9. Religion.
The principal deities of the Dhanwārs are Thākur Deo, the god of agriculture, and Dūlha Deo, the deity of the family and hearth. Twice a year the village Baiga or medicine-man, who is usually a Gond, offers a cocoanut to Thākur Deo. He first consecrates it to the god by placing it in contact with water and the small heap of rice which lies in front of his shrine, and then splits it asunder on a stone, saying, ‘Jai Thākur Deo,’ or ‘Victory to Thākur Deo.’ When any serious calamity befalls the tribe a goat is offered to the deity. It must also be first consecrated to him by eating his rice; its body is then washed in water and some of the sacred dūb[5] grass is placed on it, and the Baiga severs the head from the body with an axe. Dūlha Deo is the god of the family and the marriage-bed, and when a Dhanwār is married or his first son is born, a goat is offered to the deity. Another interesting deity is Maiya Andhiyāri, or the goddess of the dark fortnight of the month. She is worshipped in the house conjointly by husband and wife on any Tuesday in the dark fortnight of Māgh (January-February), all the relatives of the family being invited. On the day of worship the husband and wife observe a fast, and all the water which is required for use in the house during the day and night must be brought into it in the early morning. A circular pit is dug inside the house, about three feet deep and as many wide. A she-goat which has borne no young is sacrificed to the goddess in the house in the same manner as in the sacrifice to Thākur Deo. The goat is skinned and cut up, the skin, bones and other refuse being thrown into the hole. The flesh is cooked and eaten with rice and pulse in the evening, all the family and relatives, men and women, eating together at the same time. After the meal, all the remaining food and the water including that used for cooking, and the new earthen pots used to carry water on that day are thrown into the pit. The mouth of the pit is then covered with wooden boards and plastered over with mud with great care to prevent a child falling into it; as it is held that nothing which has once gone into the pit may be taken out, even if it were a human being. It is said that once in the old days a man who happened to fall into the pit was buried alive, its mouth being covered over with planks of wood; and he was found alive when the pit was reopened next year. This is an instance of the sacrificial meal, common to many primitive peoples, at which the sacred animal was consumed by the worshippers, skin, bones and all. But now that such a course has become repugnant to their more civilised digestions, the refuse is considered sacred and disposed of in some such manner as that described. The goddess is also known as Rāt Devi or the goddess of the night; or Rāt Mai, the night mother. The goddess Maswāsi was the mythical ancestress of the Dhanwārs, the wife of Karankot, and also the daughter of Maiya Andhiyāri or Rāt Mai. She too is worshipped every third year in the dark fortnight of the month of Māgh on any Tuesday. Her sacrifice is offered in the morning hours in the forest by men only, and consists also of a black she-goat. A site is chosen under a tree and cleaned with cowdung, the bones of animals being placed upon it in a heap to represent the goddess. The village Baiga kills the goat with an axe and the body is eaten by the worshippers. Maswāsi is invoked by the Dhanwārs before they go hunting, and whenever they kill a wild boar or a deer they offer it to her. She is thus clearly the goddess of hunting. The tribe also worship the spirits of hills and woods and the ghosts of the illustrious dead. The ghosts of dead Baigas or medicine-men are believed to become spirits attending on Thākur Deo, and when he is displeased with the Dhanwārs they intervene to allay his anger. The brothers of Maswāsi, the twelve Gaolis, are believed to be divine hunters and to haunt the forests, where they kill beasts and occasionally men. Six of them take post and the other six drive the beasts or men towards these through the forest, when they are pierced as with an arrow. The victim dies after a few days, but if human he may go to a sorcerer, who can extract the arrow, smaller than a grain of rice, from his body. In the month of Aghan (November), when the grass of the forests is to be cut, the members of the village collectively offer a goat to the grass deity, in order that none of the grass-cutters may be killed by a tiger or bitten by a snake or other wild animal.