Divorce. Divorce is permitted occasionally, but only when the wife is guilty of adultery with a man of lower caste-standing than her own. In these cases the husband brings back the erring wife to her father’s house with some betel-nuts and one rupee in an earthenware sarái; the father receives her and gives back a portion of the betel-nuts to the husband, and the woman is at once free to marry again. Widows are at liberty to remarry, but not with the deceased husband’s brother; but little or no ceremonial is observed at such a remarriage, a widow taking a substantially lower position than a virgin bride.

Disposal of dead. The dead are usually disposed of by burial, but the bodies of old Bhakats are sometimes cremated, the ashes being afterwards buried under a high earth mound known as a “moidám.” On the third day after death takes place the ceremony known as telani, when the near relatives are anointed with mustard seed oil (tel). This is followed ten days later by the dahá,[8] when offerings of rice, salt, betel-nuts, etc., are offered by the relatives, and finally, after an interval of twenty days, the dahá káj is celebrated, when a general feast takes place both day and night. These observances have perhaps more in common with funeral wakes than with what is known among Hindus as a shráddha; no Brahmins are present.

6. Chutiyas (87,691).
Deori Chutiyas, 4,000.
Habitat. This once very powerful race, which still numbers almost 90,000 souls, has its chief home and habitat in the districts of Lakhimpur and Sibsagar, though a not inconsiderable number are found in the Darrang district (Mangaldai subdivision). Their general appearance and physical and mental characteristics prove clearly that they belong to the widely spread Bårå race, and this view is borne out by the language still spoken to some extent by one of the subdivisions of the race (the Deoris), which has very much in common with the Kachári of Darrang, and still more with the speech of the people (Dimásá) of the north Kachar Hills.

Traditional origin and history. Their origin is far from being clearly known. According to one tradition—probably the outcome of Hindu imaginativeness—they claim to be descendants of Khetrias who fled into Assam for refuge from the destroying arm of Paraśu-Ram (battle-axe Ram). But according to a tradition embodied in an old Assamese chronicle of uncertain date, the founder of the Chutiya kingdom, for some 200 years a very powerful one, was one Bihar (? Virapála), who is said to have had his home on “Golden Hill” (Suvarṇa-giri) in the mountains to the north of the modern Sadiya, which place was for a lengthened period the centre of Chutiya power, before the advent of the Áhoms in the 15th century. It is said that Kuvera (the Hindu Pluto) appeared to this Bihar, who was simply an ordinary peasant, and urged him to be reconciled to his wife (Rupavati), with whom he had quarrelled, as she was about to present him with a son who should make a name in history. Moreover, he was directed to make search under a certain tree where he would find a shield, a sword, and a spear; and underneath the shield a golden cat, which latter he was to preserve with the utmost care, as it was to be the talisman of his family’s fortunes. Kuvera’s instructions were duly carried out by Bihar, to whom a son was born, named Ratnadhwaj, who through force of character established his influence in the mountains; and then descending to the plains established a powerful kingdom at Sadiya which maintained itself there for over two centuries, when it fell before the rapidly growing influence of the warlike Áhoms. In order finally to break up the power of the Chutiyas their Áhom conquerors are said to have distributed the subjugated race over Assam and north-east Bengal. One not inconsiderable portion of the Mangaldai subdivision is still known as Chutiya deś; otherwise Kaupáti. To this Machiavellian policy of the Áhom rulers is perhaps due the present widely scattered condition of the once powerful Kachári race.

Subdivisions (modern).

There are four subdivisions of the Chutiya race still recognised, viz.:

Each of these subdivisions is said to have been in early days endogamous, though this is hardly so now, for members of the two upper clans can intermarry, and the same statement holds good of the two lower (Deori and Baráhi); but outside these limits marriage is said to be prohibited. The Hindu and Áhom Chutiyas have very largely adopted Hinduism of the Vaishnava type; but it is said that occasionally they indulge in secluded midnight revels known as “ráti soá khoá,” at which almost all kinds of food (beef alone excepted) are very freely consumed. The Deoris and Baráhis, however, still follow largely certain animistic rites; so far as they have adopted Hinduism at all, it would seem to be of a depraved type, Tantric rather than Vedic.

The Deoris. By far the most interesting, because the most primitive, characteristic of the four subdivisions of the Chutiya race mentioned above, is that which holds the third place in the list; i.e., the Deoris. It has been stated before more than once that this term Deoris is thus used to designate the recognised ministers of religion throughout the Bårå race; and this points to the fact that they are essentially what indeed their tribal name implies, a Levite or priestly body, and one in earlier days possessed of large influence which even yet has not been wholly lost. In point of mere numbers they are certainly not a powerful body, somewhat less than 4,000 all told. Their chief habitat is on and near the Dikrang river some thirty miles west of the subdivisional station of North Lakhimpur, while other villages may be found in the Májuli, the “Holy Land” of the modern (Hindu) Assamese, where they would seem to lead a very simple primitive life. A Deori Chutiya village has been well described as follows:

“It consists of some thirty houses built on bamboo platforms raised about five feet from the ground. A single house will often contain a family of forty persons, living in one great room without any compartments, though with separate fireplaces, with a verandah in front where visitors are entertained. The villagers are a tall, large, well-nourished folk, with features bearing a strong resemblance to that of the Kacháris. They drink strong liquor (home-made) and eat all kinds of flesh except beef.”