punished, because the Dumāls live generally in Native States, where it is the business of the Rāja to find the seducer. But she is permanently excommunicated for a liaison with a man of another caste. Eating with a very low caste is almost the only offence which entails permanent exclusion for both sexes. The Dumāls have a bad reputation for fidelity, according to a saying: ‘You cannot call the jungle a plain, and you should not call the Dumāl a brother,’ that is, do not trust a Dumāl. Like the Ahīrs they are somewhat stupid, and when enquiry was being made from them as to what crops they did not grow, one of them replied that they did not sow salt. They are good cultivators, and will grow anything except hemp and turmeric. In some places they still follow their traditional occupation of grazing cattle.
[1] This article is taken almost entirely from a paper drawn up by Mr. Hīra Lāl, Extra Assistant Commissioner.