Domestic ceremonies. Birth. 18. There are no observances during pregnancy. When the child is born the Chamârin midwife is called in; she cuts the umbilical cord and buries it on the spot where the birth occurred, lighting a fire and fixing up a piece of iron—a guard against evil spirits. The mother [[60]]gets no food that day, and next morning she is dosed with a mixture of ginger, turmeric and treacle. The Chamârin attends for six days, and after bathing the mother and child she is dismissed with a present of two-and-a-half sers of grain and two annas in cash. Then the barber’s wife attends, who cuts the nails of the mother and child and dyes the soles of their feet with lac. The purification of the confinement room is done by the sister of the father of the child, who gets a present for the service. The father does not cohabit with his wife for two months after her delivery.
Marriage ceremonies. 19. The following describes a marriage as carried out in the Mirzapur District. When the match is settled the father of the boy pays a visit to the girl’s father to make the final preparations. Next follows the betrothal (sa’at), which is carried out on a day fixed by the Pandit, who gets a fee of two annas. The father of the boy goes to the house of the bride with the bride price already described, pays it over, eats there, and returns next morning. Next follows the matmangar or collection of the sacred earth, which is done exactly as in the case of the Dravidian Bhuiyas, in the article on which tribe the ritual is described. When the earth is brought back to the house it is placed under the sacred water vessel (kalsa) near the pole of siddh wood fixed up in the centre of the marriage shed. This vessel is decorated with lumps of cowdung stuck in a line all round it, and over these grains of barley are sprinkled. The mouth is filled with mango leaves, and over them is placed an earthen saucer (kosa) full of the sânwân millet or barley. When this is completed all the women present are given some parched grain, which they receive in the part of their sheet covering the breast.
20. When this is over the anointing (telhardi) of the bride and bridegroom commences. This goes on every evening till the day before the wedding (Bhatwân). Next morning the boy is bathed by the barber, and the water is carefully kept for use in bathing the bride. The boy is dressed in a yellow loin cloth and a red turban and coat, when his mother takes him in her lap and five unmarried boys make him chew some cakes folded up in mango leaves. Then he spits on the palm of his mother’s hand and she licks it up, when the father and mother, with their hands covered with a cloth so that no one may see them, grind some urad pulse on the family curry stone (sil). This is made into lumps and offered to the [[61]]sainted dead of the household with the prayer “Come and help us to bring the marriage to a successful issue!” Then the boy gets into the litter, while his mother waves a pestle over his head to drive off evil spirits. When the litter is raised the mother is obliged to creep beneath it, and as she attempts to do so the Kahârs put it down, and will not raise it until they receive a present. This present is called pilâi or “a drink.” It is customary with them that the procession should reach the house of the bride after nightfall, a survival of marriage by capture. They then go to the house of the headman of the village and present him with five chhatânks of betel-nut and curd—a possible sign of the commutation of the jus prima noctis, but more probably one of the ordinary dues taken by the village landlord at marriages. They stay some time at his door and dance and sing their own tribal song, the birha. Then they go to the reception place (janwânsa), which is usually arranged under a tree near the village. Then the bride’s barber appears and washes the feet of the party, and a relative of the bride comes and feeds five boys of the gotra of the bridegroom with him on curds and treacle. After this the boy’s father sends to the bride the water in which the bridegroom had been washed; in this she gets the marriage bath. This done the bridegroom goes to the house of the bride, and is received at the door by the mother of the bride, who waves over his head a piece of dough, on which is laid a silver coin and a lighted lamp. This is the parachhan ceremony, and is intended to scare away the evil spirits, which are most to be dreaded at any crisis of life such as marriage. Then the barber’s wife brings out the bride, who is seated on the thigh of her father. The pair worship Gauri and Ganesa, of whom flour images are made. The father then gives away his daughter in the regular kanyâdân form, holding a bunch of kusa grass, water, and rice, in his right hand. Then the bridegroom first performs the emblematical marriage with the siddh tree forming the central pole of the marriage shed, and he then marks the parting of the bride’s hair. The pair next make five circuits round the siddh tree, and the ceremony ends with a salute to the officiating Brâhman.
21. Next the bridegroom walks with the bride into the retiring room (kohabar), an obvious survival of the custom still prevailing among some of the Dravidian tribes, where consummation follows immediately on the marriage ceremony. The sister-in-law of the bride attempts to obstruct his passage, and he is obliged to carry in [[62]]the bride by force. The walls of the retiring room are decorated with rude drawings in red, of elephants and horses. Over these the bridegroom is made to pour a little butter. Then the women crack jokes with the boy. Pointing to a rice pestle they say “That is your father! Salute him!” and taking up a lamp they say, “That is your mother! Salute her!” On this he breaks the lamp with the pestle. Then the knot joining the clothes of the pair is opened and the boy returns to his own party.
22. Next morning the bridegroom is brought with two or three other boys to go through the confarreatio or khichari rite. When he is asked to eat in the house of the bride he holds out for some time, and will not touch the food until he gets a present from his father-in-law; then his party are feasted. Next morning the boy goes again into the marriage shed, and his mother-in-law, as before, waves a pestle over his head and gives him a present. This done, his father shakes one of the poles of the shed and receives a present for so doing, which is known as mânro hilâi. On this, the relations on both sides embrace, and the wedding party start for home. If the bride be nubile she accompanies her husband; if not, in the first, third, or fifth year there is the gauna, when she is brought to the house of her husband. After the party return, a burnt offering (hom) is made in honour of the village godlings (dih), and the barber’s wife takes the marriage jar (kalsa) to a neighbouring stream, where she washes it, and then, filling it with water, pours the contents over the head of the mother of the bridegroom, and asks her if she feels refreshed, meaning thereby if she is satisfied with the marriage of her son. Of course she says that she is satisfied, and blesses him and his wife.
