The Dhanuhārs, being a small tribe, have no endogamous divisions, but are divided into a number of totemistic exogamous septs. Many of the septs are called after plants or animals, and members of the sept refrain from killing or destroying the animal or plant after which it is named. The names of the septs are generally Chhattīsgarhi words, though a few are Gondi. Out of fifty names returned twenty are also found in the Kawar tribe and four among the Gonds. This makes it probable that the Dhanuhārs are mainly an offshoot from the Kawars with an admixture of Gonds and other tribes. A peculiarity worth noticing is that one or two of the septs have been split up into a number of others. The best instance of this is the Sonwāni sept, which is found among several castes and tribes in Chhattīsgarh; its name is perhaps derived from Sona pāni (Gold water), and its members have the function of readmitting those temporarily expelled from social intercourse by pouring on them a little water into which a piece of gold has been dipped. Among the Dhanuhārs the Sonwāni sept has become divided into the Son-Sonwāni, who pour the gold water over the penitent; the Rakat Sonwāni, who give him to drink a little of the blood of the sacrificial fowl; the Hardi Sonwāni, who give turmeric water to the mourners when they come back from a funeral; the Kāri Sonwāni, who assist at this ceremony; and one or two others. The totem of the Kāri Sonwāni sept is a black cow, and when such an animal dies in the village members of the sept throw away their earthen pots. All these are now separate exogamous septs. The Deswārs are another sept which has been divided in the same manner. They are, perhaps, a more recent accession to the tribe, and are looked down on by the others because they will eat the flesh of bison. The other Dhanwārs refuse to do this because they say that when Sīta, Rāma’s wife, was exiled in the jungles, she could not find a cow to worship and so revered a bison in its stead. And they say that the animal’s feet are grey because of the turmeric water which Sīta poured on them, and that the depression on its forehead is the mark of her hand when she placed a tīka or sign there with coloured rice. The Deswārs are also called Dui Duāria or ‘Those having two doors,’ because they have a back door to their huts which is used only by women during their monthly period of impurity and kept shut at all other times. One of the septs is named Manakhia, which means ‘man-eater,’ and it is possible that its members formerly offered human sacrifices. Similarly, the Rakat-bund or ‘Drop of blood Deswārs’ may be so called because they shed human blood. A member of the Telāsi or ‘Oil’ sept, when he has killed a deer, will cut off the head and bring it home; placing it in his courtyard, he suspends a burning lamp over the head and places grains of rice on the forehead of the deer; and he then considers that he is revering the oil in the lamp. Members of the Sūrajgoti or sun sept are said to have stood as representatives of the sun in the rite of the purification of an offender.
3. Marriage.
Marriage within the sept is prohibited, and usually also between first cousins. Girls are commonly married a year or two after they arrive at maturity. The father of the boy looks out for a suitable girl for his son and sends a friend to make the proposal. If this is accepted a feast is given, and is known as Phūl Phulwāri or ‘The bursting of the flower.’ The betrothal itself is called Phaldān or ‘The gift of the fruit’; on this occasion the contract is ratified and the usual presents are exchanged. Yet a third ceremony, prior to the marriage, is that of the Barokhi or inspection, when the bride and bridegroom are taken to see each other. On this occasion they exchange copper rings, placing them on each other’s finger, and the boy offers vermilion to the earth, and then rubs it on the bride’s forehead. When the girl is mature the date of the wedding is fixed, a small bride-price of six rupees and a piece of cloth being usually paid. If the first signs of puberty appear in the girl during the bright fortnight of the month, the marriage is held during the dark fortnight and vice versa. The marriage-shed is built in the form of a rectangle and must consist of either seven or nine posts in three lines. The bridegroom’s party comprises from twenty to forty persons of both sexes. When they arrive at the bride’s village her father comes out to meet them and gives them leaf-pipes to smoke. He escorts them inside the village where a lodging has been prepared for them. The ceremony is based on that of the local Hindus with numerous petty variations in points of detail. In the actual ceremony the bride and bridegroom are first supported on the knees of two relatives. A sheet is held between them and each throws seven handfuls of parched rice over the other. They are then made to stand side by side; a knot is made of their cloths containing a piece of turmeric, and the bride’s left hand is laid over the bridegroom’s right one, and on it a sendhaura or wooden box for vermilion is placed. The bride’s mother moves seven times round the pair holding a lighted lamp, at which she warms her hand and then touches the marriage-crowns of the bride and bridegroom seven times in succession. And finally the couple walk seven times round the marriage-post, the bridegroom following the bride. The marriage is held during the day, and not, as is usual, at night or in the early morning. Afterwards, the pair are seated in the marriage-shed, the bridegroom’s leg being placed over that of the bride, with their feet in a brass dish. The bride’s mother then washes their great toes with milk and the rest of their feet with water. The bridegroom applies vermilion seven times to the marriage-post and to his wife’s forehead at the parting of her hair. The couple are fed with rice and pulses one after the other out of the same leaf-plates, and the parties have a feast. Next morning, before their departure, the father of the bride asks the bridegroom to do his best to put up with his daughter, who is thievish, gluttonous and so slovenly that she lets her food drop on to the floor; but if he finds he cannot endure her, to send her home. In the same manner the father of the boy apologises for his son, saying that he cares only for mischief and pleasure. The party then returns to the bridegroom’s house.
4. Festivities of the women of the bridegroom’s party.
During the absence of the wedding party the women of the bridegroom’s house with others in the village sing songs at night in the marriage-shed constructed at his house. These are known as Dindwa, a term applied to a man who has no wife, whether widower or bachelor. As they sing, the women dance in two lines with their arms interlaced, clapping their hands as they move backwards and forwards. The songs are of a lewd character, treating of intrigues in love mingled with abuse of their relatives and of other men who may be watching the proceedings by stealth. No offence is taken on such occasions, whatever may be said. In Upper India, Mr. Jeorākhān Lāl states such songs are sung at the time of the marriage and are called Naktoureki louk or the ceremony of the useless or shameless ones, because women, however shy and modest, become at this time as bold and shameless as men are at the Holi festival. The following are a few lines from one of these songs:
The wheat-cake is below and the urad-cake is above. Do you see my brother’s brother-in-law watching the dance in the narrow lane.[3]
A sweetmeat is placed on the wheat-cake; a handsome young black-guard has climbed on to the top of the wall to see the dance.
When a woman sees a man from afar he looks beautiful and attractive: but when he comes near she sees that he is not worth the trouble.
I went to the market and came back with my salt. Oh, I looked more at you than at my husband who is wedded to me.