Bēdar or Bōya.—“Throughout the hills,” Buchanan writes,[43] “northward from Capaladurga, are many cultivated spots, in which, during Tippoo’s government, were settled many Baydaru or hunters, who received twelve pagodas (£4 5s.) a year, and served as irregular troops whenever required. Being accustomed to pursue tigers and deer in the woods, they were excellent marksmen with their match-locks, and indefatigable in following their prey; which, in the time of war, was the life and property of every helpless creature that came in their way. During the wars of Hyder and his son, these men were chief instruments in the terrible depredations committed in the lower Carnatic. They were also frequently employed with success against the Poligars (feudal chiefs), whose followers were of a similar description.” In the Gazetteer of the Anantapur district it is noted that “the Bōyas are the old fighting caste of this part of the country, whose exploits are so often recounted in the history books. The Poligars’ forces, and Haidar Ali’s famous troops were largely recruited from these people, and they still retain a keen interest in sport and manly exercises.”
In his notes on the Bōyas, which Mr. N. E. Q. Mainwaring has kindly placed at my disposal, he writes as follows. “Although, until quite recently, many a Bōya served in the ranks of our Native army, being entered in the records thereof either under his caste title of Naidu, or under the heading of Gentu,[44] which was largely used in old day military records, yet this congenial method of earning a livelihood has now been swept away by a Government order, which directs that in future no Telegas shall be enlisted into the Indian army. That the Bōyas were much prized as fighting men in the stirring times of the eighteenth century is spoken to in the contemporaneous history of Colonel Wilks.[45] He speaks of the brave armies of the Poligars of Chitteldroog, who belonged to the Beder or Bōya race in the year 1755. Earlier, in 1750, Hyder Ali, who was then only a Naik in the service of the Mysore Rāja, used with great effect his select corps of Beder peons at the battle of Ginjee. Five years after this battle, when Hyder was rising to great eminence, he augmented his Beder peons, and used them as scouts for the purpose of ascertaining the whereabouts of his enemies, and for poisoning with the juice of the milk-hedge (Euphorbia Tirucalli) all wells in use by them, or in their line of march. The historian characterises them as being ‘brave and faithful thieves.’ In 1751, the most select army of Morari Row of Gooty consisted chiefly of Beder peons, and the accounts of their deeds in the field, as well as their defence of Gooty fort, which only fell after the meanness of device had been resorted to, prove their bravery in times gone by beyond doubt. There are still a number of old weapons to be found amongst the Bōyas, consisting of swords, daggers, spears, and matchlocks. None appear to be purely Bōya weapons, but they seem to have assumed the weapons of either Muhammadans or Hindus, according to which race held sway at the time. In some districts, there are still Bōya Poligars, but, as a rule, they are poor, and unable to maintain any position. Generally, the Bōyas live at peace with their neighbours, occasionally only committing a grave dacoity (robbery).[46]
“In the Kurnool district, they have a bad name, and many are on the police records as habitual thieves and housebreakers. They seldom stoop to lesser offences. Some are carpenters, others blacksmiths who manufacture all sorts of agricultural implements. Some, again, are engaged as watchmen, and others make excellent snares for fish out of bamboo. But the majority of them are agriculturists, and most of them work on their own putta lands. They are now a hard-working, industrious people, who have become thrifty by dint of their industry, and whose former predatory habits are being forgotten. Each village, or group of villages, submits to the authority of a headman, who is generally termed the Naidu, less commonly Dora as chieftain. In some parts of Kurnool, the headmen are called Simhasana Bōyas. The headman presides at all functions, and settles, with the assistance of the elders, any disputes that may arise in the community regarding division of property, adultery, and other matters. The headman has the power to inflict fines, the amount of which is regulated by the status and wealth of the defaulter. But it is always arranged that the penalty shall be sufficient to cover the expense of feeding the panchayatdars (members of council), and leave a little over to be divided between the injured party and the headman. In this way, the headman gets paid for his services, and practically fixes his own remuneration.”
