Present condition in the Upper Duâb. 7. The Census returns give the sections as Badniyâr, Banwâr, Bardhia, Barmâr, Chauhân, Dalê, Dhandin, Dyâs, Garali, Gaur, Gûjar, Kori, Madniyâriya, Pahari, Panwâr, Râjput, Solankhi, Saurangi, and Topiwâl. Those best known in the Upper Duâb are, Turai, Pachhâda or “Western,” Gola Kori, and Khâgi. These gotras, as they are called, are exogamous, but the Turai marry only with the Pachhâda and the Gola with the Khâgi. This rule of exogamy they reinforce with the rather vague formula that marriage with relatives by blood (dûdh kê nâtêdâr) is prohibited. They can marry two sisters in succession. They have now settled down and abandoned their wandering habit of life. They admit strangers into the caste. The only ceremony is that the convert has to eat and drink with his new clansmen. Some say that candidates for admission must be of high caste themselves; but they do not appear to be very particular, and these new admissions are treated at the outset with some contempt, and are not all at once admitted into full tribal privileges. Marriage usually takes place in infancy. The standard of morality is very low, because in Muzaffarnagar[116] it is extremely rare for a Bâwariya woman to live with her husband. Almost invariably she lives with another man; but whoever he may be, the official husband is responsible for the children. Divorced wives and widows can marry in the clan by the karâo form, and a man can have two or three wives at a time. The marriage ceremony is [[234]]carried out by the brother-in-law (dhiyâna) of the bride, and he makes them walk round the marriage shed, and promise to be faithful to each other. The relative, in fact, does all their religious and quasi-religious ceremonies. Infidelity, contraction of a fatal disease, and loss of religion and caste warrant either husband or wife giving up cohabitation, and if the separation is approved of by the clansmen, the woman can re-marry by the karâo form. It is also said that a wife can be discarded when she loses her good looks.
Religion and customs of the Western Bâwariyas. 8. They are Hindu by religion and worship Kâli-Bhawâni and Zâhir Dîwân. The women in particular worship Kâli-Bhawâni. As already stated, they do not employ Brâhmans, but get their religious business done by the brother-in-law. They usually burn the adult dead, and bury those who have not been married. They are in constant fear of the ghosts of the dead, and lay out food for them in platters made of leaves. They now principally live by catching birds of all kinds. Those that are eatable, they sell; others they take to the houses of rich Jain merchants, and make an income by releasing them from their cages. They do not prostitute their married women or girls. They will eat almost any kind of meat except beef, and indulge freely in liquor. They will eat and drink from the hands of any Hindu except Nats and the regular outcaste tribes.
The Eastern Bâwariyas of the North-Western Provinces. 9. In direct contrast to this disreputable branch of the tribe are the Eastern Bâwariyas of Mirzapur. They are very possibly an offshoot of the Bauris of Western Bengal, of whom Mr. Risley writes[117]:—“They are a cultivating, earth-working, and palanquin-bearing race, whose features and complexion stamp them as of non-Aryan descent, although evidence is wanting to affiliate them to any particular tribe now in existence. Their meagre folk-lore throws no light on their origin. According to one story they were degraded for attempting to steal food from the banquet of the gods; another professes to trace them back to a mythical ancestor named Bâhak Rishi (the bearer of burdens), and tells how, while returning from a marriage procession, they sold the palanquin they had been hired to carry, got drunk on the proceeds, and assaulted their Guru, who cursed them for the sacrilege, and compelled them to rank thenceforward [[235]]among the lowest castes of the community. Another name for this ancestor is Rik Muni, the same as the eponym of the Musahars and Bhuiyas; but it would be straining conjecture to infer from this any connection between the Bauris and the Bhuiyas.” At any rate the Mirzapur Bâwariyas admit no connection with such people. According to their own account they were originally Bais Chhatris, and come from Baiswâra, a tract of country which Sir H. M. Elliot defines as lying between Cawnpur on the west, the Sâi river which, running through the Partâbgarh District, joins the Gûmti some twenty miles south-east of the town of Jaunpur; and between the Chhuâb rivulet on the south, and Dikhtân, or the land of the Dikhit Râjputs, on the north.
10. They tell their story as follows:—There were two Chhatri brothers named Sûrê and Bîrê, who left Baiswâra in search of employment, and went to Chayanpur, in the Shâhâbâd District. There they took service with a Râja who had a lovely daughter. When her suitor, a neighbouring Râja, came to woo her, the two brothers challenged his wrestlers. To show their prowess they took a well-burnt tile and crushed it into dust, with which they rubbed their bodies as athletes do before they enter the arena. Then they tore up a great tamarind tree by the roots, and the rival wrestlers ran away in fear. This so pleased their master that he gave them a village called Bâwari or Chân Bâwari, from whence they take their name. They appear now to be fully recognised as Chhatris, and marry in the Chauhân, Jethi, and Gaharwâr clans.
