1. Origin of the tribe
Rautia.[1]—A cultivating caste of the Chota Nāgpur plateau. In 1911 about 12,000 Rautias were enumerated in the Province, nearly all of whom belong to the Jashpur State with a few in Sargūja. These states lie outside the scope of the Ethnographic Survey and hence no regular inquiry has been made on the Rautias. The following brief notice is mainly taken from the account of the caste in Sir H. Risley’s Tribes and Castes of Bengal. He describes the caste as, “refined in features and complexion by a large infusion of Aryan blood. Their chief men hold estates on quit-rent from the Mahārāja of Chota Nāgpur, and the bulk of the remainder are tenants with occupancy right and often paying only a low quit-rent or half the normal assessment.” These favourable tenures may probably be explained by the fact that they were held in former times on condition of military service, and were analogous to the feudal fiefs of Europe. The Rautias themselves say that this was their original occupation in Chota Nāgpur. The name Rautia is a form of Rāwat, and this latter word signifies a prince and is a title borne by relatives of a Rāja. It may be noticed that Rāwat is the ordinary name by which the Ahīr caste is known in Chhattīsgarh, the neighbouring country to Chota Nāgpur in the Central Provinces; and further that the Rautias will take food from a Chhattīsgarhi Rāwat. This fact, coupled with the identity of the name, appears to demonstrate a relationship of the two castes. The Rautias will not take food from any other Hindu caste, but they will eat with the Kawar and Gond tribes, at least in Raigarh. The Kawars have a subtribe called Rautia as also have the Kols. In Sir H. Risley’s list of the sept-names of the Rautias[2] we find two names, Aind the eel, and Rukhi a squirrel, which are also the names of Munda septs, and one, Karsāyal or deer, which is the name of a Kawar sept. They have also a name Sanwāni, which is probably Sonwāni or ‘gold-water,’ and is common to many of the primitive tribes. The most plausible hypothesis of the origin of the Rautias on the above facts seems to be that they were a tribal militia in Chota Nāgpur, the leaders being Ahīrs or Rāwats with possibly a sprinkling of the local Rājpūts, while the main body were recruited from the Kawar and Kol tribes. The Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa furnish an exact parallel to the Rautias, being a tribal militia, who have now become a caste, and are constituted mainly from the Bhuiya tribe with a proportion of Chasas or cultivators and Rājpūts. They also have obtained possession of the land, and in Orissa the Sresta or good Khandaits rank next to the Rājpūts. The history and position of the Rautias appears to be similar to that of the Khandaits. The Halbas of Bastar are probably another nearly analogous instance. They were Gonds, who apparently formed the tribal militia of the Rājas of Bastar and got grants of land and consequently a certain rise in status though not to the same level as the Khandaits and Rautias. It does not seem that the Rautias have any special connection with the Gonds, and their acceptance of food from Gonds may perhaps, as suggested by Mr. Hīra Lāl, be due to the fact that they served a Gond Rāja.