1. Origin of the caste.
Injhwār.[1]—A caste of agricultural labourers and fishermen found in the Marātha tract of the Wainganga Valley, comprised in the Bhandāra and Bālāghāt Districts. In 1901 they numbered 8500 persons as against 11,000 in 1891. The name Injhwār is simply a Marāthi corruption of Binjhwār, as īs for bīs (twenty) and Ithoba for Bithoba or Vithoba. In his Census Report of 1891 Sir Benjamin Robertson remarked that the name was often entered in the census books as Vinjhwār, and in Marāthi B and V are practically interchangeable. The Injhwārs are thus a caste formed from the Binjhwārs or highest subdivision of the Baiga tribe of Bālāghāt; they have adopted the social customs of the Marāthi-speaking people among whom they live, and have been formed into a separate caste through a corruption of their name. They still worship Injha or Vindhya Devi, the tutelary deity of the Vindhyan hills, from which the name of the Binjhwārs is derived. The Injhwārs have also some connection with the Gowāri or cowherd caste of the Marātha country. They are sometimes known as Dūdh-Gowāri, and say that this is because an Injhwār woman was a wet-nurse of the first-born Gowāri. The Gowāris themselves, as a low caste of herdsmen frequenting the jungles, would naturally be brought into close connection with both the Baigas and Gonds. Their alliances with the Gonds have produced the distinct caste of Gond-Gowāri, and it is not improbable that one fact operating to separate the Injhwārs from their parent tribe of the Baigas was an admixture of Gowāri blood. But they rank higher than the Gond-Gowāris, who are regarded as impure; this is probably on account of the superior position of the Binjhwārs, who form the aristocracy of the Baiga tribe, and, living in the forests, were never reduced to the menial and servile condition imposed on the Gond residents in Hindu villages. The Injhwārs, however, admit the superiority of the Gowāris by taking food from their hands, a favour which the latter will not reciprocate. Several of the sept or family names of the caste are also taken from the Gonds, and this shows an admixture of Gond blood; the Injhwārs are thus probably a mixed group of Gonds, Gowāris, and Binjhwārs or Baigas.