Bhoi: Deccan

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Bhoi

This article is an extract from THE CASTES AND TRIBES OF H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S DOMINIONS BY SYED SIRAJ UL HASSAN Of Merton College, Oxford, Trinity College, Dublin, and Middle Temple, London. One of the Judges of H. E. H. the Nizam's High Court of Judicature : Lately Director of Public Instruction. BOMBAY THE TlMES PRESS 1920 Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Secondly, this has been scanned from a book. You can help by sending the corrected version/ additional information to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.

Bhoi — a generic term used as the designation of various classes who are engaged in boating, fishing, palanquin bearing and as domes- tic servants. In the Hyderabad Territory it includes several castes, such as the Bestas and Gunlodus of Telingana, the Machinde and Maratha, Bhois of Marathawada, the Bhanare and Bendor of the Adilabad District, the Gangamasalu of the Carnatic and the Kahars, who are immigrants from Northern India.

The etymology of the word 'Bhoi' is uncertain. It is supposed to be a Telugu word, derived from ' Boya,' the name of an aboriginal tribe ; but the derivation appears to be fictitious and has probably been suggested by the similarity of the names 'Boya' and 'Bhoi.' No traditions are current regarding the origin of these people. The Hindu legislators distinguish the Bhoi (paustika or bearers) from the Dhivar Kolis (kaivartaka or fishermen), the former being the offspring of a Brahman father and a Nishad mother, while the latter are descended from a Parasava father and an Ayogava mother. At the present day, however, the name ' Bhoi ' is used to denote all classes who follow either profession.

The Bhoi castes enumerated above differ widely from one an- other in physical character and habits. The Telugu Bhois comprise two sub-castes, Besta and Gunlodu, who eat together but do not intermarry. They appear to have originally sprung from the same common stock, but have subsequently become broken up into endo- gamous divisions by reason of their long occupation of different tracts of land.