It is stated in the Manual of the Bellary district that “of the various Hindu castes in Bellary, the Bōyas (called in Canarese Bēdars, Byēdas, or Byādās) are far the strongest numerically. Many of the Poligars whom Sir Thomas Munro found in virtual possession of the country when it was added to the Company belonged to this caste, and their irregular levies, and also a large proportion of Haidar’s formidable force, were of the same breed. Harpanahalli was the seat of one of the most powerful Poligars in the district in the eighteenth century. The founder of the family was a Bōya taliāri, who, on the subversion of the Vijayanagar dynasty, seized on two small districts near Harpanahalli. The Bōyas are perhaps the only people in the district who still retain any aptitude for manly sports. They are now for the most part cultivators and herdsmen or are engaged under Government as constables, peons, village watchmen (taliāris), and so forth. Their community provides an instructive example of the growth of caste sub-divisions. Both the Telugu-speaking Bōyas and the Canarese-speaking Bēdars are split into the two main divisions of Ūru or village men, and Myāsa or grass-land men, and each of these divisions is again sub-divided into a number of exogamous Bedagas. Four of the best known of these sub-divisions are Yemmalavaru or buffalo-men; Mandalavaru or men of the herd; Pūlavaru or flower-men, and Mīnalavaru or fish-men. They are in no way totemistic. Curiously enough, each Bedagu has its own particular god, to which its members pay special reverence. But these Bedagas bear the same names among both the Bōyas and the Bēdars, and also among both the Ūru and Myāsa divisions of both Bōyas and Bēdars. It thus seems clear that, at some distant period, all the Bōyas and all the Bēdars must have belonged to one homogeneous caste. At present, though Ūru Bōyas will marry with Ūru Bēdars and Myāsa Bōyas with Myāsa Bēdars, there is no intermarriage between Ūrus and Myāsas, whether they be Bōyas or Bēdars. Even if Ūrus and Myāsas dine together, they sit in different rows, each division by themselves. Again, the Ūrus (whether Bōyas or Bēdars) will eat chicken and drink alcohol, but the Myāsas will not touch a fowl or any form of strong drink, and are so strict in this last matter that they will not even sit on mats made of the leaf of the date-palm, the tree which in Bellary provides all the toddy. The Ūrus, moreover, celebrate their marriages with the ordinary ceremonial of the hālu-kamba or milk-post, and the surge, or bathing of the happy pair; the bride sits on a flour-grinding stone, and the bridegroom stands on a basket full of cholam (millet), and they call in Brāhmans to officiate. But the Myāsas have a simpler ritual, which omits most of these points, and dispenses with the Brāhman. Other differences are that the Ūru women wear ravikkais or tight-fitting bodices, while the Myāsas tuck them under their waist-string. Both divisions eat beef, and both have a hereditary headman called the ejamān, and hereditary Dāsaris who act as their priests.”
Bedar.
In the Madras Census Report, 1901, it is stated that the two main divisions of Bōyas are called also Pedda (big) and Chinna (small) respectively, and, according to another account, the caste has four endogamous sections, Pedda, Chinna, Sadaru, and Myāsa. Sadaru is the name of a sub-division of Lingāyats, found mainly in the Bellary and Anantapur districts, where they are largely engaged in cultivation. Some Bēdars who live amidst those Lingāyats call themselves Sadaru. According to the Manual of the North Arcot district, the Bōyas are a “Telugu hunting caste, chiefly found above the ghāts. Many of the Poligars of that part of the country used to belong to the caste, and proved themselves so lawless that they were dispossessed. Now they are usually cultivators. They have several divisions, the chief of which are the Mulki Bōyas and the Pāla Bōyas, who cannot intermarry.” According to the Mysore Census Reports, 1891 and 1901, “the Bēdas have two distinct divisions, the Kannada and Telugu, and own some twenty sub-divisions, of which the following are the chief:—Hālu, Māchi or Myāsa, Nāyaka, Pallegar, Bārika, Kannaiyyanajāti, and Kirātaka. The Māchi or Myāsa Bēdas comprise a distinct sub-division, also called the Chunchus. They live mostly in hills, and outside inhabited places in temporary huts. Portions of their community had, it is alleged, been coerced into living in villages, with whose descendants the others have kept up social intercourse. They do not, however, eat fowl or pork, but partake of beef; and the Myāsa Bēdas are the only Hindu class among whom the rite of circumcision is performed,[47] on boys of ten or twelve years of age. These customs, so characteristic of the Mussalmans, seem to have been imbibed when the members of this sub-caste were included in the hordes of Haidar Ali. Simultaneously with the circumcision, other rites, such as the pānchagavyam, the burning of the tongue with a nīm (Melia Azadirachta) stick, etc. (customs pre-eminently Brahmanical), are likewise practised prior to the youth being received into communion. Among their other peculiar customs, the exclusion from their ordinary dwellings of women in child-bed and in periodical sickness, may be noted. The Myāsa Bēdas are said to scrupulously avoid liquor of every kind, and eat the flesh of only two kinds of birds, viz., gauja (grey partridge), and lavga (rock-bush quail).” Of circumcision among the Myāsa Bēdars it is noted, in the Gazetteer of the Bellary district, that they practise this rite round about Rayadrūg and Gudekōta. “These Myāsas seem quite proud of the custom, and scout with scorn the idea of marrying into any family in which it is not the rule. The rite is performed when a boy is seven or eight. A very small piece of the skin is cut off by a man of the caste, and the boy is then kept for eleven days in a separate hut, and touched by no one. His food is given him on a piece of stone. On the twelfth day he is bathed, given a new cloth, and brought back to the house, and his old cloth, and the stone on which his food was served, are thrown away. His relations in a body then take him to a tangēdu (Cassia auriculata) bush, to which are offered cocoanuts, flowers, and so forth, and which is worshipped by them and him. Girls on first attaining puberty are similarly kept for eleven days in a separate hut, and afterwards made to do worship to a tangēdu bush. This tree also receives reverence at funerals.”
