Gandhmali

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This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in 1916 its contents related only to Central India and did not claim to be true of all of India. It has been archived for its historical value as well as for the insights it gives into British colonial writing about the various communities of India. 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. Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly on their online archival encyclopædia only after its formal launch. See examples and a tutorial.

From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India

By R. V. Russell

Of The Indian Civil Service

Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces

Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner

Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.

NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.

NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from the original book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot these footnotes gone astray might like to shift them to their correct place.

Gandhmali

Gandhmali,Thanapati

The caste of village priests of the temples of Siva or Mahadeo in Sambalpur and the Uriya States. They numbered about 700 persons in the Central Provinces in 191 1. The caste appears to be an offshoot of the Malis or gardeners, differentiated from them by their special occupation of temple attendants.

In Hindustan the priests of Siva's temples in villages are often Malis, and in the Maratha country they are Guraos, another special caste, or Phulmalis. Some members of the caste in Sambalpur, however, aspire to Rajput origin and wear 1 This article is compiled from Sarangarh, and Satyabadi Misra of the papers by Mr. Jhanjhan Rai, Tahsildar, Sambalpur Census office.

the sacred thread. These prefer the designation of Thana- pati or ' Master of the sacred place,' and call the others who do not wear the thread Gandhmalis. Gandh means incense. The Thanapatis say that on one occasion a Rajput prince from Jaipur made a pilgrimage to the temple of Jagannath at Puri, and on his return stopped at the celebrated temple of Mahadeo at Huma near Sambalpur. Mahadeo appeared before the prince and asked him to become his priest ; the Rajput asked to be excused as he was old, but Mahadeo promised him three sons, which he duly obtained and in gratitude dedicated them to the service of the god.

From these sons the Thanapatis say that they are descended, but the claim is no doubt quite illusory. The truth is, probably, that the Thanapatis are priests of the temples situated in towns and large villages, and owing to their calling have obtained considerable social estimation, which they desire to justify and place on an enduring basis by their claim to Rajput ancestry ; while the Gandhmalis are village priests, more or less in the position of village menials and below the cultivating castes, and any such pretensions would therefore in their case be quite untenable. There are signs of the cessation of intermarriage between the two groups, but this has not been brought about as yet, probably owing to the paucity of members in the caste and the difficulty of arranging matches.

Three functional subdivisions also appear to be in process of formation, the Pujaris or priests of Mahadeo's temples, the Bandhadias or those who worship him on the banks of tanks, and the Mundjhulas x or devotees of the goddess Somlai in Sambalpur, on whom the inspiration of the goddess descends, making them shake and roll their heads. When in this state they are believed to drink the blood flowing from goats sacrificed in the temple. For the purposes of marriage the caste is divided into exogamous groups or bargas, the names of which are usually titles or designations of offices. Marriage within the barga is prohibited. When the bride is brought to the altar in the marriage ceremony, she throws a garland of jasmine flowers on the neck of the bridegroom. This custom resembles 1 Mund-jkul&na, to swiri" the head.

the old Swayamwara form of marriage, in which a girl chose her own husband by throwing a garland of flowers round his neck. But it probably has no connection with this and merely denotes the fact that the caste are gardeners by profession, similar ceremonies typifying the caste calling being commonly performed at marriages, especially among the Telugu castes.

Girls should be married before adoles- cence and, as is usual among the Uriya castes, if no suitable husband is forthcoming a symbolic marriage is celebrated ; the Thanapatis make her go through the form with her maternal grandfather or sister's husband, and in default of them with a tree. She is then immediately divorced and disposed of as a widow. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. A bachelor marrying a widow must first go through the ceremony with a flower.

The Gandh- malis, as the priests of Mahadeo, are generally Saivas and wear red clothes covered with ochre. They consider that their ultimate ancestor is the Nag or cobra and especially observe the festival of Nag-Panchmi, abstaining from any cooked food on that day. They both burn and bury the dead and perform the shradhh ceremony or the offering of sacrificial cakes. They eat flesh but do not drink liquor. Their social position is fairly good and Brahmans will take water from their hands. Many of them hold free grants of land in return for their services at the temples. A few are ordinary cultivators.