Baldiya
This article is an extract from
THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
NOTE 1: Indpaedia neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Readers who wish to add fresh information can create a Part II of this article. The general rule is that if we have nothing nice to say about communities other than our own it is best to say nothing at all.
NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from a very old book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot scanning errors are requested to report the correct spelling to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.
Baldiya
In Bhagalpur the Baldiya is known as Ladu-bepari. The Baldiyas are Mussulmans who keep pack-bullocks (balad) for the carriage of bricks, grain, and mortar, from those parts of the country where there are no cart roads. Bullocks, or bulls, are employed, and the Desh bullock being smaller, and more easily laden, is preferred. Ponies are never used by Muhammadans in Eastern Bengal; but Hindu Baldiyas, either Sanh, or Teli by caste, are found occasionally using them.
The pack-saddle is called Palan, a Persian word; the saddle-bags Goni, the Sanskrit for a coarse cloth bag.The Baldiya will not castrate bulls, but engages the Gai-ka-hajjam, generally an Ahir, to do so.
Owing to the increased number of carts wherever there are roads, the Baldiya has much less work to do in cities than formerly; but still there are about forty families in Dacca. In the jungly tract of Bhowal their services are indispensable, cultivators, or agents, engaging them to transport grain from the inland villages where there are no roads to the nearest river.
They charge from two or three rupees the hundred mans; but, if the village is difficult of access, four rupees. A tradition current in Dacca is, that the ancestors of the Baldiyas were Banjaras, brought there by the Muhammadan governors. This tradition receives confirmation from the fact that villagers still call the Baldiya, Banjara, although they have entirely relinquished the nomade habits of these wandering traders, and in physique have little in common with the lithe gipsy-like figures of the Central India Banjara. In complexion, features, and muscular development, they are indistinguishable from the Mussulmans around them.
The inland trade of Bengal was carried on last century by three classes of travelling merchants, the Bepari, the Banjara, and the Lambadi, or Lambaries, as they were usually called, who transported merchandise on bullocks, and pursued their trade even in districts devastated by contending armies.
The Banjara and Lambadi, being Hindus, regarded each other as kinsmen, and while traversing the country were under Government protection; but for greater security each band was accompanied by an old Bhat, or Charan, woman. If plundered, or ill-treated, the guardian Bhat wounded herself in presence of the aggressors, a deed supposed to be followed by awful retribution. Their ranks were generally swollen by bands of conjurers, jugglers, and other vagrants, who sought protection with these privileged traders.
The Bepari, again, was quite distinct. He was the trader of Bengal, engaged in transporting salt, corn, sugar, and other bulky goods from one part of the country to another.
