Jādua
Jādua-, Jāduah-Brāhman.[1]—This is the name of a class of swindlers, who make money by pretending to turn other metals into gold or finding buried treasure. They are believed to have originated from the caste of Bhadris or Jyotishis, the astrologers of western India. The Jyotishi or Joshi astrologers are probably an offshoot of the Brāhman caste. The name Jādua is derived from jādu, magic. The Bhadris or Jyotishis were in former times, Mr. Knyvett writes, attached to the courts of all important rājas in western India, where they told fortunes and prophesied future events from their computations of the stars, often obtaining great influence and being consulted as oracles. Readers of Quentin Durward will not need to be reminded that an exactly similar state of things obtained in Europe. And both the European and Indian astrologers were continually searching for the philosopher’s stone and endeavouring by the practice of alchemy to discover the secret of changing silver and other metals into gold. It is easy to understand how the more dishonest members of the community would come to make a livelihood by the pretence of being possessed of this power. The Jāduas belong principally to Bihār, and Mr. Knyvett’s account of them is based on inquiries in that Province. But it is probable that, like the Bhadris, travelling parties of Jāduas occasionally visit the Central Provinces. Their method of procedure is somewhat as follows. They start out in parties of three or four and make inquiries for the whereabouts of some likely dupe, in the shape of an ignorant and superstitious person possessed of property. Sometimes they settle temporarily in a village and open a small grain-shop in order to facilitate their search. When the victim has been selected one of them proceeds to his village in the disguise of a Sādhu or anchorite, being usually accompanied by another as his chela or disciple. Soon afterwards the others come, one of them perhaps posing as a considerable landholder, and go about inquiring if a very holy Brāhman has been seen. They go to the house of their intended dupe, who naturally asks why they are seeking the Brāhman; they reply that they have come to do homage to him as he had turned their silver and brass ornaments into gold. The dupe at once goes with them in search of the Brāhman, and is greatly impressed by seeing the landholder worship him with profound respect and make him presents of cloth, money and cattle. He at once falls into the trap and says that he too has a quantity of silver which he would like to have turned into gold. The Brāhman pretends reluctance, but eventually yields to the dupe’s entreaties and allows himself to be led to the latter’s house, where with his chela he takes up his quarters in an inner room, dark and with a mud floor. A variety of tricks are now resorted to, to impress the dupe with the magic powers of the swindlers. Sometimes he is directed to place a rupee on his forehead and go to the door and look at the sun for five minutes, being assured that when he returns the Brāhman will have disappeared by magic. Having looked at the sun for five minutes he can naturally see nothing on returning to a dark room and expresses wonder at the Brāhman’s disappearance and gradual reappearance as his eyes get accustomed to the darkness. Or if the trick to be practised is the production of buried treasure, a rupee may be buried in the ground and after various incantations two rupees are produced from the same spot by sleight of hand. Or by some trickery the victim is shown the mouth of an earthen vessel containing silver or gold coins in a hole dug in the ground. He is told that the treasure cannot be obtained until more treasure has been added to it and religious rites have been performed. Sometimes the victim is made to visit a secluded spot, where he is informed that after repeating certain incantations Sivaji will appear before him. A confederate, dressed in tinsel and paint, appears before the victim posing as Sivaji, and informs him that there is treasure buried in his house, and it is only necessary to follow the instructions of the holy Brāhman in order to obtain it. The silver ornaments, all that can be collected, are then made over to the Brāhman, who pretends to tie them in a cloth or place them in an earthen pot and bury them in the floor of the room. If buried treasure is to be found the Brāhman explains that it is first necessary to bury more treasure in order to obtain it, and if the ornaments are to be turned into gold they are buried for the purpose of transmutation. During the process the victim is induced on some pretence to leave the room or cover himself with a sheet, when a bundle containing mud or stones is substituted for the treasure. The Brāhman calls for ghī, oil and incense, and lights a fire over the place where the ornaments are supposed to be buried, bidding his victim watch over it for some hours or days until his return. The Brāhman and his disciple, with the silver concealed about them, then leave the house, join their confederates and make their escape. The duped villager patiently watches the fire until he becomes tired of waiting for the Brāhman’s return, when he digs up the earth and finds nothing in the cloth but stones and rubbish.
[1] This article is based on an account of the Jāduas by Mr. A. Knyvett, Superintendent of Police, Patna, and kindly communicated by Mr. C. W. C. Plowden, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Bengal, through Mr. G. W. Gayer, in charge of the Central Provinces Criminal Investigation Department.