Death ceremonies. 23. The married dead are cremated; children and those who die of epidemic disease are buried. The cremation is carried out in the orthodox way. After it is over the chief mourner plants by the side of a river, or tank, a bunch of the jurai grass, as an abode for the soul until the funeral rites are completed. He cooks for himself, and daily places on a dung-hill a leaf platter (dauna) full of food for the ghost of the dead man. On the tenth day he throws into a tank ten balls of rice boiled in milk (khîr) in honour of the dead. During this the Brâhman repeats texts; and the relatives, after shaving, come home and offer a burnt offering. Clothes, vessels, a cow, and other articles are given to a Mahâbrâhman in the belief that they will pass for the use of the dead man in the next world. [[63]]
Religion. 24. Ahîrs are all Hindus, but are seldom initiated into any of the regular sects. To the east of the Province they worship, by preference, Mahâdeva. They also worship the Pânchonpîr and Birtiya. The latter, they say, was one of their forefathers, who fell in some fight at Delhi. He is worshipped in the month of Sâwan, or at the Holi festival, with a burnt offering, which is made either in the courtyard of the house where the churn is kept, or in the cow-house. They also pour spirits on the ground in his honour. They worship the Pânchonpîr during the Naurâtri or first nine days of Chaitra. Birtiya is regarded as the special guardian of cattle. The only one of the regular pantheon, to whom they offer regular sacrifices, is the Vindhyabâsini Devi, of Vindhyâchal, to whom they occasionally sacrifice a goat. In other parts of the Province they seem, as a rule, to worship Devi. They are served by Brâhmans of all the ordinary priestly classes.
Worship of Kâsinâth. 25. To the east of the province the worship of Kâsinâth is very popular. In most of their villages there is a man who is supposed to be possessed by this deity, who is generally a young, strong man, who lets his hair grow. Once or twice a year Kâsinâth “comes on his head,” as the phrase is. Then he begins to move his hands and shakes his head, and in this state utters prophecies of the prospects of the crops and other matters affecting the village. Then they all assemble in some open ground, outside the village, and arrange for the worship of the godling. They light several fires in a row, and on each a pot of milk is set to boil. Opposite these a pile of parched barley (bahuri) is collected. As soon as the milk begins to boil over, the man possessed of the spirit of Kâsinâth, rushes up and pours the contents of all the pots in succession over his shoulders. It is said that he is never scalded. The rite concludes with the distribution of the barley among the congregation.
Worship of Bîrnâth. 26. In parts of the Mirzapur District, south of the River Son, you may notice, on the side of the road, here and there, a little platform (chaura), with one, three or five rude wooden images, about three feet high, with a sort of representation of a human face and head at the top. These fetish posts are quite black with a continual application of oil or ghi. This is the shrine of Bîrnâth, the Ahîr cattle godling. He was an Ahîr, who, according to some, was killed by a tiger, and he has now [[64]]become a godling, and is worshipped by the Ahîrs of the jungle as the protector of cattle. People make occasional vows to him in seasons of sickness or distress, but his special function is to keep the cattle safe from beasts of prey. He has no special feast day, but is presented with occasional offerings of rice, milk, and cakes. The worshipper first bathes; then fresh plasters the platform of the godling, and deposits his offering upon it and says “Bîrnâth Bâba keep our cattle safe, and you will get more!” This worship is always done in the morning, and more particularly when the cattle are sent into the jungle in the hot weather, or when cattle disease is prevalent. The curious point about the worship is that it is part of the faith of the aboriginal tribes, with whom the connection of the Ahîrs cannot be very close. Thus Mr. S. Hislop[52] writes:—“In the south of the Bhandâra District the traveller frequently meets with squared pieces of wood, each with a rude figure carved in front, set up somewhat close to each other. These represent Bangarâma, Bangara Bai, or Devi, who is said to have one sister and five brothers, the sister being styled Danteswari (“she with the teeth”), a name of Kâli, and four out of the five brothers being known by the names of Ghantarâma, Champarâma, Nâikrâma and Potlinga. These are all deemed to possess the power of sending disease and death upon men, and under these or different names seem to be generally feared in the region east of the city of Nâgpur. I find the name of Bangara to occur among the Kols of Chaibasa, where he is regarded as the god of fever, and is associated with Gohem, Chondu, Negra and Dechali, who are considered respectively the gods of cholera, the itch, indigestion, and death. Bhîm Sen, again, is generally adored under the form of two pieces of wood, standing from three to four feet in length above the ground, like those set up in connection with Bangarâma’s worship.” There can be little doubt that from this form of worship the cultus of Bîrnâth has been developed. The quintette of the brethren may be a reminiscence of the Pândava legend, on which much of the Pânchonpîr cycle is possibly based.
Festivals. 27. The Ahîrs observe the usual Hindu festivals, particularly the Holi, which is the occasion for much drinking and rude horse play. They have a special observance, which takes place a few days after the Diwâli, [[65]]which is known as the Dâng or “club” Diwâli, or the Gobardhana, when the representation of images of the cattle of Krishna are worshipped, and the herdsmen go round singing, playing, and dancing, and collect money from the owners of the cattle they tend. Connected with this is the Sohrâi, which takes place on the fifteenth of Kârttik, when a cow is made to run or dance. Sometimes a young pig is made to squeak near her calf, and the mother, followed by the whole herd, pursue it and gore it to death. Sometimes, according to Mr. Christian,[53] this cruel sport is humanely varied by dragging a large gourd or a black blanket, at which the cows run to butt. Hence the proverb Bûrh gâê sohrâi ke sâdh—“An old cow, and longing to take part in the Sohrâi.”