3. Social customs.
The Kewats worship the ordinary Hindu deities and believe that a special goddess, Chaurāsi Devi, dwells in their boats and keeps them from sinking. She is propitiated at the beginning of the rains and in times of flood, and an image of her is painted on their boats. They bury the dead, laying the corpse with the feet to the south, while some clothes, cotton, til and salt are placed in the grave, apparently as a provision for the dead man’s soul. They worship their ancestors at intervals on a Monday or a Saturday with an offering of a fowl. As is usual in Chhattīsgarh, their rules as to food are very lax, and they will eat both fowls and pork. Nevertheless Brāhmans will take water at their hands and eat the rice and gram which they have parched. The caste consider fishing to have been their original occupation, and tell a story to the effect that their ancestors saved the deity in their boat on the occasion of the Deluge, and in return were given the power of catching three or four times as many fish as ordinary persons in the same space of time. Some of them parch gram and rice, and others act as coolies and banghy-bearers.[5] Kewats are usually in poor circumstances, but they boast that the town of Bilāspur is named after Bilāsa Keotin, a woman of their caste. She was married, but was sought after by the king of the country, so she held out her cloth to the sun, calling on him to set it on fire, and was burnt alive, preserving her virtue. Her husband burnt himself with her, and the pair ascended to heaven.
[1] This article is based on papers by Mr. Mahfuz Ali, tahsīldār, Rājnand-gaon, Mr. Jowāhir Singh, Settlement Superintendent, Sambalpur, and Mr. Adurām Chaudhri of the Gazetteer Office.
[2] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Kaibartta.
[3] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Kewat.
[4] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, ibidem.
[5] A curved stick carried across the shoulders, from which are suspended two panniers.