Jangam
Jangam, Jangama.—A Sivite order of wandering religious mendicants. The Jangams are the priests or gurus of the Sivite sect of Lingāyats. They numbered 3500 persons in the Central Provinces and Berār in 1911, and frequent the Marātha country. The Jangam is said to be so called because he wears a movable emblem of Siva (jana gama, to come and go) in contradistinction to the Sthāwar or fixed emblems found in temples. The Jangams discard many of the modern phases of Hinduism. They reject the poems in honour of Vishnu, Rāma and Krishna, such as the Bhāgavad Gita and Rāmāyana; they also deny the authority of Brāhmans, the efficacy of pilgrimage and self-mortification, and the restrictions of caste; while they revere principally the Vedas and the teaching of the great Sivite reformer Shankar Achārya.[1] Like other religious orders, the Jangams have now become a caste, and are divided into two groups of celibate and married members. The Gharbāris (married members) celebrate their weddings in the usual Marātha fashion, except that they perform no hom or fire sacrifice. They permit the remarriage of widows. The Jangams wear ochre-coloured or badāmi clothes and long necklaces of seeds called rudrāksha[2] beads, which resemble a nutmeg in size, in colour and nearly in shape; they besmear their forehead, arms and various other parts of the body with cowdung ashes. They wear the lingam or phallic sign of Siva either about the neck or loins in a little casket of gold, silver, copper or brass. As the lingam is supposed to represent the god and to be eternal, they are buried and not burnt after death, because the lingam must be buried with them and must not be destroyed in the fire. If any Jangam loses the lingam he or she must not eat or drink until it has been replaced by the guru or spiritual preceptor. It must be worshipped thrice a day, and ashes and bel[3] leaves are offered to it, besides food when the owner is about to partake of this himself. The Jangams worship no deity other than Siva or Mahādeo, and their great festival is the Shivrātri. Some of them make pilgrimages to Pachmarhi, to the Mahādeo hills. Most of them subsist by begging and singing songs in praise of Mahādeo. Grant-Duff gives the Jangam as one of the twenty-four village servants in a Marātha village, perhaps as the priest of the local shrine of Siva, or as the caste priest of the Lingāyats, who are numerous in some Districts of Bombay. He carries a wallet over the shoulder and a conch-shell and bell in the hand. On approaching the door of a house he rings his bell to bring out the occupant, and having received alms proceeds on his way, blowing his conch-shell, which is supposed to be a propitious act for the alms-giver, and to ensure his safe passage to heaven. The wallet is meant to hold the grain given to him, and on returning home he never empties it completely, but leaves a little grain in it as its own share. The Jangams are strict vegetarians, and take food only from the hands of Lingāyats. They bless their food before eating it and always finish it completely, and afterwards wash the dish with water and drink down the water. When a child is born, the priest is sent for and his feet are washed with water in a brass tray. The water is then rubbed over the bodies of those present, and a few drops sprinkled on the walls of the house as a ceremony of purification. The priest’s great toes are then washed in a cup of water, and he dips the lingam he wears into this, and then sips a few drops of the water, each person present doing the same. This is called karuna or sanctification. He then dips a new lingam into the holy water, and ties it round the child’s neck for a minute or two, afterwards handing it to the mother to be kept till the child is old enough to wear it. The dead are buried in a sitting posture, the lingam being placed in the palm of the hand. On the third day a clay image of Mahādeo is carried to the grave, and food and flowers are offered to it, as well as any intoxicants to which the deceased person may have been addicted. The following notice of the Jangams more than a century ago may be quoted from the Abbé Dubois, though the custom described does not, so far as is known, prevail at present, at least in the Central Provinces:[4] “The gurus or priests of Siva, who are known in the Western Provinces by the name of Jangams, are for the most part celibates. They have a custom which is peculiar to themselves, and curious enough to be worth remarking. When a guru travels about his district he lodges with some member of the sect, and the members contend among themselves for the honour of receiving him. When he has selected the house he wishes to stay in, the master and all the other male inmates are obliged, out of respect for him, to leave it and go and stay elsewhere. The holy man remains there day and night with only the women of the house, whom he keeps to wait on him and cook for him, without creating any scandal or exciting the jealousy of the husbands. All the same, some scandal-mongers have remarked that the Jangams always take care to choose a house where the women are young.” The Jangams are not given to austerities, and go about well clad.
[1] Sherring, Castes and Tribes, iii. p. 123.
[2] The nut of Eleocarpus lanceolatus.