11. They have now no landed property, but settle as tenants wherever they can find land. They do not admit outsiders into the tribe. Their marriage rules are of the type common to the more respectable tribes, but their special worship of Dulha Deo at marriages suggests a connection with some of the non-Aryan races. This is done on the eve of the marriage. The house kitchen is plastered, and the oldest woman of the family draws a lota full of water from the well, but in doing this she must use only her right hand. A burnt offering is then made with one-and-a-quarter sers of butter, and the water is poured on the floor in honour of the godling. Widow marriage is forbidden, and a woman caught in adultery must be discarded. They are generally initiated into either the Saiva or Sâkta sect, and specially worship Dulha Deo and one Sinha Bâba, who was a Nânak Shâhi faqîr. To him is made a burnt offering of sugar and butter once a year; the butter [[236]]must be of the weight of one pice and the sugar one quarter pice. A goat is also sometimes offered in the house court-yard. The priests of the clan are known as the Pânres of Machhiâwan, who have come with them from their original settlement. Their death ceremonies are such as are performed by the higher castes. They abstain from spirits, and their women are kept under careful control. They eat the flesh of deer and goats, and all kinds of fish except the gûnch or Gangetic shark. Brâhmans will eat pakki from their hands, and they will eat kachchi cooked by their Brâhman spiritual guides. They smoke only with their clansmen. Lower castes, like Kahârs and Nâis, will eat both kachchi and pakki from their hands.
The criminal Bâwariyas. 12. The Western Bâwariyas of these Provinces are best known to District Officers as a criminal tribe. When they go on their predatory excursions, which extend over a large part of Northern India, they usually assume the garb of faqîrs, and the only way of finding them out is by a peculiar necklace of small wooden beads, which they all wear, and by a kind of gold pin which they wear fixed to their front teeth.[118] It seems, however, doubtful whether this last test is always conclusive. In cases of doubt their mouths should be examined, for under their tongues a hollow is formed by constant pressure from their younger days, in which they can secure from fifteen to twenty silver bits. The women are believed to possess secrets for charms and medicines, and sell the roots and herbs which they collect in the jungles. They are said to be expert in making patchwork quilts, which they sell. Whenever they wander they sleep on a bed and not on the ground. One peculiarity about their thieving is that, like the Alâgiris of Madras,[119] when they enter a house they take with them some dry grain, which they throw about in the dark, so as to be able by the rattle to ascertain the position of brass vessels and other metal articles. In Central India they are said to be greatly wanting in intelligence and timid in their intercourse with their fellowmen. They are there divided into five tribes—the Râthaur or Mewâra, Chauhân, Sawandiya, Korbiyâr, Kodiyâr; and each tribe has a separate hunting ground. They are governed by Chiefs called Hauliya, who attain their office by descent. [[237]]“Game is divided into three shares—one for the god of the wilds, one for the god of the river, and the remainder is divided among those present at the capture. At the Holi they all assemble at the Hauliya’s residence, when he collects his income, one rupee per head. For the first five years after the beard first appears, it and the hair are cut once a year; but ever after that they wear both unshorn, and their long shaggy locks add to their uncouth appearance. Few attain sixty years of age, and ten is the greatest number of children they have known one woman to bear. They call themselves a branch of the Dhângar or shepherd class.[120]”
Distribution of Bâwariyas according to the Census of 1891.
| District. | Hindu. | Musalmân. | Total. |
| Muzaffarnagar | 1,107 | … | 1,107 |
| Agra | 40 | … | 40 |
| Mirzapur | 1,333 | … | 1,333 |
| Gorakhpur | 1 | … | 1 |
| Tarâi | 9 | … | 9 |
| Ballia | … | 239 | 239 |
| Total | 2,490 | 239 | 2,729 |
Beldâr.[121]—(One who works with the bel or mattock.)—A general term for the aggregate of low Hindu tribes who make their living by earth-work. But, besides these, there appears to be a real endogamous group of this name found chiefly in Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Basti, and Pilibhît. Mr. Risley[122] describes under the same name a wandering Dravidian caste of earth-workers and navvies in Bihâr and Western Bengal, many of whom are employed in the coal mines of Râniganj and Barâkar. “Both men and women labour, the former digging the earth and the latter removing it in baskets carried on the head. The Beldârs regard this mode of carrying earth as distinctive of themselves, and will on no account carry earth in baskets slung from the shoulders.” Whatever may be the [[238]]case in Bengal, in these provinces at least, the practice of carrying earth and other burdens on the head and not on the back or shoulders is habitual among all the castes who do this kind of labour.
Internal organization. 2. The Beldârs of these provinces classified themselves at the last Census under three sub-castes—Bâchhal, Chauhân, and Kharot. The two former are, of course, well known Râjput tribes. The Kharot appear to take their name from khar (Sanskrit, khata), “grass.” They are described as a tribe of mat-makers in Basti, and a number have entered themselves separately at the last enumeration. Besides these, among the most important local sub-castes, we find the Mahul and Orh of Bareilly; the Desi, Kharêbind, and Sarwariya, or “dwellers beyond the Sarju,” of Gorakhpur; and the Kharêbind and Maskhauwa, or “flesh-eaters,” of Basti. The Census returns give 186 sub-castes of the usual type. Some taken from the names of existing well known tribes, such as Bachgoti, Bâchhal, Baheliya, Bindwâr, Chauhân, Dikhit, Gaharwâr, Gaura, Gautam, Ghosi, Kurmi, Luniya, Orh, Râjput, Thâkur; others, local terms of the usual type, like Agarwâl, Agrabansi, Ajudhyabâsi, Bhadauriya, Dehliwâl, Gangapâri, Gorakhpuri, Kanaujiya, Kashiwâla, Purabiya, Sarwariya, and Uttarâha. The Beldârs have no definite traditions of their origin, save that they were once Râjputs who were compelled by some Râja to work as navvies, and were in consequence degraded. There can, however, be little doubt that they are an occupational offshoot from the great Luniya, Orh, or Bind tribe, who are certainly to a large extent of non-Aryan origin.