Like the Gonds, the Pardhāns will eat almost any kind of food, including beef, pork and the flesh of rats and mice, but they will not eat the leavings of others. They will take food from the hands of Gonds, but the Gonds do not return the compliment. Among the Hindus generally the Pardhāns are much despised, and their touch conveys impurity while that of a Gond does not. Every Pardhān has tattooed on his left arm near the inside of the elbow a dotted figure which represents his totem or the animal, plant or other natural object after which his sept is named. Many of them have a better type of countenance than the Gonds, which is perhaps due to an infusion of Hindu blood. They are also generally more intelligent and cunning. They have criminal propensities, and the Pathārias of Chhattīsgarh are especially noted for cattle-lifting and thieving. Writing forty years ago Captain Thomson[2] described the Pardhāns of Seoni as bearing the very worst of characters, many of them being regular cattle-lifters and gang robbers. In some parts of Seoni they had become the terror of the village proprietors, whose houses and granaries they fired if they were in any way reported on or molested. Since that time the Pardhāns have become quite peaceable, but they still have a bad reputation for petty thieving.
6. Methods of cheating among Pathāris
In Chhattīsgarh one subdivision is said to be known as Sonthaga (sona, gold, and thag, a cheat), because they cheat people by passing counterfeit gold. Their methods were described as follows in 1872 by Captain McNeill, District Superintendent of Police:[3] “They procure a quantity of the dry bark of the pīpal,[4] mahua,[5] tamarind or gular[6] trees and set it on fire; when it has become red-hot it is raked into a small hole and a piece of well-polished brass is deposited among the glowing embers. It is constantly moved and turned about and in ten or fifteen minutes has taken a deep orange colour resembling gold. It is then placed in a small heap of wood-ashes and after a few minutes taken out again and carefully wrapped in cotton-wool. The peculiar orange colour results from the sulphur and resin in the bark being rendered volatile. They then proceed to dispose of the gold, sometimes going to a fair and buying cattle. On concluding a bargain they suddenly find they have no money, and after some hesitation reluctantly produce the gold, and say they are willing to part with it at a disadvantage, thereby usually inducing the belief that it has been stolen. The cupidity of the owner of the cattle is aroused, and he accepts the gold at a rate which would be very advantageous if it were genuine. At other times they join a party of pilgrims, to which some of their confederates have already obtained admission in disguise, and offer to sell their gold as being in great want of money. A piece is first sold to the confederates on very cheap terms and the other pilgrims eagerly participate.” It would appear that the Pathāris have not much to learn from the owners of buried treasure or the confidence or three-card trick performers of London, and their methods are in striking contrast to the guileless simplicity usually supposed to be a characteristic of the primitive tribes. Mr. White states that “All the property acquired is taken back to the village and there distributed by a panchāyat or committee, whose head is known as Mokāsi. The Mokāsi is elected by the community and may also be deposed by it, though he usually holds office for life; to be a successful candidate for the position of Mokāsi one should have wealth and experience and it is not a disadvantage to have been in jail. The Mokāsi superintends the internal affairs of the community and maintains good relations with the proprietor and village watchman by means of gifts.”
7. Musicians and priests
The Pardhāns and Pathāris are also, as already stated, village musicians, and their distinctive instrument the kingri or kingadi is described by Mr. White as consisting of a stick passed through a gourd. A string or wire is stretched over this and the instrument is played with the fingers. Another kind possesses three strings of woven horse-hair and is played with the help of a bow. The women of the Gānda Pardhān subtribe act as midwives. Mr. Tawney wrote of the Pardhāns of Chhindwāra:[7] “The Rāj-Pardhāns are the bards of the Gonds and they can also officiate as priests, but the Bhumka generally acts in the latter capacity and the Pardhāns confine themselves to singing the praises of the god. At every public worship in the Deo-khalla or dwelling-place of the gods, there should, if possible, be a Pardhān, and great men use them on less important occasions. They cannot even worship their household gods or be married without the Pardhāns. The Rāj-Pardhāns are looked down on by the Gonds, and considered as somewhat inferior, seeing that they take the offerings at religious ceremonies and the clothes of the dear departed at funerals. This has never been the business of a true Gond, who seems never happier than when wandering in the jungle, and who above all things loves his axe, and next to that a tree to chop at. There is nothing in the ceremonies or religion of the Pardhāns to distinguish them from the Gonds.”
[1] Tod’s Rājasthān, i. p. 165. But Johār is a common term of salutation among the Hindus.
[2] Seoni Settlement Report (1867), p. 43.
[3] From a collection of notes on Pathāris by various police officers. The passage is somewhat abridged in reproduction.
[4] Ficus R.