The titles of the Bōyas are said to be Naidu or Nayudu, Naik, Dora, Dorabidda (children of chieftains), and Valmiki. They claim direct lineal descent from Valmiki, the author of the Rāmayana. At times of census in Mysore, some Bēdars have set themselves up as Valmiki Brāhmans. The origin of the Myāsa Bēdas is accounted for in the following story. A certain Bēdar woman had two sons, of whom the elder, after taking his food, went to work in the fields. The younger son, coming home, asked his mother to give him food, and she gave him only cholam (millet) and vegetables. While he was partaking thereof, he recognised the smell of meat, and was angry because his mother had given him none, and beat her to death. He then searched the house, and, on opening a pot from which the smell of meat emanated, found that it only contained the rotting fibre-yielding bark of some plant. Then, cursing his luck, he fled to the forest, where he remained, and became the forefather of the Myāsa Bēdars.
For the following note on the legendary origin of the Bēdars, I am indebted to Mr. Mainwaring. “Many stories are told of how they came into existence, each story bringing out the name which the particular group may be known by. Some call themselves Nishadulu, and claim to be the legitimate descendants of Nishadu. When the great Venudu, who was directly descended from Brahma, ruled over the universe, he was unable to procure a son and heir to the throne. When he died, his death was regarded as an irreparable misfortune. In grief and doubt as to what was to be done, his body was preserved. The seven ruling planets, then sat in solemn conclave, and consulted together as to what they should do. Finally they agreed to create a being from the right thigh of the deceased Venudu, and they accordingly fashioned and gave life to Nishudu. But their work was not successful, for Nishudu turned out to be not only deformed in body, but repulsively ugly. It was accordingly agreed, at another meeting of the planets, that he was not a fit person to be placed on the throne. So they set to work again, and created a being from the right shoulder of Venudu. Their second effort was crowned with success. They called their second creation Chakravati, and, as he gave general satisfaction, he was placed on the throne. This supersession naturally caused Nishudu, the first born, to be discontented, and he sought a lonely place. There he communed with the gods, begging of them the reason why they had created him, if he was not to rule. The gods explained to him that he could not now be put on the throne, since Chakravati had already been installed, but that he should be a ruler over the forests. In this capacity, Nishudu begot the Koravas, Chenchus, Yānādis, and Bōyas. The Bōyas were his legitimate children, while the others were all illegitimate. According to the legend narrated in the Valmiki Rāmayana, when king Vishwamitra quarrelled with the Rishi Vashista, the cow Kamadenu belonging to the latter, grew angry, and shook herself. From her body an army, which included Nishadulu, Turka (Muhammadans), and Yevannudu (Yerukalas) at once appeared.
“A myth related by the Bōyas in explanation of their name Valmikudu runs as follows. In former days, a Brāhman, who lived as a highwayman, murdering and robbing all the travellers he came across, kept a Bōya female, and begot children by her. One day, when he went out to carry on his usual avocation, he met the seven Rishis, who were the incarnations of the seven planets. He ordered them to deliver their property, or risk their lives. The Rishis consented to give him all their property, which was little enough, but warned him that one day he would be called to account for his sinful deeds. The Brāhman, however, haughtily replied that he had a large family to maintain, and, as they lived on his plunder, they would have to share the punishment that was inflicted upon himself. The Rishis doubted this, and advised him to go and find out from his family if they were willing to suffer an equal punishment with him for his sins. The Brāhman went to his house, and confessed his misdeeds to his wife, explaining that it was through them that he had been able to keep the family in luxury. He then told her of his meeting with the Rishis, and asked her if she would share his responsibility. His wife and children emphatically refused to be in any way responsible for his sins, which they declared were entirely his business. Being at his wit’s end, he returned to the Rishis, told them how unfortunate he was in his family affairs, and begged advice of them as to what he should do to be absolved from his sins. They told him that he should call upon the god Rāma for forgiveness. But, owing to his bad bringing up and his misspent youth, he was unable to utter the god’s name. So the Rishis taught him to say it backwards by syllables, thus:—ma ra, ma ra, ma ra, which, by rapid repetition a number of times, gradually grew into Rāma. When he was able to call on his god without difficulty, the Brāhman sat at the scene of his graver sins, and did penance. White-ants came out of the ground, and gradually enveloped him in a heap. After he had been thus buried alive, he became himself a Rishi, and was known as Valmiki Rishi, valmiki meaning an ant-hill. As he had left children by the Bōya woman who lived with him during his prodigal days, the Bōyas claim to be descended from these children and call themselves Valmikudu.”